Best Wizard Spells in D&D 5e (2014) - Ranked by Level

Introduction

The Wizard has the largest total spell knowledge of any class in D&D 5e. A Cleric or Druid can cast anything on their class list once it's a high enough level, but a Wizard's spellbook is a physical, growing object: six spells at 1st level, two more every level after that, plus anything copied from a scroll or a defeated enemy caster's own book. By the time a Wizard hits double digits, their spellbook can hold thirty or forty spells while a same-level Sorcerer knows around a dozen for the rest of their career.

That abundance creates a problem no school-wide spell-ranking guide can solve. Asking "which evocation spells are strong" or "which necromancy spells are strong" tells you nothing about the actual decision a Wizard makes every morning: out of everything in your spellbook, which handful earns one of your Intelligence-modifier-plus-level prepared slots today? A Wizard doesn't cast their spellbook - they cast a small subset of it, re-chosen every long rest. The spellbook answers "what could I ever cast." The prepared list answers "what am I casting today." This guide is about the second question, spell by spell, with the class's specific tools (ritual casting, Arcane Recovery, an enormous spell list) built into the analysis instead of treated as an afterthought.

---

How Wizard Spell Selection Actually Works

Three mechanics separate the Wizard's spell-selection job from every other class's, and understanding them changes which spells deserve a slot in your prepared list versus which ones can sit in your spellbook doing nothing until the one day you need them.

Spellbook growth is nearly free, so say yes to almost everything. At 1st level you choose 6 spells for your spellbook. Every level after that, you add 2 more spells of your choice, of a level you can cast, for free. On top of that, any spell scroll or captured enemy spellbook can be copied in for 50 gp and 2 hours per spell level. There is essentially no opportunity cost to learning a spell into your spellbook - the only real cost is the gold and downtime to copy scrolls you find. Because of this, the spellbook question is easy: if a spell is ever useful in any circumstance, write it in. The prepared list is where the real decisions happen.

Preparing a spell costs nothing to change, but costs real capacity to hold. Your prepared spell count is Intelligence modifier + Wizard level (minimum 1), and you can swap your entire prepared list after every long rest for 1 minute per spell level swapped. That flexibility is the Wizard's single biggest advantage over a Sorcerer or Warlock, who know their spells permanently and can never adapt list to situation. But the count itself is a hard cap - an INT 18 Wizard at level 5 prepares 9 spells, not "everything useful at this level." Every prepared slot spent on a spell you didn't need that day is a spell you couldn't cast when you did need something else.

Ritual casting takes spells out of the competition entirely. Any spell with the ritual tag, once it's in your spellbook, can be cast as a ritual - taking 10 minutes longer than normal but costing no spell slot - without that spell being prepared that day. No other class gets this: a Cleric or Druid can ritual-cast any prepared ritual spell, but a Wizard doesn't even need the spell prepared, only written in the book. Detect Magic, Identify, Comprehend Languages, Find Familiar, Alarm, and several other utility spells never have to fight for a prepared slot at all if you're willing to spend the extra 10 minutes. That reclassifies a chunk of the "best Wizard spells" conversation: some of the strongest picks on this list cost you nothing in daily preparation, ever.

Arcane Recovery backstops aggressive prepared choices. Once per day, on a short rest, a Wizard recovers spell slots totaling up to half their Wizard level (rounded up), none of which can be 6th level or higher. That means a mid-tier Wizard effectively gets a bonus short-rest refuel that Sorcerers and Warlocks (partially) already have and full-caster Clerics and Druids don't. It's a reason to prepare your best offensive spells without excessive slot-hoarding paranoia - you'll likely get some of that resource back before the day is over.

Hot Take: True Strike is the single worst spell choice available to a Wizard in the entire 2014 Player's Handbook, and it isn't close. Spending your action to gain advantage on your next turn's attack roll is already a bad trade for a martial character with a good weapon - for a Wizard with a mediocre spell attack bonus and access to Fire Bolt, it's strictly worse than just casting a real cantrip twice. There is no build, no level, and no campaign where True Strike outperforms doing literally anything else with that action.

---

Rating Legend

• ● Red: Bad. Actively weak or superseded by another spell at the same level.
• ● Orange: Situational. Correct in specific campaigns or builds, not a default pick.
• ● Green: Good. Reliable and consistently worth a spellbook slot.
• ● Blue: Fantastic. Best-in-class, almost always worth a prepared slot when relevant.

