Cryoenthusiast makes a good point- in a serious campaign that isn’t exceptionally long it can be very hard to make level 20 for anyone let alone a wizard surviving to it. That’s without loss of XP from spells and enchanting items etc. but it’s not uncommon or anything. So let’s take the two at level 20. From there it all depends.
What items do they have, what enchanted items do they have? That can make a huge difference. Did they have time to prepare for the fight? Are they running buffs? Another HUGE factor is what edition you are playing. The number of casts per day and how many spells a wizard can have going at once are effected by that.
But to some degree it’s the nature of the game- a wizard starts out almost pathetically weak and gets very strong, fighters are pretty good to go from the start of the game. A fighter isn’t going to have the ability to clear a field of 100 fodder enemies in an instant like a wizard will, but a well built fighter will deal massive damage to si guise opponents or small groups.
A fighter also can deal their base damage all day every day even when taken unprepared for a fight or if the unexpected happens. Wizards lack that level of endurance, when they are spent they are spent. So one poor choice of strategy, one mistake in reading the battle or holding a reserve- and a wizard can become pretty useless in a flash even at high level.
PVP takes its own angles too- but in general, a fighter can get initiative on a wizard unless the wizard is prepared. Starting from “at ease” with no buffs etc- a good fighter build can merc a level 20 wizard in a single turn before the wizard can make a move. There’s always an element of chance of course, saves and bad rolls and so on. But a level 20 fighter, presuming they’ve acquired some decent equipment in those 20 levels, can be very valuable.
That’s not forgetting those situations where enemies can’t be fought with magic or magic can’t be used. It can go the opposite too of course- sometimes you can’t use physical damage. That said, with enchanted items a fighter can deal damage to enemies that only take magic or elemental damage.
All in all through most editions of DND the wizard enjoys sizable late game advantages, but each role has its strengths, otherwise you’d get parties of just Fighters or just wizards as common play, and that’s not common because each is at a disadvantage without other classes to back them up.
God killing spells? In the campain I used to run, that was just Tuesday. We had a 12,000 year old Elf spellcaster that could terraform planets.
The players wound up having a cleric who was the Pope equivalent of one of the gods of war join the party.
They also allied with a 35th level magic user whos best freind was an Amethyst Dragon.
Then there was the Rouge who passed on becoming a Theives Guild Master because it was "too restricting and wasn't ready to settle down."
The players wound up having a cleric who was the Pope equivalent of one of the gods of war join the party.
They also allied with a 35th level magic user whos best freind was an Amethyst Dragon.
Then there was the Rouge who passed on becoming a Theives Guild Master because it was "too restricting and wasn't ready to settle down."