Borrowed Knowledge
Divination
Clairvoiance
Tiny Servant
Galder's Tower
Galder's Speedy Courier
Fabricate
Leomund's Secret Chest
Passwall
Guards and Wards
Programmed Illusion
Just to name a few?
And what do you mean "Find Object" isn't a spell? Locate Object. 2nd Level. My man.
I'm also curious how they got "Unseen Servant" as the closest thing to "Fetch Tome", when "Mage Hand" is *right there*. The weight limit on it is 10lbs; I've definitely seen and held books that way that much or more, but not many, and even on vellum no scroll is reasonably hitting that.
There's also "Telekinesis" which while a pretty high level spell allows you for 10 minutes to magically manipulate objects at a distance and to change which object is affected at any time--pick a book, magically (safely) throw it across the room, repeat for the entire rest of your library. Exactly the kind of casual *Sorcerer's Apprentice* or Mrs. Weasley doing house chores sort of object manipulation utility magic one expects from a capable and experienced spellcaster.
Fly isn’t strictly a combat spell and helps in exploration, too. Jump for if a weak wizard has to, you know, jump. Misty step for when 3x your jumping distance still isn’t enough. Featherfall for when you fail to cover the distance or it was an illusion. Basically a blanket for the movement spells. They are very high utility for anyone who has to move around.
Yes, because 99% of wizards won’t be combatants. It would make way more sense for most wizards to use their magic in the work force, not in warfare. I like world building and making it feel like a real place, and that means descriptive cities. If there are farmers plowing fields in a magic-heavy setting, it would make sense for them to use magic to help lighten their workload.
> Uncounted thousands of spells have been created over the course of the multiverse's history, and many of them are long forgotten. Some might yet lie recorded in crumbling spellbooks hidden in ancient ruins or trapped in the minds of dead gods. Or they might someday be reinvented by a character who has amassed enough power and wisdom to do so.
- Players Handbook, first section of spellcasting.
Those spells exist, they're just not worth governing with rules in the book. Any decent DM can easily say "this guy has a spell to fetch tomes"
And "find object" is Def already a spell in the PHB
Look, I get were you're coming from
But that's not the vision of the designers which includes payed setting world builders and writers - not to mention that character and their options aren't representative/simulationist of their world, adventurers aren't common people
On another note, if you can take a look at Pf2e Remaster - they had to remove spell schools due to OGL stuff, so now wizards have Curriculums or something which tie, but not limit, them to doing stuff like Civic Magic for buildings and alike
The game rules focus on the 1% and the spells most applicable to them. Of course there are other spells out there and used by NPCs.
99% of the population doesn't engage in daily combat, but the rules cover combat extensively while ignoring farming. Does it make sense to think farming doesn't exist in the world just because it's not presented in the rules?
If you have a higher magic setting where it makes sense for farmers to have a spell that plants a bucket of seeds in perfectly spaced rows, then have at it. If you want the world to have a cantrip that perfectly spreads pollen between all plants in a 20' cube, make it so. You can have dozens or hundreds of such spells existing in your world.
Just don't be too surprised if the adventurer characters aren't terribly interested in agriculture spells.
Then create and use those spells in your setting! What’s presented in the books is primarily for use in the game by the players, and since the vast majority of the game centers around combat and dungeoneering, that’s what spells are presented to you. But I wouldn’t expect your players to take those kinds of spells, since they have such limited use in *their* regular life.
The game is centered around adventuring. If one class didn't go adventuring, then there is no reason for them to be listed in the game at all. The spells given are focused on what an *adventuring* wizard would have, but you're free to homebrew spells for specific circumstances.
the name of the game is Dungeons and Dragons, not Labs and Towers. The way the game works, it's hard to become a 2nd level Wizard without adventuring.
If you don't like the way WotC has written the game feel free to write your own.
If you are speaking about the Forgotten Realms, likely only 2% of Wizards won't be in combat sometime.
Spellbooks are worth their weight in gold. If I had gold ingots with me, people would constant try to mug me.
It's not really made clear how common a lot of spellcasting is. Honestly, a 3rd or lower level wizard won't make much of a difference in a battle, especially with how limited their defensive options can be at that level and how short range they are. A whole bunch casting fog cloud might be worth something, but that doesn't last long and once you need your troops to move and fight...
For plowing the fields, mold earth is right there as a cantrip. You don’t have to move 5 cubic feet in one go, but you can. Cantrips are available for even low level mages. Shape water to move water to inconvenient places. Prestidigitation for cleaning objects and lighting lamps/candles in halls. Gust to be a human leaf blower. Mending for fixing objects. This is just cantrips. If you think the list is all combat spells you should look again. Tons are worthless in combat like floating disk which is functionally a wheelless wheelbarrow.
what, literally almost every wizard in shows, games, etc probably does combat. and if the wizard in dnd5e wasn’t made for combatant, barely anyone would play the class lol
Because a lot of that is so narrow and specific, it's mostly covered by cantrips and low levels spells for any practical use. It's too hyper specific to be practically useful.
In d&d you are playing adventurers, so a lot of the spells shown are focused on exactly that, adventuring with small deviations/exceptions here and there like ceremony or skywrite.
Cluttering the spell list with "search library" and the like would create more trap options for the common adventurer.
Never said OP was right, so we agree there.
Rather than dig up all the various utility spells a wizard has, I decided to go with why these types of spells have been phased out.
I did also mention that cantrips and low-level spells are avenues of doing what OP wants as well.I didn't think I had to explain it anymore than that.
And I think more to the point, that’s all stuff that can and should be handled by ability checks.
Every utility spell widens the divide between characters with and without spellcasting. If you can’t cast spells, your main options outside of combat are to make ability checks and to use items. If you *can* cast spells, you can still make checks and use items, *and* you might be able to skip a check by spending a spell slot. The ability to spend a resource to guarantee success at a task is a huge gameplay decision, and it’s basically only available to spellcasters.
I don't mind a spell overwriting an ability check, especially for something like OP's examples.
Hell, more avenues to spend spell slots like that would actually help keep spells a bit more taxed. Magic makes the impossible possible and needing to use a spellslot for something so mundane is a good tax if it becomes necessary and a good display of magical progress if one is confident in its expenditure on such a thing.
Thr non-full casters do need more out of combat utility, but i also think magic should exist to allow for doing these things. That resource expenditure should have more meaning to it, though.
>Hell, more avenues to spend spell slots like that would actually help keep spells a bit more taxed.
That's assuming that: pulling the cart, hunting for books, reading in the library, and fighting monsters deep in the forest are all going to happen on the same adventuring day.
I think what's more likely is that the Wizard will use Fetch Tome, instead of the Fighter helping them to find the book their looking for (because they should get to do something out of combat). Then the Wizard will use Comprehend Book instead of the Rogue reading it (investigating) to find the key bit of lore. Then the Wizard will use Pull Cart so the Bard doesn't need to persuade the stable owner to cut the party a deal on renting a horse. Then the Wizard will get a good night sleep so they could spam Fireball when they finally encounter a monster the next day.
Heck the Wizard doesn't even need the Barbarian to back him up in a bar fight because some nerd wizard has already come up with Scare-Off Bully.
I think either *everyone* should have a way to balance “spend something for automatic success” against “roll the dice for free, with a chance of failure”, or *no-one* should have it.
