Seriously? Spellcasters will not be able to have many spell choices?

[Keenath]

- Many low-power, short-duration spells and effect will be moved in the at will or per encounter category. These will probably encompass mainly damaging, tactical or otherwise offensive spells, like Daze, Magic Missile, and such. Low powered would likely be at will, while more powerful would be per encounter effects.

- Powerful spells will be powers with a limited number of daily uses. How similar those will be to old-fashioned spells, is to be seen. I guess Fireball, Lightning bolt and similar "big boom" spells will be in this category.

- The long duration, long casting time, very powerful or otherwise game-breaking effects will probably be rituals. Those willl probably too long to cast or have such requirements that they will not be usable in combat situations. I guess Teleport and Plane shift are very good candidates. Item cretion will also be handled through rituals.

The most recent Podcast talked about this a bit.

There are two measures that combine when you deal with use limits.

First is power -- in general, at-will powers are (duh!) a little weaker, while encounter is stronger, and daily use is strongest.

At the same time there's a second calculation -- Complexity. At-will powers are going to be very simple. As in, you make one attack roll and then roll damage, or you roll and they take an effect for 1 turn if you hit. Encounter powers can be a little more complex, looking at areas of effect or more complicated effects such as those with a multi-turn duration (which the DM then has to track). Daily powers, because they show up rarely, are not only powerful but can be quite complex -- you can have powers there that deal with duration and status effects on multiple targets, or require more than one die roll, or whatever. (For example: You roll an attack against reflex; if you hit you roll damage and then roll a followup attack against fortitude which inflicts an ongoing poison on a hit...)

I would also expect to see a certain amount of scaling with those powers, though if ToB is any indication, you'll normally upgrade powers through replacement -- "Sleep" replaced by "Deep Slumber" and so on, rather than Sleep scaling all the way up to 30.

 

[Keenath]

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on what the designers mean by "Vancian." I've always used the term to refer to the "prepare your spells in advance, carry them around with you like grenades, throw them at people" system, but I've noticed that a lot of people consider "Vancian" to mean "per-day-limited." If the latter is true, then there may not be any spell preparation at all.

You are correct. In the original Jack Vance books, wizards have to study their spellbooks to memorize a spell, then when they cast it, that knowledge (because it's arcane knowledge) pulls itself out of their mind as the spell goes from being Thought to being Reality.

Vancian casting means you sit down and prepare spells at one time, then cast them, and are unable to cast until you can sit down and prepare again (which may or may not have a daily limit).

Magic Points are the opposite of vancian casting (and sorcs use a variant of Magic Points) -- you pick a spell of a list of available magic, and there is some method of tracking how much magic you have left. Recharge mechanics vary from resting to time of day to drinking potions.

Some systems have attempted a "semi-vancian" magic system, where a wizard studies to prepare a certain list of spells, but then can use those spells freely or under some variant of magic points (or within other limits, like "per encounter"). Another study session allows him to change his list of prepared abilites. Thus, a wizard might be able to use Magic Missile, Flare, and Detect Magic at will for now -- but after fifteen minutes of study he can use Daze at will (but not Flare).

Notice that the above example is virtually identical to what ToB has the martial adept classes doing -- they have a list of maneuvers known, and a much smaller list of prepared maneuvers, which they can switch out by spending five minutes -- thus allowing them to tailor their abilities to a particular situation or generalize, as necessary.