It's a better system for a game where casters are attempting to appear balanced with non-casters. It's strictly inferior in the sense that the 5e neo-Vancian caster is in all ways more flexible than the old-school Vancian one - before we even get into at-will cantrips. As opposed to just spontaneously casting any spell on the Cleric or Druid list or absolutely any spell in your spellbook at any time?
No, as opposed to having a fixed subset of your spell list that you can cast from by expending spell slots. So, same system as 5e, only without the pretense of your subset of spells you can cast being “prepared” on a daily basis.
I guess there's not much of a point, the level of flexibility/versatility (and thus Tier 1 power) is already unprecedented, why not drop that last scrap of a limitation?
Caster/martial balance isn’t really my bugbear. Though, I do think giving martial characters more cool stuff is a better way to go about addressing it than restricting casters.
The only way to go after that to make casters even less limited for D&D 6e or PF3 would be to just have one giant spell list, and let everyone cast spontaneously from it, I guess...
Sure, if your goal was to make casters as flexible as possible. That’s not my goal though.
It seemed like a big part of the challenge - and thus interest and fun - of playing a magic-user back in the day.
It also puts a much greater limitation on the caster classes than have later editions (except, ironically, I guess, for 4e), nor was it the only limitation on casting from the early days that has fallen by the wayside, almost without comment.
I agree, which is why I prefer traditional Vancian casting... Have you considered the possibility that whoever you’re arguing against is made of straw? They’re certainly not me either way.
If I understand what you are saying.
• Every spell caster chooses which spells are known, only while leveling.
• These known spells are permanent.
• [ The caster can change the known spells while leveling. ]
• The caster can use slots to cast any known spell spontaneously.
• This is the normal way for casting spells for all caster classes.
• As an exception, a separate feature can swap in different known spells, per long rest.
I’m saying that would be preferable to the system used in 5e, yes. It would be functionally identical, but would remove the complexity of having a “spell preparation” concept baked into the system. Alternatively, going back to traditional Vancian where you have to prepare each spell individually would also be preferable, because then the spell preparation would serve a purpose- namely, making the resource management game deeper, by forcing the caster to think about “how many fireballs do I have left?” AND “how many counterspells do I have left?” instead of “how many third level spells do I have left?”
So if I understand correctly, I basically agree.
Yet at this point:
• I would get rid of slots entirely, and use spell points as the new normal.
• Instead of swapping known spells per rest, simply let a wizard cast directly from a spellbook.
The wizard gets extra known spells if and only if casting from the spellbook.
Sure, that sounds like an even better take on the no-spell-preparation style.
In your opinion. Others do not want that level of resource management. What you call a bug, some call a feature. No system will satisfy all comers. There is no One True Way.
And that’s fine. I’m not saying that having that level of resource management is superior. I’m saying if you don’t want that level resource management, why even have the pretense of spell preparation? It’s just an unnecessary layer of complexity. There’s nothing wrong with a more flexible casting system, but spell preparation doesn’t add anything meaningful to such a flexible casting system. Either embrace Vancian prep or dump it, either is a valid choice. But what 5e does is dumps the part of Vancian that makes the complexity of spell preparation worthwhile (for those who like resource management) and keeps the spell preparation for no reason.