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Forgotten Realms Wiki has an article about: Wizard
Wizard

Description[]

Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To Wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, Wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The Wizard's strength is his spells. Everything else is secondary. He learns new spells as he experiments and grows in experience, and he can also learn them from other Wizards. In addition to learning new spells, a Wizard can, over time, learn to manipulate the spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. Some Wizards prefer to specialize in a certain type of magic. Specialization makes a Wizard more powerful in his chosen field, but it denies him access to some of the spells that lie outside that field.

Class Features[]

Hit die : d4
Base Attack Bonus progression : Low
Saving Throws :
High = Will
low = Fortitude & Reflex
Proficiencies :
Weapons: Wizard ~ club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff.
Armor: NONE; Armor of any type interferes with a Wizard's movements, which can cause his spells to fail.
Skill Points : ( 2 + Int modifier ) ×4 at 1st Character level.
Class Skills : Concentration, Craft (alchemy, armor, weapon), Lore, and Spellcraft.


Additional features[]

Wizards gain Scribe Scroll and Summon Familiar at 1st level.

Bonus feats[]

At level 5 and every five levels after (5, 10, 15, 20), the Wizard may select a bonus feat, chosen from the metamagic, item creation and spell feat lists. The Wizard must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums. This bonus feat is in addition to the feats every character gains for advancing in character level.

List of bonus feats (v1.23)[]

Spellcasting[]

Key ability Type Prepared
Intelligence arcane yes

A Wizard casts Arcane spells, which are drawn from the Sorcerer/Wizard Spell List. A Wizard must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time. To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the Wizard must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level (Int 10 for 0-level spells, Int 11 for 1st-level spells, and so forth). With a successful Spellcraft check, Wizards may also learn new spells from Wizard scrolls they find during play. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Wizard's spell is 10 + the spell level + the Wizard’s Intelligence modifier.

A Wizard must study his spellbook each day to prepare his spells. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his spellbook. A Wizard begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level Wizard spells (except those from her prohibited school or schools, if any) plus three 1st-level spells of your choice. For each point of Intelligence bonus the Wizard has, the spellbook holds one additional 1st-level spell of your choice. At each new Wizard level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new Wizard level) for her spellbook. For example, when a Wizard attains 5th level, he can cast 3rd-level spells. At this point, he can add two new 3rd-level spells to his spellbook, or one 2nd-level spell and one 3rdlevel spell, or any combination of two spells between 1st and 3rd level. At any time, a Wizard can also add spells found in other Wizards' spellbooks to his own.

School Specialization[]

A school is one of eight groupings of spells, each defined by a common theme. If desired, a Wizard may specialize in one school of magic, or be a generalist, where there are no bonuses and no penalties.

The eight schools of arcane magic are Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation.

The Wizard must choose whether to specialize and, if he does so, choose his specialty at 1st level. At this time, he must also give up another school of magic, which become his prohibited school. A Specialist Wizard then can prepare one additional spell per spell level each day. Unlike in the original DnD rules, the additional spell need not be of the specialist school.

Specialization Prohibited School
Abjuration Conjuration
Evocation Conjuration
Transmutation Conjuration
Divination Illusion
Enchantment Illusion
Conjuration Transmutation
Illusion Enchantment
Necromancy Divination


Spells of the prohibited school or schools are not available to the Wizard, and he can not cast such spells from scrolls. He can use wands with prohibited school spells though. He may not change his specialization later.

This does not only affect a Wizards spell selection; school specialization takes precedence over other base classes or Use Magic Device checks.

For instance, a multi-classed Wizard/Cleric can not cast Clerical spells from the prohibited school. So if that Wizard/Cleric has Conjuration as a prohibited school, he can no longer use Resurrection scrolls. It also means that the tip from the official rulebook of taking a level in the Sorcerer class on a Specialist Wizard, to yet gain access to all arcane items from the prohibited school, may not work.

However, the way the game implements the limitation with prohibited schools makes it possible to bypass with other spell-casting classes. Specifically, when the player initially selects wizard with a specialist school, three penalties are brought into effect:

  1. The PC loses ability to read or scribe any scroll from the prohibited school (permanently).
  2. The PC loses the ability to learn spells from the prohibited school while leveling as a wizard (note this distinction).
  3. The game engine will, on a one-time basis only, check if the PC has any other spell-casting classes. If so, the PC's ability to learn/cast new spells from the prohibited school with those classes will be stopped. Similar to a Red Wizard's additional prohibited school, this limitation will not apply to spells already known from other classes before the prohibited school took effect.

Because the game performs the check in item three only once, if the PC adds one or more spell casting classes after selecting wizard with a prohibited school, the prohibited school will not apply to new classes; they will be able to learn and cast any spell from those classes, including ones that might otherwise be prohibited as a wizard (see Talk:Wizard).

Specialist Wizards get +2 on Spellcraft checks when dealing with spells from their own school and can memorize one additional spell per spell level per day. For example, with an 18 INT, at 5th level, a wizard normally gets four 1st level spells, three 2nd level spells and two 3rd level spells. A specialist would get five 1st level spells, four 2nd level spells and three 3rd level spells. Other than that, there seems to be no difference between specialists implemented in NWN2.

NWN comparison[]

  • Timestop is not in NWN2.

DnD 3.5 comparison[]

  • Lore was used in NWN as a collective version of DnD 3.5's knowledge and other information skills. NWN2 includes it for the same reasons.
  • The decipher script and profession skills are not included in NWN2.
  • School Specialization is handled differently, Prohibited Schools usually involving player choice (although limited), and some specialist choices having two prohibited schools. In NWN2 the prohibited schools are pre-chosen.
  • In DnD rules, the additional spell per spelllevel of a specialist has to be of the specialists school. This isn't implemented in NWN2.
  • Universal Spells are a separate 'school' of spells which are protected from the restriction from Prohibited Schools

External resources[]

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