D&D 2E Wait, what? (Spell memorization in 2nd ed AD&D)

[cavalier973]

So, I was skimming through the rule book for "Gateway to the Savage Frontier", and the section on magic says it takes 4 hours to prepare 1st and 2nd level spells, and six hours to prepare 3rd level spells, minimum, plus 15 minutes per level of spell.

So, preparing 2 first level, 1 second level, and 1 third level spell would take nearly eight hours.

Is this the official rule for 2nd edition, or is this a GttSF rule?

 

[ccs]

Sounds like the general 2e rule.

Its been a few decades since I read Savage Frontier so I dont recall why its being discussed there.

 

[Quickleaf]

My 2e PHB says under Chapter 7: Magic:

Memorization is not a thing that happens immediately. The wizard must have a clear head gained from a restful night's sleep and then has to spend time studying his spell books. The amount of study time needed is 10 minutes per level of the spell being memorized. Thus, a 9th-level spell (the most powerful) would require 90 minutes of careful study. Clearly, high-level spellcasters do not lightly change their memorized spells.

 

[Shiroiken]

Is this the official rule for 2nd edition, or is this a GttSF rule?

A mix. There is a time required for memorizing spells, but it's much shorter than that. My guess is that GttSF deliberately increased the time to memorize as a way of making spellcasting harder, as it would take days for a mid-level caster to fully recover their spells.

 

[cavalier973]

My 2e PHB says under Chapter 7: Magic:

Memorization is not a thing that happens immediately. The wizard must have a clear head gained from a restful night's sleep and then has to spend time studying his spell books. The amount of study time needed is 10 minutes per level of the spell being memorized. Thus, a 9th-level spell (the most powerful) would require 90 minutes of careful study. Clearly, high-level spellcasters do not lightly change their memorized spells.

Thanks. I don't have the 2nd edition rules--and, in fact, was considering purchasing the pdfs.

I have the B/X and the BECMI rules. BECMI says that spell memorization takes at most an hour (for all spells, presumably), but only after a good night's rest.

I have the 1st edition rules, and they sound similar to what I posted from GttSF, but after a more careful reading, what the 1st edition rules say is that the wizard needs more rest prior to memorizing higher level spells. Therefore, to memorize a 9th level spell, the wizard needs to rest for 12 hours beforehand. Then, the wizard spends a quarter of an hour per spell level to memorize each spell. This seems exceedingly onerous. It would mean spending over two hours to memorize that one spell, plus a quarter hour for each level of each other spell to memorize whatever else the wizard wishes to cast. It sounds as if the wizard will spend all day just memorizing spells!

 

[cavalier973]

You know what?
I mislabeled this thread.

Gateway to the Savage Frontier uses 1st edition rules.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yes. At higher levels that adds up. But if you compare it to natural hitpoint regeneration, this is more than fair.
2e timelines are a lot slower than 5e nowadays. And to a certain degree I find it better because it happens much more rarely that you go from level 1 to 10 in a few days.

That said, in 5e you can easily use a different rest method (1 week long rests to emulate such the 2e pacing).

 

[Nikosandros]

In 1e, you need to sleep for a minimum number for hours (4 for 1st-2nd level spells and then increasing) plus you need 15 minutes per spell level to memorize a spell.

 

[Lanefan]

Houseruled caps on the maximum total time it took to memorize (or pray for) spells were common; otherwise, yes it could quite literally take a high-level MU an entire day or more to memorize her spells if she'd run herself dry the day before.

Then again, the expectation in 1e was that a party would take quite a lot longer (in game time) to complete an adventure than seems to be the case now.

 

[Nikosandros]

Houseruled caps on the maximum total time it took to memorize (or pray for) spells were common; otherwise, yes it could quite literally take a high-level MU an entire day or more to memorize her spells if she'd run herself dry the day before.

I consider this a feature. High level casters are not supposed to unload all their spells each day. If they need to, then they need time to recuperate.