What's the major differences between Wizards and Sorcerers in D&D?

Question

What's the major differences between Wizards and Sorcerers in D&D?

Answer 1

(I'm going to give you an answer to this question, in regards to D&D mechanics. I hope this is what you were looking for.)

Sorcerers & Wizards (for starters), cast spells a bit differently. Sorcerers can 'spontaneously' cast magic, and Wizards must prepare spells ahead of time in a spellbook.

Another huge difference is in how many and how often they can cast spells.

Sorcerers do not know a lot of spells, but they can cast them more often.

Wizards can potentially know every spell, but (must prepare them ahead of time and) they are very limited in how many spells they can cast per day.

Here is an example of how they differ, starting at level 1.

Sorcerer

  cast per day: 5 (lvl 0 spells), 3 (lvl 1 spells)

  known spells: 4 (lvl 0 spells), 2 (lvl 1 spells)

Wizard:

  cast per day: 3 (lvl 0 spells), 1 (lvl 1 spell)

  known spells: all (lvl 0 spells), 3 (lvl 1 spells)