resting and spellcasting

[kreynolds]

Are you sure that you are required to have 8 hours of uniinterupted rest in order to memorize spells?

Not exactly. From the PH, page 154...

Rest: To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must have a clear mind.
To clear her mind, the wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The
character does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but
she must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use,
conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task
during the rest period. If the wizard’s rest is interrupted, each
interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time she has to rest
in order to clear her mind, and the wizard must have at least 1 hour
of rest immediately prior to preparing her spells. If the character
does not need to sleep for some reason, she still must have 8 hours of
restful calm before preparing any spells. For example, elven wizards
need 8 hours of rest to clear their minds even though they need only
4 hours of trance to refresh their bodies (so they could trance for 4
hours and rest for 4 hours and then prepare spells).

Because I have always played that as long as you received a total of 8 hours of rest, with minimal interuptions, you would still be able to memorize yours spells.

That would be incorrect by the rules as well, though definately easier to deal with. I could, however, see debates firing up about what is or is not a minimal interpuption, so its probably just better in the long run to stick with what's written.

Could you please post a passage to support your claim here?

There ya' go.

Thanks.

You're welcome.

 

[Artoomis]

Rest: To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must ...

Thus, once per day is it for your spells - they are daily.

You must decide if that means once per day (midnight to midnight) or 24 hours from the last time you prepared spells.

I'd play it as once per calendar day - the wizard gets more flexibility than the cleric, as it should be, but still only once per day. In certain circumstances the wizard will be able to prepare spells twice in only 10 hours or so - once in the evening and once in the morning, but that's fine.

 

[IceBear]

Re: Re: Re: resting and spellcasting

I guess what I mean is that I have difficulty deciding how much virtual time has passed. Sometimes I don't know what to tell the sorcerer when he asks if his mage armor spell is still on. Its an acquired skill I suppose.

And thanks for the posts, BTW.

I keep track of virtual time on a spreadsheet that I keep behind my screen. Walking 30ft in a dungeon = 1 round (6 seconds) of time. Searching for a trap = 1 round, etc. Other than that, if the players aren't doing anything that needs to be tracked I just tell them that X hours has past.

As for the resting frequency problem, as others have suggested if you allow them to rest after each encounter you're making it too easy on them. If the players keep using all their spells and then resting, they are spending too much time in one area and will attract wandering monsters.

IceBear