Wizard Games

[Tonberry]

Despite me fancying myself as RGT’s resident wizard, I’ve historically almost exclusively preferred martial characters like knights and barbarians when playing fantasy games. I’ve only recently started appreciating the power and whimsy of magic users.

With that said, I am looking for recommendations for games where you are able to play wizards/spellcasters in fun/satisfying ways. I get that people have different ideas of what this means so go wild with your recommendations!

Anything goes, provided you play as a character that focuses the most on using magic. Stuff like spellswords and battlemages are kind of too far removed, because I’m not really looking for that kind of in-between hybrid class!

 

[Necrodyte95]

Magicka 1 & 2 are really fun, especially with friends.

 

[RustySK]

First thing that comes to mind would be Noita - a 2D... run and gun roguelike, I guess?
This one is mostly centered around finding/creating completely broken synergies for your magic wands. Lots of random bullshit going on and lots of secret content to find.
This one's a good one if you can stomach frustration.

Another would be Wizard of Legend, a top-down action roguelike. Nothing mindblowing, but worth a look for sure.

And since you specifically said to go wild with the suggestions - Tactical Breach Wizards. Hell of a good TRPG in the vein of XCOM with an extra dose of defenestration.

 

[beefbowl]

Magicka 1 & 2 are really fun, especially with friends.

Came here to say this, you basically make your own spells in that game. Really fun experience

 

[RustySK]

Almost forgot to add Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate! If you like messing around in open-ended sandboxes, check this out for sure!

 

[Coon]

Might & Magic Heroes VII 7 for PC is good.

 

[Samatonic Samatonic]

Dragon Age Franchise (Except for the last one) and Skyrim.

 

[elbanano]

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is kind of a wizard game, it has potion brewing and magic wants with interesting effects alongside trinkets that change how you deal with the game, like making more mimics appear, make pickups rarer but the ones you find are the stronger version, etc.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

Wizard 101 its an MMO which is still going with a very small albeit quite dedicated user base.

Oh yeah, and the Age of Wonders series, if you are into 4X games.

Also, Master of Magic, but it does show its age, I haven't played the remake so can't speak about that one.

 

[Segadude113]

Lords of Magic: Special Edition which contained Legends of Urak let you play through the game as Merlin.

 

[moonbits]

Being a Wizard in The Elder Scrolls V is quite satisfying. If you haven't I recommend doing a dual wield mage that can one shot even some dragons.

 

[dropsmegamega]

I second Age of Wonders series. Also Baldur's Gate 2 and the Icewind Dale games are excellent for mages. If you like these D&D but prefer a single character game, NWN 1 can also be a good option, but it depends of the module. The base game is really weak imo.

 

[rinkachi]

morrowind has a really cool system for making your own spells (so does the other elder scrolls games but oblivion and morrowind did it pretty well)

 

[Glimbo]

Dragon's Dogma. The high rank spells are super satisfying to use (especially high maelstrom).

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Play Discworld, dude.

Or Loom, if you wanna stretch the definition a little.

 

[Tonberry]

Thank you very much for the recommendations, everyone!
I've played some of these, and some I don't think quite scratch the itch I'm going for, and even more of them where they allow for martial characters, but I shall look into the games you've recommended here.

The game that I've had the most fun as a magic user was in Dragon's Dogma 2 as a sorcerer (and as a warrior in all honesty) I've never played one in the first Dragon's Dogma, so that might also be worth a shot since I love that game to death.

Also, not sure if this makes sense to people, but I tend to prefer Hat Wizards over Hood Wizards. There's usually a kind of different "feel" to those two fantasies, albeit subtle haha