Wizard (character class)

This article is about the Wizard character class archetype in role-playing games. For other uses of the term, see Wizard (disambiguation).

The Wizard is a type of magical character class in certain role-playing games, including role-playing video games. Wizards are considered to be spellcasters who wield powerful spells, but are often physically weak as a trade-off. Wizards are commonly confused with similar offensive spellcasting classes such as the Warlock and the Necromancer. However, a Wizard's power is based on the arcane and a Warlock or Necromancer's power is based on darkness or death. Wizards are primarily based on wizards from assorted fantasy literature. Other terms used to describe the classification include Mage, Magician, and Magic User.

Dungeons & Dragons

The Dungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper franchise has three base character classes, with access to "arcane magic", that could be considered wizards:

Wizard

Main article: Wizard (Dungeons & Dragons)

The wizard is a "genius student" of arcane magic, who has studied the subject for years. He practices until he is able to command magic with ease. The wizard must prepare spells daily. They are normally called 'magic-users'.

Sorcerer

Main article: Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)

The sorcerer is a "natural prodigy" arcanist, who usually claims dragon or fey ancestry as the source of his magical power. The sorcerer knows a limited number of spells, but does not need to prepare the spells daily. The sorcerer is able to cast more spells per day than a wizard of a comparable level.

Warlock

Main article: Warlock (Dungeons & Dragons)

The Warlock is a "darkened soul" arcanist, who creates "Pacts" with powerful creatures to harnessing their innate magical gift, and perform spell-like feats and abilities. Since they are not users of true spells in the traditional sense, they can use their invocations while wearing armor.

Other

There are many other prestige classes related to the wizard concept, such as the Archmage and Mystic Theurge.

Fire Emblem

In the turn-based Fire Emblem game series, Mages are units who cast spells in order to damage an enemy. Players can transform the Mages into Sages. Mages and Sages have higher magic-resistance growths and caps, as well as above average speed. However, they almost always have poor growth in defense which makes them vulnerable to magic-resistant melee units.

Final Fantasy series

The wizards of the Final Fantasy series are usually known as simply mages, often with an associated color. There are multiple types of mages:

Black Mages, mages who practice offensive magic.
Blue Mages, mages who copy enemy abilities.
Red Mages, mages who are jacks-of-all-trades.
Summoners, mages who conjure up sacred beasts and deities.
Time Mages, mages who manipulate time and space.
White Mages, mages who practice healing magic.
Green Mages, mages who practice Green Magic, which enhances allies' abilities and weakens enemies.

In the original Final Fantasy, the Black, Red and White Mages would be converted to more powerful Black, Red, and White Wizards, respectively. Additionally, in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, "wizard" is synonymous for Black Mage. Also, in Final Fantasy Tactics, Black Mages were known as Wizards in the PlayStation version of the game. Other Final Fantasy series featured Green Mages, mainly in the Tactics titles, but some of their abilities were merged with Black Mages or White Mages (offensive and defensive abilities respectively).

World of Warcraft

Main article: Classes in World of Warcraft

Wizards in World of Warcraft, called mages, are spell-casting characters designed to deal damage, while also preventing monsters from dealing damage and providing utility for the rest of their party. The three types of magic mages can use are fire, frost, and arcane. Fire has a high damage output with little defense power. Frost spells typically slow down a target and are capable of high burst damage and offer more defense than fire. Arcane magic offers more utility and increases damage to all three types of magic. Arcane also increases resistance greatly, mana regain, intellect, and decreases the mana cost of spells. In return for their ability to deal larger amounts of damage, mages are very poor at physical combat. They wear the weakest armor (cloth), and they have no ability to heal themselves without the use of their potions or bandages.

Another form of wizard in WoW is the Warlock, a spell-caster that uses fire and shadow magic against their enemies. Warlocks are also known for their ability to command demonic minions. Warlocks, depending on the player's style, specialize in damage-over-time spells (affliction), burst damage (destruction), and the use of their minions (demonology). Warlocks are able to regain mana at the cost of their own health, as well as drain health from their enemies.

Druids are another type of wizard, capable of transformation, healing, and casting spells. They mostly deal physical damage, nature damage, or arcane damage. Depending on the style of the druid, they can be any type of character, a fighter, tank, or healer. If the druid uses Restoration, they have healing abilities. When they use feral combat, they are stronger in melee combat, and gain the power of a warrior (bear) and the skill of a rogue (cat). While in normal form, they are like a slightly weaker version of a mage, dealing arcane and nature damage, and able to summon minions. Druids also have an advantage in combat with the use of travel form, cat form, aqua form, and even air form.

Ragnarok Online

In the Ragnarok Online MMORPG, "Magicians" who acquire enough experience are given the choice of becoming a "Wizard". Wizards are powerful spell-casters and have access to a wide array of area of effect spells, including "Storm Gust", "Meteor Storm" and "Lord of Vermilion". However, they have very few hit points, poor evasion capabilities and wear very weak armour. As such, most of the wizards require the support of a "Priest" and/or other party members.

