Preparing spells every 8 hours?

[Conaill]

There's been an ongoing discussion over on the WotC boards over when and how often wizards can prepare their full complement of spell slots. So I figured I'd put it to the vote here...

Here's the original thread:
http://boards.wizards.com/rpg/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=113;t=001932;p=

And a recent flare-up of the same issue:
http://boards.wizards.com/rpg-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=113;t=002843#000017

Here's opinion A (shared by Jaid, Frank, Hot Rod):

Originally posted by Frank
"If a wizard has cast spells recently, the drain on her resources reduces her capacity to prepare new spells. When she prepares spells for the coming day, all spells cast within the last 8 hours count against her daily limit."

-PhB, pg.: 154, Preparing Wizard Spells.

Therefore, any spells cast before that 8 hour period do not count against your daily limit. So, if you blast off your spells, rest (8 hours pass), then prepare your spells - that's more than 8 hours ago that you cast your spells - and you get them all back even if this is all within a 24 hour period.

And opinion B (shared by Gunthar S, trollbill, Aubri, Jonathon Towers, Conaill, Svenagin, Faragdar the Wise, Psifon, tiornys, Hoopy_Frood):

Originally posted by Faragdar the Wise
A day is a definite period of time. Your world might have a different length day than my world, but a day is still a day. As Aubri pointed out, there are a few spells that rely on that immutable fact.

Everybody who casts spells is allowed a certain number of "Spells per day" and no more. It's listed under each spellcasting class. It's a heading on the character advancement table.

The text Jaid and Frank have latched onto lists additional restrictions--that they have to have 8 hours of rest to prepare spells and spells cast within the previous 8 hours count against their daily limit.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Sign me up for option B. Both quoted portions are restrictions, but the "spells per day" restriction prevents such abuse.

 

[Zerovoid]

As regards opinion one, I find it laughable. The designers of 3e were just trying to say that wizards can only prepare their spells after a good night's sleep, and people keep trying to get around this limitation by picking apart the words. It the clause said sleep instead of rest, I don't think people would be saying this. No DM should let you sleep 16+ hours a day to get extra spells. But, they also had to consider elves, so they said 8 hours of rest. I still think the intent is pretty clear.

 

[Conaill]

I have to admit I'm a little surprised at the votes so far. Let me clarify:

Under option A, a Wizard could sleep 8hrs, spend 1hr preparing all his spells, cast them immediately, go back to bed for another 8hrs, prepare for 1hr, cast, and so on ad infinitum

Essentially, you would be able to cast almost three times your entire allotment of "spells per day" per day.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Essentially, you would be able to cast almost three times your entire allotment of "spells per day" per day.

And more if you use the loose interpretation for the Ring of Sustenance.

 

[Conaill]

Originally posted by Ridley's Cohort
And more if you use the loose interpretation for the Ring of Sustenance.

Good point, considering its description states that "its wearer needs only sleep 2 hours per day to gain the benefit of 8 hours of sleep". However, I think any reasonable DM would invoke the "8 hours of restful calm" clause of arcane spell preparation in that case.

Nice try though.

 

[Darkness]

There's a limit of spells per day.

You can, however, leave some of your slots open and prepare them later that day (takes 15 minutes each time you do it).

 

[twjensen]

I'll have to go with what's behind door # 2 on this one. (Option B for those perl scripts out there)

Amazing the lengths that munchkins will go to for extra spells.

 

[Gaiden]

If I were a DM and a PC wanted to start abusing the rules in this sense by effectively getting three sets of spells every 27+ hours I would say fine.

Here is why:

In order to do that, 8/9ths of the PC's day will be spent sleeping.

Here are the reprocussions:

After a couple of days of trying to do this, the PC will be so wired he will not be able to sleep for almost 24 hours. Then he will need to recover by sleeping for almost 12-16 hours. I am currently in bioclocks, a class which looks at human circadian rhythms. Looking at the self-imposed pattern that this 8-hour-rest/1-hour-activity cycle would have on the PC, lets me know that the character would begin to be very...TIRED! Most of the time that the character spends resting would be wasted because the character could never achieve REM or be calm enough to sleep. This is due to the fact of his circadian rhythm. Humans can go on a ~24 or ~ 48 hour clock. However, they cannot function on an ~9 hour clock. Moreover, about the max ratio of activity to sleep is going to be in the neighborhood of 1:2, not 1:8. Therefore, I would start imposing penalties equivalent to those of fatigue and exhaustion on the character at all times. Most importantly, after a couple of days tyring this he would not be able to get any spells because he could never actually "rest". The character would have to spend an ~= amount of time recovering and getting back to a normal circadian (which in latin means: about a day) rhythm. That has lots of roleplaying consequences not to mention the fact that all of those bad guys that were overpowered by the spellcaster now have time to get back to him - or if they did not survive, their freinds.

This is really the least of the character's concerns however. With that much inactivity - 8/9ths of the day sleeping - I would start imposing penalties on all of the PC's ability scores. He certainly isn't getting the exercise he needs. Therefore, his physical attributes would atrophy, meaning substantial penalties to Str, minor penalties to Dex, and HUGE penalties to Con. Of course, its a spellcaster, right? Does he really need concern himself with petty physical abilities?

My response: Your brain loses use the more you don't use it. Oh, so you're a wizard, well I am sorry to say that you are losing some intelligence. You just aren't thinking, a.k.a. learning much. Oh, so you're a cleric, yeah you don't really have to much opportunity to use common sense or intuition. OH, SO YOUR A SORCERER - YEAH, YOU DON'T ROLEPLAY, YOUR CHARISMA IS NOW 3!

I would most likely also consider some sort of depression affecting the character. This goes back to circadian rhythms. First off, because the character is always tired he will begin to let ornariness encroach on whatever personality he had before - most likely none if the character is trying to do this in the first place. Second, in order to actually rest for this time, the character can't have any sort of zeitgeber interfere - that means that he can't have a natural or artificial light source have prolonged series of flashing or constant light for any prolonged amount of time, otherwise he will not actually be able to rest. Therefore, the character is going to have to seclude himself away in some dark area. A common fact is that the less natural light someone is exposed to beyond a certain threshold the more inclined that person is to feel depression. Moreover, the fact that the PC will never really interact with many other people will mean that his depression only gets worse. I might rule that his depression gets so bad he doesn't even have the desire to prepare spells. (this critique is irrelevant for creatures without melatonin/melanin (don't have my books with me forget which it is) in their skin, excluding albinos of creatures who normally do have that pigment).

Finally, if the PC still tries to continue this after the numerous "hints" I threw. I would rule that he becomes dependent on the sleeping schedule - the ultimate doom of the character. Eventually his circadian clock would adjust to some modified form of the schedule. Therefore, He would then only have 1/9 of every day to do anything. Think how long research is going to take - at least 3-4 times as long. Further certain spells he would never be able to cast - permancy, identify, any magical item creation, etc.

I guess there are a few things more to mention as well, when I think about it. Any enemies he makes will find the PC easy prey as he is equivalent to an unconscious person for most of the day, and he doesn't have the time to make magical protections for himself. Moreover, the character would get massive XP penalties because he is never actually roleplaying or developing.

So, sure, I would let the PC do this.

 

[CRGreathouse]

In order to do that 8/9ths of the PCs day will be spent sleeping.

Except that the rules that people are trying to abuse don't say *sleep* for 8h but *rest* for 8h.