---

Cantrips

Cantrips don't count against your prepared spell total and don't need to be "prepared" at all - you know a fixed number (3 at level 1, 4 at level 4, 5 at level 10) and can cast any of them at will. That makes cantrip selection a one-time, low-stakes decision, but it still matters: your cantrips are what you cast when you don't want to spend a slot.

Fire Bolt - Cantrip - ●

1d10 fire damage on a hit, scaling to 4d10 at level 17. No save required - just a spell attack roll, which a dedicated Wizard is usually good at. It ignites flammable objects it hits, which occasionally matters more than the damage. This is the default damage cantrip for a Wizard who isn't playing a Warlock's Eldritch Blast, and there's rarely a reason to skip it.

Mage Hand - Cantrip - ●

A spectral hand that can manipulate objects, open unlocked doors, pick up and move items up to 10 pounds. It can't attack, but it can retrieve a dropped item from across a chasm, pull a lever from a safe distance, or search a drawer while you stay back. Nearly every Wizard learns it and rarely regrets it.

Minor Illusion - Cantrip - ●

Create a sound or an image (not both, without the Illusion school's Improved Minor Illusion feature) no larger than a 5-foot cube, lasting 1 minute or until dismissed. Distract a guard with a fake noise around a corner, hide a hole in the floor under an illusory rug, disguise the party's approach. Consistently useful for problem-solving outside combat.

Ray of Frost - Cantrip - ●

1d8 cold damage and reduces the target's speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn on a hit. Lower average damage than Fire Bolt, but the speed reduction matters against a fleeing target or a melee threat you want to keep at range. A strong secondary cantrip when fire resistance is a concern.

Prestidigitation - Cantrip - ●

A grab-bag of minor magical tricks: light a candle, chill a drink, clean or soil an object, create a harmless sensory effect. No combat use, but it solves an enormous number of small roleplay and logistics problems (drying off soaked gear, instantly cleaning up after a fight, producing a tiny flame for light) for zero cost.

Poison Spray, Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp - Cantrip - ●

All three are damage cantrips with a narrower niche than Fire Bolt: Poison Spray hits harder at low levels (1d12 at level 1) but poison resistance is common among enemies worth fighting. Chill Touch prevents healing on the target and deals extra damage to undead - situationally strong, otherwise a worse Fire Bolt. Shocking Grasp has advantage against a target in metal armor and denies reactions, useful specifically against armored melee threats you want to disengage from safely. Pick one as a specialist option, not as your primary damage cantrip.

True Strike - Cantrip - ●

Spend your action to gain advantage on your next attack roll, on your next turn, and only if you don't lose concentration in the meantime. See the Hot Take above. There is no version of Wizard where this cantrip earns its slot over Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, or Minor Illusion.

---

1st Level Spells

Shield - 1st Level - ●

A reaction that grants +5 AC until the start of your next turn, and it also blocks Magic Missile entirely. Cast when hit by an attack that would otherwise land, or when targeted by Magic Missile. Costs a slot but not your action, and it turns a would-be hit into a miss with reliable frequency. One of the best defensive spells any full caster has access to, and it doesn't compete with your action economy at all.

Sleep - 1st Level - ●

Rolls 5d8, then removes that many hit points' worth of creatures from a 20-foot-radius area starting with the lowest current HP, putting them unconscious with no save at all. Devastatingly efficient against low-HP swarms (bandits, cultists, kobolds) at low levels - a single 1st-level slot can neutralize an entire encounter's worth of minions before it starts. It falls off hard once enemy HP totals climb past what a full caster's Tier 2+ opposition typically has, so its usefulness is front-loaded into levels 1 through 4.

Mage Armor - 1st Level - ●

Sets AC to 13 + Dexterity modifier for 8 hours. It's the Wizard's standard answer to having no armor proficiency, and because it lasts a full adventuring day, it typically only costs one prepared slot per morning rather than one per encounter. Cast it before the day starts and forget about it until it expires.

Magic Missile - 1st Level - ●

Three darts, each dealing 1d4+1 force damage, no attack roll and no save - it simply hits. Force damage is resisted by almost nothing in the game, and the guaranteed-hit nature makes it the most reliable single-slot damage option at low levels against a high-AC or evasive target. Upcast for one extra dart per slot level. Loses relative value as levels climb and better area or single-target options open up, but it never becomes actively bad.

Thunderwave - 1st Level - ●

2d8 thunder damage (Constitution save for half) and pushes failed-save creatures 10 feet away from you. The Wizard's emergency eject button when melee enemies close the distance: clear space, deal damage, and reposition in a single action with no concentration required. Every Wizard should have this ready to prepare the moment they expect to get flanked.

