i think the local wizard is just an old man tripping on dmt and is "seeing the magic energies"

This former pig farmer planted turnips around the stump and his pigs dug the stump out. Then I got called a druid.

I can imagine a sort of Hedge Wizard who went out with the local militia to chase off some suspected Drow Raiders, on which there is a big reward, returning to the tavern absolutely fuming, crossbow bolt stuck in his hat, robes torn and in disarray, staff cracked in three places, and with mud and twigs in his beard. Soon he's in a raging drunken state because it turns out that the supposed Drow were some just some sort of hill tribe cult that painted their skin black when going out on night raids as a form of camouflage. He used his two scrolls of Fireball, and his Lightning Bolt scroll during the engagement. Lost his good horse to an arrow, and his second horse to one as well. His Potion to Transmute Rock to Mud came in handy to bring an escarpment down on the bastards, but he also got some in his beard. Long story short, the local Lord is only paying the Bandit head bounty on the Raiders, of which his share won't come near to covering his losses, one of the militiamen accidentally shot his hat, and while he was out some Adventurer's abducted his Apprentice, which was his only stable source of income in this two bit.

I'd like to think of Perf from JourneyQuest. 'I can cast Conjure Milk and Vague.' 'What does Vague do?' 'Well... It's not so much what it does... as what it doesn't do...? It's kind of hard to explain.'

Gandalf wasn't allowed to use his full power. The Valar didn't want their agents in Middle Earth to act like gods and form religions around them. Saruman and the blue wizards did it anyway.

A warlock whose patron is a powerful fire elemental, that tells him to constantly set things on fire, but it turns out he's actually just a wizard who has schizophrenia and hears voices and knows some basic fire magic.

I imagine that the average advanced spellcaster often looks nothing like their birth race due to arcane mishaps and ambient magic warping them, I'm picturing a man with six fingers on one green clawed gnarled hand, a large splotch of skin turned black with luminesce blue and purple veins leading up to a crooked face with a extended haglike smile curved all the way across their cheek and one giant fennec foxlike ear.

Schmendrick from the last unicorn. A hedge wizard who finds his path to true magic

Gandalf was forbidden from ever using his full power so its kinda hard to use him as an example for wizard prowess

The fact that a 5th level wizard casts more spells than Gandalf says more about D&D than it does about Gandalf

how I'd build Rincewind: Human Rogue with expertise in Arcana, the Luck feat, the Linguist feat, Anthropologist background, etc, so he knows a shitton and can say "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME" in 17 different languages

9:20 "their brain could teleport a foot sideways out of their braincase" ....er.... they go out of their mind? ....I'll see myself out.

I had an NPC Wizard in my Eberron game named "Fizzle" who was once a great wizard but had forgotten almost all his spells with age. He would use an Arcane Lock on his shop each night but always forgot the Knock spell in the morning. In the end he saved the party when he suffered a blow to the head and remembered the Knock spell to free the party.

One of the things that would be interesting would be to see all those spells that hedge wizards usually cast. Prevent milk spoiling, firewards to prevent kitchen fires getting out of hand, cow-finding spells...

one that comes to my mind is Schmendrick the magician from the last unicorn

AJ, your ability to throw out a myriad of ideas on any D&D theme, seemingly just off the cuff, blows my little mind. I feel like my brain has been teleported one foot sideways, outside its brain-case. 🧠

I remember that Death literally refers to his encounters with Rincewind as "near Rincewind experiences", most notably towards the end of The Color of Magic.

Rincewind is the world's greatest anti - hero.

It is always important to show that not everyone is super skilled or knowledgeable in what they do sometimes people are just doing their best and it might be sad but that's all they can do also what about an old wizard who was once banished a balor or something making it possible for the heros of his time to push back its armies and save the land who everyone loves but he's gotten old and his mind is going out on him maybe there is a glimmer of his former power but he is just so forgetful now days he can't always recall that spell you needed but everyone still respects him because there are adults around now who watched him push the demons back and songs are still sung of that battle

I imagine a dnd wizard would look at the game and either laugh uncontrollably or sneer in disgust.

