Quote Originally Posted by Caedes View Post
One of my close friends always plays a Wizard and as a DM it used to be hard to keep the other players interested. Or keep him from trivializing everyone else's roles.

We have worked together over the years to try and bridge this gap. And for the most part we are successful. Here are my thoughts. And I want to note these may not work for everyone.

1. Discuss with your Wizard the effect it has on the game and try to build the relationship. Much of the time when they see that being god can degrade other people's play they might pull back a little. I have found discussions not in front of the main group are best. As it is easy for these discussions to put a Wizard on the defensive.
:D
This is good advice, but I don't know that it's good advice for OP's table. Same level is a good idea, but it's probably too late for that. OP's wizard is dominating the game through blasting. He's dominating because everyone else is slacking, as in not using their abilities well. The Barbarian isn't raging. The greatsword-wielding Fighter isn't power-attacking. the Bard isn't singing. The cleric is at least using spells. Maybe in a later encounter we can show the cleric how to buff allies during combat, or use Dispel Magic to debuff the baddies.

The Wizard is playing right, relative to everybody else at the table. They need to step up their game.