D&D 5E (2014) Two wizard homebrew mechanics: any unintended consequences?

[DeviousQuail]

Marked as 5e 2014, but if you see anything that applies to 5e 2024 feel free to include it.

I've got two mechanical changes for wizards that I like. I'm putting this out there incase anyone can think of anything that would make these changes broken.

1. Spell Prep
At 1st level wizards are able to prepare a number of spells equal to their Int Mod (min 1). This removes the "plus wizard spell level" part from the normal wizard.

At 2nd level the school based casters gain "X Savant". Wizards with this feature always treat spells of their school, that are in their spell books, as prepared. Potentially way more prepared spells than 5e wizard, but with a thematic list.

At 2nd level other wizard subclasses gain the "Magic Adept" feature. Wizards with this feature choose two spell schools. They can prepare a number of spells from these schools equal to their wizard level. You can change one of these schools at level up. Effectively the same number of prepared spells as a 5e wizard, but with a bit more of a theme than the 5e grab bag.

2. Book Casting
At 1st level, as an action you open your spellbook to a spell of your choice and make an Arcana check equal to 10 + the spells base level. On a success you temporarily treat the spell as prepared. If you do not cast or begin casting the spell by the end of your next turn you lose the preparation. Once you have cast the spell the spell is no longer prepared. Book Casting isn't a great name, but it gets the idea of the feature across. Open your spell book and try to cast a spell that you haven't prepared. I wasn't sure if it's powerful enough to need a use limit. I figure it's too slow of a feature to see any kind of regular use in combat.

 

[TigerDude]

Gaving all the school's spells automatically prepared is a massive buff. Playing a wizard is always about choosing wgich spells to prepare and which to leave out. Book casting is also super-powerful, what's to stop me from doing this 3 or 4 times until I make the check? And 2025 Wizards get Arcana Expertise.

Surely you didn't think the best class in the game needed such a significant glow-up?

 

[Deset Gled]

Book Casting means you never have to prepare a utility spell, a precombat buff, or any out-of-combat spell ever again. It may seem balanced in combat. But it's ridiculously overpowered out of combat, and gives wizards that much more freedom to focus on combat spells.

Also, as @TigerDude said, automatically prepping all spells from one school is huge. These two abilities combined are powerful enough you might as well just say "screw it, let the wizard just cast anything in their book".

 

[DeviousQuail]

I don't mind if they fail a few times before succeeding at book casting. The idea was to give some utility with enough of an action economy cost that it's probably not worth it in combat or fast enough for split second decisions. But it sounds like a use limit is needed. I figured as much but wasn't sure.

As for the spell prep, I didn't think X Savant was OP. Some schools like evocation, conjuration, and transmutation have way more spells than others, but you still have to get the spells into your spell book and can never have more than 1-5 other spells prepped. My main goal was to make wizards feel a bit more distinct instead of having every wizard prepare the same set of spells.