Find Familiar - 1st Level - ●

Find Familiar is where the Wizard's ritual-casting advantage does the most work. It has the ritual tag, so once it's in your spellbook you never need to prepare it - you spend an hour any time you're safe, and the resulting familiar (an Owl, a Cat, a Raven, a Rat, a Weasel, and several other small forms) becomes a permanent scouting and touch-spell-delivery tool at zero ongoing prepared-slot cost. Fly it ahead to scout a room, deliver a touch spell like Chill Touch through it (the familiar takes the action, you cast through its space), or have it grant you advantage on a check via its Help action. It's technically a native Wizard spell, not a subclass or Pact feature, which makes Wizard one of the two classes in this system's guide library (alongside Warlock) that gets a familiar as a baseline class option. For how the Wizard's familiar stacks up against Ranger companions, Druid Wild Shape, and Pact of the Chain, see the D&D 5e 2014 Familiars Guide. For the full breakdown of the spell's forms and combat tricks, see the dedicated Find Familiar guide.

Detect Magic, Identify, Comprehend Languages, Alarm - 1st Level - ●

Four more ritual-tagged spells that belong in every Wizard's spellbook for the same reason as Find Familiar: they never need a prepared slot if you're willing to spend the extra 10 minutes. Detect Magic finds every magical aura in a 30-foot radius. Identify tells you exactly what an item does without trial and error (or a full attunement risk). Comprehend Languages lets you read and understand any language for an hour. Alarm sets a 1-minute-warning trip line around your camp. None of these should ever cost you a prepared slot in practice - write them in your spellbook once and cast them as rituals whenever the situation calls for them.

Chromatic Orb - 1st Level - ●

A ranged spell attack dealing 3d8 damage of a damage type you choose at the moment of casting (acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder). The damage-type flexibility is the whole point: pick whatever the target is least likely to resist. 3d8 (13.5 average) on a single attack roll is a strong 1st-level damage number, competitive with or better than Magic Missile against a target you expect to actually hit.

Silvery Barbs - 1st Level - ●

A Strixhaven reaction, not a core spellbook staple by default, but one of the highest-value 1st-level slots a Wizard can put in their book once Strixhaven content is on the table. When a creature within 60 feet succeeds on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, force it to reroll and grant advantage to a different creature of your choice - no save, no concentration, and the reroll can turn a successful save against your own high-level spell into a failure. See our full Silvery Barbs guide for reaction-timing and edge-case rulings.

False Life, Feather Fall, Grease - 1st Level - ●

Three solid situational picks. False Life grants temporary HP up front with no concentration, useful as a pre-fight buffer in a campaign with reliable warning before combat. Feather Fall is a reaction that turns a fall into a non-event - worth keeping in the spellbook for any campaign with heights, even if it rarely gets prepared. Grease creates a 10-foot square of difficult, slippery terrain that can knock prone creatures who enter or start their turn there; a cheap way to lock down a doorway or chokepoint.

Witch Bolt - 1st Level - ●

1d12 lightning damage on the initial hit, then 1d12 again each turn you maintain concentration - which sounds appealing until you notice that concentration breaks the moment the target takes any other damage that forces a save, or the target simply moves more than 30 feet away. In practice it rarely delivers more than its first hit's worth of value, and Fire Bolt or Chromatic Orb outperform it at nearly every level without the fragility.

---

2nd Level Spells

Mirror Image - 2nd Level - ●

Creates three illusory duplicates of yourself. Any attack that targets you has a chance to instead hit and destroy a duplicate - effectively giving you up to three free misses with no concentration required, stacking on top of whatever AC you already have. It doesn't stop area spells or effects that don't require an attack roll, but against melee and ranged attackers it's one of the most efficient defensive spells at any level.

Misty Step - 2nd Level - ●

Teleport up to 30 feet as a bonus action, no line of sight to the destination required beyond being able to see it, no concentration. It's the Wizard's answer to being grabbed, surrounded, or stuck on the wrong side of a wall - and because it's a bonus action, it never competes with your primary spell that turn. Escape a grapple and Fireball the same round. Teleport across a chasm and still cast a cantrip.

Hold Person - 2nd Level - ●

Wisdom save or paralyzed, with a repeat save at the end of each of the target's turns. Paralysis means every attack against the target is a critical hit if it lands within 5 feet, and the target automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saves. Humanoid-only, which limits it in monster-heavy campaigns, but against a single dangerous humanoid enemy (a bandit captain, an enemy spellcaster, a cult leader), this is one of the most efficient control spells at the level.

