D&D 5E Making Wizard, Cleric, and Druid spell memorisation work off the Short Rest

[Quartz]

I was reading yet another of the Short Rest / Long Rest threads and had an idea, riffing off the Warlock...

Suppose spell memorisation for primary spellcasters were changed to this:

Spell Memorisation: when the spellcaster takes a Short Rest or a Long Rest, the spellcaster may rememorise a number of spells equal to their Proficiency Bonus with total spell levels no more than their class level. If the spellcaster is taking a Short Rest, the maximum spell level rememorisable is equal to their Proficiency Bonus.

Example: a first level spell caster has a Proficiency Bonus of +2 so may rememorise two spells but is only first level so may only rememorise one spell (of first level).

Example: a 12th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +4 and is taking a Short Rest so may rememorise up to 4 spells of up to 4th level with no more than 12 total levels. E.g. two 2nd level spell, one 3rd level, and one 4th level. (The odd level is lost)

Example: a 12th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +4 and is taking a Long Rest so may rememorise up to 4 spells with no more than 12 total levels. E.g. two 2nd level spell, one 3rd level, and one 5th level.

Example: a 20th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +6 and is taking a Short Rest so may rememorise up to 6 spells of up to 6th level with no more than 20 total levels. E.g. one 6th level spell, two 5th level spells, and a 5th level spell.

Example: a 20th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +6 and is taking a Long Rest so may rememorise up to 6 spells with no more than 20 total levels. E.g. one 9th level spell, one 8th level, and one 3rd level.

I've yet to work out secondary spellcasters but I'm thinking of keeping the Proficiency bonus mechanic but halving the number of spell levels (so a 20th level Paladin could rememorise 10 levels of spells).

I haven't thought about spontaneous casters at all. Nor multiclass characters.

The Short Rest / Long Rest distinction is necessary to avoid high-level casters rememorising the big guns.

How would that affect D&D?

 

[abirdcall]

I think it would greatly slow down play.

Those classes are already powerful.

What is the goal of the change?

 

[Quartz]

The goal is to - at least in part - unify the rest mechanic. Note that on the Long Rest the 20th level spellcaster is only regaining three spells.

 

[abirdcall]

The goal is to - at least in part - unify the rest mechanic. Note that on the Long Rest the 20th level spellcaster is only regaining three spells.

Why do you want to do that?

The design of the game is to have short and long rests be different. Unifying them will require a huge overhaul. What is gained?

Designing the game based on 20th level is folly. The vast majority of game time takes place in the 3rd-8th level range. 20th level play probably comprises less than 1/10th of a percent of actual play time.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The main thing I see happening is that low level spell slots are effectively converted into high level ones. Because you have a restrictive 'number of spells' limit, only upper level spell slots will ever be used.

You're also short changing high level spellcasters by quite a lot: the 20th level caster ends up with 1 9th, 1 8th, no 7th, 2 6th level, 4 5th level, 2 4th level spells and 2 3rd level spells.

He's gained 1 5th level spell in exchange for all his 1-2nd level slots, 1 3rd level slot, 1 4th level slot and 2 7th level slots. That's a pretty big loss.

Now that might be fine for you: you might feel that spellcasters have too many slots, and therefore reducing them isn't a problem.

If you're keen on just unifying rests, why don't you just have 1/3rd of a spell allotment return each rest? No balance issues, some minor bookkeeping issues.

Alternately you could move some of that work to prep time by doing a 1/3rd rounded down PLUS a daily that gives you the remainder (similar to arcane recovery, but specific slots): it just needs to be adjusted each level.

 

[Li Shenron]

I was reading yet another of the Short Rest / Long Rest threads and had an idea, riffing off the Warlock...

Suppose spell memorisation for primary spellcasters were changed to this:

Spell Memorisation: when the spellcaster takes a Short Rest or a Long Rest, the spellcaster may rememorise a number of spells equal to their Proficiency Bonus with total spell levels no more than their class level. If the spellcaster is taking a Short Rest, the maximum spell level rememorisable is equal to their Proficiency Bonus.

Example: a first level spell caster has a Proficiency Bonus of +2 so may rememorise two spells but is only first level so may only rememorise one spell (of first level).

Example: a 12th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +4 and is taking a Short Rest so may rememorise up to 4 spells of up to 4th level with no more than 12 total levels. E.g. two 2nd level spell, one 3rd level, and one 4th level. (The odd level is lost)

Example: a 12th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +4 and is taking a Long Rest so may rememorise up to 4 spells with no more than 12 total levels. E.g. two 2nd level spell, one 3rd level, and one 5th level.

Example: a 20th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +6 and is taking a Short Rest so may rememorise up to 6 spells of up to 6th level with no more than 20 total levels. E.g. one 6th level spell, two 5th level spells, and a 5th level spell.

Example: a 20th level spellcaster has a Proficiency Bonus of +6 and is taking a Long Rest so may rememorise up to 6 spells with no more than 20 total levels. E.g. one 9th level spell, one 8th level, and one 3rd level.

I've yet to work out secondary spellcasters but I'm thinking of keeping the Proficiency bonus mechanic but halving the number of spell levels (so a 20th level Paladin could rememorise 10 levels of spells).

I haven't thought about spontaneous casters at all. Nor multiclass characters.

The Short Rest / Long Rest distinction is necessary to avoid high-level casters rememorising the big guns.

How would that affect D&D?

Err... are you referring to 5e? Because it's not clear whether by "memorization" you mean preparation of spells or available spell slots. I would assume you're talking about preparation, but in 5e the spell level is irrelevant when preparing spells (you can choose to prepare e.g. only highest-level spells, even tho you won't be able to use lower-level slots), spell level only matters when you are using slots to cast them, and so your limitations to spell levels when preparing spells are new to the game, making your house rule quite complicated...

A much simpler house rule could be to allow spellcasters to only partially prepare spells in the morning, and then continue preparation by spending a short rest. Example: a 7th-level Wizard with Int 16 can prepare 10 spells; she chooses to prepare only 5 of them in the morning; later she takes a short rest and prepares 3 more spells; she still has 2 more possible spells to prepare with additional short rests before next morning. This delayed preparation idea is something we've already seen in 3e.

If your target is to get rid of long rests and just use short rests for everything, and you absolutely don't want to have rules that refer to daily cycles, then you should probably estimate your average amount of short rests available, and divide by that amount the total number of spells normally prepared. So if you estimate ~5 short rests per day in your game, just allow the Wizard above to change 2 prepared spells each time she takes a short rest.

Just avoid needless complications with spell levels. And don't try to be overly precise, because anyway removing all daily stuff from the game will turn the game balance so much out of whack that it will be pointless to fine-tune anything before you have a better picture about what happens on the larger scale.

 

[Flamestrike]

The goal is to - at least in part - unify the rest mechanic. Note that on the Long Rest the 20th level spellcaster is only regaining three spells.

Just make all casters Warlocks (1-4 spells of levels 1-5 recharge on a short rest, plus 1 spell of each of levels 6-9 recharge on a long rest).