a wizard says what?

[funkysnunkulator]

it is probable that many of you still use the vancian method of spell casting in your games.

our group hasn't used it in years.

are there any other groups who use other methods?

what method do you use/prefer?

have you found one method or another adversly affects gameplay (not necessarily balance, just gamePLAY)?

begin chanting now......

 

[funkysnunkulator]

almost forgot something in that last.

if you are running a different method, what sorts of classes do you employ in your games? do you even have spellcasting classes?

players are welcome to put thier two cents in here too!!

 

[rossik]

sorru fot the noob question, whats the vancian method?

 

[funkysnunkulator]

not a noob question at all!!

the fault lies here. should have explained that.

"vancian" refers to a class of wizard from a book series (no longer remember the titles).

this was likely the first example of wizards in novels having a spells per level type thing happening.

sorry bout dat!

 

[rossik]

actualy, i already have read this term here, but have never asked!
well, i play 2ed, and now im trying to get back to od&d.

so, my wizards dont hahe to pre-select the spell they wanna use. in the momment they are going to cast the spell, the player look at his sheet and tells me what he wanna cast, thenm this count on how many spells he can cast.

by doing this, the players have the feeling that theys mages are more usefull and alittle more independent..(this is my players opinion)

 

[Pbartender]

sorru fot the noob question, whats the vancian method?

Jack Vance wrote a series of novels titled the The Dying Earth series. In those novels, wizards memorized their spells out of spell books and forget them after casting them. It's the direct inspiration for the standard D&D style of spell casting. Hence, most people call that particular style of spell casting "Vancian spell casting".

Also note that many of the stereotypical D&D spells, such as prismatic spray, were taken from Vance's novels, and that Vecna is an anagram of Vance.

 

[Umbran]

I've played in D&D games using other methods, but for D&D we keep coming back to vancian, as the simplicity (pick 'em, cast 'em, they're gone) makes for easy balance and bookkeeping.

I find that the method has a pretty hefty impact on the flavor of the game. For example, Shadowrun's drain and WoD Paradox as limiters on casting work well for those games, but having the same kind of negative impact on the caster for using their abilities would be unbalancing for D&D.

 

[funkysnunkulator]

awwww yeeeeaaaaah.

now THAT is an explaination. mucho thank you.

had no idea about the anagram. that is quite cool.

gonna have to go back and read those again. been a long long time.

so many good series. so little time.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I have long been reasonably satisfied with Vancian spellcasting. Only VERY gradually has it become close to an issue for me. Given that it appears that there will FINALLY be a wholesale, completely fresh look at the spell list and how the effects alter the overall game and character power levels I don't have a problem with changes to it. Actually, I LIKE the idea that they are making Vancian spells a percentage of overall caster resources. I really, really do.

I certainly have NEVER liked anything like spell points.

 

[Voadam]

In one of my campaigns we adopted first the spontaneous divine spellcaster variant from Unearthed Arcana so that clerics and druids were no longer vancian, then a modified version of the recharge magic system, also from UA. Both can be found in the variant rules magic section of www.d20srd.org.