Prefab spell lists: Practical or Painful?

[Sound of Azure]

I'm considering doing up some spell sheets for my PC cleric, based on circumstances. At the moment, I have a pared back list of "essentials", and build around that. On occasions I just prepare the base spells and leave the rest "open", and request later.

I was thinking that it could be of benefit to have several themed lists, like:

->Investigation/Divination
->Going to the Selune Temple
->Combat-heavy/Blaster
->Undead-hunting
->Trapfinder/tomb-raiding
->Enchanting/disguise
->Combat-heavy/Melee

and such. Is this a viable tactic, or is it more trouble than it's worth?

Any other common lists?

 

[nittanytbone]

My players do the same thing once their characters get to level 7 or so. They usually have a Dungeon, Overland Travel, and City theme for their spells.

 

[Tessarael]

The spell memorization lists that I have currently for an arcane caster: Buff Solo, Buff Party, Covert, Dungeon, Mook Killing, Traveling, Undead Crawling, Urban, and Wilderness.

 

[Dross]

The more spells that you can cast the better the tactic is.

The main problem is becoming focused only on those spells and not use any other spells. Revision is also a must to single out spells that you do not use often and if they are worth keeping in the list.

 

[Jack Simth]

Can be useful - especially to the DM.

 

[Thurbane]

Yep, I do that with my own cleric.

As pointed out, it can be very useful for the DM, too, in case you are late or can't make a session and your character is being run by him or another player.

 

[Jack Simth]

Oh yeah. That too.

Also useful for being mean - intelligent opponents research - things like using Greater Scrying on minions, and sending them up against the party to see what the party uses; after a while, patterns emerge; every spellcaster has favorite spells. When you're making specialty spell lists, generally speaking, you're focusing on one or two aspects at the expense of others. You're no longer generalizing. You've probably dropped a couple of staples, and if confronted with a type of situation you weren't expecting (e.g., lots of fights during overland travel) you may find your useful recources exhausted quickly.