Wizard FAQ
What subclasses can a Wizard choose?
A Wizard's subclass is called an Arcane Tradition and is chosen at 2nd level in the 2014 rules. Major official pre-2024 Fifth Edition options include the eight school traditions—Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation—plus Bladesinging, War Magic, Chronurgy Magic, Graviturgy Magic, and Order of Scribes. The exact campaign availability depends on sourcebooks and setting.
A Wizard's subclass is called an Arcane Tradition. The Tradition is chosen at 2nd level. Further subclass features arrive at 6th, 10th, and 14th level in the 2014 Wizard structure. The original eight Traditions correspond to the eight schools of magic. Choosing one does not prevent the Wizard from learning or casting spells from other schools.
School of Abjuration
Abjuration focuses on protection, wards, counter-magic, and magical defense.
Arcane Ward is the subclass's defining early feature.
Later abilities improve countering and resisting magic.
It suits a Wizard who wants to protect themselves and allies while controlling hostile magic.
School of Conjuration
Conjuration focuses on summoning, teleportation, and creating objects or creatures.
Minor Conjuration provides flexible utility.
Later features improve teleportation and summoned creatures.
School of Divination
Divination focuses on information and prediction.
Portent is its defining feature, allowing pre-rolled d20 results to replace later rolls under the feature's rules.
Expert Divination also improves resource efficiency for divination spells.
School of Enchantment
Enchantment focuses on influencing minds.
Its features improve charm-based control, allow close-range hypnotic influence, and eventually manipulate targets or memories in specialised ways.
School of Evocation
Evocation focuses on direct magical energy and damage.
Sculpt Spells is the defining early feature, allowing allies to be protected from many area evocation spells.
Later features improve cantrips and spell damage.
School of Illusion
Illusion focuses on deception and manipulating perception.
Its features improve minor illusion, make illusions more flexible, and eventually allow certain illusionary effects to become temporarily real.
School of Necromancy
Necromancy focuses on life force, death, and undead.
Grim Harvest can restore hit points after killing creatures with spells.
Later features improve undead creation and resistance to necrotic effects.
School of Transmutation
Transmutation focuses on changing matter and creatures.
Minor Alchemy provides utility.
The Transmuter's Stone later supplies a configurable benefit and becomes central to the subclass.
Bladesinging
Bladesinging combines Wizard spellcasting with agile weapon combat.
Bladesong improves defense, movement, and concentration-related performance.
The subclass rewards Dexterity alongside Intelligence.
It remains a full Wizard rather than becoming a martial half-caster.
War Magic
War Magic focuses on battlefield survival and tactical spellcasting.
Arcane Deflection and Tactical Wit improve defense and initiative.
Later features reward countering spells and maintaining magical power.
Chronurgy Magic
Chronurgy manipulates time and probability.
Its features can alter rolls, initiative, creature timing, and later powerful temporal effects.
It originated in a setting-specific source and campaign availability should be checked.
Graviturgy Magic
Graviturgy manipulates gravity, mass, and movement.
Its features can change creature or object weight, move targets, and enhance gravity-themed spells.
Like Chronurgy, it has setting-specific publication context.
Order of Scribes
Order of Scribes emphasises the Wizard's spellbook itself.
The Awakened Spellbook gains special functions.
The subclass improves copying, ritual utility, spell-damage flexibility under its rules, and later magical interaction with the spellbook.
It is a natural choice for a Wizard whose identity is centered on arcane scholarship.
How do you choose a Tradition?
A simplified comparison is:
Abjuration → wards and magical defense Conjuration → summoning and teleportation Divination → prediction and information Enchantment → mental influence Evocation → direct spell damage Illusion → deception and unreal effects Necromancy → life force and undead Transmutation→ changing matter and creatures Bladesinging → agile weapon/spell combat War Magic → defensive battlefield casting Chronurgy → time and probability Graviturgy → gravity and forced movement Scribes → spellbook mastery and magical scholarship
What every Tradition retains
Every Wizard still uses:
- Intelligence-based Spellcasting;
- the spellbook;
- preparation;
- Ritual Casting;
- Arcane Recovery;
- the broader Wizard spell list.
The Tradition improves a specialty.
It does not restrict the Wizard to only one school of magic.