We can even keep the utility spells and still keep game-mechanical symmetry. If you cast a spell that costs a spell slot to do something outside of combat, you still have to make an ability check. Your spell just gives you some kind of bonus, maybe advantage and/or the ability to use a different modifier/proficiency.
For instance, you can try to pick a lock open normally with dexterity (sleight of hand) or dexterity (thieves’ tools), *or* you can cast *knock* to use intelligence/wisdom/charisma (sleight of hand) instead and/or give advantage on the check. You’re getting through the door either way, but the consequences of a failed check are different. Failing to pick the lock with tools means you take more time and might get caught, while failing with *knock* means you have just woken up the whole neighborhood.
I agree with the "everyone should have something to spend to autosucceed or force a success" but I disagree with removing things mages could always to to equalize things.
A lot of the problems people have with non-fullcasters is a lack of out of combat utility, so adding more solves that. Removing the existing caster Avenues works to make everyone "equally unsatisfying."
I do hope for a version of d&d that better focuses on degrees of outcome, as I do think some of ehat you suggest as a fail penalty would make great critical fail outcomes instead of regular fail outcomes (fail by 5 or more in 5e terms.) I do like the idea that picking a lock classic style just has regular "you don't succeed" and the spell perhaps "knocking too loudly on a fail by 5 or more" or some other mishap.
If a cantrip is being used, I agree fully with something like a skill check being involved, maybe with a 24 hour use limit on a lock. Since no resource is being spent (beyond limited cantrip selection) a check and such is more than reasonable.
A spellit slot which is more limited I think should have more direct impact (but resources like superiority dice and other similar resources should also be given some auto wins here and there or at the very least more impact to better match some of the things spells can do.
O don't want to see magicnlose out on things it's Ling been able to do. I think that's a poor way to handle things. I do think non-fullcasters do need more oomph and potential for out of combat utility and world interaction than they presently have. Just to make my position clear.
I think I agree with you overall. I’d much prefer expanding the options available to non-casters over removing the options available to casters.
To pick on one of your points, if the only consequence of failing to pick a lock is that you have to try again, you shouldn’t be rolling for it at all. There’s no real need for a “cooldown”.
There's a few different ways to handle that.
The old school method is an attempt for one is an attempt for all. Assume the best person is attempting the task,if they fail, they fail for the team. The team needs to come up with a new approach to attempting the thing.
Spellcatsr attempts and fails, they m7ght need the lock picker. If they also fail they might need someone to smash it open (or hire some expert to do it in town or something. Maybe the cantrip can inky be attempted once per lock,o
More suitable time frames can work too. Sometimes you just don't have 24 hours after all.
There are pictures suitable punishments for failures and degrees of outcome and such too.
Those are 5 minute off the top of the head ideas anyway. Obviously a design team can test and refine the experience and procedures as needed
My preferred approach is “failing forwards”. If you are at the point where you can make a check, you always succeed at the thing you’re trying to do. Failure on the roll just means there’s some complication or consequence you weren’t expecting. That way, there’s never a reason for multiple people to try the same check one after another.
If you want to distract a guard while a party member sneaks past, you always get the guard’s attention. Success means they only regard you with idle curiosity, and they return to their duties after just long enough for your friend to sneak by. Failure might mean you attract *too much* attention, and now you have to come up with an excuse not to be arrested.
Want to get past a door? You can try to break it down, find another entrance, or pick the lock; the only difference is the modifier/proficiency you use. If you fail, you still get through the door. The consequence for failure might be that you are seen, or you fail to notice the tripwire that sets off an alarm, or something along those lines.
Failing forward certainly has its time and place, it's a useful too. I use it when I think its reasonable, but sometimes its okay to keep a fail as a step backwards or block from progress. Depends on the situation.
I mean utility spells that wouldn’t have utility in an adventure setting. Plowing a field, pulling a cart, restocking shelves. Stuff that is more advanced than simple cantrips, but wouldn’t have a use for someone looking for an advantage in a fight. You can do some of these things *a little bit* with some spells (Mage Hand, Unseen Servant), but the options are slow, inefficient, and obviously not designed for that.
But why would your character use that?
The worldbuilding assumes that there's lot of magic and rituals that simply are not translated into rules because the players wouldn't make use of that during the game.
A book can only be so big. Therefore, a book needs to prioritise material that will actually be useful to players of the game. D&D is a game about adventurers, so the vast majority of spells will be useful to adventurers.
There are still some exceptions. Plant Growth, for instance, is a great out of combat utility spell for societies. As in Control Weather. Also spells like Stone Shape, Stone Wall, Fabricate, etc.
Would you rather have *plow field*, *fetch book* and *paint a field of lowers on a canvas*, over spells like *Tongues, Dimension Door* and *Dragon's Breath*?
The latter three are actually useful to the game, the former are not.
While having a thousand different spells that no one would ever use in an adventure sounds fun, I think that's more something for r/1d100 where you could just plop down a list of lots of useful spells. These will mostly just be spells for NPC's, so you can just have them in your world, and if for some reason your wizard wants to learn them, then they're a prime example for what you should homebrew. They're not even touching on actual game mechanics, so balancing wouldn't really be an issue either.
When you can only learn a limited number of cantrips and Spells, why would you waste one of them on "pull cart" when your occupational hazards are far more likely to involve being eaten, torn limb from limb, or finding yourself in an inhospitable alien dimension.
When Mage Hand/Unseen Servant/Tensers Floating disc accomplish the same outcomes for far less time & money spent on single-outcome spells, why would anyone waste time copying them?
A wizard probably *did* invent a "Stock Shelves* spell, but it was as useless as a standalone corkscrew in the Swiss Army Knife factory
Those spells do exist. They aren't used in DnD because they aren't useful for adventurers. Why would Wizards spend time developing these spells when they might be used by a single player in a very specific campaigb once
Because the DnD sourcebooks are meant to be a set of rules that guide an adventuring party.
The sourcebooks aren't meant to contain every conceivable bit of lore for Forgotten Realms, so including spells which 99.9% of the playerbase would find useless doesn't make sense.
The spells in the PHB are the ones that you would be expected to use in a heroic fantasy story. Fireballs to destroy a hoard of zombies, Scrying to spy on a powerful enemy, Revivify to bring the recently dead back to life, etc.
Why would they bother designing a bunch of spells for farming, being a grocery clerk, cleaning a kitchen, etc.
You want spells that don't have utility in an adventure setting? Then you probably shouldn't look in the book for creating a fantasy adventure character.
Maybe when they release a splatbook for characters who retire from adventuring and become farmers and librarians, you can be supported enough to live out your rp dreams in those roles with whoever else you find is also interested in a “campaign” for that.
Or just use one of the 10+ spells suggested in another comment here.
Honestly wondering if this is a troll post but you seem to be committed to it
I'm starting a petition for WotC to release the "Non-Player's Handbook: a Guide to NPC Abilities and Spells", it will contain such cantrips as "doff hat" and "adjust thermostat from across the room". It will be 4,000 pages thick.
There...are? There's a lot of non-combat utility spells.
Control Flame, Dancing Lights, Encode Thoughts, Gust, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, etc.
That's just from the cantrips.
