Spontaneous Casting & Delayed Preparation

[Li Shenron]

The Delay Preparation rules allow a spellcaster to prepare only part of her daily spells at the first time, and later in the day take one or more extra preparation sessions for the rest of her daily slots. Clearly, spontaneous casters such as Sorcerers have no need at all of preparing spells.

But what happens with Cleric's spontaneous casting of "Cure xxx Wounds" spells? Can you spontaneously cast from a not yet prepared slot or not?

For example, at 1st level I get two 1st level spells (apart the domain spell), and choose to prepare only one in the morning, let's say Bless; I delay the preparation of the second 1st level spell, whose slot remains therefore empty.
Then during a battle I want to cast CLW, and I drop Bless to spontaneously cast it. The battle gets tough and I need a second CLW, can I "drop" the empty slot to cast CLW or not?

IIRC, the PHB talks about abandoning previously prepared spells, but to require to have prepared something in order to cast spontaneously sounds to me contraddicting the sense of spontaneous casting itself...

 

[hong]

But what happens with Cleric's spontaneous casting of "Cure xxx Wounds" spells? Can you spontaneously cast from a not yet prepared slot or not?

No, since a spell slot that doesn't have a spell in it is not a prepared spell.

"The cleric can 'lose' a prepared spell in order to cast any cure spell ..." -- PHB p.32

 

[Zhure]

... he could however spend the time to prepare a spell there, then use it as a Cure spell.

Greg

 

[Stalker0]

Clerics are supposed to get their spells back at a certain time of day, depending on their deity. They can't choose to gain new spells to fill unused slots later in the day.

 

[Li Shenron]

Clerics are supposed to get their spells back at a certain time of day, depending on their deity. They can't choose to gain new spells to fill unused slots later in the day.

No. It is a different thing than preparing spells.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

Clerics are supposed to get their spells back at a certain time of day, depending on their deity. They can't choose to gain new spells to fill unused slots later in the day.

Page 156 in the PH says that a divine spellcaster does not have to prepare all his spells at once. The FAQ in the Spells section clarifies that clerics may indeed leave slots free in order to prepare a spell later in the day.