I’ve always looked at artificers as hedge wizards in a high magic campaign, powerful but in a different way.

It's worth remembering that "this side up" and "make sure kit is complete before proceeding" are also the product of professional writers. The top of the heap is a small place, most won't fit.

I remember Kulgan. A great character.

Rouge: Hey Wiz? Wizard: What? Rouge: You are glowing. Wizard: Don't be ridiculous.... Well Sh*t Wizard explodes creating a rainbow of magic energy... Only his hat remains. Rouge: Dibs on pointy hat!

To me, Gandalf seems to almost be more of a Warlock/Paladin with a Devine or celestial patron than a proper wizard. Especially if you go into the whole Valar/Myar thing from the simirilian.

I saw a hedge wizard backround and used it to make "pied piper" like bard that talks to animals and heals those she can. the basic idea was a little human girl dancing around and taking care or her animal friends

I thought of an angle you may have missed. The mage where magecraft is kept secret on grounds being found out could bring a mage hound (a witch hunter/bounty hunter specialized in eliminating spellcasters) . Much akin to the witch trials but being actual mages (good and bad).

AJ Pickett Jack L. Chalker in the Dancing Gods book series had the idea that magic and reality itself might be controlled by a reality bending bureaucracy. In this world you may know the spell to fly but be unable to use it until you paid a fee and passed a test and even then you had to be lucky because only a limited number of magic pilot licenses are allowed. A high level mage could get into a shouting match with a higher level bureaucrat and find himself unable to do anything past fist level spells. Spells could even be taxed. Maybe you are only allowed to use a wand or staff to cast spells and at the end of the year it has to be turned in in order to be examined to see how many fireballs you cast so that you can be charged the proper fees.

My mind is awash with ideas. That is the best compliment that I can pay you brother, I love your demon videos I learned from your monster videos, but every once in awhile you put out something like this that sets my mind on fire with things.

I’ve already immortalized a number of wizards, sages, and any historians into potions that can grant portions of their memories and knowledge.

Sort of like Skeeve in Robert Asprins “Myth” series, he only knew a handful of spells, but had a great reputation.

I use an absolute mix of high magic and low magic in my homebrew world. There's a city-state that is a magocracy, and is blanketed with enough magic to make the faerie fires of Menzoberranzan turn green. This magical dystopia is situated between two kingdoms who have a handful of wizards between them, and not one of those wizards could stand up to a Barovian witch in casting ability. They've read a lot, but they don't compare notes or share their secrets, and they tend to only cast from one spell school, unless they have a scroll or ritual. There's also the plains in the south with the barbarian tribes right next to the big forest full of elves and fairies. There could be magic anywhere, but it's not everywhere. I like that approach

YES DISCWORLD! I haven’t read all the books but Death & Rincewind in the stories were great characters! A really good example of knowledge Vs. Ability and how wizards can be portrayed in D&D.

2:40 Death: "OH. IT'S YOU AGAIN."

I don't know why, but when I think of hedge wizards my mind goes right to Fizban from the Dragonlance series. I love that befuddled, hat losing guy.

Really love this kind of thing. I really like these imaginative ways to fill in the worlds in which we play. "Hey man. want to buy a healing potion. At least I think it's a healing potion."

I don’t actually remember watching this before, but apparently I did.

There are also records of Gandalf casting Blinding Flash, Speak with Animals, and Acorns to Firecorns. Think Sticks to Snakes, but worse, rr Badberry. But the least known fact about him is that he spends almost all of his spell slots for Persistent Tenser's Transformation.

My favorite source of magic lies in an innocuous deck of playing cards.....

When I make a Wizard PC, I assume there are 3 ways they could learn magic: from a school, apprenticing to a single master, or self taught which is what I think of as a Hedge Wizard. The self taught wizards always feel disreputable and are fun to play. Maybe they were dabblers who spent all their money buying spell scrolls. Maybe they bought spells on the black market because Arcane spell casting is outlawed by the religious authorities. Maybe they stole a spell book from a Wizard. You could build one of these self taught wizards by taking the Charlatan or Criminal Background and skip taking the Arcana skill to give yourself the feel of a character with no formal education.