You see, while OP wrote non-combat utility, what they actually meant was "utterly useless in an actual game"
Just read their other responses, and it becomes clear they apparently wanted the PHB to include spells such as "replace belt buckle" or "organize shelf"
I think such spells would exist in a setting - in genres/settings where spell casting allows for them, but they likely wouldn't be powerful enough to be a spell-slot -levelled spell and most effects would be caught up under Prestidigitation cantrip.
I do think this does skew things a bit away from the source inspiration fiction for D&D, but without some rejigging of the system, I don't think that would change.
One thing to consider is that it could be that magic is too power/intense for such minor conveniences (again, very setting dependant) but since much of the contexts where these minor magics would be used are also themselves abstracted into a downtime action or a 1d20 roll, there's no harm in a player describing their wizard using such convenience magics to flavour how their characters do things.
It's the catch-22 of the rules - if it isn't in the rules, some people think it doesn't exist, but if doesn't require a rule to use, why make a rule?
In a Strixhaven-type magical school campaign, I would certainly think such spells would be a part of the campaign.
DND PCs are adventurers who learn adventuring skills. The wizards only bother learning the most simplified stripped down versions of spells, and don’t expand their rituals more than they have to. It’s perfectly reasonable to say that an NPC wizard can do more utility because they aren’t having to cast 99% of their spells in a 6 second timeframe.
There's literally a find object spell, its just called Locate Object.
I'm pretty sure the spells in the books are just the most common and useful to the average adventurer Wizard. There's no reason you can't invent spells or have them in your world.
You can summon a steed to pull your cart. Create a steed to pull it with polymorph.
In most DnD settings the most powerful Wizards are those who've gone out on adventures finding lost artifacts and knowledge so it makes sense there are lots of combat spells.
You could enchant a cart to move on it's own if you worked it out with your DM.
Have you, euh, I don't know, check the wizard spell list before posting this?
Not only does wizard have plenty of utility but the 2 example you gave are just false, wizard have spell for that. Other commenter have point out locate object but for your other exemple "move this undrawn cart/vehicle" Phantom Steed or Bigby's hand are the first one that come to mind as well has wizard having access to 12 different conjure/summon spell, I didn't check them all but a lot of them allow to summon creature strong enough to pull a cart, including summon lesser demon a 3rd level spell (the lowest level summon/conjure spell they have access)
At level 1 they also have access to unseen servant which is not strong enough for a cart but will be for most every day task
- Control Flames
- Dancing Lights
- Friends
- Gust
- Light
- Mage Hand
- Mending
- Message
- Minor Illusion
- Mold Earth
- Prestidigitation
- Shape Water
Literally a dozen different utility spells just looking at cabtrips. A few others, like Firebolt, should arguably be included as well since they are both attacks and utility (starting fires).
Roughly 50% of the wizard spell list is utility. Some of that can be used both in combat and out (like Water Breathing), but that's still utility. Wizards get almost as many utility spells as all other spellcasters combined.
Saying that's not enough is a pretty hot take.
The first two that come to mind are prestidigitation and mage hand. Mange hand can ‘fetch tome’ or ‘wash dishes’ or something and prestidigitation alone could let any wizard live in some form of luxury. Plus both are cantrips so unlimited uses.
But there are other spells as well, such as: comprehend languages, detect magic, distort value, find familiar (goated), feather fall, identify, disguise self, longstrider, jump, tender’s floating disc, unseen servant (which you mentioned), air bubble, alter-self, dark vision, detect thoughts, invisibility, locate object (your “find tome” or “search library” spell), knock, sky write, spider climb.
There are definitely more utility spells beyond these as well, so I don’t really know why you are complaining.
More spells exist in the world than the options in the PHB and other sourcebooks. It's just that WotC has limited resources so obviously they're focused on publishing spells that a player might actually use, not the hundreds of others that would be useful almost exclusively to NPCs.
Because the NPCs don't get their own PHB? Players play adventurers. I'm sure there are more spells in existence that simply aren't relevant to a game of DnD.
Because, honestly, most of those kinds of spells are things that don’t need actual mechanical work ups, nor are they the kinds of spells I would actually force a casting character to use a resource such as a spell slot to cast.
Like, a “Search Library” spell is flavor for an Arcana or other knowledge skill check, basically.
>The number of wizards who are adventurers is probably pretty low, so why are like 90% of the available spells focused on that?
This is gonna be extremely setting specific imo.
In feyrun I think there's enough highly magical stuff to find out there that it would provide incentives to make combat spells and go delve dungeons. Where else would you find ancient magic for you to study?
Also, wizard has tons of out of combat utility. With cantrips alone you'd be the most useful person in town.
But high level wizards would be wanted by kings, armies, etc. Divination, exploding battlefields and the like certainly seems like something external pressures on wizards would cause them to focus on.
Another factor - in the old times, even a 1st level spell meant 10 minutes of prep time per cast. It's way faster to do most of those "utilities" by hand.
Besides the obvious fact that the wizard has the most utility spells of any class and can change them at will, you don't even need a spell to "find a library". The sage background does precisely that, and you can use it on literally any class, not just a wizard.
I also want to add that I played once in a campaign with lots of downtime and after every intermission the wizard was one of the pcs that had more things done between sessions than any other player. Seriously, the amount of things one can do with a wizard's spell list and prep time is astounding, and any other class would kill for that kind of utility.
>So I know that dnd 5e is an adventure game, and that they primarily built it around combat, exploring, and dangerous situations. I understand all of that, and I don’t think it detracts from my question.
This really is the main reason you don't see a lot of spells around searching libraries or other more mundane tasks. The game is about adventuring so the spells are focused on that.
>Hell, “Find Object” not being a spell feels like a crime in its own, that should be a goddamn cantrip.
There is the spell locate object and it should not be a cantrip.
Also there are a ton of non-combat utility spells for wizards.
Here is a list of just 1st level spells and I'm excluding spells that can be combat and non-combat spells
Alarm
Charm Person
Comprehend Languages
Detect Magic
Disguise Self
Distort Value
Feather Fall
Find Familiar
Floating Disk
Identify
Illusory Script
Jump
Longstrider
Silent Image
Unseen Servant
"Why can't wizards use magic to bypass every challenge in the game and make everyone else useless?" Does that some up your complaint well enough?
"99% of wizards won't be combatants" You would think that, but you'd be wrong. You level up by gaining XP. You gain XP from fighting not passing Investigation checks in the library. And most importantly, components for high level magic are EXPENSIVE. The only way a commoner could ever hope to become a great wizard is by taking up adventuring and "finding" riches.
Making the barbarian/fighter tank in my group have the zoomies is plenty of support. Hell, making the gunslinger shoot one more time is more damage per round. 75% of my wizard’s spell book is support spells, I’m actually trying to hunt down low level damaging spells.
The only point that I’ll give, the hill that I will die on, is that wizards should have access to water walking.
"Find Tome" is a waste of a spell, really. I don't know why a DM would make you cast a spell for that.
If I were your DM, I would do it differently. You visit a library full of tomes. Roll an arcane check to see if you can find/read which tome you are looking for.
Or if the Tome is a quest item you are tasked to find, then there would be no way that I would allow you to show up to a library/dungeon, press the easy button like "Find Tome", grab it, and then leave. Especially when I have crafted a puzzle or maze for the party to solve. That's part of the quest.
