BryonD
Hero
First. I've never played that you forget unused spells unless you choose to free up the slot. But I'm also fine with Vancian, fine without Vancian and can easily see why someone else might reasonably dislike it...For Fighters and non magic users, yeah, agreed.
For some Pact Warlock, why not? That made as much sense as having to memorize spells and cast them daily. I can back up Mana, Fatigue or (Mage's) Paradigm... Vancian was always alien to me... "Hey dude, when you sleep you forget how to cast fireball" what what?![]()
But on encounter based powers, it is an arbitrary and internally inconsistent frequency. Something may work once a day because that is they way the story of the power works. And once every 15 minutes could be justified in certain cases.
It doesn't make sense for a great power to offer a warlock a power usable "once per encounter".
"I, the Great Lord GeGe, as a reward for this pact you have entered bestow upon you the power of Really Cool Winking. You may use this power once per encounter."
"Um, ok, thanks. How do I know if an encounter is over and I can use it again? What if I Really Cool Wink Sarah and while I'm still talking to Sarah, Karen shows up? Is she a new encounter with Sarah still here, cuz I like REALLY want to Really Cool Wink at her. Did I waste it? If I can get Sarah to leave is it NOW a new encounter?"
"Do not anger the Great Lord GeGe with your narrative demands, just make something up to explain it each time!!!"
Vancian is ABSOLUTELY arbitrary. No argument there. But it has two things going for it over "encounter". The first is that the idea is based fully on a story idea and once that narrative description is embraced, it is no longer arbitrary. So the arbitrary choice is driven by story preference not mechanical expectations. Second, once it is accepted, it is internally consistent.
And, I don't think we should go any further on this in this thread.....
I'd be happy to continue in a new thread if you would to discuss further. Or not. Your call.
To be clear, this is the first red flag I've seen. We are a long way from deal breaker. We are also a long way from "this is an improvement over what I have now, therefore I am switching". But we are still VERY much in play and keeping my interest.
