D&D 5E Spell Preparation: Leaving Slots Open

[Celtavian]

During the public playtest, classes that prepared spells each day had the following clause in their class descriptions: "You don’t have to prepare all your spells at once. If you like, you can prepare some later in the day."

I have to admit I was a bit miffed when I got my PHB and saw that those two sentences had been removed. I don't have a problem with doing it that way myself.

On a semi-related note, I've always found the concept of a cleric praying to their deity for magical power ahead of time a bit odd. I think it would make more sense for them to be able to cast any spell from their spell list when they need it. So if a cleric comes across a diseased beggar, he can just pray to his deity to heal the beggar (by casting lesser restoration or whatever) then and there, rather than having to say, "Oh, sorry. I'd love to help you but I can't right now. Maybe tomorrow ..."

I'm with you, puk. I'm going to run it that way. I may even house rule it if an official rule contradicts the ruling I'm going to use. I find the ability to pray or study throughout the day a much better fictional element during gameplay.

 

[Evenglare]

... I'm pretty surprised this is a topic but...

5e doesn't work like 3.x/pathfinder. You don't prepare spell slots at all. In older edition those slots were kind of like empty buckets in which you would put a spell into. For instance if I was a wizards and I prepared magic missile with my level 1 spell slot that was it. When that slot was expended, it cast magic missile. End of story. However in 5th edition spells prepared are completely independent from "slots". In 5e slots are sort of like ranked magic points. Whenever you want to cast a level 1 spell like magic missile you "expend" one of those slots and then magic missile comes out. But that slot itself is not tied directly to magic missile. You could have used that slot for any other level 1 spell.

So to address your question is that I'm pretty sure you have to prepare your entire spell list, there are a couple of reasons for this. First there are no open "slots" to speak of in the list. At least in game terminology, slots are completely different than spells prepared. Second, if you could just partially prepare a list at your leisure then what would be the point of having to prepare them at all? The only possible argument is that they would have to take a minute to prep the spell.. that's almost negligible in the majority of cases during the adventure day. Third it says that to change the list of prepared spells you need to complete a long rest. So if there were some sort of blank prepared slots then to change that you would need to take a long rest.

Finally 4th thing, there has never been ANY precedent to indicate you can have a partial list of prepared spells. This, to my knowledge has never appeared in any version of the core game. It also seems like they would explicitly address that in SOME part of the book but nothing like that is ever mentioned anywhere. Not even a hint of it. The minutes seem to be given for story fluff more than anything.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Yeah it is a perfectly valid way to play, if you want that caster flexibility. As long as your groups on the same page, awesome.

 

[Prism]

Finally 4th thing, there has never been ANY precedent to indicate you can have a partial list of prepared spells. This, to my knowledge has never appeared in any version of the core game. It also seems like they would explicitly address that in SOME part of the book but nothing like that is ever mentioned anywhere. Not even a hint of it. The minutes seem to be given for story fluff more than anything.

Preparing a partial list was pretty standard for 3rd edition. From the srd for wizards..

'When preparing spells for the day, a wizard can leave some of these spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, the wizard can fill these unused spell slots'

...and for divine casters...

'A divine spellcaster does not have to prepare all his spells at once'

Our group did this all the time in 3e. I would follow Celtavians ruling even though the wording doesn't specifically allow it

 

[pukunui]

I'm with you, puk. I'm going to run it that way. I may even house rule it if an official rule contradicts the ruling I'm going to use. I find the ability to pray or study throughout the day a much better fictional element during gameplay.

I think I will do it for my next campaign as well.

You don't prepare spell slots at all.

You're right that, in technical terms, "slots" are a separate thing from the spells you have prepared. However, you still have a limited number of spells you can prepare each day. You could consider those spaces as "slots" in a sense.

Finally 4th thing, there has never been ANY precedent to indicate you can have a partial list of prepared spells. This, to my knowledge has never appeared in any version of the core game. It also seems like they would explicitly address that in SOME part of the book but nothing like that is ever mentioned anywhere. Not even a hint of it. The minutes seem to be given for story fluff more than anything.

False. As [MENTION=9501]Prism[/MENTION] points out, you need look no further than 3e. Also, please look at my previous post, in which I quoted a section from the D&D 5e playtest allowing you to prepare some of your spells later in the day.

 

[CapnZapp]

Celtavian is certainly free to add this rule to his own game. The only thing you'd think worth debating here is whether there's any official support for such a rule.

But that's an open and shut case: no, the rules does not support it.

What's really left to discuss is the broader issue - how much do the rules need to "explicitly disallow" something for that door to be clearly and unequivocally shut?

And my answer is clear: this assumption is clearly unreasonable. The rules cannot discuss everything they aren't, it would make for a 10000 page rulebook.

Likewise, you shouldn't and you can't hide behind "there's no definite ruling either way yet". The probably never will. And still, it should be clear as day that the rules don't support it and wasn't meant to.

This is where your ruleslawer-fu fails you. This stuff will never be part of 5e.

Back to your original question.

NO most people don't read the rules to allow partial preparation. In fact, the rules say in a reasonably simple language how you're supposed to do it. That is all you get in 5e.

There is no leeway to contort this language. You simply prepare the specified number of spells, and that's it.

This in no way means I'm against your idea of partial preparation. Heck, it might even be a good idea! (not to mention part of the playtest, apparently)

But you're taking a dark path if you can't houserule this without squeezing out some kind of "official support" out of the PHB. Don't go there.

Not only is there no support to be had, but the entire notion is 3e-era thinking that simply won't make you happy in this edition.


