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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 5428970" data-attributes="member: 5143">Depending on the game, the NPC is question might have non-core spells.  Not only that, but only accounting for core spells, there are too many to memorize all aspects of the spells.I ran 3e/3.5e D&D for 8 years and even at the end of the 8th year, you'd still find me stopping in the middle of the game to look up what the range of spell X was or to see if spell X could target objects or allowed a save or what the bonus type it granted was or what the exact wording was on the spell to see if it stopped ability Y from Prestige Class Z.There's simply too many variables to have a practical knowledge of all the pertinent rules.  I began to really hate running any spellcaster who was above level 5 when the number of spells was manageable.  And I was easily considered the be the most knowledgeable person in our group regarding the rules.Yikes.  I'd never do this.  Mainly because my PCs had this tendency to barge into the BBEGs chamber within 20 minutes of getting through the front door of the castle/dungeon/wherever the BBEG was located.  They wouldn't stop to investigate anything, since they didn't want their buffs to run out.  So, they'd run from location to location.Then I'd have to remember the rules for scrying spells, like what the range was, whether you need to have seen the person before or have an item from them, whether they got a save, whether the PCs saw the censor(which I could never remember how it worked, I kept remembering the 3e version while in 3.5e).  Then, I'd have to pay close attention to the abilities the PCs used WHILE the scrying was in effect so as to make a decision as to what spells to prepare based only on that information and nothing metagamey(likely while paying attention to the tactics and special abilities of the enemies the PCs were currently fighting, which was already hard to keep track of).Then, once I had all the information gained from the scrying, I'd need to search through the spell lists in the middle of the game and consider each one("Hmm, Hold Person is useful...did any of the PCs show any mental weakness during that battle?  Well...that's a possibility, let's read the next spell...").This is, of course, assuming the NPC in question has access to scrying magic and/or cannon fodder to throw up against the PCs, that he even knows the PCs are coming, and so on.  I've certainly had a number of BBEGs who were simply doing their own thing, trying to conquer the world when the PCs walked up behind them and said "We're here to stop you!" and the BBEG had never ever heard of them before.  If the BBEG had left slots open in that situation he just would have been defeated even easier.I admit, this was my solution when I ran games.  Pretty much the answer was run only preconstructed spellcasters or don't use spellcasters.  But even with preconstructed ones, I found myself constantly consulting the book to figure out what their spells did(way more often than if I had just picked them myself, because I pick spells I like...and I like them because I already know what they do).</blockquote>

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