No doubt this has been done before, but nevertheless:
Folks familiar with Ars Magica (which 3E D&D has been compared to) will know how that system divides magic up into the spontaneous (spells made up on the fly from the mage's knowledge of magic theory) and the formulaic (spells with tried and tested formulas, like D&D's spells).
It seems to me that these magic types roughly correspond to the Sorceror (not really spontaneous, but still able to cast "on the fly") and Wizard (definitely formulaic). Admittedly, the Sorceror is effectively a formulaic caster as well (they cannot formulate spells on the fly) but the Sorceror's ability to choose from the selection of known spells "on the fly" makes them comparable to true spontaneous casters - at least as far as D&D goes.
The two could be combined into the one class. Such a hybrid mage could have spells that he or she knows so well that they can be cast "on the fly" as would a sorceror, and others that require preparation/memorisation in order to use/recall. This, for me, rings more true as a representation of a fantasy spellcaster than either the purely vancian and "unrealistic as far as most fantasy novel depictions of spellcasters go" Wizard, or the "I don't need spellbooks but can do almost exactly what Wizards have to study for years to do anyway" Sorceror.
You could represent it by multiclassing Sorceror/Wizard, but there are a few sticking points that I can see:
1) Such a spellcaster would lose out on high level spells due to the nature of the escalation of the spell lists.
2) The "Sorceror" spells wouldn't necessarily map to the "Wizard" spells in the spellbook.
3) Two prime requisites are required rather than one.
There is also an existing precedent for this approach; Clerics being able to "convert" their prepared spells to healing/harm spells on the fly. As a suggested approach, the hybrid spellcaster could prepare/memorise as a normal Wizard might, but be able to convert prepared/memorised spells to the "Sorceror" spells he knows of that spell level (or lower) on the fly. This is only one possibility for combining the two types of casting in the one arcane spellcaster class, though, and I can already see an issue with it in that you'd have to count on such casters never preparing spells that they know well enough to cast on the fly.
I'd be interested in thoughts or suggestions on mechanics or how to balance such a class with the existing core classes, or links to any existing examples of this kind of spellcaster class. For instance, what spells-per-level table should be used, and how many sorceror-style/wizard-style spells should be known?
Folks familiar with Ars Magica (which 3E D&D has been compared to) will know how that system divides magic up into the spontaneous (spells made up on the fly from the mage's knowledge of magic theory) and the formulaic (spells with tried and tested formulas, like D&D's spells).
It seems to me that these magic types roughly correspond to the Sorceror (not really spontaneous, but still able to cast "on the fly") and Wizard (definitely formulaic). Admittedly, the Sorceror is effectively a formulaic caster as well (they cannot formulate spells on the fly) but the Sorceror's ability to choose from the selection of known spells "on the fly" makes them comparable to true spontaneous casters - at least as far as D&D goes.
The two could be combined into the one class. Such a hybrid mage could have spells that he or she knows so well that they can be cast "on the fly" as would a sorceror, and others that require preparation/memorisation in order to use/recall. This, for me, rings more true as a representation of a fantasy spellcaster than either the purely vancian and "unrealistic as far as most fantasy novel depictions of spellcasters go" Wizard, or the "I don't need spellbooks but can do almost exactly what Wizards have to study for years to do anyway" Sorceror.
You could represent it by multiclassing Sorceror/Wizard, but there are a few sticking points that I can see:
1) Such a spellcaster would lose out on high level spells due to the nature of the escalation of the spell lists.
2) The "Sorceror" spells wouldn't necessarily map to the "Wizard" spells in the spellbook.
3) Two prime requisites are required rather than one.
There is also an existing precedent for this approach; Clerics being able to "convert" their prepared spells to healing/harm spells on the fly. As a suggested approach, the hybrid spellcaster could prepare/memorise as a normal Wizard might, but be able to convert prepared/memorised spells to the "Sorceror" spells he knows of that spell level (or lower) on the fly. This is only one possibility for combining the two types of casting in the one arcane spellcaster class, though, and I can already see an issue with it in that you'd have to count on such casters never preparing spells that they know well enough to cast on the fly.
I'd be interested in thoughts or suggestions on mechanics or how to balance such a class with the existing core classes, or links to any existing examples of this kind of spellcaster class. For instance, what spells-per-level table should be used, and how many sorceror-style/wizard-style spells should be known?
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