Scorching Ray - 2nd Level - ●

Three separate ranged spell attacks, each dealing 2d6 fire damage, that can be split across multiple targets or stacked on one. Because each ray is its own attack roll, it's more consistent against a high-AC single target than an all-or-nothing save spell, and splitting rays across weak enemies is efficient area coverage without needing a save-based AoE.

Web - 2nd Level - ●

Fills a 20-foot cube with sticky webbing that restrains creatures caught in it on a failed Dexterity save (and heavily slows movement even on a success), with a repeat save each turn to escape. A full hour of concentration duration means it can lock down a room, a corridor, or a retreat path far longer than most control spells at this level, and it's also flammable - pair it with a fire cantrip for a follow-up.

Invisibility - 2nd Level - ●

Makes a touched creature (yourself or an ally) invisible for up to an hour, ending early only if the target attacks or casts a spell. Enormously flexible: scout a room unseen, escape a fight that's going badly, or set up a guaranteed-advantage sneak attack for a Rogue ally before the spell ends on their first swing.

Suggestion - 2nd Level - ●

Wisdom save or the target follows a reasonable course of action you describe for up to 8 hours. "Leave this room and don't come back" or "hand over the key and walk away" can end an encounter or bypass a guard post without a single die of damage rolled. The wording has to be plausible from the target's perspective, but a creative Wizard gets an enormous amount of mileage from a single 2nd-level slot.

Rime's Binding Ice - 2nd Level - ●

From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. A 30-foot cone dealing 3d8 cold damage on a failed Constitution save, and reducing the target's speed to 0 until it or an ally spends an action breaking the ice away. No concentration cost, so it stacks freely with Hold Person, Web, or any other 2nd-level control pick already running. Scales at +1d8 per slot above 2nd. A real no-concentration area damage-and-control option, which is rare at this level.

Darkness, Blindness/Deafness, Enlarge/Reduce, Nathair's Mischief - 2nd Level - ●

All four are strong in the right build and forgettable outside it. Darkness pairs with Devil's Sight (via a race, feat, or warlock dip) to give one creature total vision superiority in a magical blackout. Blindness/Deafness is a cheap, efficient debuff against a single dangerous enemy caster or archer. Enlarge/Reduce is best on a melee ally (Enlarge adds 1d4 to their damage) rather than on the Wizard, who has no reason to be in melee. Nathair's Mischief (Fizban's Treasury of Dragons) fills a 20-foot cube with fey and draconic magic and rolls a random d4 effect (charm, blind, incapacitating giggling, or difficult terrain) every round - fun as party-support chaos, but the lack of control over which effect lands makes it too unreliable to prepare over Hold Person or Web.

Kinetic Jaunt, Vortex Warp, Wither and Bloom, Borrowed Knowledge - 2nd Level - ●

Four picks from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, all situational rather than build-defining. Kinetic Jaunt is a bonus-action mobility buff (+10 feet, no opportunity attacks, movement through occupied spaces) that competes with Misty Step for the same reposition-and-survive niche and usually loses on raw distance. Vortex Warp forcibly relocates a single creature within 90 feet on a failed Constitution save (the target can choose to fail instead, so it also works as a friendly reposition tool), useful for shoving a melee threat off a cliff edge or out of a doorway. Wither and Bloom hits a 10-foot sphere for 2d6 necrotic on a failed Constitution save while letting one creature in the area spend a Hit Die to heal, a small but real dual-purpose damage-and-support option. Borrowed Knowledge grants proficiency in one chosen skill for 1 hour, a real fix for a single bad roll but too narrow to prepare over a control or damage spell most days.

Air Bubble - 2nd Level - ●

A Spelljammer: Adventures in Space addition. Creates a 24-hour globe of fresh air around a willing creature's head, no concentration required, upcasting to two additional globes per slot level above 2nd. Dead weight in a standard campaign, but a zero-drawback fill for a Wildspace campaign's air-quality clock or a prolonged underwater or toxic-gas scenario.

Warp Sense - 2nd Level - ●

A Planescape: Sigil and the Outlands addition, campaign-gated. Senses portals within 30 feet, including inactive ones, and a successful check on a detected portal reveals its destination plane and required key. Dead weight outside a Sigil or Outlands-based campaign, but a strong pick for one built around portal navigation.

---

3rd Level Spells

Fireball - 3rd Level - ●

8d6 fire damage (28 average) in a 20-foot-radius sphere, Dexterity save for half, no concentration required. This is still the benchmark that every other damage spell in the game gets measured against, and the Wizard is the class best positioned to abuse it: an Evocation Wizard's Sculpt Spells feature removes friendly fire entirely, letting you drop it directly on top of your own melee line. Full analysis in the Best Evocation Spells guide.

