el-jarado:

zombieella:

As an entry-level DnD player can someone explain to me in the simplest possible way how to differentiate wizards, warlocks, and sorcerers from each other?

OK. Wizard is a nerd who learned magic from a book. Being a nerd, they slot their magic into a spreadsheet and make a new one every day to organize those spells. What they can cast varies based on what they can get in their book of spells. Like many nerds, can get really good at any particular thing if they’ve read up on it and have time to prepare but bad with surprises. 

The sorcerer is yer shonen protagonist who has phenomenal cosmic power inherent to their being or is descended from something powerful, or both. Their spells are a small list of signature moves, and like most shonen protagonists, they doesn’t change their signature moves, they just learn some more as time goes on. And they tend to develop powers that change how those moves work so they don’t get stale, in this case metamagic. 

The Warlock is yer underachiever, who made a deal with satan/cthulu/the sugarplum fairy for magical powers. They borrowed a little magic from something very powerful, basically, and so they know a very small number of spells they fire off at maximum power but can’t hold much of it because it’s not really theirs. The rest of it they get by with spooky supernatural powers that are LIKE magic and being tougher than the nerd or the protagonist, and better at stabbing people who think they’re going to cast a spell. (Gameplay-wise, they’re a little more robust than the other two but only have like two spells. To compensate they get those spells back whenever they take a break, and get the best attack cantrip in the game, but the Wiz and Sorc have their spells for the day while the Warlock tends to blow theirs in one encounter.)

In 5th edition, anyway.