Spell Preparation

[AuraSeer]

Well, alright, I'll admit, in your world where wizards daily seek out and battle enemies they have learned to prepare spells very fast.

In your game world, wizards don't seek out and battle enemies? They spend all their time sitting in the library, never bothering to actually use all those spells they study?

I don't know what boring-ass RPG you're playing, but it sure isn't D&D.

 

[CalrinAlshaw]

MOST wizards sit around primarily and study. In fact, probobly at least 75% spend their time studying and just advancing themselves academically. You forget, ADVENTURERS make up less than 1% of any games population, at least I'd hope so, or those countries economies would be crap. A majority tend to "attach" themselves to a city, town, country, political position, or perhaps end up as the "royal wizard" stereotype. The ones that tend to attach themselves at the service of countries, towns, or cities do largely mundane things, help investigations magically, magical defenses, etc. People here seem to be of the opinion that every wizard has to be set up so that they can function at full power every morning. Why? Perhaps the wizard should be a little more careful with his spell selection/usage? In games I play, wizards try not to use anything higher than magic-missile if they think they can possibly get away with it.

Calrin Alshaw

 

[Beale Knight]

I'd just like to remind Calrin that in 3.X Wizards (and Clerics and Druids and anyone else who's not a spontaneous caster) does not memorise any spells! They prepare them in advance, which means casting most of the spell and leaving it hanging (very Zelazney). so perhaps the reason that the 20th level Wizard is so quick is that he's, like, good at magic now, and can manage to go through those ritual stages swiftly.

But the real reason is simply that it's BORING for the players if every preparation caster has to stop the game for hours and hours (potentially days) whilst they, in character, do their stuff! This is an adventuring game, so let's not getted bogged down in pettifogging minutiae!

Well these were the exact two points I was going to make, so I'll just chime in to second them.

 

[dcollins]

I'll make a bit of a defense of Carin's viewpoint, even if this would count as House Rules if we're talking 3rd Edition.

- It does intuitively seem like more spells should take more preparation time.
- I wasn't that bothered by 1st Ed. prep time -- I could live with 2 days or so for full preparation by a high-level wizard. (Much like the difference in time spent studying for a grade-school test versus a graduate degree final.)
- While it might be game-inconvenient, it can make sense in a setting that presumes high-level wizards are not in mortal combat most days of their life (as Carin says, and most fantasy literature bears out).


An example: In Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" (p. 4), a wizard named Turjan prepares for an excursion. He's enough level to know prismatic spray, time stop, etc. However, he only prepares 4 spells. Perhaps that's more reasonable in a setting like this -- many wizards only bother to prepare their top-level slots and leave the rest open much of the time.

Even so, it looks like Turjan takes a fairly brief peiod of time, not the 9 hours it would take under 1st Ed. Let's say he takes an hour for this preparation. Possible variants might be:
- Preparation per spell level takes 2 minutes, or
- Preparation per spell level takes 15 minutes, divided by the highest spell level you know.

 

[AuraSeer]

You forget, ADVENTURERS make up less than 1% of any games population[...]

I didn't forget it, I ignored it because it's irrelevant.
Adventurers make up 100% of the population of D&D players, and they're the people who are important. Having short preparation times is good for players because it makes the game more fun. If wizards had to spend uncountable hours preparing spells, it would only delay the game and frustrate players, without adding any entertainment value at all.

D&D is a game first and foremost. Screwing the players in service of realism would be stupid and counterproductive-- even if it were remotely sensible to talk about "realism" in a discussion of magic spells.

 

[scholz]

Calrin's rule would certainly make Sorcerers a lot better by comparison.

But seriously folks,
Obviously this is a game playability issue. Requiring magic users to spend hours memorizing (or prepring spells) just slows things down for everyone. I find that even the sleep and spell selection has a similar effect. Every mid/high level session I have been in, there has been almost always at least one case where we waited a full day to do something just so a spell caster could change a spell, or rememorize.

That said, for game balance and story purposes some limitations and preparation is good.

Let me give Calrin a possible explanation that might explain why memorization gets so much faster. I teach philosphy to undergrads. I tend to read the book before the semester, then I skim each chapter before each class. Each semester I use the same book, the amount of time I spend skimming gets shorter and shorter.

I think it reasonable to assume that a high level wizard (super intelligent, well educated, and mystically aware) could have a similar experience. They've almost committed all of their spells to memory, they simple flip through their books to check their memory, maybe to remind themselves of the component measurements, or specific verbal components. I know Descartes's 3rd Meditation very well, but when I teach it, I check the text really quickly to make sure I have the language down precisely. It only takes a couple seconds.

So you glance at most of your spells. Some of the more complicated ones or less familiar ones you spend more time on, and some are so familiar to you that don't even need to glance at them.

I think that makes some sense, and you can still require the long reading time to learn a new spell. That seems reasonable to me.

====

BTW I played a 14th level MU in 1st ed. It took hours to memorize spells, and it irked me to no end. I eventually wrote a spell to speed memorization time (Malzerious's Memory Osmosis 4th Level, you slept on your books and memorizaed the spells while you slept),the DM was, frankly, quite relieved to see it. He rewarded character with the esteem of his peers (and the shortened memorization time).

 

[scholz]

Another analogy....

Imagine the time it takes a novice D&D player to pick spells for his or her 1st level Magic User each day. Usually, the reading the books, understanding the rules etc... an hour of actual play time is not so unusual.

Then look at the time it takes that same player years later when the Wizard is 20th level. Assuming regular play and familiarity with the spells, an Hour of prep time before a game seems about right to me.

 

[cidak]

But the real reason is simply that it's BORING for the players if every preparation caster has to stop the game for hours and hours (potentially days) whilst they, in character, do their stuff! This is an adventuring game, so let's not getted bogged down in pettifogging minutiae!

And that's the point. It's one of those things where a balance between reality (5 minutes per page and hours of study) verses Game Play and flow (1 hour). I think the designers got it right by making it an hour. Keep It Simple is a good mantra.