Heartfelt wishes,
Zapp

 

[Celtavian]

... I'm pretty surprised this is a topic but...

5e doesn't work like 3.x/pathfinder. You don't prepare spell slots at all. In older edition those slots were kind of like empty buckets in which you would put a spell into. For instance if I was a wizards and I prepared magic missile with my level 1 spell slot that was it. When that slot was expended, it cast magic missile. End of story. However in 5th edition spells prepared are completely independent from "slots". In 5e slots are sort of like ranked magic points. Whenever you want to cast a level 1 spell like magic missile you "expend" one of those slots and then magic missile comes out. But that slot itself is not tied directly to magic missile. You could have used that slot for any other level 1 spell.

So to address your question is that I'm pretty sure you have to prepare your entire spell list, there are a couple of reasons for this. First there are no open "slots" to speak of in the list. At least in game terminology, slots are completely different than spells prepared. Second, if you could just partially prepare a list at your leisure then what would be the point of having to prepare them at all? The only possible argument is that they would have to take a minute to prep the spell.. that's almost negligible in the majority of cases during the adventure day. Third it says that to change the list of prepared spells you need to complete a long rest. So if there were some sort of blank prepared slots then to change that you would need to take a long rest.

Finally 4th thing, there has never been ANY precedent to indicate you can have a partial list of prepared spells. This, to my knowledge has never appeared in any version of the core game. It also seems like they would explicitly address that in SOME part of the book but nothing like that is ever mentioned anywhere. Not even a hint of it. The minutes seem to be given for story fluff more than anything.

Not really. Add up the minutes. It's a minute per spell level, not a minute per spell. It adds up to quite a lot later on.

By 6th level you have 4 1st, 3 2nd, 3 3rd. To prepare your list it takes you 19 minutes a day. Eventually at full spell capacity, you'll take 89 minutes to prepare your spell list per day. I was thinking that is a fairly substantial amount of time of preparation time. I was wondering what if someone attacks you while you're preparing spells for that 90 minutes. Would you not get to memorize spells for the rest of the day? Would you only get to have the spells on your list that you managed to memorize up to that point until you took a long rest? Would you default to your previous list unable to change until the next long rest? How does that work?

What if you level during an adventure? Do you get to fill that open slot immediately or do you have to wait for a long rest?

I decided if I ran it with the possibility of allowing a person to memorize throughout the day, that would completely remove any of my questions. I started to wonder if that was the intent all along. I felt the natural reading of the rule seemed to indicate that allowing a person to prepare a spell on the list throughout the day would work just fine and may very well be intentional because it obviates any problems you might have with memorization/preparation times if you had someone attacked during their prayers or morning study or allow leveling without requiring a long rest.

Just seems like the natural reading of the rule with the time investment involved in preparing a spell list.

 

[Shiroiken]

I am the DM.

That's pretty much all the authority you need

As long as you and your players are good with it, go for it. I'm already considering allowing swapping of cantrips (because I few them differently than presented in the rules) and letting Eldrich Knights and Arcane Tricksters use Spellbooks (because they're supposed to be semi-wizards). Remember, it's YOUR game!

I very much like the fiction of being able to leave spell slots open and filling them as needed with prayer or study. I never liked the idea of studying or praying one time a day. Seemed too gamist for my tastes.

I'll agree with you on studying, but I did like the notion of predetermined prayer times for deities. Many religions have predetermined prayer times, so it makes sense for that to be when casters would get their divine favor. Of course, that was back when spell slots and spells were the same thing, so I don't do the same in 5E.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

As others have noted above, partial preparation was an explicit thing for a long portion of the playtest--up until the final (public) packet, as I recall. The explicit statement is no longer there. This doesn't tell us much of anything, because it could have been removed simply to save space, or to indicate that that is no longer part of the rules. We have the aforementioned "choose a number of spells equal to your <casting> modifier plus your <casting class> level," which has an implication of it needing to be that number, and no other. Yet the later "if you are a 3rd level <casting class>, your list of prepared spells can include six spells of 1st or 2nd level..." language seems to not be so firm--it can be six spells but doesn't have to be.

The final playtest packet even has exactly the same "choose a number of spells equal to..." language, while also specifically saying the player could choose to prepare others at a later time. (The exact number is different, 1+class level rather than mod+class level, but the "choose"/"equal to" part is identical.) So it could easily be that they just thought it wasn't a big deal to explicitly spell it out.

Thus: The rules are silent. They do not explicitly speak--neither to forbid nor to permit. Precedent is useless, because it can be made to support both arguments. Despite this being a significant and fairly fundamental rule, it must be decided at the table. I, of course, would prefer a solid baseline which the DM could change as needed (rule zero) rather than neither baseline nor advice in either direction, but my feelings on the subject of "DM whim empowerment!" really aren't going to change any time soon.

As for "we'll never get a ruling," the Twitter feedback has answered at least a few open rules questions, so I don't think we should be nearly so pessimistic. We might not, or might not for a while, but something this simple and fundamental should be easy to answer. E.g. "Can casters prepare some spells later in the day?" Even with the twitter at-tags, that should be less than 2/3 the character limit--enough space for quoting *and* answering in a single tweet. This sort of thing seems like exactly what the twitter-rules-answers were made for.

 

[Celtavian]

I could probably get a ruling. Maybe the intent is a set spell list between long rests (it probably is the intent). I think I prefer the fiction with being able to leave a few open if desired, thought I think doing so will be of limited advantage other than an occasional interesting story bit or being able to memorize a useful ritual like water breathing or scrying when needed. Slots are pretty tight. Not being able to memorize quickly in battle is severely limiting. I don't think it will create any balance issues allowing it.