The concept of "magician" in the Belgariad is kind-of a minor point. The main characters in the series are sorcerors, able to cast magic via "Will and Word" - willing something and saying an appropriate word (usually the words come by near-instinct). There are witches, who consort with spirits for their magic, but I'm not sure if the magicians were the northern tundra nomads or not (it's been a while since I read the books). If those wre the magicians, then they would be more like D&D Warlocks, because they summon demons (in context, dangerous creatures from a different dimension). Gandalf may seen like a "Hedge Wizard", but that is because he had to function under the radar, so to speak. The Istari (the wizards) were Maiar - essentially Celestials - who had to disguise and restrict themselves to being almost human. That aside, magic in Tolkien was nowhere near the flashy spellcasting that D&D popularised. It tended to be more subtle, spiritual, or attributed to natural abilities of races who had greater abilities, like Legolas being able to see the Uruk-Hai miles away due to better eyesight, or walking on top of a snowdrift the rest of the Fellowship sunkinto because he's "light on his feet", or Hobbits being able to hit almost anything they throw a stone at, or being able to "disappear" because they are quite swift. My point is, not only is Gandalf kinda a bad example as a hedge wizard, but the whole paradigm of magic in LotR is in fact barely comparable to D&D.

I appreciate this. I've never heard of Rinsewind, but I like the idea of a magical scholar who can't cast many or even ANY spells and just gets by on theoretical knowledge. Or the idea of a schmuck who isn't really a wizard (or is a VERY low level one) who mostly relies on a supply of magic items. And I definitely agree that most mages shouldn't be casting spells above a certain level. I'm not sure what the percentages are in my homebrew world, but I will say that there's probably only one Wizard who's reached 9th level spells for each subclass. That's how you fix the problems that arise when you have an ultra-high setting; limit the number of really powerful people.

The Istari were forbidden to use their full abilities by the Valar, so your analogy is inaccurate. Don't forget that both Gandalf and the Balrog are minor Valar called Maiar, the sheer power they could command if not limited by their respective Vala, could make a 5th level DnD wizard look like a sleight of hand artist.

Pug aka Milamber, master of the "Lesser" and "Greater" Paths, magician of two worlds. Imo Feist is far superior to Eddings, but that's just my opinion. I disagree with the way presenter characterized magic and mages on Pug's homeward, and lesser path magic and clerical magic are explained really well later on in the series; the reader learns along side Pug and Tomas. And I especially love the "there is no magic" twist, I guess you'd call it. Love the video, thanks!

I usually try to emathise this angle of wizardry to my players - that any self-respecting wizard will certainly not muck his robes in dank dungeon. For example, in the "default D&D"-flavoured campaign setting where we currently play, most official wizards study magic and play politics in the Council of Arcane, which exists to unify arcanists of known world for common good, where they are a majority among other spellcasters. The Council itself is oft ineffectual too - while Rise of Evokers, Abjurers, Transumeters and Diviners constantly have something to work with, Illusioners are plagued by confict between gnomes and spellcasters of other races, Conjurers and Enchanters are distrusted, and Necromancers, while being permited, are de facto forbidden from doing anything besides a couple of staples like helping investigations and funerals for people of great importance as most of things they do would sour the relations with nearly anyone. And so, a polite and plesant city necromancer who cannot practice his art became a contact for my players in matters of both arcane and politics.

Ah my man is a man of quality 👌 speaking of good ol' rinsewind!

12:14 bandits on the road? that sounds like an adventure hook to me!

I like using apothecarians as hedge wizards, knows a bit about alchemy, healing, magical history - knows a LOT about monster lore, spell components, and local history. Add in a few cantrips (that they cast out of a wizardry primer - using the book almost like a scroll),a "whatever works" mindset to solving minor problems, and you have a memorable *"mighty wizard"* for a small village or tribe. Another good approach for a hedge wizard is a "mechanic" who uses a collection of magical items to impersonate a spell caster - I tend to avoid that approach due to that many magical items in one place bringing out the "murder-hobo" in otherwise good parties.