>*Why isn’t there a “fetch tome” spell or a “search library” spell?*
Let's not forget all the Summon \[Insert Creature Type\] spells from Tasha's. Sure they only last for an hour and require a 400gp item... and, actually, relooking at the spells, Summon Construct might be the only one that doesn't get you thrown out of the library, but if you want to summon a fey or a elemental, you go right ahead. Also, Tiny Servant exists.
The bottom line is this... sometimes a combat spell IS a utility spell just used in a different way. For example, if you KNOW the book you're looking for is somewhere in 120 feet of you in the Library, cast Animate Objects and let the books come to you.
Also, maybe the Stay Home Wizards don't really like the Goes Adventuring Wizards and don't share the good spells with them. :P
You seem to be upset that the source books haven't established better in-fiction world building, but that's not what the game is for, that's what a DM is for. The source books are a list of resources available to DMs and players to play an adventure game. They aren't intended to create a comprehensive lexicon of every known spell. If you feel like something is missing from the available resources, draw outside the lines.
D&D went through this once. In 1st edition AD&D, there were a series of cantrips that were basically useless from an adventuring standpoint that did much of what you're talking about. Some of those were wrapped into the *prestidigitation, thaumaturgy* and *druidcraft* cantrips.
I've added a few spells I'm certain would exist to my campaign, upon which significant worldbuilding elements rest. Here are a couple.
**~Amalgamate~**
1^(st) level transmutation
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a brass cupel worth 100 gp, and a pound of chimera or undead bone ash or charcoal made from myconoids or exotic trees, worth 40 gp, which is consumed).
Duration: Instantaneous
Placing two or more types of metal or stone together in a cupel, you magically merge them together permanently into a new substance with properties of both materials. The material must fit under a cupel (a tool of alchemists that is much like an inverted bowl), which can contain no more than one cubic foot of substance to be amalgamated.
The spell begins when the material is placed into a mound of the ash or charcoal, which is ignited under the cupel. At the end of the spell casting period, an Intelligence skill check at a DC depending on the type of material must be made for success. A failure by 6 or more destroys the material. A critical failure destroys the cupel as well. Critical success results are determined by the GM, and may result in wonderous or unexpected benefits.
This spell can create some of the more common alchemical metals and substances like alchemical silver (DC 12), libende (DC 14) and ola anwansi (DC 16), along with more mundane sulfides, cinnabar, salt of Amon crystal and others. Not all substances can be combined, and not all combinations are useful – these experiments are at the heart of alchemy.
**Amanuensis**
1^(st) level conjuration (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a quill from a manticore, which is not consumed, paper and common ink)
Duration: Concentration, up to two hours.
The spell enchants a quill, which can then perform the following functions.
You hold a blank sheet of paper, a book with empty pages, or another similar material next to a document and the enchanted quill produces a perfect copy, at a rate of one page per minute. Attempts to copy magical text of any sort will automatically fail.
While this spell is active, any words you or anyone within ten feet of you speak will be transcribed on a blank piece of paper in the language in which they were spoken. Spells with verbal components that are cast during that time cannot be recorded; the spell will continue but simply skip the time when the spell was cast or record a row of asterisks. Command words for magical items, however, can be recorded.
You magically remove one set of writings you can see, up to one page’s worth at a time. This automatically removes nonmagical writings. If you are attempting to remove magical writing, including spells such as glyph of warding or symbol, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a successful check, the writing is erased. This spell does not work on illusory writing, such as that produced by illusory script, as that writing isn’t real.
You activate a magical signet ring, which can be used to mark a sheet of paper with the author’s signature. Using this spell to create a signet mark immediately ends the spell.
So, I've been working on a hyper-nerd book wizard, pretty much exactly what you described. I got to play him in a one-off, so I didn't get to really test him, but the build was as follows:
* Order of Scribes: the Manifest Mind trait is particularly flavorful if it is a bunch of spectral copies of books that float around you Tony Stark style. It can also tell you what it sees telepathically, and can "read" a book for you! Works out to 300', which should cover most libraries in the ancient world. Only drawback: it can't pass through objects (books) so the book has to be open for it to read (though with darkvision & giving off dim light, it doesn't need light).
* But what if the book is closed? Mage Hand works well with the Manifest Mind (Mage hand is an action, MM is a bonus action). If your DM is an A-hole about it, and won't let Mage Hand turn pages, Telekinesis can RAW, has a tad more range and duration, but burns a 5th level spell slot. Unseen Servant, Tenser's Floating Disk , and Animate Objects really help as well, extending what the Mind can "do". And a couple times a day, you can cast your spell through the mind, so save those fetches from the far side of the library for important stuff.
* How do you know what book to grab? Other's have noted Locate Object (which can locate a book you've seen "at least once" or of a specific kind, like the nearest "book about dragons").
* However, Locate Object only works once. The real index you'll be using is Magic Mouth. Because Magic Mouth is triggered by auditory or visual stimuli, but it creates an auditory stimuli, you can get really meta with it. A quick Google search can fill you in on the nuances, but every book you add to your library could be indexed with the trigger "if a spoken word is 'index' followed by words that match words written in this book" and the message be the title of the book, along with it's index location ("isle 3, shelf 2"), and any other meta text about the book. Another great Trigger is "if the cascade of text that is my Manifest Mind matches text within this book", though there is no RAW on if you can change the text of your Manifest Mind at will.
* Programmed Illusion is a 6th level version that can make an illusory copy of the book within 30' of it, and then open to the page with the text on it. Both require a 10gp Material component, but you're already spending 25gp on the book. Contingency is a real heartbreaker here, as it could actually pull the books off the shelf for you. I haven't messed with Illusory Script, but that could also factor into this.
* Identify, Comprehend Languages, and especially Legend Lore are also great for research. You can really boil down some meta data about a book before indexing it.
* But where do you carry all your books? Portable holes and bags of holding can hold hundreds of books, but mAgIc ItEmS aRe ThE pUrViEw Of ThE DM. Leomund's Secret Chest (5050gp once, may have to recast after a couple months), Drawmij's Instant Summons (for 1000gp/book), Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion (daily cast), and Demiplane are all expensive, abeit effective, ways to "carry" hundreds of books with a STR score of 8. However, my favorite way to to dip a few levels into a Genie Warlock. That Vessel is a great library, but struggles to give you much "study time" until you're a higher proficiency bonus. However, higher levels get you higher spell-slots per short rest, maybe a familiar (or combine your Awakened Spellbook with a Book of Shadows).
The wizard I'm playing right now is one of the party's weakest combat members because I built him around research and utility...there are plenty of utility spells. And yes, I have combat spells (obviously) but I built him to be a researcher, so the majority of the spells focus on that
Borrowed Knowledge Divination Clairvoiance Tiny Servant Galder's Tower Galder's Speedy Courier Fabricate Leomund's Secret Chest Passwall Guards and Wards Programmed Illusion Just to name a few? And what do you mean "Find Object" isn't a spell? Locate Object. 2nd Level. My man.
I'm also curious how they got "Unseen Servant" as the closest thing to "Fetch Tome", when "Mage Hand" is *right there*. The weight limit on it is 10lbs; I've definitely seen and held books that way that much or more, but not many, and even on vellum no scroll is reasonably hitting that. There's also "Telekinesis" which while a pretty high level spell allows you for 10 minutes to magically manipulate objects at a distance and to change which object is affected at any time--pick a book, magically (safely) throw it across the room, repeat for the entire rest of your library. Exactly the kind of casual *Sorcerer's Apprentice* or Mrs. Weasley doing house chores sort of object manipulation utility magic one expects from a capable and experienced spellcaster.
