Huh. So makes Wizards actually playable without all of that awful prep casting, but more obnoxiously overpowered.
So here's the thing. I get that it's frustrating to have the wrong spells prepared, or to on occasion forget to prepare a spell or two that could be situationally useful. But guess what? That's the
trade off for having the best spell list in the game. Would I prefer it if they kept the arcane, primal, and divine lists and re-balanced all the classes to be distinct through their actual abilities instead? Yes. But apparently people didn't like that. So here we are back to class lists. The justification for that objectively stupid decision? The claimed that they got feedback that the Arcane list "watered down wizard class identity". I can accept this as reasonable criticism, but if I do, I then posit an argument that occasionally preparing the wrong spell list is part of the wizard class identity. It is a
feature of the rules, even if it feels frustrating for players.
You know what sorcerers are frustrated over? Not getting access to awesome utility spells or other thematically appropriate spells even though it should logically make sense for their subclass and in any sane world they would get Origin spells. Ever tried playing a storm sorcerer without Call Lightning? It sucks. Ever wanted to play a sorcerer who focuses on enchantments and illusions? Good luck finding a suitable subclass or even spells that fit that for each spell level. Even stuff sorcerers [allegedly] excel at can feel lackluster compared to a wizard at times. Sculpt spells
rocks for blasting. So does Overchannel. And have you ever tried playing
any element that wasn't fire or lightning? Good luck finding proper spell support. God forbid you try to pick green dragon with so many monsters immune to poison. Did you go to the store and buy that fancy new splat book you heard had some awesome new spells in it? Hope you rolled wizard because you're sure as heck not getting them as a sorcerer like 75% of the time unless your DM is really nice. Want to ritual cast as a sorcerer? Tough. You can't. No I don't care if your spells have the ritual tag. Nor do I care if literally
every other full caster gets it (at least by 2014 rules). Them's the breaks.
Ever played a warlock who
didn't want to use Eldritch blast? Sure it's possible, but definitely not optimal. Want to play a bard that
doesn't use charm spells? Hope you're Lore or otherwise you're going to have a bad time. Ever thought it would be cool to play an artificer that summons flame turrets and blows people up with fire? Hope you're patient enough to get to level 9 before you can use that fireball spell the wizard got 4 levels earlier.
The point I'm getting at is that
every class has things that make them feel frustrating. You know what's frustrating for the wizard? Occasionally preparing the wrong spell, and if you want literally every spell on your list it'll cost you a few weeks and a small fortune. Such a shame. Dripping sarcasm aside, my biggest issue with Memorize Spell isn't even what the OP is mentioning in this thread. Yes. I think he is objectively correct in that this
will basically make wizards never have to prepare any utility (or even situational) spells ever again. I do think this can create some balance issues.
What I hate about this ability is that it completely flies in the face of the very
concept of the wizard: he's the nerd that before going on an adventure should want to hit up the locals or the library to investigate what potential threats that local cave he and his meatshields...err...adventuring companions in order to have some idea of what spells might be useful to prep going in. Playing a wizard
should require actual thought. This quite literally is the entire theme of the class. Now don't get me wrong, it's a balancing act. I shouldn't have the wizard player pulling their hair out in frustration and arguing with the party to "come back tomorrow" just because the easiest solution to a puzzle is to levitate a bolder and the wizard decided that invisibility would be a better choice. Nor should the party be forced to sleep in a dangerous cave for a night simply so the wizard can prepare a knock spell to open the magically sealed door with no keyhole. Frankly, I myself would argue that those situations are in reality an indication of a poor DM, but that's a whole other topic of debate. What we need is for the prepared casters (no, not just the wizard. ALL prepared casters) to be able to pull a utility spell out of their backside if need be to keep the party from having to take an early long rest. That's it. Even then, though, I'd still argue that learned casters should probably be able to switch out a spell known on a long rest as a balancing compensating. It's a shame we almost had that ability in Tasha's but it got cut.
But again, that's a tangent. Back to the wizard/prepared casters...
Yeah 30 minutes or a short rest or something would mean you had to seriously think about it, in a lot of situations. 1 minute? Pffft.
I'd much prefer 1/short rest, instant, so you could use it in combat too, but so it wasn't as obnoxious outside of combat.
Right here we have our solution. Or at least the concept of one. We can argue about semantics if we wish. After all this
is a gaming forum. Personally I think it should be "At the end of a short rest, you can switch out one of your prepared spells for another spell in your book." Having the party take a lunch break is far more reasonable than coming back the next day, and this let's your party have that fancy utility spell the wizard felt "wasn't worth preparing". It even allows you to switch out that fireball for a lightning bolt mid dungeon if you know you're about to go fight a fire elemental in the next room. Hardly worthless. Yet it what it
does prevent is the outright slaughter of the core concept of the wizard actually putting some forethought and, god forbid, effort and planning behind their power to bend and shape reality itself to their whims. You know... the power they [allegedly] learned by spending hours studying books, practicing magic, and again, gods forbid, learning math and physics!