Prep time for spells

[Zathraas]

In the PHB, wizards, druids and clerics take an hour to prepare spells whereas sorcerers and bards only take 15 minutes of “concentration” to be ready for spellcasting for the day.

Does it make sense to use the general rule that casters that have to prepare need an hour, and spontaneous casters need 15 minutes for new spellcasting classes? So Wu Jens would need an hour to prepare, but Favored Souls, Duskblades, Warmages, and Beguilers would all only need 15 minutes.

What happens with multiclassing with casters? A wizard/druid seems like he is screwed a bit since he needs 2 hours to prepare each day, but what about a character trained in multiple spontaneous casting classes? The PHB just says the character needs 15 minutes of concentrating, so would that suffice for all his spontaneous casting classes? Would a Duskblade/Beguiler take 15 minutes to be ready, or would he need to separately “concentrate” for each class?

 

[pallandrome]

In situations like this, I pretty much ignore RAW, and ask myself "Would it be horribly unbalancing if I didn't make him sit and meditate an extra 15 minutes? No? Then I'll ignore it, thank you."

While technically, a wizard/cleric does need to memorize for an hour, and pray for an hour, do you REALLY think that forcing the player to do so will enhance the overall fun-factor of the game?

 

[Zathraas]

I agree that prep time for spells is one of those non-fun details that one can easily choose to ignore so as to let the game get underway and I usually run my games without worrying about it. However, I can't make that call for games I don't run and I was curious how other people deal with the concept.