Encounters Before Spells are Prepared

[el-remmen]

I just finished posting the latest installment of my story hour (see sig) which leads up to a big combat where the PCs had not gotten a chance to prepare spells yet when it happened.

This really has a lot of consequences since the PCs are less prepared for the coming combat and by casting what they do have left over limiting what they can prepare when they do get a chance. And in the case of clerics, if the fight makes them miss their time of day for spell preparation they can be really screwed! (Though in my game I allow priests to prepare spells at a slower rate (similar to wizards) if they miss their "time".

Have you ever or do you ever have encounters occur at such a time? If so, what was the outcome and how did your players feel about it? (If a player, how did you feel about it?

In my case, the wizard in the party really got to shine because the clerics tended to use up their spells the night before on healing and protective stuff anticipating new spells the next day, while the wizard had not cast much at all since there had been no combat the previous day.

Also, the party was more cautious and stuck to higher ground since they were outnumbered and really wore down the opposition before it came down to melee.

It was a fun and exciting combat.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

And in the case of clerics, if the fight makes them miss their time of day for spell preparation they can be really screwed!

Just a note,
SRD - Cleric regaining spells : "If some event prevents a character from praying at the proper time, he must do so as soon as possible. If the character does not stop to pray for spells at the first opportunity, he must wait until the next day to prepare spells. "

and

"As with arcane spells, at the time of preparation any spells cast within the previous 8 hours count against the number of spells that can be prepared."

So they are not completely screwed...

But yes, it does make the encounter that much more challenging. I have yet to put a group through this nastyness, altho I regularly hit them with 4 to 6 encounters on the day of the BBEG. This means my players tend to be carefull of wasting spells anyway.

 

[Piratecat]

In Sagiro's game, we recently got ambushed at 3am. About the time I found myself low on spells and standing naked and power word: blinded in a corridor, ineffectually fighting assassins with poison and sneak attacks, I found myself wishing that my DM was less of a rat bastard.

In other words, once in a while it's a great technique.

 

[ceratitis]

i agree with PC, once in a while is good and keep you on your toes but if you use it a lot the spell casters often get scr***ed 'cos all of a sudden they really cant do much while the fighter and rogue type get to do the usual stuff exect maybe without armor.
if used often you might get the paranoid spell caster who will refuse to use spells all day 'just in case' and cleric who will only heal you at the crack of dawn.
personaly i dont like the paranoid feeling. a while back we had a dm who used to fire fireballs at us every night and no matter what we did we never managed to see where they came from, at some point we started walking and sleeping with 'fireball distance' between us which is just silly. especially when we (players) started planning an ambush and the dm 'informes' us they got away 'cos we were screaming the plans to each other (20 ft apart). very frustrating and irritating and very not fun.
Z

 

[el-remmen]

Just a note,
SRD - Cleric regaining spells : "If some event prevents a character from praying at the proper time, he must do so as soon as possible. If the character does not stop to pray for spells at the first opportunity, he must wait until the next day to prepare spells. "

Wait. How is "at the first opportunity" defined? And as written the rules seem a lot stricter than I am b/c however your define "at the first opportunity" if it pass you by you have to wait until the next day!

"As with arcane spells, at the time of preparation any spells cast within the previous 8 hours count against the number of spells that can be prepared."

So they are not completely screwed...

I thought I mentioned that?

Oh, and yeah. . . it has to be done sparingly. Happened one other time in the campaign (about 20 sessions before) that I can remember.

 

[Agent Oracle]

This happened repeatedly in my great GM's campaign.

We'd fight until the spellcasters were tapped, then, try, desperately, to get some rest... only to be woken up midway through the night by an encounter. Probably because of his devistating wondering monster tables.

Lessee, a troll ate my fighter, an Incarnum user melted my sorcerer, a swarm of orcs overran my cleric...

Man, I lost too many characters to that campaign before I figured out that I should just go mystic theurge with Arkay as my patron.

(Arkay's clerics get all their spells refreshed at SUNDOWN instead of DAWN. So I'd fall asleep with a fresh assortment of divine spells, then wake up for a fresh set of arcane.)

 

[Baron Opal]

Have you ever or do you ever have encounters occur at such a time? If so, what was the outcome and how did your players feel about it? (If a player, how did you feel about it?

I hated it, but I was mad at the NPCs and not the DM. It only happened one, however. I haven't used that tactic recently, myself.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The whole divine replenishing of spells is a bit vague. I generally have my divine casters declare what the conditions they have set for replenishing spells.

Something like:
"As dawns first rays brush the land, my druid sits and contemplates his navel for 10 minutes."

With that sort of detail, you can better judge what a 'first opportunity' is. In the above case you need to have at least 10 minutes of interupted/safe time and a place to sit down.

Without that detail, the GM runs the risk of angering a player when he declared 'first opportunity' is been and gone without anyone noticing.

 

[Greylock]

The PHB says rest, and one hour of contemplating your belly button.

The rest is correct, "next available moment" and all that, so that a Cleric who misses noon, or sunup or whatever, isn't completely screwed.

hth

 

[Staffan]

(Arkay's clerics get all their spells refreshed at SUNDOWN instead of DAWN. So I'd fall asleep with a fresh assortment of divine spells, then wake up for a fresh set of arcane.)

Note that you can't refresh spell slots expended within the last eight hours. This is a pretty big disadvantage to those clerics who restore their spells at dusk - either they go nocturnal and use their spells during the night, or they'll effectively halve their spells per day.