Most wizards hate it, you know. They like consistency, not this sort of… wild, hopelessly happy-go-lucky idea of just releasing the spell and seeing what the gods willed. Magic was about their will, they thought. Their power had an explanation, a theory, a technique.

But just because it has an explanation doesn’t mean it isn’t a miracle.

Come defend the faith with everyone’s favorite dual-major graduate, the School of Theology wizard!

Wizard-SchoolTheology-v3

Or click here to go straight to the PDF!

 

At the end of the day even when it comes to all this spiritual soul-searching, there’s got to be someone to write it all down. The theologians perform that duty admirably, studying their god and their god’s ways with just as much devotion as any cleric or paladin. The methods may differ, but the results are remarkably similar.

 

Features:

• Learn some cleric spells! They’re a blast, really. Not like wizard spells at all. Except flame strike. But that’s its own kind of fun too…
• Though it doesn’t fuel your spellcasting, your faith still infuses it gifting vitality to any allies your spells aid!
• A paladin might like a bit of smiting, and a cleric a bit of preaching, but if a wizard’s going to channel anything it’ll be mental vigor and focus!
• But why stop there? Learn to channel many types of divinity! You may not be as skilled at it as a cleric, but your range of options is fantastic!

 

Design Notes:

• I’m playing a new game called “how many references to Small Gods by Terry Pratchett can I make on my website.” Should be fun. This post alone has two.
• Anyway, welcome back to the dual-major wizard – the Theologist! I originally created this subclass a few weeks before WotC released their own take on the idea, though the implementations differed drastically. I’m still not a fan of WotC’s version (no subclass should allow someone to get another class’s capstone before the original class does), but mine also needed some tweaks.
• So here we are! The main changes in this are to more fully embrace the true nature of wizard subclasses; they enhance, not determine, how you play. With these new features, the theology wizard should be a top-tier support wizard, but still ultimately function like a wizard.
• One thing I want to be sure to note here is the Channel Divinity question. Firstly, Invoke Deity is not a Channel Divinity feature. This is why they have different names; it also prevents weird multiclassing exploits. Secondly, the wizard regains uses on a LR, clerics regain on a SR or LR. One critical philosophy for me when it comes to designing these “class boundary blurring” subclasses is that the second class should never eclipse the first in any way, and in most cases should be noticeably weaker.
• This is true in the Pact-Thief rogue (look for an update on that soon!), the Forgotten God warlock (same as above), and here. The theology wizard borrows concepts from the cleric, but a theology wizard should never be straight-up better at a cleric feature than an actual cleric is. And that’s why they only regain Invoke Deity uses on a long rest. Thanks to that, the theology wizard has a drastically lower number of uses than a cleric does.
• All in all, I’m happy with this because I think it’s a lot more subdued. Earlier drafts were trying to make a new level of mechanical interplay that the wizard just really does not need. This version is much more subtle; you shouldn’t ever forget you’re playing a theology wizard, but you should always feel confident that you’re playing a wizard.

Let me know what you think!