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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5739299" data-attributes="member: 22779">Niccodaemus, I'm not Walking Paradox, but I think I can take a stab here.  I've certainly experienced this many times where my caster has spells on his memorized list that he never uses.  So, once you've played a few times, you realize that something like "Water Breathing" is pretty limited in function, so, you never memorize it and always choose something that has a broader application.Which in turn means that spell choice is often a function of how broadly the spell can be used, rather than what might make sense from an in game perspective.  Spell choice is almost always a purely meta-game decision process, with the occasional occurance (you need water breathing, so you sleep and get water breathing) where spell choice is informed by play.Back in 2e, I ran a campaign where I allowed clerics to cast whatever they wanted, up to the limit of their spell slots.  No memorization whatsoever.  They prayed, it happened.  Funnily enough, 99% of the spells cast were pretty much what you could have predicted even if you had to memorize the spells - various Cure X spells, bless, etc.  But, once in a while, a real gem would come out.  The party opened a certain chest in the Tomb of Horrors, spilling out lots and lots of very deadly poisonous snakes.The cleric cast Snakes to Sticks and poof, encounter ended.  Very cool. The one and only time in twenty years of AD&D play I'd ever seen that spell cast.I sometimes wonder if you pared down the spell lists somewhat and then let casters cast spontaneously, if it would be better.</blockquote>

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