GuardianLurker
Adventurer
Fair enough. Having played a 3.5 Artificer under a lenient, power-gamer GM, I can tell you that even with the brakes off, it takes careful preparation to get anywhere close to 100% coverage. (And boy did my character eat up gold.) So I'm familiar with the trade-offs for problem solving.
For a Wizard, one of their key challenges is being able to have the spells available when they're needed. It's not just having the spells in your spellbook, which can be a big enough challenge. It's being able to cast them when needed. None of the solutions for swapping spells is anything that can be done in combat - and that assumes you have a slot open. Most of a Wizard's problem solving will come from a stock of scrolls and wands with those useful-when-needed spells. Which require both prep time, and resources.
Your meta-point is still valid though. I will say as a counter-point is that it's extremely hard to both problem-solve for combat and non-combat situations in D&D. My artificer certainly didn't quite manage, and I can't imagine than any character in a less forgiving environment would come closer.
For a Wizard, one of their key challenges is being able to have the spells available when they're needed. It's not just having the spells in your spellbook, which can be a big enough challenge. It's being able to cast them when needed. None of the solutions for swapping spells is anything that can be done in combat - and that assumes you have a slot open. Most of a Wizard's problem solving will come from a stock of scrolls and wands with those useful-when-needed spells. Which require both prep time, and resources.
Your meta-point is still valid though. I will say as a counter-point is that it's extremely hard to both problem-solve for combat and non-combat situations in D&D. My artificer certainly didn't quite manage, and I can't imagine than any character in a less forgiving environment would come closer.