Quickleaf
Legend
I'm experimenting with the goal of increasing the way 5e encourages player creativity. In this particular instance, that's about creativity in spellcasting (I'm more holistically asking that question across a wide swath of the game, not just spellcasting – just for purposes of fruitful conversation, I drilled down to one instance under that umbrella).What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Not a "problem" per se, but that's my big tent goal with many of my house rules.
I love games where there's less "let me look at my sheet for what I'll do" (what we could call convergent thinking) and more providing the fuel for unexpected combinations/ideas (divergent thinking). Trying to bring more of that into 5e.
To sum up my layman's understanding of the neuroscience & psychology, creativity is strongest when we are able to flip between convergent (memory, pragmatism, problem-solving) and divergent (out of the box, reframing the paradigm, unexpected) thinking.
For example, I have a house rule about "creative upcasting" – it's a fun house rule, but I noticed some players wouldn't use it, and still figuring out why exactly, but my limited observation was the players who didn't use it were the ones who struggled most with divergent thinking.
To compare the two house rules, it's the difference between "You can make any main course dish you want, modifying any of the recipes you know" (creative upcasting) versus "You can make any main course dish you want by combining two ingredients you have" (dual casting).
I think the latter is encouraging more convergent / divergent switching.