Counterspell - 3rd Level - ●

Automatically interrupts a spell of 3rd level or lower being cast within 60 feet; against 4th level or higher, an Intelligence check (DC 10 + spell level) is required. It's a reaction, so it never costs you your action or bonus action - you can hold it ready and still take a full turn if nothing worth countering comes up. Any campaign with even occasional enemy spellcasters makes this close to mandatory prepared-list real estate.

Hypnotic Pattern - 3rd Level - ●

Every creature in a 30-foot cube makes a Wisdom save or is charmed and incapacitated for the duration, with no repeat save unless the target takes damage. It doesn't discriminate between allies and enemies caught in the area, so positioning matters, but a well-placed cast can remove an entire encounter's worth of enemies from the fight in one action with zero damage rolled and zero risk of them coming back mid-fight (unlike a spell that allows a save each round). The single best crowd-control spell most Wizards will ever prepare.

Fly - 3rd Level - ●

Grants a 60-foot flying speed to a touched creature for up to 10 minutes. Solves terrain problems (chasms, cliffs, flooded rooms) outright and turns any ground-based melee fight into one where you dictate range. Best on the Wizard themselves when they need to disengage entirely, or on a martial ally who needs to reach an otherwise-unreachable flying enemy.

Animate Dead - 3rd Level - ●

Reanimates a corpse or bones into a skeleton or zombie under your control, permanently (until it or you are destroyed, subject to a periodic Charisma check if you mistreat it). Long-term action economy: every Animate Dead cast adds a standing combatant to your side for the rest of the campaign, at the one-time cost of a 3rd-level slot and a corpse. Requires a campaign willing to engage with the necromancy and the alignment implications of a walking-corpse retinue; where that's not an issue, it's efficient long-term value.

Vampiric Touch - 3rd Level - ●

A melee spell attack dealing 3d6 necrotic damage and healing you for half the damage dealt, repeatable each turn while concentrating. It puts a squishy Wizard within melee range, which is a real cost, but the sustained lifesteal is a real answer to attrition in a long fight, and it works well from a familiar's space if positioning allows (though the touch still has to originate from you).

Haste, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud - 3rd Level - ●

Haste doubles an ally's speed, adds +2 AC, and grants an extra action (minus spellcasting) - powerful on a martial ally, but the lethal drawback (the target is incapacitated for a full round if concentration lapses) makes it a build-specific pick rather than a default. Sleet Storm and Stinking Cloud are both solid area-control spells that lose value once the party has more reliable single-target lockdown options; keep them in the spellbook for the right terrain or enemy composition rather than preparing them as a default.

Ashardalon's Stride - 3rd Level - ●

From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. A bonus-action self-buff granting +20 feet of speed, immunity to opportunity attacks while moving, and 1d6 fire damage to anything you pass within 5 feet of. A niche mobility pick for a melee-leaning or Bladesinger-style Wizard - a caster who stays at range gets little from it, and it competes for a slot against Fireball, Counterspell, and Hypnotic Pattern at the same level.

Spirit Shroud - 3rd Level - ●

Another Tasha's Cauldron addition. Any attack you land while the spell is up deals an extra 1d8 damage (radiant, necrotic, or cold, chosen when you cast it) to a target within 10 feet, and creatures that start their turn near you lose 10 feet of speed. A Wizard has to be in melee for the damage rider to matter, so this is a build-specific pick for a Bladesinger or a War Magic Wizard rather than a default prepared spell - a caster who never closes to melee range gets nothing from it.

Summon Fey, Summon Shadowspawn, Summon Undead - 3rd Level - ●

Three more Tasha's Cauldron additions sharing the same template: each conjures a themed spirit ally that shares your initiative, acts on your verbal command, and scales its own stat block with the level of the slot you spend. Summon Fey trades a broader creature pool for a smaller one compared to Conjure Animals at the same level. Summon Shadowspawn and Summon Undead lean into necrotic/frightening battlefield control rather than raw damage. None outperforms a Wizard's existing 3rd-level options outright, but any of the three is a reasonable pick for a summon-focused build or a table that has restricted Conjure Animals.

---

4th Level Spells

Polymorph - 4th Level - ●

Wisdom save or the target transforms into a beast of challenge rating equal to or less than the target's own, with the beast's hit points as a fresh temporary pool. Turning an enemy boss into a harmless frog removes it from the fight outright on a failed save. Turning your Fighter into a Giant Ape or T-Rex hands them an enormous new stat block. One of the most game-warping spells at any level - it can end an encounter in either direction in a single action.

