@schpas Time stop exists in 5e, but in a weaker form. 1.) You can't put down multiple surfaces that'll all directly harm an enemy. 2.) 5e wizards are limited by concentration, which'll heavily restrict the amount of buffing/AoE effects you can do while time stopped.
Two things you have to keep in mind are:
1.) 5e casters get much more powerful cantrips than their 3.5e/PF1e counterparts. When out of spell slots, they're no longer limited to using a sling or casting acid splash for a whopping 1d3 points of damage.
2.) 5e wizards can cast ANY spell they have prepared, whereas 3.5e/PF1e wizards had to prepare specific spells in specific slots. Don't underestimate the power of flexibility - a level 20 5e Wizard can have multiple 6th-9th level spells prepared and choose the best one for the situation.
So what when you can hardly even use level 6+ spells, this isn't 'more powerful'.
Use a sling when out of spells? In BG2 you just polymorph self instead or multi / dual class some thief or fighter levels and use better weapons.
Depends on the level. I'd put the tradeoff point somewhere around level 15. Until that point, a 5e Wizard basically has the same number of high-level slots as a 3.5e/PF Wizard, but with the flexibility of D&D 5e casting. A 5e wizard has more powerful cantrips, whereas a 3.5e wizard has scaling leveled spells (e.g., the 1st level spell Snowball will do 5d6 damage at levels 5+).
To refocus on BG3 and the thread topic: high level spell slots aren't as relevant as the level cap is 12 (and you can long rest ~anytime). So casters pretty much just strictly benefit from the more powerful cantrips and spell preparation mechanics. Imo BG3 is more directly comparable to BG1 than BG2, and it's BG1/low-levels that a wizard would default to a sling for most turns.
