What am I Doing Wrong? I hate magic.

[SledgePainter]

I try to use Gale but it feels like he can use 1 spell in a fight and then that's it. He blows his load one time and then is useless until he goes to sleep to recharge his di--uh, spells. I understand that certain spells "recharge after short or long rest" but many of these do not have such notification, and yet I can't use them turn after turn. Gale seems good for a single magic spell and he's finished. Is there a manna pool system? Like if I use a strong so powerful I can't use anymore spells due to manna? Maybe I could just use fireballs a few times? I'm almost half-way through level 4, have completed the grove, Helsin, Karlach's paladins, the well spiders, destroyed the Goblin camp, and working on Hag right now, and will do the Githyanki creche after that.

Am I not leveled up enough for Hag? Every enemy not a gobbo gets like 3 attack actions per round and I feel like I am having to cheese my way through victories by replaying fights over and over using tactics like blasting barrel powder, electrfying water, or burning up wine casks...just to stand a chance. I try positioning but enemies easy outmaneuver you with 3 moves per turn. It's a brutal struggle and I'm just playing balanced. Every battle takes an hour or longer to get through. I'm 50 hours in and I'm daunted. I feel like I should respec Wyll into a monk that can at least make 2 actions per turn.

[bokke_commando]

On his tool bar there is arcane something rather, it allows him to use most of his spells again without resting or long rest. I felt pretty overwhelmed by it all, and I still have lots of painful moments.
One big thing I've learnt is that positioning is very important as well as team balance. Good luck.

[The Roaming Camel]

In dungeons and dragons, spells cost "Spell slots" you can see how many you have above the hotbar. Spell slots get consumed upon spell casting and only recharge after long rests.

[terror923]

Use his Cantrips and not spell slot spells for damage.
When he levels give him spells that crowd control, or disable a enemy, use his spell slot spells to hinder the enemy.

Imo if you get damage spells it will only last one turn or one nuke. If you give him actual crowd control spells like hold person it lasts upwards of 10 turns.

Give him fireball as a cantrip and he can use that any amount of time, making that his source of damage. Then save his crowd control for tougher fights.

[Naked Granny]

There are a few basic things about casters in D&D that are still true in 5e:

Wizards' spells are not for nuking. That's a pure waste of magic. If you want to inflict hit point damage, use a sword or an arrow. They're free. Specifically, in 5e, your cantrips are your "I just want to basic attack" method for wizards like Gale. The purpose of the wizard class is not to "do damage". It's to decide who on the battlefield gets to do any damage. The only exception to this otherwise hard and fast rule is the Wall Of Fire spell, which is wildly ridiculously overpowered and completely trivializes 70% of fights in the game after you get it some time early in Act 2. But Druids can get that spell, too, so you still have no reason to waste wizard spell slots on doing damage.

Instead, your spell slots are for doing things that swords and arrows can't do. Like slowing down all enemies so they're easier to hit or they can't reach you. Or freezing them in their tracks so your own attacks automatically crit them. Or forcing enemies to fight each other. Or preventing enemy spellcasters from doing those things to you. The thing about wizards is carefully (one might even say... intelligently...) picking the right moment and the right place to put the right spell to dramatically affect the course of combat.

Alternatively, find Withers and then take a character to see him once he's in your camp. Then respec Gale to be literally anything other than a wizard for a while until you get to around level 5 or higher. And even then possibly just not bothering with the wizard class because it's complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage in D&D 5e, most especially in this game with the spells that Larian gave you to choose from.

[cfehunter]

Outside of larger groups of enemies, magic does kind of suck. We're capped at level 12 so you don't get to see the really crazy stuff in this game.
In my experience so far, paladins and barbarians are capable of putting out way more damage than a maxed out wizard.

[Crispy™]

What? Fireball as a cantrip? That's a 3rd-level spell, requiring the character to achieve fifth level himself before he can learn it. How can one make a fireball a cantrip?

Is this some of this 5e new math I've been hearing about?