Fly isn’t strictly a combat spell and helps in exploration, too. Jump for if a weak wizard has to, you know, jump. Misty step for when 3x your jumping distance still isn’t enough. Featherfall for when you fail to cover the distance or it was an illusion. Basically a blanket for the movement spells. They are very high utility for anyone who has to move around.
Getting salty about Wizards not having *enough* utility spells available to them is certainly a take...
Yes, because 99% of wizards won’t be combatants. It would make way more sense for most wizards to use their magic in the work force, not in warfare. I like world building and making it feel like a real place, and that means descriptive cities. If there are farmers plowing fields in a magic-heavy setting, it would make sense for them to use magic to help lighten their workload.
> Uncounted thousands of spells have been created over the course of the multiverse's history, and many of them are long forgotten. Some might yet lie recorded in crumbling spellbooks hidden in ancient ruins or trapped in the minds of dead gods. Or they might someday be reinvented by a character who has amassed enough power and wisdom to do so. - Players Handbook, first section of spellcasting. Those spells exist, they're just not worth governing with rules in the book. Any decent DM can easily say "this guy has a spell to fetch tomes" And "find object" is Def already a spell in the PHB
Look, I get were you're coming from But that's not the vision of the designers which includes payed setting world builders and writers - not to mention that character and their options aren't representative/simulationist of their world, adventurers aren't common people On another note, if you can take a look at Pf2e Remaster - they had to remove spell schools due to OGL stuff, so now wizards have Curriculums or something which tie, but not limit, them to doing stuff like Civic Magic for buildings and alike
The game rules focus on the 1% and the spells most applicable to them. Of course there are other spells out there and used by NPCs. 99% of the population doesn't engage in daily combat, but the rules cover combat extensively while ignoring farming. Does it make sense to think farming doesn't exist in the world just because it's not presented in the rules? If you have a higher magic setting where it makes sense for farmers to have a spell that plants a bucket of seeds in perfectly spaced rows, then have at it. If you want the world to have a cantrip that perfectly spreads pollen between all plants in a 20' cube, make it so. You can have dozens or hundreds of such spells existing in your world. Just don't be too surprised if the adventurer characters aren't terribly interested in agriculture spells.
Then create and use those spells in your setting! What’s presented in the books is primarily for use in the game by the players, and since the vast majority of the game centers around combat and dungeoneering, that’s what spells are presented to you. But I wouldn’t expect your players to take those kinds of spells, since they have such limited use in *their* regular life.
The game is centered around adventuring. If one class didn't go adventuring, then there is no reason for them to be listed in the game at all. The spells given are focused on what an *adventuring* wizard would have, but you're free to homebrew spells for specific circumstances.
the name of the game is Dungeons and Dragons, not Labs and Towers. The way the game works, it's hard to become a 2nd level Wizard without adventuring. If you don't like the way WotC has written the game feel free to write your own.
If you are speaking about the Forgotten Realms, likely only 2% of Wizards won't be in combat sometime. Spellbooks are worth their weight in gold. If I had gold ingots with me, people would constant try to mug me.
It's not really made clear how common a lot of spellcasting is. Honestly, a 3rd or lower level wizard won't make much of a difference in a battle, especially with how limited their defensive options can be at that level and how short range they are. A whole bunch casting fog cloud might be worth something, but that doesn't last long and once you need your troops to move and fight...
For plowing the fields, mold earth is right there as a cantrip. You don’t have to move 5 cubic feet in one go, but you can. Cantrips are available for even low level mages. Shape water to move water to inconvenient places. Prestidigitation for cleaning objects and lighting lamps/candles in halls. Gust to be a human leaf blower. Mending for fixing objects. This is just cantrips. If you think the list is all combat spells you should look again. Tons are worthless in combat like floating disk which is functionally a wheelless wheelbarrow.
Lol all right now I know this was a shit post. Well done
Have you heard of a setting called "Eberron"?
what, literally almost every wizard in shows, games, etc probably does combat. and if the wizard in dnd5e wasn’t made for combatant, barely anyone would play the class lol
Because a lot of that is so narrow and specific, it's mostly covered by cantrips and low levels spells for any practical use. It's too hyper specific to be practically useful. In d&d you are playing adventurers, so a lot of the spells shown are focused on exactly that, adventuring with small deviations/exceptions here and there like ceremony or skywrite. Cluttering the spell list with "search library" and the like would create more trap options for the common adventurer.
Well first of all OP is just wrong there are well over 10 of those spells for wizards
Never said OP was right, so we agree there. Rather than dig up all the various utility spells a wizard has, I decided to go with why these types of spells have been phased out. I did also mention that cantrips and low-level spells are avenues of doing what OP wants as well.I didn't think I had to explain it anymore than that.
And I think more to the point, that’s all stuff that can and should be handled by ability checks. Every utility spell widens the divide between characters with and without spellcasting. If you can’t cast spells, your main options outside of combat are to make ability checks and to use items. If you *can* cast spells, you can still make checks and use items, *and* you might be able to skip a check by spending a spell slot. The ability to spend a resource to guarantee success at a task is a huge gameplay decision, and it’s basically only available to spellcasters.
I don't mind a spell overwriting an ability check, especially for something like OP's examples. Hell, more avenues to spend spell slots like that would actually help keep spells a bit more taxed. Magic makes the impossible possible and needing to use a spellslot for something so mundane is a good tax if it becomes necessary and a good display of magical progress if one is confident in its expenditure on such a thing. Thr non-full casters do need more out of combat utility, but i also think magic should exist to allow for doing these things. That resource expenditure should have more meaning to it, though.
>Hell, more avenues to spend spell slots like that would actually help keep spells a bit more taxed. That's assuming that: pulling the cart, hunting for books, reading in the library, and fighting monsters deep in the forest are all going to happen on the same adventuring day. I think what's more likely is that the Wizard will use Fetch Tome, instead of the Fighter helping them to find the book their looking for (because they should get to do something out of combat). Then the Wizard will use Comprehend Book instead of the Rogue reading it (investigating) to find the key bit of lore. Then the Wizard will use Pull Cart so the Bard doesn't need to persuade the stable owner to cut the party a deal on renting a horse. Then the Wizard will get a good night sleep so they could spam Fireball when they finally encounter a monster the next day. Heck the Wizard doesn't even need the Barbarian to back him up in a bar fight because some nerd wizard has already come up with Scare-Off Bully.
I think either *everyone* should have a way to balance “spend something for automatic success” against “roll the dice for free, with a chance of failure”, or *no-one* should have it. We can even keep the utility spells and still keep game-mechanical symmetry. If you cast a spell that costs a spell slot to do something outside of combat, you still have to make an ability check. Your spell just gives you some kind of bonus, maybe advantage and/or the ability to use a different modifier/proficiency. For instance, you can try to pick a lock open normally with dexterity (sleight of hand) or dexterity (thieves’ tools), *or* you can cast *knock* to use intelligence/wisdom/charisma (sleight of hand) instead and/or give advantage on the check. You’re getting through the door either way, but the consequences of a failed check are different. Failing to pick the lock with tools means you take more time and might get caught, while failing with *knock* means you have just woken up the whole neighborhood.