Rincewind is a great model for a hedge wizard. I would say Gargamel is another one. He could be both a quest giver and a party member. I mean after all, trust a wizard who is poor, greedy, lazy, cowardly and not very good at magic, what could go wrong?

Hedge wizard sounds like the politically correct term for a druid

There is a 3e class called hedge mage that focuses on a lot of low level spells, potions, and fetishis( like scrolls that only last a few days or weeks).

I wish there were more Name Of The Wind books, I loved how they handle magic

In my world, I have a city state called Gonza that hosts monthly gladiatorial games as local entertainment and somewhat of a lottery. As a tax, the wizards of the Arcane College of Gonza have to make one unique magical item each month to be the grand prize for the games. I always feel as though any non-mage ran government that allows wizards to set up an organization within its borders is going to have the wizards pay some type of tax, either through gold, magic items and potion, or magic users to serve in the local army. Even “benevolent” governments still need taxes in order to support itself, and wizards seem like a great source of income. Oh, and in case anyone who read this is wondering, this month’s reward for surviving the Games of Gonza is the Blade of Freezing Flames, a heavily enchanted long sword that is basically just a flaming sword, except the fire is blue, deals cold damage and anything set on fire with the blue flames begins to build up frost on it as the fire spreads over it and as the blue fire “burns” the frost begins to thicken and solidify and the item slowly becomes encased in solid ice.

Ah, The Belgariad. You are one the only other people I heard mention that.

Is the a blog version of this? That was so much valuable information all cramed into a few minutes. What a solid video, such prime content. Imma go check that description for a blog/written version

I've been thinking about the archetype of the Cunning Person - the figures of rural medieval history who possessed old wisdom or bits of cunning. The types who knew herb lore and stone lore, who could fashion remedies and protective amulets, and were known to forecast the future or dispel the hexes of malicious witches. And I've been thinking how these sorts of folk seem like such an obvious facet of medieval life, I'm surprised DnD games don't make better use of them. Because I find the highly systemized nature of wizardly organizations and magic shops plopped in the middle of town to be, well, kind of unlikely. It's just not how medieval and renaissance societies did things. You might have these things in major cities, but small towns would rely more on the arts possessed by wise elders and reclusive specialists. Especially if peasants act like peasants, and so are fearful of magic at the best of times. Meaning even a benign practitioner does well to keep a bit of space between themselves and the townsfolk, lest they get blamed for famine or livestock getting sick. I'm also deliberately blurring the lines about what a Cunning Person is, from a games mechanics point of view. While the game rules are quite clear on what powers a character has, in-universe a "Cunning Person" or "Wise Person" might be any number of things; things like "enchanter", "sorcerer", "magician", etc. were always nebulous labels throughout history, used interchangeably. Just in DnD 5e, for instance, a Cunning Person could be any of the following: -Someone with 1 to 3 levels in Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard -Someone with the Magic Initiate or Ritual Caster feats pertaining to one of the above -Someone with proficiency in Herbalism Kits or Alchemist's Supplies -Someone who knows the formula for a handful of magic items, and the proficiency in Arcana or relevant tools to create same -Any combination of the above The Cunning Person might just be an herbalist, mixing remedies and occasionally healing potions. They might be a person who was taught in the old ways by an elder, either as part of initiation or simply having tricks and secrets passed along in the same way the elder taught them how to cook or spin cloth. They might have been bequeathed a spellbook or ritual book, or found one in an attic. They might be descended from a line of Sorcerers, but either had too weak a connection to manifest as full class levels, or simply never bothered to hone their ability much. They might even have made a deal with some supernatural being - a devil at a crossroads, a fae noble or hag, an old/outer god that visited them in their dreams, etc. - in exchange for a little magic, but not a full blown Warlock Pact. Or maybe they have class levels, but don't feel much like advancing them, because they have as much magic as they require to live their lives. If you can get by making something but Potions of Healing or Periapts of Health, why bother learning more? This is what separates most Cunning Folk from spellcasting PCs and major NPCs. The latter are specialists, while the former are general practitioners. Most folk have neither the need nor inclination to advance in their craft beyond what is required for day-to-day work in their corner of the agrarian society.