Avalon: The Legend Lives

Avalon: The Legend Lives released in 1989 is an on-line text based multi-player role playing game notable for being the first to introduce fully developed professions and skills^[1]^[2] as well as pioneering many features that have since become signature components of the roleplaying computer game genre.^[3] One of its founding professions was that of the mage a wielder of rituals, candescent light magic, charms or spoken spells. Richard Bartle described Avalon's magic system as complex.^[1] Avalon currently hosts four incarnations of wizard, mage, warlock and enchanter across its four player driven cities.

Other games

In The Bard's Tale, the wizard was only available as a class change from another magic-user class. The wizard class was the most advanced class level, with the character needing to master the third level of spells from at least two other magic-user classes.
In The Elder Scrolls series, there are many character class templates related to the concept of wizards, such as "mage," "sorcerer," "battlemage," "necromancer" and "nightblade."
In Demon's Souls, there are two types of character classes that associate with magic, the Sorcerer and Royalty class dealing with standard magic. In Dark Souls, another branch of magic called Pyromancy has been added and the starting class that utilizes in this branch of magic is a Pyromancer.
In Lineage II, Mage is one of the character choices available to each race but dwarf, and Wizard is a class choice for the Human Mage's first class transfer.
In Avalon: The Legend Lives. , wizards are known as Mages and bring to bear a blend of magical, elemental and musical abilities on the battlefield.
In MapleStory, Magician is one of the 1st jobs available for players, on their 2nd job advancement they are called Wizards, on the 3rd - Mages and on the 4th - Arch Mages, or can choose to gain religious powers in which case their 2nd job advancement is Cleric, the 3rd - Priest, and 4th - Bishop.
In RuneScape, a Mage or Wizard is a character class that a person with a high magic level may wish to pick. Mage clothes, consisting of a wizard hat, tunic, cape, staff and legs are available for purchase. Wizards also appear as NPCs on this game, usually following an element or a deity.
In the parody game Kingdom of Loathing, wizards are available as "Pastamancers" (a play on the sometimes large variety of "-mancers" available in other games, e.g. 'necromancer', 'pyromancer', 'geomancer', &c.) and "Saucerors" (a play on Sorcerers). They are jointly known as the "Chef Magi."
In Guild Wars, Elementalists fill the role as wizards, focusing on fire, air, water and earth spells.
Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destructionand Diablo III all contain a form of wizard: in the first game, the sorcerer, in the second game and expansion, the sorceress and in the third game, the wizard.
Warhammer Online presents the Bright Wizard, the master of the arcane fire known as Aqshy.
Last Chaos features mage as a class that deals heavy damage from a distance and sorcerer as a kind of a magic-user class that can use elemental magic skills and summon elemental spirits to aid in battle. ArchLord makes a similar distinction, with mages wielding ranged direct-damage attacks often targeting an area, and elementalists capable of single target attacks and the summoning of pets that buff, heal, debuff or tank.
In Nox, there are Wizard and Conjurer classes. The Wizard has a variety of attack and utility spells including teleportation effects, invisibility and invulnerability. The Conjurer specializes in summoning creatures to fight. It has more effective healing and protection spells, and uses bows and crossbows in combination with offensive spell-casting.
In the video game The Lord of the Rings: Conquest players have a chance to play as a mage. The mage wields a staff and shoots lightning, fires a shockwave, fires a ball of fire and perform melee attacks. There are three mage heroes in the game, who are Gandalf, Saruman, and the Mouth of Sauron.
In the video game Gauntlet, the wizard is one of four characters that a player can choose to guide through mazes, the other three being the elf, the valkyrie and the warrior.
Magi are one of the three playable classes in the Dragon Age series (the other two being Warriors and Rogues). Magi are powerful combatants who can employ a variety of different spells, ranging from manipulation of the natural elements to mental control and physical healing. In this universe, mages have a unique position in society - every child born with magical talents must be sent to the Circle of Magi, where they will spend their lives isolated from the outside world, dedicating all their time to lessons from experienced sorcerers. This is due to the fact that magi attract demons and spirits which can possess them and turn them into threats. The role of the Circle of Magi and whether its existence constitutes reasonable concern for the safety of society, or unfair oppression of mages, is central to the plot of Dragon Age II.
In Realm of the Mad God, the wizard is the first class the player is available to choose. They use magic staves as their weapon to fire magic bolts and have a spell as their special attack. They use robes as armor which also may give them extra mana points. When reaching a level with the wizard, you can unlock more classes.

References

1 2 Bartle, Richard (2015-12-15). "Legacy Reviews of MUA and MUDS". Retrieved 2015-12-14.
↑ Koster, Raph (2015-12-15). "The Online World Timeline". Retrieved 2015-12-14.
↑ "Avalon: The Legend Lives". Retrieved 2015-12-14.

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