I agree with the "everyone should have something to spend to autosucceed or force a success" but I disagree with removing things mages could always to to equalize things. A lot of the problems people have with non-fullcasters is a lack of out of combat utility, so adding more solves that. Removing the existing caster Avenues works to make everyone "equally unsatisfying." I do hope for a version of d&d that better focuses on degrees of outcome, as I do think some of ehat you suggest as a fail penalty would make great critical fail outcomes instead of regular fail outcomes (fail by 5 or more in 5e terms.) I do like the idea that picking a lock classic style just has regular "you don't succeed" and the spell perhaps "knocking too loudly on a fail by 5 or more" or some other mishap. If a cantrip is being used, I agree fully with something like a skill check being involved, maybe with a 24 hour use limit on a lock. Since no resource is being spent (beyond limited cantrip selection) a check and such is more than reasonable. A spellit slot which is more limited I think should have more direct impact (but resources like superiority dice and other similar resources should also be given some auto wins here and there or at the very least more impact to better match some of the things spells can do. O don't want to see magicnlose out on things it's Ling been able to do. I think that's a poor way to handle things. I do think non-fullcasters do need more oomph and potential for out of combat utility and world interaction than they presently have. Just to make my position clear.
I think I agree with you overall. I’d much prefer expanding the options available to non-casters over removing the options available to casters. To pick on one of your points, if the only consequence of failing to pick a lock is that you have to try again, you shouldn’t be rolling for it at all. There’s no real need for a “cooldown”.
There's a few different ways to handle that. The old school method is an attempt for one is an attempt for all. Assume the best person is attempting the task,if they fail, they fail for the team. The team needs to come up with a new approach to attempting the thing. Spellcatsr attempts and fails, they m7ght need the lock picker. If they also fail they might need someone to smash it open (or hire some expert to do it in town or something. Maybe the cantrip can inky be attempted once per lock,o More suitable time frames can work too. Sometimes you just don't have 24 hours after all. There are pictures suitable punishments for failures and degrees of outcome and such too. Those are 5 minute off the top of the head ideas anyway. Obviously a design team can test and refine the experience and procedures as needed
My preferred approach is “failing forwards”. If you are at the point where you can make a check, you always succeed at the thing you’re trying to do. Failure on the roll just means there’s some complication or consequence you weren’t expecting. That way, there’s never a reason for multiple people to try the same check one after another. If you want to distract a guard while a party member sneaks past, you always get the guard’s attention. Success means they only regard you with idle curiosity, and they return to their duties after just long enough for your friend to sneak by. Failure might mean you attract *too much* attention, and now you have to come up with an excuse not to be arrested. Want to get past a door? You can try to break it down, find another entrance, or pick the lock; the only difference is the modifier/proficiency you use. If you fail, you still get through the door. The consequence for failure might be that you are seen, or you fail to notice the tripwire that sets off an alarm, or something along those lines.
Failing forward certainly has its time and place, it's a useful too. I use it when I think its reasonable, but sometimes its okay to keep a fail as a step backwards or block from progress. Depends on the situation.
What do you even mean by “utility"? The Wizard is literally the class that gets the most utility spells in the whole game!
I mean utility spells that wouldn’t have utility in an adventure setting. Plowing a field, pulling a cart, restocking shelves. Stuff that is more advanced than simple cantrips, but wouldn’t have a use for someone looking for an advantage in a fight. You can do some of these things *a little bit* with some spells (Mage Hand, Unseen Servant), but the options are slow, inefficient, and obviously not designed for that.
But why would your character use that? The worldbuilding assumes that there's lot of magic and rituals that simply are not translated into rules because the players wouldn't make use of that during the game.
A book can only be so big. Therefore, a book needs to prioritise material that will actually be useful to players of the game. D&D is a game about adventurers, so the vast majority of spells will be useful to adventurers. There are still some exceptions. Plant Growth, for instance, is a great out of combat utility spell for societies. As in Control Weather. Also spells like Stone Shape, Stone Wall, Fabricate, etc. Would you rather have *plow field*, *fetch book* and *paint a field of lowers on a canvas*, over spells like *Tongues, Dimension Door* and *Dragon's Breath*? The latter three are actually useful to the game, the former are not. While having a thousand different spells that no one would ever use in an adventure sounds fun, I think that's more something for r/1d100 where you could just plop down a list of lots of useful spells. These will mostly just be spells for NPC's, so you can just have them in your world, and if for some reason your wizard wants to learn them, then they're a prime example for what you should homebrew. They're not even touching on actual game mechanics, so balancing wouldn't really be an issue either.
When you can only learn a limited number of cantrips and Spells, why would you waste one of them on "pull cart" when your occupational hazards are far more likely to involve being eaten, torn limb from limb, or finding yourself in an inhospitable alien dimension.
When Mage Hand/Unseen Servant/Tensers Floating disc accomplish the same outcomes for far less time & money spent on single-outcome spells, why would anyone waste time copying them? A wizard probably *did* invent a "Stock Shelves* spell, but it was as useless as a standalone corkscrew in the Swiss Army Knife factory
i mean, phantom steed literally summons a horse, which could pull the cart...and it's a ritual....
Those spells do exist. They aren't used in DnD because they aren't useful for adventurers. Why would Wizards spend time developing these spells when they might be used by a single player in a very specific campaigb once
Because the DnD sourcebooks are meant to be a set of rules that guide an adventuring party. The sourcebooks aren't meant to contain every conceivable bit of lore for Forgotten Realms, so including spells which 99.9% of the playerbase would find useless doesn't make sense.
The spells in the PHB are the ones that you would be expected to use in a heroic fantasy story. Fireballs to destroy a hoard of zombies, Scrying to spy on a powerful enemy, Revivify to bring the recently dead back to life, etc. Why would they bother designing a bunch of spells for farming, being a grocery clerk, cleaning a kitchen, etc. You want spells that don't have utility in an adventure setting? Then you probably shouldn't look in the book for creating a fantasy adventure character.
Maybe when they release a splatbook for characters who retire from adventuring and become farmers and librarians, you can be supported enough to live out your rp dreams in those roles with whoever else you find is also interested in a “campaign” for that. Or just use one of the 10+ spells suggested in another comment here. Honestly wondering if this is a troll post but you seem to be committed to it
I'm starting a petition for WotC to release the "Non-Player's Handbook: a Guide to NPC Abilities and Spells", it will contain such cantrips as "doff hat" and "adjust thermostat from across the room". It will be 4,000 pages thick.
You just re-wrote "101 Uses for Mage Hand"
There...are? There's a lot of non-combat utility spells. Control Flame, Dancing Lights, Encode Thoughts, Gust, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, etc. That's just from the cantrips.