gandalf likely cast haste enhance Ability and long strider spells to catch shadowfaux, chased that horse for 2 damn days

“When a wizards hands begin to spark, wise men run.” Me personally, I prefer a high fantasy settings where it’s possible for one of the local cripples can read the future with uncanny accuracy and one of the horse in the stable where an illicit transaction is taking place is actually a polymorphed Druid. That being said, this was a great video and gave me lots to think about lower magic settings and I will defenitly be returning to this video for further inspiration. Question of the day to AJ and the others in the comment section; What is your favorite “magic level” setting and why? High fantasy and fantastic? Low magic and Dark Souls like? Somewhere in the middle? I’m interested to know. Thanks for another great video AJ, here’s to many more!

hapless coward who keeps figuring things out by running away from the scary stuff? Shaggy and Scooby Doo come to mind.

Fizban the Fabulous Oh and gandalf probably put on one of the most badass displays of magic ever combining call lightning with Arcane weapon with what I'm assuming must have been true strike yeah he wove like 3 spells into that or at least I like to think he did 😂

Wait, is Mr. Satan (Hercule) the Dragonball Z equivalent of a Hedge Mage?

True wizz is usually too occupied to care about students and law

Ah yes... a well known Halfling Divination Wizard, named Patrick (Pat) McGroyne. Everyone knows the heroic deeds of that awkward sarcastic little guy.

I do love Rincewind lol

your wizard videos are always great and insightful . great job and cant wait to see more

I love these more campaign writing ideas videos. Very inspiring and fun. Gets my noggin joggin

you'd like larry niven's "the magic goes away"

Hey AJ, can you make some Elminster videos. I know it is a tall order but he's got so much good stuff to cover!

Feist gives us a great view of the dawn wars as well.

I see you survived and made it back out of Sithrune in one piece. I like this video, since I needed good ideas for magical NPCs

I only had one NPC that filled this bill. He was a poor (bad) spellcaster. However, he was lucky and came from wealth. It wasn't until halfway through the campaign that they found out their surprisingly skilled wizard got all of his magical talent via his magic items and his most effective spells were him faking them before using the item. The only magical talent he really had that didn't have a high chance to backfire was his ability to (in secret) recharge his most often used items. I guess I should have used the trope more often.

Can't reccomend Name of the Wind enough, when the main character wanted to advance in higher studies in Magic Item craft, his teacher challenged him to come up with an entierly new magic item that has not been designed before. He ended up desiging a large metal dodecahedron about the size of a basket ball that could intercept metal tipped arrows within a certain radius of itself.

Thanks for the great vid A.J. I love hack wizzards

Renswid, the Discworld wizard that only know a single spell that really WANT to be cast is really a funny character. No one knows what it does (as far as I read the books). :P

Or maybe the hedge wizard isn't incopedent he simply is slow working on potions or magical items sorry adventurers the healing potions you wanted are not done yet but come back in a few days and the potions will be done

I have to admit, the hedge wizard as you describe them is not something I've encountered enough as a player and wish they were more widely used, at least in my D&D experience. As a player there is always that place in the mind trying to maximize output when it comes to magic, like finding the most damage per spell level or what have you for a given situation. I think what sticks with me the most is that player characters are more likely than not to be the best of the best a civilization can muster; the top several percentiles in the magic community. Imagining how the other 95% of casters live sounds like an untapped vein.

I love the idea of spells being impossible to forget, kind of a reversed vancian magic system, where you could have a senile old mage, who can only remember his spells. A totally rocking chair bound drooling litteral invalid, who has a sixth sense for magic. Like it's a waking force for his ego as a mage. Cast a cantrip and afew words of wisdom might slip out. Set a ward and he might get self aware for afew mineuts with afew witty remarks. Throw a fire ball at him and he'll catch it, be giving you smack talk in draconic and you'll be waiting afew months for an occasions when he finds himself in the "indignity" of a magicless sittuation. I also love how the magicians universe handles casting spells above your level. Where they burn through you & create a demi genie based of the power of the magic and your state of inspiration during the casting of that spell. You should check out "alice verses the beast" as it should be easy to find inside the inner index of yub tub.

