D&D 5E Spell Preparation: Leaving Slots Open

[Celtavian]

What difference does it make? Why does it matter? For the game you DM you're ruling it one way, for another DM they might rule it another way. Why is assigning "Yours is the house rule!" important in any stretch of the imagination? If it doesn't say specifically one way or another and both rules come from implied interpretation of the available text... worrying about which one is a "house rule" is pointless.

I agree. Some are implying that this is clearly a house rule. I don't agree with that. I feel it is a very viable interpretation of the text as written.

 

[Celtavian]

Its worth noting that it allows for much greater flexibility of casters. Generally keep a couple of spell unprepared at the start of the day which allows casters to prepare more unusual spells upon requirement when needed. Captured some guys - prepare and cast zone of truth. About to enter a salamander lair - prepare and cast protection from energy.

There should be no excuse as 'we will need to wait until tomorrow' as long as the caster has not used their slots

That's exactly why I like the idea of it. So often you have spell lists that don't fit into the fiction the story is telling such as pulling out a Zone of Truth when needed or some spell for digging a tunnel. Why wait 8 hours to continue the fiction? The priest spends some time praying or the wizard spends some time studying, he gets access to the spell if it is available. It allows the fiction to continue in a less clunky fashion.

There is a negative to leaving slots open. You don't get a ton of them. Most casters have to choose them carefully. I usually don't have enough slots for all the spells I want. Leaving one open is often undesirable until very high level, possibly not even then. It will be an extremely tough choice to leave a slot open for possible use of a spell you may never need. The only real reason to do is encounter specific for something odd like prisoner interrogation or dealing with an environmental problem that can't be solved by mundane means. That would in no way harm the fiction or imbalance the game. You can't spontaneously fill a slot during battle. I think it would read well if the cleric can say, "Let me pray, my god will provide." That would be a cool piece of fiction in my opinion.

 

[jgsugden]

If you and your group like to be able to prepare spells later in the day after leaving a few "open slots", then it certainly does not break the game. Enjoy. You don't need our permission.

However, if you went to a convention and dropped into a game with a DM you didn't know, I wouldn't expect your ruling to hold. Contrary to what people are saying, the rules are not silent on this point. They are explicit.

"You prepare the list of cleric spells that are available for you to cast... When you do so, choose a number of cleric spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your cleric level (minimum of one spell)... "

You choose that specific number of spells at the time you prepare them. You don't choose less than Wis+lvl, you choose exactly THAT many.

 

[Evenglare]

I was completely unaware that you could partially prep spells in 3.x. Ibe been playing that game wrong for 15 years apparently. If it's true, it just seems like its completely worthless then to prep ANY spells at all before you know what you need at all. Whats' the point? I have to wait a few minutes to prep my spells now before I go do my thing? Clearly if you are doing partial prep you might take what.. 30 mins at most to prep for a few spells? I mean, in 5e you prep the spells and then expend slots so you don't have to prep the same spell multiple times. Even getting a level 9 spell. That's.. what 9 minutes and you can cast that spell as much as you want because it doesn't expend, just the slots do.

Blows my mind though 3.x wrong all those years. Damn. I've been to so many conventions and they always had the players prep at whatever certain time of day. I've literally never seen any NPCs or anything with "open" slots. Seriously, blows my mind.

 

[El Mahdi]

If it's true, it just seems like its completely worthless then to prep ANY spells at all before you know what you need at all. Whats' the point?

Exactly. If the rules were meant to allow what Celtavian proposes, then what's the point of ever prepping spells?

I think the answer is obvious: The rules were never meant to work the way Celtavian is interpreting them. It's a slippery slope interpretation. Not that it's necessarily game-breaking, but it does change some major conceits of the game. If Celtavian wants the effect he described...

...Why wait 8 hours to continue the fiction?...

...then that's cool. But ignoring the effect on game conceits creates possible balance issues. Specifically, it can allow any caster to cast like a Sorcerer - ignoring the balancing factor for Sorcerers of a limit to known spells. In this case, the Sorcerer becomes mostly redundant, other than as a background story for how one came to have magic (but a Wizard could use the same roleplaying background story without actually changing the play of the game).

If one wants that for their game, then more power to them - but in my opinion it's not RAW, and definitely not what the rules intended.

 

[Prism]

I was completely unaware that you could partially prep spells in 3.x. Ibe been playing that game wrong for 15 years apparently. If it's true, it just seems like its completely worthless then to prep ANY spells at all before you know what you need at all. Whats' the point? I have to wait a few minutes to prep my spells now before I go do my thing? Clearly if you are doing partial prep you might take what.. 30 mins at most to prep for a few spells? I mean, in 5e you prep the spells and then expend slots so you don't have to prep the same spell multiple times. Even getting a level 9 spell. That's.. what 9 minutes and you can cast that spell as much as you want because it doesn't expend, just the slots do.

Well in 3.x it took a minimum of 15 minutes to prep a partial spell list and an hour for the full lot. You didn't want to be wandering around with no spells at all so we would typically prep the go-to spells which was somewhere between half to three quarters of your total and left the rest open until you could see how the day progressed.

Using your example for 5e, you could only cast 1 9th level spell per day still so if you didn't prep it at the normal time (assuming we allow this) you might regret it later if you find yourself in the middle of a fight with no 9th level spell. Its a risk

Blows my mind though 3.x wrong all those years. Damn. I've been to so many conventions and they always had the players prep at whatever certain time of day. I've literally never seen any NPCs or anything with "open" slots. Seriously, blows my mind.

I don't think I ever saw it at a convention either - different style of play

 

[Prism]

I think the answer is obvious: The rules were never meant to work the way Celtavian is interpreting them. It's a slippery slope interpretation. Not that it's necessarily game-breaking, but it does change some major conceits of the game. If Celtavian wants the effect he described...
...then that's cool. But ignoring the effect on game conceits creates possible balance issues..

Remember though that these rules were in the playtest until the very end. Where they removed from the PHB because of balance? Or maybe to simplify a rarely used option? This option was in 3rd edition throughout and it never caused a balance issue or created a problem for the sorcerer. We used it as standard in our group. It takes a number of minutes to prep spells so you couldn't just do it on the fly and you didn't always have time to prep when you wanted too

 

[Celtavian]

If you and your group like to be able to prepare spells later in the day after leaving a few "open slots", then it certainly does not break the game. Enjoy. You don't need our permission.

However, if you went to a convention and dropped into a game with a DM you didn't know, I wouldn't expect your ruling to hold. Contrary to what people are saying, the rules are not silent on this point. They are explicit.

"You prepare the list of cleric spells that are available for you to cast... When you do so, choose a number of cleric spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your cleric level (minimum of one spell)... "

You choose that specific number of spells at the time you prepare them. You don't choose less than Wis+lvl, you choose exactly THAT many.

That is a reasonable interpretation of the rule.

 

[the Jester]

I was completely unaware that you could partially prep spells in 3.x. Ibe been playing that game wrong for 15 years apparently. If it's true, it just seems like its completely worthless then to prep ANY spells at all before you know what you need at all. Whats' the point?

I suppose it sucks to get ambushed and have no spells prepared.

 

[jrowland]

"You prepare the list of cleric spells that are available for you to cast... When you do so, choose a number of cleric spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your cleric level (minimum of one spell)... "

I'm playing devil's advocate here (ie, I am not advocating a viewpoint I hold, only pointing it out)...

When I choose to prepare spells is once in the morning after a long a rest, then again before interrogating the prisoner, etc. until I have prepared all the spells I am allowed to prepare after a long rest.

Doesn't appear to be so cut and dry that when is a single instance of time.