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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keenath" data-source="post: 4032417" data-attributes="member: 59792">You are correct.  In the original Jack Vance books, wizards have to study their spellbooks to memorize a spell, then when they cast it, that knowledge (because it's arcane knowledge) pulls itself out of their mind as the spell goes from being Thought to being Reality.Vancian casting means you sit down and prepare spells at one time, then cast them, and are unable to cast until you can sit down and prepare again (which may or may not have a daily limit).Magic Points are the opposite of vancian casting (and sorcs use a variant of Magic Points) -- you pick a spell of a list of available magic, and there is some method of tracking how much magic you have left.  Recharge mechanics vary from resting to time of day to drinking potions.Some systems have attempted a "semi-vancian" magic system, where a wizard studies to prepare a certain list of spells, but then can use those spells freely or under some variant of magic points (or within other limits, like "per encounter").  Another study session allows him to change his list of prepared abilites.  Thus, a wizard might be able to use Magic Missile, Flare, and Detect Magic at will for now -- but after fifteen minutes of study he can use Daze at will (but not Flare).Notice that the above example is virtually identical to what ToB has the martial adept classes doing -- they have a list of maneuvers known, and a much smaller list of prepared maneuvers, which they can switch out by spending five minutes -- thus allowing them to tailor their abilities to a particular situation or generalize, as necessary.</blockquote>

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