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by terror923:

Use his Cantrips and not spell slot spells for damage.
When he levels give him spells that crowd control, or disable a enemy, use his spell slot spells to hinder the enemy.

Imo if you get damage spells it will only last one turn or one nuke. If you give him actual crowd control spells like hold person it lasts upwards of 10 turns.

Give him fireball as a cantrip and he can use that any amount of time, making that his source of damage. Then save his crowd control for tougher fights.

Just dont take grease or sleet storm, those seem to harcap your spell DC at 12. So they are useless. Also if you throw a bit of water on the ground(preferably at an enemy) and use ray of cold then the water freezes and the guy can fall down, but even if not he will get movement reduction:D

[Myth Alric]

You can cast cantrips and rituals as often as you like. You can use arcane recovery to regain spells. You can also use scrolls you find around game when in need. Why normal spells are limited, you should have more than one you can cast.

[Naked Granny]

Originally posted by Crispy™:

What? Fireball as a cantrip? That's a 3rd-level spell, requiring the character to achieve fifth level himself before he can learn it. How can one make a fireball a cantrip?

Is this some of this 5e new math I've been hearing about?

It's a noob. They don't know what things are called, and their idea of what "a mage" is "supposed to be" comes from games like World Of Warcraft and Final Fantasy.

[magritte]

Originally posted by Crispy™:

What? Fireball as a cantrip? That's a 3rd-level spell, requiring the character to achieve fifth level himself before he can learn it. How can one make a fireball a cantrip?

Is this some of this 5e new math I've been hearing about?

I suspect he means fire bolt.

[ACS36]

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Originally posted by terror923:

Use his Cantrips and not spell slot spells for damage.
When he levels give him spells that crowd control, or disable a enemy, use his spell slot spells to hinder the enemy.

Imo if you get damage spells it will only last one turn or one nuke. If you give him actual crowd control spells like hold person it lasts upwards of 10 turns.

Give him fireball as a cantrip and he can use that any amount of time, making that his source of damage. Then save his crowd control for tougher fights.

Just dont take grease or sleet storm, those seem to harcap your spell DC at 12. So they are useless. Also if you throw a bit of water on the ground(preferably at an enemy) and use ray of cold then the water freezes and the guy can fall down, but even if not he will get movement reduction:D

Wrong. Grease is amazing because it reduces enemy speed. Them falling down is just a bonus. You also get extra damage after you nuke them with fire ball.

Anyways, wizards can do both damage and are great at reducing enemies movement capabilities.

[Crispy™]

When I was a kid we had nothing but Vancian magic and we were happy with it, even though we had to use it uphill both ways and in a snowstorm every time.

These kids nowadays.

[RyanVodka]

Finding and learning a haste scroll would help you achieve more actions per turn. However, in general wizards are more about flexibility of spells than they are about damage and actions per turn. If you want to maximize those you are better off going sorcerer or muticlassing down the road.

[Elazul]

If you're just wanting to do some basic damage that is what the Cantrips are for. The actual spell slot spells are for big ticket items that will make an impact. Things like Cloud of Daggers are good for choke points and they'll take continuous guaranteed damage over 10 turns. The thunderwave spell which does thunder damage and pushes people is great for knocking groups off cliffs/edges. Single target damage Magic Missile is great for guaranteed hits. Fly, Knock, Invisibility, etc are great for utility reasons. Also, don't forget to use the Arcane Recovery skill to recover skill slot(s).

[Naked Granny]

Originally posted by Crispy™:

When I was a kid we had nothing but Vancian magic and we were happy with it, even though we had to use it uphill both ways and in a snowstorm every time.

These kids nowadays.

These kids nowadays know that Vancian magic was intentionally and deliberately chosen by Gygax to make spellcasters a huge pain in the ass to play and to harshly restrict them but mostly because he liked Jack Vance's novels and had no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue how game design works because it was the 1960s and no one understood how game design works because the concept of "game design" didn't exist.

So kids these days prefer better game designs, and they're right to complain about D&D's sacred cow.