Banishment - 4th Level - ●

Charisma save or the target is removed from the fight entirely, either sent to a harmless pocket dimension (extraplanar creatures) or its home plane permanently on a failed save (extraplanar) or simply incapacitated in place (native to the current plane) for the duration. Removes the single most dangerous enemy from a fight for up to a minute, which is often the entire remaining length of the encounter.

Dimension Door - 4th Level - ●

Teleport yourself and one willing creature up to 500 feet, no line of sight required to a location you're familiar with or can visualize. A stronger, longer-range version of Misty Step that also brings a passenger - useful for extracting a downed ally from the middle of a losing fight or bypassing an obstacle the rest of the party has to go around the hard way.

Greater Invisibility - 4th Level - ●

Like Invisibility, but the target stays invisible even while attacking or casting spells, for the full concentration duration. On a martial ally, it's a sustained advantage machine on every attack roll while imposing disadvantage on attacks against them. On the Wizard, it lets you cast Fireball from stealth without breaking it.

Raulothim's Psychic Lance - 4th Level - ●

From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Single-target Intelligence save for 7d6 psychic damage, plus the target is incapacitated until the start of your next turn on a failed save. No concentration cost, so it stacks with Banishment, Greater Invisibility, or another 4th-level concentration spell already running - a real single-target damage option for a class whose 4th-level tier otherwise leans entirely on control (Polymorph, Banishment) and mobility (Dimension Door). Can also target a named creature the caster cannot currently see, provided that creature is within range.

Stoneskin, Confusion, Ice Storm - 4th Level - ●

Stoneskin grants resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing on a touched creature - strong against a mundane-weapon-heavy encounter, useless against a spellcaster-heavy one. Confusion is chaotic crowd control that can just as easily hurt allies caught in its radius as help. Ice Storm deals respectable damage but competes directly with Fireball's damage output at a higher slot cost with a worse area shape.

Summon Aberration, Summon Construct, Summon Elemental - 4th Level - ●

Three more Tasha's Cauldron summon spells at this tier, each conjuring a themed spirit ally whose stat block scales with the slot spent. Summon Construct is the only one an Artificer also has access to; Summon Elemental is the closest thing on this list to Conjure Elemental's damage-and-control package at a lower slot cost. Situational picks for a summon-focused build rather than a default 4th-level prepared spell.

Gate Seal - 4th Level - ●

A Planescape: Sigil and the Outlands addition, campaign-gated. Seals portals in a 30-foot cube for 24 hours, consuming a broken portal key as its material component, and blocks planar-travel effects like plane shift or gate from crossing the area. A strong situational answer to a specific portal threat in a Sigil-based campaign, irrelevant anywhere else.

---

5th and Higher: Wall of Force Through Wish

Once a Wizard reaches 5th-level slots and beyond, the spell list stops being about efficient damage-per-slot and starts being about spells that simply do things nothing else in the game can. This tier deserves less exhaustive per-spell coverage and more focus on the handful that define high-level Wizard play.

Wall of Force - 5th Level - ●

An immovable, damage-immune, un-dispellable wall (only Disintegrate destroys it) that you shape as ten 10-by-10-foot panels or a sphere. Divide a battlefield, cage a boss alone with your martials, or block a doorway permanently while you rest. Its one weakness - concentration - is a real cost, but nothing else in the Wizard's kit locks down space this absolutely. Full breakdown in the Best Evocation Spells guide.

Hold Monster - 5th Level - ●

Hold Person without the humanoid restriction: any creature, Wisdom save or paralyzed. At the tier where enemies stop being humanoid bandits and start being dragons, ogres, and aberrations, this becomes the Wizard's premier lockdown tool, and paralysis on a boss-tier enemy is close to a fight-ending effect once your martials start landing automatic crits.

Telekinesis - 5th Level - ●

Move a creature or object up to 30 feet per turn for the full concentration duration, either grappling a creature (Strength save resisted) or shoving/manipulating an object freely. Continuous, no-save-repeat battlefield control on an enemy who fails the initial contest, plus enormous non-combat utility for retrieving distant objects or repositioning heavy terrain.

