Tips on keeping track of enemy spells

Anyone has any tips on keeping track of enemy use of spells? I am running an adventure that is full of several different magic casters (clerics, wizards, warlocks, bards). As I am putting the encounter together, I am noticing the abundance of spells to keep track of (and master as I have never cast or seen cast half of the spells). Flipping through the players handbook seems to be a poor choice to execute spell management. I typically have spell cards for each spell in front of me, but playing a magic user as a character is one thing, playing several magic users as a DM is another.

I am sure some of you DMs out there have run encounters with more than one magic user before. How did you keep track of the spells?

I generally use scratch paper to do so. Just write out the spells in advance and either cross them out or put tic marks next to them.

One thing I should also do for my own sanity, is mark down the ones that require concentration as well.

Try using different color tokens for each spell slot. When you use a spell at a certain slot remove a token.

Draw a table, columns for rounds, rows for characters and notes.

Walock of the Fiend supported by two Enchanters

[MENTION=6685730]DMMike[/MENTION], that's the approach I've decided to take. Typically, I do not want to over plan any encounter, but generally most creatures only have a few actions they can take anyway. Spell casters add numerous more options, and if you include multiple spellcasters, well ... its a lot of action to account for. I've decided that planning the encounter in more detail is not so much planning as it is managing. I recall reading in several published adventures modules guidance to the DM on how to play particular spellcaster enemies. That guidance usually included order of spells to cast and when to cast other spells.

For this particular encounter, I have a Warlock of the Fiend and two Enchanters (both from Volo's Guide to Monsters) in an enchanting room performing a ritual the players are supposed to disrupt.

The Warlock of the Fiend has the following spells:
Alter self, False life, Levitate, Mage armor, Silent image - which he can cast at will as an innate ability.
Feeble mind, Finger of death, plane shift -- which he can cast once per day as an innate ability.
Eldritch blast, Fire bolt, Friends, Mage hand, Minor illusion, Prestidigitation -- cantrips
Shocking Grasp, Banishment, Burning hands, Flame strike, Hellish rebuke, Magic circle, Scorching ray, Scrying, Stinking cloud, Suggestion, Wall of fire -- spells which he has 4 spell slots to use.

The two enchanters have the following spells:
Friends, Mage hand, Mending, Message -- cantrips
Charm person. Mage armor, Magic missile - 4 slots
Hold person, Invisibility, Suggestion - 3 slots
Fireball, Haste, Tongues - 3 slots
Dominate beast, Stoneskin - 3 slots
Hold monster - 2 slots

Keeping track of the concentration spells will be key.

The room is a large cave, with a pit in the center (source of magic powers for the rituals). There are five exits to the cavern, one of which leads out of the dungeon, and one of which the players will enter.

So here is how I see the fight playing out: (W)arlock, and (E)chanters

Spell 1 -- (W) Stinking Cloud; (E) Charm Person (if first to act)
Spell 2 -- (W) Feeblemind (Targets a spell caster); (E) Mage Armor
Spell 3 -- (W) Finger of Death (Targets closest threat); (E) Hold Person (target those outside of cloud first, then fighters in cloud second)
Spell 4 -- (W) Firebolt; (E) Fireball (if room to avoid damage to allies)
Spell 5 -- (W) Flame Strike; (E) Dominate Beast (if animal present, or druid wild shape)
Spell 6 -- (W) Wall of Fire (Once Stinking Cloud is ineffective); (E) Stoneskin (if hold person not working and enemies are closing)
Spell 7 -- (W) Levitate to move out of range/Shocking Grasp if too late; (E) Fireball (again if room to avoid damage to allies)
Spell 8 -- (W) Banishment to remove threat from allies; (E) Magic Missile otherwise
Spell 9 -- (W) Burning Hands if friendly out of range and slot available; (E) Invisibility or Haste (to escape to Mage for the Plane Shift)
Spell 10 -- (W) Scorching Ray if slot available
Spell 11 -- (W) Hellish Rebuke if slot available
Spell 12 -- (W) Eldritch Blast otherwise
Spell 13 -- (W) Plane Shift (escape with allies)

Any thoughts on this spell sequence for the Mage and his Enchanters?

[I would have used a table, but I could not get it to work on this post for some strange reason]

There's a special variant of Murphy's Law, called the Players Law. It's pretty short:

"Because, players."

In this context, you'd be lucky to get to Spell 5, because, players. So don't stress over too many spells. Assume one of your casters will get shoved into that pit. And assuming you're playing D&D 5 here, there's little reason for the casters to have a game plan besides this:

- Cast highest-level destruction spell.
- If that fails, cast best remaining escape spell.

Put all combatants on a leash, or make them stand atop individual, tall pedestals ::cough American Gladiators:: and then we'll talk spell tactics.

I agree that I doubt I will get past round five. But the exercise did help me sort through the preparation. It made me realize that I did not have to be prepared for 20 + different actions. (Seeing all those choices, for all the enemy characters, was a bit overwhelming at first and gave me flashbacks to college term paper requirement paralysis). Once I started laying out the priority of spells, it indicated that many spells were not suited for the encounter (so not to worry) and some spells had a higher likelihood of being used over others, so I could prioritize which spells to focus on in the game prep.

And my spell priorities do fit the basic game plan you described: "- Cast highest-level destruction spell. - If that fails, cast best remaining escape spell."

But the review of the spells did lay out for me their "escape plan," but as you said "Because, players" -- we will just have to see how that works out.

I typically make notes in the monster stat block. I list the spells and number of slots, but make simple notes next to the spell if I cannot remember what it does. Next to fireball it might say (dex 6d6). I would already have the save Dc written at the top of the spell list as well.

I'll make a list of the spells a monster knows, and then familiarise myself with them before the game. If I'm feeling particularly organised, I'll cut and paste the spells from either the basic rules or the SRD, and print them out on a sheet with the Monsters stats. Putting the attack stats of Cantrips in the Monsters stat line also helps a lot as well.

I tend to give opponents fairly easy to adjudicate spells so to make my life easier while playing, and if there are multiple similar spellcasters they tend to end up with the same spell list.

Now I'm beginning to feel inspired to have my PCs run into some Spellcasters, something they haven't really fought in my current game.

Played the game this weekend and the magic user encounters were very interesting. The spellcasters did tons of damagecwith each spell. - almosted did in one of the characters with the first spell. However, two things swung the encounter heavily towards the adventuring party. First, many were elves so they shook of sleep and charm spells easily. Second, they cast silence on the spellcasters and heavily reduced their spell casting ability. The party fighters kept the spell casters boxed within the silence spell. It was an epic fight, but the party handled it well. The enemy spell casters only got off three spells before the fight turned very much against them.

Sent via magic sending while journeying on a quest.