The Birthright campaign setting had a class called the magician that fits my idea of a hedge mage. They can use enchantment and divination but they're capped at low level spells from other schools. So they can use magic to give them an edge in day to day life, but no flashy stuff like reversing gravity

Oh brilliant AJ just brilliant.

Hedge, as in "to safeguard, just in case?" Or the other hedge definition: "limited?"

I really love the idea of casting above level in high magic environments. Now wondering how to communicate this to players.

That was the shortest neuroscience lecture I ever attended.

You should try playing Backswords and Bucklers.

Ray Fiests 'Magician' series is the best for 'depth' of magic potential as it relates to dimension, time and limitations.

So a wizard that doesn't have much casting power, but that can do other magical things that are not spell casting. I've seen people take Gargamel as an example. No spell casting at all. But an absolutely accomplished alchemist. Reliant on magical items? This hedgewizard sounds most like: A human with the magic initiate feat or ritual casting feat. A low level warlock. A low to mid level artificer. And ofcourse they'll have proficiency in arcana. Honestly you could make a pretty good hedge wizard player character.

Kick down doors in dungeons? Highly improbable. More likely scenario: CE 15 Warlock (Great Old One: Tome) burns town after killing every resident and sending their souls to her patron.

I kinda like settings where magci is common but low-power...most everyone can get access to a few 'granny spells' that are weak but useful (cantrip level stuff), while the high power stuff 'flinging fireballs, magic missles, and the like) is rare. P.C. Hodgell's books have a nice example of this kind of thing..the innkeeper knows some spells for mending, accelerating yeast growth in bread, fire-kindling and such (mosly read from a spellbook). but whem the main chjaracter (whos is rather magically endowed, but untrained) tries, the results are..unfortunate. One of the reasons I've preferred GURPS over D&D for a while now is that the latter's class restrictions make it nigh-impossible to create, say, a travelling warrior who knows a few of these low-magic spells like mending, fire-making, rain-shielding, and similar 'utility' spells, but takes a lot more effort to use them than a 'proper' spellcaster would. Hedge wizards are lower in power, but generally far more creative with using the powers they do have...another good literart example of this in the Owlknight series by Mercedes Lackey, where a you boy uses what's basically a 'pinfoot' cantrip to defeat an attacking thug. This also comesw up as a social issue in her Herald-Mage trilogy, with the main character getting upset that people are rejecting the aid of the lower-power Heralds in favor of the Herald-Mages (who are critically dwindling in number), despite the plain Heralds possibly being more capable of handling the situation.

And here i thought a hedge wizard was a magical gardener. Guess ill scrap my character, pablo the grass wizard then.

So, that reading list for aspiring dungeon masters. Where would that be?

The mightiest mage in my world is always a small unimpressive man missing a tooth or 2 and is almost never noticed, he'll seem a bit simple minded and won't speak much unless you get in his face... Basically Lu-Tze the sweeper from discworld.

I see Rincewind as a multi-class 1/10 wizard/rogue., who just happens to know one 20th level spell.

ok off subject. Another Great video AJ, But I can find screenshots of the 5E Planewalker Class, but not where it could be found. Any help would be awesome. and Many Thanks

Hey now Gandalf cast daylight to push back the Nazguul

I would love to see some lore on monks

Belgarath is the #1 OG hedge wizard in my book.

Personally I see magic users are conduits for power. The spell levels are indicators of how much power will flow through you when you cast it. You should be able to try and cast any spell you have learned regardless of level but the farther it is above your level the greater the odds of it hurting you or backfiring like running to much voltage through an extension cord.

David Eddings, Belgariad and others.... TOTALLY AWESOME, highly recommended.

While we all love the magic schools there are quite a lot more untrained, uncertified or just dropouts

I now know what I'ma do in the Ethereal! And thank you once again!

Excellent assessment of academics