Summon Draconic Spirit - 5th Level - ●

From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Summons a Large draconic spirit (chromatic, gem, or metallic family, chosen at cast time) with AC 14 plus the spell's level and 50 plus 10 HP per level above 5th. It shares your initiative, acts immediately after you, and obeys verbal commands with no action or bonus action required, an efficiency edge over the summon-family spells already on this list. Multiattacks with Rend strikes equal to half the spell's level (rounded down) plus a cone Breath Weapon, and grants you resistance to one of its damage types while it's active. Scales fully with a higher-level slot.

Create Spelljamming Helm - 5th Level - ●

Campaign-gated honorable mention. From Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. Touches an unoccupied Large-or-smaller chair and a crystal rod worth 5,000+ gp that the spell consumes, transforming the chair into a spelljamming helm - the item a ship needs to fly at all. Irrelevant outside a Wildspace or spelljamming-ship campaign, and not competing with Wall of Force, Hold Monster, or Telekinesis for a normal 5th-level slot; it's a one-time crafting spell a party casts once to own its own ship's helm instead of paying roughly 7,500 gp to buy one.

Disintegrate - 6th Level - ●

10d6+40 force damage on a failed Dexterity save - an average of 75 damage from a single spell - and total obliteration to dust on a kill (no body left for resurrection without additional magic). The single highest guaranteed burst on the Wizard's list at this tier, at the cost of a full save-or-nothing structure.

Summon Fiend - 6th Level - ●

The top of the Tasha's Cauldron summon family available to Wizards: a fiendish spirit ally whose stat block scales with the slot spent, following the same shared-initiative template as the lower-level summon spells. A niche pick against Disintegrate's guaranteed burst at the same tier, but a reasonable capstone for a Wizard already built around summoning.

Fizban's Platinum Shield - 6th Level - ●

From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Grants a creature of your choice (yourself or an ally, movable to a new target with a bonus action each round) half cover, resistance to acid/cold/fire/lightning/poison, and Evasion (no damage instead of half on a successful DEX save, half instead of full on a failure). A strong defensive package for a single target, but it competes with Disintegrate's guaranteed burst damage for the same slot, so it's the pick for a Wizard who needs to keep a specific ally alive through a dangerous fight rather than end that fight fastest.

Forcecage - 7th Level - ●

No save, no attack roll: a target is simply trapped in an inescapable cage of force (short of Wish, Plane Shift, Teleport, or similar planar-scale magic). One of the most powerful spells in the entire game specifically because it bypasses the save-based failure mode every other control spell has.

Simulacrum - 7th Level - ●

Create a duplicate of yourself (or another creature) at half maximum hit points, obedient to your commands, with all of your spells and abilities. Effectively fields a second Wizard for the rest of the campaign, doubling your action economy in and out of combat at the one-time material cost.

Draconic Transformation - 7th Level - ●

From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. A self-buff granting 30-foot Blindsight, a 60-foot flying speed, and a repeatable Breath Weapon (action to activate, bonus action on later turns) dealing 6d8 force damage in a 60-foot cone on a failed Dexterity save. Combines ongoing area damage, full flight, and see-through-invisibility utility in one slot - a strong all-in-one option, though it competes against Forcecage and Simulacrum's more absolute effects at the same level.

Feeblemind, Power Word Stun - 8th Level - ●

Feeblemind reduces Intelligence and Charisma to 1 on a failed save, permanently disabling most spellcasting enemies until a Greater Restoration removes it. Power Word Stun instantly stuns any creature with 150 hit points or fewer, with no save at all - a coin-flip execute button against anything under that threshold.

Wish, True Polymorph, Time Stop, Foresight - 9th Level - ●

The Wizard's 9th-level tier is where the class stops being "a strong spellcaster" and becomes the single most powerful character type in the game. Wish does literally anything the game can model (with a steep cost for anything beyond duplicating a lower-level spell). True Polymorph can permanently transform a creature into anything, including objects, with no time limit. Time Stop grants 1d4+1 completely free turns where nothing else in the world can act. Foresight grants advantage on nearly everything for 8 hours while imposing disadvantage on attacks against you. Every Wizard reaches these at 17th level with no subclass tax required.

---

Spells to Skip

• True Strike (Cantrip) - Covered in the Hot Take above. Never worth the action.
• Witch Bolt (1st) - Fragile concentration for marginal sustained damage. Fire Bolt or Chromatic Orb outperform it almost every time.
• Tenser's Floating Disk (1st) - Ritual-tagged and technically free to cast, but the utility it solves (carrying up to 500 pounds slowly) rarely comes up outside very specific loot-hauling scenarios. A low-priority spellbook add, not a skip-entirely, but don't burn early spellbook slots on it over combat or exploration staples.
• Nystul's Magic Aura (2nd) - Disguises a magic item's aura from Detect Magic. Almost never comes up unless the campaign is specifically built around magic item smuggling or deception.
• Ray of Sickness (1st) - Chromatic Orb does more average damage at the same level with more flexibility. There's rarely a reason to pick this over it.

