Preparation time for divine casters

[DeathOfRats]

A divine spellcaster prepares his/her spells at a specific time in the day ie dawn, noon, midnight etc.

How much leeway do they have before the opportunity passes and they have failed to prepare spells for the day? To me, this seems to be the most punishing aspect of choosing a divine spellcasting class.

If possible, please quote a page reference number so I can hold it aloft at my DM

 

[kreynolds]

How much leeway do they have before the opportunity passes and they have failed to prepare spells for the day?

Depends on the DM, I suppose.

 

[Crothian]

Book says they have to pick a time and prepare then. So, they miss the time, they can't prepare. Seems simple enough to me.

 

[iwatt]

And rememeber that some Deities have assigned prayer hours as in the FR. If you check the major dieities in Faiths and pantheons, you'll notice that clerics have to prepare spells at some pre-ordained time. My Tempuran Battleguard preppares his at noon.

 

[FrankTrollman]

In 3rd edition, the page you are looking for is 156:

If some event prevents the 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.

So you can wait on praying for spells if you are being pursued by ankhegs, but not just so that you can prepare your spells 9 hours apart in order to get two days worth of long duration buffs on at once.

Of course, wizards actually can do that, so there you go. It's the price you pay for not needing to sleep in order to prepare spells.

-Frank

 

[AuraSeer]

If you're prevented from praying at the proper time, say by an attack, you must pray "as soon as possible" and "at the first opportunity." IMO that means as soon as the last enemy is dead; you don't even get to help search the bodies.

If you're not actively prevented from preparing-- if you just forgot, or you thought you wouldn't need spells today, or something-- you're SOL and you need to wait 24 hours.

 

[AuraSeer]

So you can wait on praying for spells if you are being pursued by ankhegs, but not just so that you can prepare your spells 9 hours apart in order to get two days worth of long duration buffs on at once.

Of course, wizards actually can do that[...]

This has been debated before, but it turns out not to work. According to the Magic Overview chapter, spell slots indicate "how many spells of each level a character can cast per day" (emphasis mine). No matter how many times you rest, you cannot exceed your daily limit.

 

[FrankTrollman]

Right. And daily limits for divine casters are defined by the times you stop to reprepare you spell slots (ie.: when you pray), not by calendar days.

Otherwise characters who prepared spells at sunset would face an arbitrary and horrible restriction - they would only have 4 hours between when they prepared their spells and when casting them would count against the next day (damn you midnight!).

If you have some sort of magical way to enforce "days" that doesn't arbitrarily hose characters, I'll eat my hat. A new "day" happens when you prepare spells - which is normally about once a calendar day, although there are ways to squeeze that under obscure situations.

-Frank

 

[AuraSeer]

Right. And daily limits for divine casters are defined by the times you stop to reprepare you spell slots (ie.: when you pray), not by calendar days.

Say what? That doesn't make any sense, and anyway has nothing to do with my post.

If you have some sort of magical way to enforce "days" that doesn't arbitrarily hose characters, I'll eat my hat.

Would you like some mustard with it, troll man?

IMC, once a wizard has prepared spells, his slots do not reset until both noon and midnight have passed (in either order). If you prepare one day at midnight, you can prepare again the following midnight. If you instead prepare immediately before noon, you can still prepare just after midnight.

This doesn't "arbitrarily hose" anyone. The worst possible case is a 24-hour delay, the strictest definition of 'per day.' The best case is barely over 12 hours, which is barely a restriction at all, if the wiz has had any time to cast his spells before starting to rest again.

If you don't like using noon and midnight, substitute dawn and dusk instead. The mechanic works out exactly the same.

(Note that this applies only to arcane casters, because divine casters can only prepare once per day anyway.)

 

[FrankTrollman]

Actually, you've hit the nail right on the head:

IMC, once a wizard has prepared spells, his slots do not reset until both noon and midnight have passed (in either order). If you prepare one day at midnight, you can prepare again the following midnight. If you instead prepare immediately before noon, you can still prepare just after midnight.

The key here is "IMC" - which means "In My Campaign". Not "in the rules", which your limitation is not, in fact, in.

It may work for you. I don't honestly care, and won't stop you from implementing it. But it's not in the rules.

The rules say that a wizard can reset her daily limit for spells by:

* Resting for 8 hours.
* Spending one hour preparing your spell slots (you can fill them or leave them open at this time).

The rules say that a cleric can reset her daily limit for spells by:

* Spending one hour praying at the earliest opportunity after her daily event has triggered.

---

Any other restriction - such as waiting until noon and midnight have past - is something you made up. Don't try to pass those off as rules. Do not say that something "doesn't work" because of something you implemented in your campaign to stop it.

It's dishonest. And I hate dishonesty more than just about anything.

-Frank