A Short Post About the 5e Wizard
I briefly ran a 5e campaign that changed to a B/X based game after 10 or so sessions. We used the Gritty Realism rules (Short rest = 1 day, Long rest = 1 week) and I found it really improved 5e compared to some of my previous experiences as a player. This was particularly true for the Wizard, who had good versatility but lacked staying power. The week long rest highlighted the difference between the Wizard and classes that relied on short rests in a satisfying way.
Having played or run most games in my Gamer Career using mechanics based on B/X or OD&D, I've found that I actually prefer the 5e Wizard to their OD&D counterpart in practice when the week long recovery is in place (Without this they recover way, way too quickly for what they can do). I liked it enough that I tried to impose that same week long recovery in a OD&D style game but, with no other changes, 1 week was way too long for spell recovery. My good friend Havoc played a Magic-user who went 3 or more sessions with no spell slots, as the party spent days crawling through a giant king's body and then escaping his fortress through a massive grassland. This obviously sucks, full stop. The 5e Wizard has more spell slots and cantrips which help to smooth over the gap. Now, in theory the OD&D Magic-user could make spell scrolls and use found wands to tide them over. In practice this isn't always possible. The one wand found at that point was lost in a raging river, and another was missed; the party had this new party member join on the road, so he never had the chance to make any scrolls.
Since then I've experimented with 108 Magic Systems, either in theory or in practice. I'm currently using my Normal Spell System and Mr.Mann will eventually experiment with my Perfect Spell System; since then I've been experimenting with thinking about magic from a bottom-up approach by asking "how does this thing work?" without thinking about mechanics, game structure, etc. Hence, Glamours & Seemings and Shapeshifting. Despite all this noodling about I really think there is something special about that Gritty Realism 5e Wizard: he feels like a stupid fuckin' DragonQuest Wizard (whatever "feelings" mean in this context), his capabilities slot in with the expected rhythm of play, his cantrips let creative players contribute when out of slots, levelled spells are convenient for tiering power. As much as trying out alternatives has been fun, there's some sauce in this suped up basic Wizard that I really appreciate. Though I like all kinds of games my favourite way to play is the basic class based quest-em-up action game; I'd like to feel good about the way I referee Wizards the way I do about Fighters and Thieves. People love Wizards; I love Wizards—they do spells and wear hats.
For my default OD&D Magic-user that has levelled spells, maybe I'll try out cantrips and some extra spell slots early (Basically bump them one level up the curve) alongside the "week long spell recovery"; the cantrips in 5e are a pretty good start (with some adjustments for balance and my extremely particular tastes: i.e, no dumbass green flame blades or weird shit). That should help balance them relative to the Cleric, whose cantrip is fighting shit with a mace, and give WizPlayers a bit of a leg up in the early game. This might make the "week long spell recovery" viable.