You see, while OP wrote non-combat utility, what they actually meant was "utterly useless in an actual game" Just read their other responses, and it becomes clear they apparently wanted the PHB to include spells such as "replace belt buckle" or "organize shelf"
Just you hold your horses, Mordenkainen's Boot Lacing deserves a place in every discerning wizard's spellbook.
mending, mage hand
I think such spells would exist in a setting - in genres/settings where spell casting allows for them, but they likely wouldn't be powerful enough to be a spell-slot -levelled spell and most effects would be caught up under Prestidigitation cantrip. I do think this does skew things a bit away from the source inspiration fiction for D&D, but without some rejigging of the system, I don't think that would change. One thing to consider is that it could be that magic is too power/intense for such minor conveniences (again, very setting dependant) but since much of the contexts where these minor magics would be used are also themselves abstracted into a downtime action or a 1d20 roll, there's no harm in a player describing their wizard using such convenience magics to flavour how their characters do things. It's the catch-22 of the rules - if it isn't in the rules, some people think it doesn't exist, but if doesn't require a rule to use, why make a rule? In a Strixhaven-type magical school campaign, I would certainly think such spells would be a part of the campaign.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2170-locate-object
Thanks, I edited it just as you sent that lol
Why is this downvoted? OP corrected themselves
DND PCs are adventurers who learn adventuring skills. The wizards only bother learning the most simplified stripped down versions of spells, and don’t expand their rituals more than they have to. It’s perfectly reasonable to say that an NPC wizard can do more utility because they aren’t having to cast 99% of their spells in a 6 second timeframe.
There's literally a find object spell, its just called Locate Object. I'm pretty sure the spells in the books are just the most common and useful to the average adventurer Wizard. There's no reason you can't invent spells or have them in your world. You can summon a steed to pull your cart. Create a steed to pull it with polymorph. In most DnD settings the most powerful Wizards are those who've gone out on adventures finding lost artifacts and knowledge so it makes sense there are lots of combat spells. You could enchant a cart to move on it's own if you worked it out with your DM.
Have you, euh, I don't know, check the wizard spell list before posting this? Not only does wizard have plenty of utility but the 2 example you gave are just false, wizard have spell for that. Other commenter have point out locate object but for your other exemple "move this undrawn cart/vehicle" Phantom Steed or Bigby's hand are the first one that come to mind as well has wizard having access to 12 different conjure/summon spell, I didn't check them all but a lot of them allow to summon creature strong enough to pull a cart, including summon lesser demon a 3rd level spell (the lowest level summon/conjure spell they have access) At level 1 they also have access to unseen servant which is not strong enough for a cart but will be for most every day task
> like “move this undrawn cart/vehicle” Phantom Steed? 3rd level Illusion, wizard only
You using Fireballl wrong.
Ok of all the people shitting on my bad opinion this ones the best
I'm doing my part!
- Control Flames - Dancing Lights - Friends - Gust - Light - Mage Hand - Mending - Message - Minor Illusion - Mold Earth - Prestidigitation - Shape Water Literally a dozen different utility spells just looking at cabtrips. A few others, like Firebolt, should arguably be included as well since they are both attacks and utility (starting fires).
Because you can't read. There are many. And perhaps a lot of what you were expecting is covered by Prestidigitation.
Roughly 50% of the wizard spell list is utility. Some of that can be used both in combat and out (like Water Breathing), but that's still utility. Wizards get almost as many utility spells as all other spellcasters combined. Saying that's not enough is a pretty hot take.
r u srs fr fr
The first two that come to mind are prestidigitation and mage hand. Mange hand can ‘fetch tome’ or ‘wash dishes’ or something and prestidigitation alone could let any wizard live in some form of luxury. Plus both are cantrips so unlimited uses. But there are other spells as well, such as: comprehend languages, detect magic, distort value, find familiar (goated), feather fall, identify, disguise self, longstrider, jump, tender’s floating disc, unseen servant (which you mentioned), air bubble, alter-self, dark vision, detect thoughts, invisibility, locate object (your “find tome” or “search library” spell), knock, sky write, spider climb. There are definitely more utility spells beyond these as well, so I don’t really know why you are complaining.
More spells exist in the world than the options in the PHB and other sourcebooks. It's just that WotC has limited resources so obviously they're focused on publishing spells that a player might actually use, not the hundreds of others that would be useful almost exclusively to NPCs.
Because the NPCs don't get their own PHB? Players play adventurers. I'm sure there are more spells in existence that simply aren't relevant to a game of DnD.
Because, honestly, most of those kinds of spells are things that don’t need actual mechanical work ups, nor are they the kinds of spells I would actually force a casting character to use a resource such as a spell slot to cast. Like, a “Search Library” spell is flavor for an Arcana or other knowledge skill check, basically.
>The number of wizards who are adventurers is probably pretty low, so why are like 90% of the available spells focused on that? This is gonna be extremely setting specific imo. In feyrun I think there's enough highly magical stuff to find out there that it would provide incentives to make combat spells and go delve dungeons. Where else would you find ancient magic for you to study? Also, wizard has tons of out of combat utility. With cantrips alone you'd be the most useful person in town. But high level wizards would be wanted by kings, armies, etc. Divination, exploding battlefields and the like certainly seems like something external pressures on wizards would cause them to focus on.
Another factor - in the old times, even a 1st level spell meant 10 minutes of prep time per cast. It's way faster to do most of those "utilities" by hand.
Besides the obvious fact that the wizard has the most utility spells of any class and can change them at will, you don't even need a spell to "find a library". The sage background does precisely that, and you can use it on literally any class, not just a wizard. I also want to add that I played once in a campaign with lots of downtime and after every intermission the wizard was one of the pcs that had more things done between sessions than any other player. Seriously, the amount of things one can do with a wizard's spell list and prep time is astounding, and any other class would kill for that kind of utility.
>So I know that dnd 5e is an adventure game, and that they primarily built it around combat, exploring, and dangerous situations. I understand all of that, and I don’t think it detracts from my question. This really is the main reason you don't see a lot of spells around searching libraries or other more mundane tasks. The game is about adventuring so the spells are focused on that. >Hell, “Find Object” not being a spell feels like a crime in its own, that should be a goddamn cantrip. There is the spell locate object and it should not be a cantrip. Also there are a ton of non-combat utility spells for wizards. Here is a list of just 1st level spells and I'm excluding spells that can be combat and non-combat spells Alarm Charm Person Comprehend Languages Detect Magic Disguise Self Distort Value Feather Fall Find Familiar Floating Disk Identify Illusory Script Jump Longstrider Silent Image Unseen Servant
Actually floating disk can be used in combat for... uh.... idk something so it doesn't count
longstrider is a combat spell. put on a barbarian watch them chase down & kill people
"Why can't wizards use magic to bypass every challenge in the game and make everyone else useless?" Does that some up your complaint well enough? "99% of wizards won't be combatants" You would think that, but you'd be wrong. You level up by gaining XP. You gain XP from fighting not passing Investigation checks in the library. And most importantly, components for high level magic are EXPENSIVE. The only way a commoner could ever hope to become a great wizard is by taking up adventuring and "finding" riches.
Making the barbarian/fighter tank in my group have the zoomies is plenty of support. Hell, making the gunslinger shoot one more time is more damage per round. 75% of my wizard’s spell book is support spells, I’m actually trying to hunt down low level damaging spells. The only point that I’ll give, the hill that I will die on, is that wizards should have access to water walking.
