Janx said:
Back in the day, our 2e house rule was no spell memorization. It worked more like sorcerers. You stil had a spell book. You still had to spend time studying. You just didn't have to specify which spell was memorized.
The result?
more interesting spells got used, instead of the typical Fireball and Lightning Bolt. Having full access to our spell lists for any encounter let us us solve problems more creatively.
Let's face it, when you get 5 3rd level spells, what're you going to memorize? 2xFireball, 2xLightning Bolt, Dispel Magic. Because you can probably blast your way (or threaten to) out of any problem.
We did this for clerics and mages. Since 3e added sorcerers with this ability, we haven't put that house rule back in place yet.
Janx
I had that sort of house rule too back in the 1e/2e days. We would rather play then spend a lot of time determining what spells the PC or the NPC's had prepared for the day, and then always missing the few spells that would have helped in an encounter.
Now in 3e, I brought the house rule back to a degree after we started playing due to player wishes (no one likes to do the paperwork), and basically this is how it works so far:
For Divine spell casters: (Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Rangers): they are not required to prepare spells of any spell level they can cast that is equal to or lower than their Wisdom Modifier.
For Wizards: they have to prepare spells for most of their career, didn't want to step on the sorcerer too bad, however once they reach epic level character, which we did before the ELH came out, there is an Epic Feat they can take that allows them to study their spell book and then cast any spell they know spontaneously the same way as the divine spell casters do except based on Intelligence Modifier.
For Bards: Bard maintains a spell/song book from 1st level on if they want that allows them to prepare their known spell list from. Once they prepare their know spells that is the known spells until they prepare again even if it is weeks later. This way a bard can prepare the known spells for an adventure, damage, healing, etc, and then when the adventure is over and they group is in town the bard and prepare spells for the performances they plan to give.
For Sorcerers: They get extra spells known equal to what their charisma gives them in extra spells per day for casting. They also can gain new spells known by researching new spells. They can swap spells out to the same degree in 3.5e, and then finally they get an Epic feat that allows them to add a limited number of versatile spell levels for preparing spells from a spell book that they can use.
So far, I have 4 players, running characters in 3 different groups IMC.
One is low level (3rd) with 2 bards, a cleric and a rogue. ( and the player choices surprised me on this one, as the player of the cleric and one of the bards always normally play fighter types)
Another is our primary (35th level average) where each player has few characters each. I have:
1 sorcerer/fighter/bladesinger,
1 ranger/sorcerer/AA and a Monk,
1 druid/ranger/prestige and a wizard/priest/devotee,
1 ranger/fighter, who also has a cursed wizard that can no longer prepare, spells at all unless they are mastered, which he hardly ever took.
And the last group also around level 30th
1 Paladin/hunter of the dead
1 Rogue/Sorcerer/AA
1 Monk
Back to the subject, sorry for the long response, I don't check them, I know what they are capable of, and it just sort of sounds off if they try to do something too many times or use something they just used up....been GM way tooo long.
RD
