Witch and Warlocks, Wizards, Mages Sorcerers which is more powerful.

[JohnDiggle]

In general which type of magical user is more powerful?

[Shai-Hulud]

They're just words and often interchangeable. There's no connection between the words/names/titles and any particular character's power level.

[Sophicles]

Well in the World of Darkness-verse, Sorcerers can only use Linear Magic, where as true mages can go well beyond that and reshape reality to their will.

I'd say in specifically the World of Darkness, true awakened Mages are by far the most powerful.

[Sharpandpointies]

Really depends on who the writer is. As Shai-Hulud notes, they're just words, and people using the words are going to put their own meaning on them.

One would need to be more specific and name a specific media/setting, like Sophicles does.

[Nik Hasta]

Sorcerors in Discworld are not only of absolutely unfathomable levels of power for the setting, but the mere presence of one on the Disc makes all other wizards grossly more powerful and generally supercharges magic on a planetary level.

[The Drunkard Kid]

Sorcerors in Discworld are not only of absolutely unfathomable levels of power for the setting, but the mere presence of one on the Disc makes all other wizards grossly more powerful and generally supercharges magic on a planetary level.

Isn't that actually a "Sourcerer"?

[Noldere]

So...



What do the others have for advocacy?

[Shadowedeyes]

So, in D&D they are all distinct classes at some point or another I believe. Maybe not mages, unless Specialist Mages count. Wizards are usually the more powerful of the options.

[Sharpandpointies]

Isn't that actually a "Sourcerer"?

Nailed it.

[Jackalope89]

I believe Tolkien used them almost interchangeably.

[choptop]

From what I understand it go's
Sorcerer Supreme
Necromancer
Wizard
Sorcerer
Witch
Warlock
enchanter
Spellcaster
Magician
Mage

[MichaelC]

While individuals with any of those names can be of any power-level, it does generally seem as if sorcerers are the most likely to be cosmically powerful reality-warping characters, followed closely by wizards. Witches, again just on average, are usually the weakest, being the most likely to be characters restricted to things like casting curses, and middling projectiles, as well as being the most likely to have easily exploited weaknesses like water or nailing their footprints to the ground.

[Sharpandpointies]

I believe Tolkien used them almost interchangeably.

On that -

'Wizard' is pretty specific to the Istari in Tolkien's stuff.

Sorcerer is almost completely used in a pejorative fashion - it's a title given to Sauron and his underlings whom he has taught, the Riders of Rohan use it in an unflattering fashion, etc. It carries the feel of 'black magic' or 'dark magic', that kind of thing.

Witch, as far as I know, appears only with regard to the Witch-king of Angmar. Certainly it's not meant in a positive light, either. ^_^

Tolkien didn't actually use the term mage, as far as I can recall.

[Phoenixx9]

In general which type of magical user is more powerful?

In addition to natural or innate power, this made me think about if any user is required to use a Magic Wand or other magic item or talisman?

Do any use the following more than others: Spells, potions, magical beans, liquids, stones, crystals, mirrors, etc?

[BitVyper]

So, in D&D they are all distinct classes at some point or another I believe. Maybe not mages, unless Specialist Mages count. Wizards are usually the more powerful of the options.

D&DFinder wizards build wide, sorcerers build tall. Generally. Depending on edition, wizards will have options to basically just build as sorcerers, but then that's not a real rousing victory for wizards. Wizards are about having a peg shaped for every hole, sorcerers are about having a really big mallet to mash a square peg into whatever hole you put in front of them. As such, sorcerers tend to have more immediate combat power in general, but a well prepped wizard can basically handle every situation (spell slots permitting) and because they typically have higher level spell slots available, they have advantages in how many metamagics they can employ. That's all speaking generally though. If you start trying to actually break the system, wizard is probably usually going to be the easier way to do it, but I don't think that really speaks to the topic of this thread. I'm pretty sure druids have consistently been better than everybody at that anyway.

Anyway, Arcanist supremacy.