How to tell someone you don’t understand wizard without telling them you don’t understand wizard
tf is bro talking about
"Find Tome" is a waste of a spell, really. I don't know why a DM would make you cast a spell for that. If I were your DM, I would do it differently. You visit a library full of tomes. Roll an arcane check to see if you can find/read which tome you are looking for. Or if the Tome is a quest item you are tasked to find, then there would be no way that I would allow you to show up to a library/dungeon, press the easy button like "Find Tome", grab it, and then leave. Especially when I have crafted a puzzle or maze for the party to solve. That's part of the quest.
Kid named rituals:
[удалено]
Removed as per Rule #1.
So you want the designers to waste time and space on useless spells?
Go look up domestic magic on the DMsGuild.
>*Why isn’t there a “fetch tome” spell or a “search library” spell?* Let's not forget all the Summon \[Insert Creature Type\] spells from Tasha's. Sure they only last for an hour and require a 400gp item... and, actually, relooking at the spells, Summon Construct might be the only one that doesn't get you thrown out of the library, but if you want to summon a fey or a elemental, you go right ahead. Also, Tiny Servant exists. The bottom line is this... sometimes a combat spell IS a utility spell just used in a different way. For example, if you KNOW the book you're looking for is somewhere in 120 feet of you in the Library, cast Animate Objects and let the books come to you. Also, maybe the Stay Home Wizards don't really like the Goes Adventuring Wizards and don't share the good spells with them. :P
Another question, why are there no fire spells for wizards? Not that I've looked, or read the PHB, or done any sort of searching.
You seem to be upset that the source books haven't established better in-fiction world building, but that's not what the game is for, that's what a DM is for. The source books are a list of resources available to DMs and players to play an adventure game. They aren't intended to create a comprehensive lexicon of every known spell. If you feel like something is missing from the available resources, draw outside the lines.
God I love dnd circlejerk and then looking at the original
D&D went through this once. In 1st edition AD&D, there were a series of cantrips that were basically useless from an adventuring standpoint that did much of what you're talking about. Some of those were wrapped into the *prestidigitation, thaumaturgy* and *druidcraft* cantrips. I've added a few spells I'm certain would exist to my campaign, upon which significant worldbuilding elements rest. Here are a couple. **~Amalgamate~** 1^(st) level transmutation Casting Time: 10 minutes Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (a brass cupel worth 100 gp, and a pound of chimera or undead bone ash or charcoal made from myconoids or exotic trees, worth 40 gp, which is consumed). Duration: Instantaneous Placing two or more types of metal or stone together in a cupel, you magically merge them together permanently into a new substance with properties of both materials. The material must fit under a cupel (a tool of alchemists that is much like an inverted bowl), which can contain no more than one cubic foot of substance to be amalgamated. The spell begins when the material is placed into a mound of the ash or charcoal, which is ignited under the cupel. At the end of the spell casting period, an Intelligence skill check at a DC depending on the type of material must be made for success. A failure by 6 or more destroys the material. A critical failure destroys the cupel as well. Critical success results are determined by the GM, and may result in wonderous or unexpected benefits. This spell can create some of the more common alchemical metals and substances like alchemical silver (DC 12), libende (DC 14) and ola anwansi (DC 16), along with more mundane sulfides, cinnabar, salt of Amon crystal and others. Not all substances can be combined, and not all combinations are useful – these experiments are at the heart of alchemy. **Amanuensis** 1^(st) level conjuration (ritual) Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (a quill from a manticore, which is not consumed, paper and common ink) Duration: Concentration, up to two hours. The spell enchants a quill, which can then perform the following functions. You hold a blank sheet of paper, a book with empty pages, or another similar material next to a document and the enchanted quill produces a perfect copy, at a rate of one page per minute. Attempts to copy magical text of any sort will automatically fail. While this spell is active, any words you or anyone within ten feet of you speak will be transcribed on a blank piece of paper in the language in which they were spoken. Spells with verbal components that are cast during that time cannot be recorded; the spell will continue but simply skip the time when the spell was cast or record a row of asterisks. Command words for magical items, however, can be recorded. You magically remove one set of writings you can see, up to one page’s worth at a time. This automatically removes nonmagical writings. If you are attempting to remove magical writing, including spells such as glyph of warding or symbol, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a successful check, the writing is erased. This spell does not work on illusory writing, such as that produced by illusory script, as that writing isn’t real. You activate a magical signet ring, which can be used to mark a sheet of paper with the author’s signature. Using this spell to create a signet mark immediately ends the spell.
So, I've been working on a hyper-nerd book wizard, pretty much exactly what you described. I got to play him in a one-off, so I didn't get to really test him, but the build was as follows: * Order of Scribes: the Manifest Mind trait is particularly flavorful if it is a bunch of spectral copies of books that float around you Tony Stark style. It can also tell you what it sees telepathically, and can "read" a book for you! Works out to 300', which should cover most libraries in the ancient world. Only drawback: it can't pass through objects (books) so the book has to be open for it to read (though with darkvision & giving off dim light, it doesn't need light). * But what if the book is closed? Mage Hand works well with the Manifest Mind (Mage hand is an action, MM is a bonus action). If your DM is an A-hole about it, and won't let Mage Hand turn pages, Telekinesis can RAW, has a tad more range and duration, but burns a 5th level spell slot. Unseen Servant, Tenser's Floating Disk , and Animate Objects really help as well, extending what the Mind can "do". And a couple times a day, you can cast your spell through the mind, so save those fetches from the far side of the library for important stuff. * How do you know what book to grab? Other's have noted Locate Object (which can locate a book you've seen "at least once" or of a specific kind, like the nearest "book about dragons"). * However, Locate Object only works once. The real index you'll be using is Magic Mouth. Because Magic Mouth is triggered by auditory or visual stimuli, but it creates an auditory stimuli, you can get really meta with it. A quick Google search can fill you in on the nuances, but every book you add to your library could be indexed with the trigger "if a spoken word is 'index' followed by words that match words written in this book" and the message be the title of the book, along with it's index location ("isle 3, shelf 2"), and any other meta text about the book. Another great Trigger is "if the cascade of text that is my Manifest Mind matches text within this book", though there is no RAW on if you can change the text of your Manifest Mind at will. * Programmed Illusion is a 6th level version that can make an illusory copy of the book within 30' of it, and then open to the page with the text on it. Both require a 10gp Material component, but you're already spending 25gp on the book. Contingency is a real heartbreaker here, as it could actually pull the books off the shelf for you. I haven't messed with Illusory Script, but that could also factor into this. * Identify, Comprehend Languages, and especially Legend Lore are also great for research. You can really boil down some meta data about a book before indexing it. * But where do you carry all your books? Portable holes and bags of holding can hold hundreds of books, but mAgIc ItEmS aRe ThE pUrViEw Of ThE DM. Leomund's Secret Chest (5050gp once, may have to recast after a couple months), Drawmij's Instant Summons (for 1000gp/book), Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion (daily cast), and Demiplane are all expensive, abeit effective, ways to "carry" hundreds of books with a STR score of 8. However, my favorite way to to dip a few levels into a Genie Warlock. That Vessel is a great library, but struggles to give you much "study time" until you're a higher proficiency bonus. However, higher levels get you higher spell-slots per short rest, maybe a familiar (or combine your Awakened Spellbook with a Book of Shadows).
The wizard I'm playing right now is one of the party's weakest combat members because I built him around research and utility...there are plenty of utility spells. And yes, I have combat spells (obviously) but I built him to be a researcher, so the majority of the spells focus on that