---

Prepared-List Shortlists by Level Range

Because the prepared list is the real daily decision, here's a level-appropriate starting shortlist rather than a full spellbook dump.

Levels 1-4 (roughly 4-6 prepared slots): Shield, Sleep, Magic Missile, Thunderwave, Mage Armor. Ritual-cast Find Familiar, Detect Magic, and Identify from your spellbook without spending a prepared slot on any of them.

Levels 5-8 (roughly 7-9 prepared slots): Fireball, Counterspell, Hypnotic Pattern, Shield, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Mage Armor (only when it's about to expire mid-adventure). This is the tier where Fireball and Counterspell both become close to non-negotiable.

Levels 9-12 (roughly 10-12 prepared slots): Polymorph, Banishment, Hold Monster, Wall of Force (once available), Counterspell, Hypnotic Pattern, Greater Invisibility, plus a rotating utility slot (Dimension Door or a divination pick depending on the day's plan).

Levels 13-20 (roughly 13-19 prepared slots): Forcecage, Disintegrate, Simulacrum, Wall of Force, Counterspell, plus your 9th-level signature (Wish or True Polymorph) once available. At this tier the prepared list stops feeling constrained - the harder decision becomes which situational picks (Feeblemind against a caster, Time Stop as a nova opener) to hold in reserve versus keep loaded every day.

---

Verdict

The Wizard's spell selection job has two layers most other casters don't deal with. First: almost everything worth learning belongs in the spellbook, because the spellbook itself is nearly unlimited and grows every level for free. Second: the daily prepared list is where the actual optimization happens, and it's made meaningfully easier by two features unique to this class - ritual casting, which removes an entire category of utility spells (Find Familiar, Detect Magic, Identify, Comprehend Languages, Alarm) from competing for slots at all, and Arcane Recovery, which gives you a partial refuel on a short rest that most other full casters don't have. Build your daily list around Shield, Counterspell, and Fireball as close-to-permanent anchors once available, ritual-cast your utility spells for free, and use your remaining slots to answer whatever the day's specific fight actually needs. For everything a Wizard can equip on top of their spells, see the Best Feats for Wizard guide and the full D&D 5e Wizard Guide.

---

FAQ

How many spells can a Wizard prepare in D&D 5e 2014? Intelligence modifier + Wizard level, minimum one. At level 5 with INT 18, that's 9 prepared spells. Cantrips don't count against this total, and neither does any spell you cast as a ritual straight from your spellbook.

Does a Wizard need to prepare Find Familiar to cast it? No. Find Familiar has the ritual tag, and any ritual spell in a Wizard's spellbook can be cast as a ritual (10 extra minutes, no spell slot) without being prepared that day. Put it in your spellbook once and you can summon your familiar whenever you have 10 free minutes, forever, without spending a prepared slot on it.

What's the difference between a spellbook slot and a prepared slot for a Wizard? The spellbook is your total spell knowledge - it grows by two spells every level and by however many you copy from scrolls or captured spellbooks, with no cap. Prepared spells are the much smaller daily subset (INT modifier + Wizard level) you can actually cast with a slot that day. Almost every spell worth learning belongs in your spellbook; only a fraction of that list earns a prepared slot on a given adventuring day.

Should a Wizard prepare Fireball every day? In most campaigns, yes. Fireball is one of the best damage-per-slot spells in the game at 3rd level and it scales cleanly with higher slots. The exception is a campaign built around stealth, negotiation, or urban intrigue where you rarely get to safely detonate a 20-foot fireball - there, swap it for a utility pick and keep it copied in your spellbook for the day you need it.

Is Mage Armor worth a prepared slot every single day? Usually only on the mornings you haven't already cast it, since it lasts eight hours. Most tables cast it once at the start of the adventuring day and don't need to re-prepare it daily once it's active - but if your last casting is going to expire mid-dungeon, keep the prepared slot free to recast it.

---

Continue Exploring

For the full class breakdown (subclasses, ability scores, race and feat synergy, and level-by-level builds), see the D&D 5e Wizard Guide. For which feats to prioritize alongside these spells, see Best Feats for Wizard. Or return to the D&D 5e Class Guides hub to compare every class.

---

Want a GM who runs this system with deep rules knowledge? Find a professional game master who knows the rules cold.