D&D (2024) What do you think of the new rules for preparing spells?

[glass]

Didn’t you also get to prepare extra spells if you had a high casting stat (or maybe it was a high intelligence, regardless of casting stat)?

In 3.5 and 3.0 it was whatever your casting stat was. In 2e (and presumably earlier) it was only your Wisdom, and only for Wisdom-based casters (although in those days they called it "memorising" rather than "preparing").

 

[cbwjm]

I'm still reserving judgement until I see the rest of the classes, but right now I'm leaning towards keeping the current system. I need to know how the sorcerer and wizard are going to work to finalise what I want to do. I just hope that there are overrides in dndbeyond so that if i want to I can stick to the current system, otherwise I might start phasing that out dndbeyond once onednd releases and stick with buying only the books.

 

[Minigiant]

It's dumb.

The biggest problem with casters was never the top spells, it was the bottom spells.

Being forced to prepare lower level spells that don't upgrade promotes Batman Wizardry. As what else will you do with multiple underdeveloped slots and spells you are forced to prepare a long them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In 5e, you could prepare spells such that you cannot use your lower level spells, so you're right that is something that you have to keep in mind. OTOH, if you do that, it sucks for a day and then you change them tomorrow, so it is not a huge concern. If it could be prevented without the massive fiddliness of the new version that would be great, but in this case the cure is much worse than the disease.

There is no “massive fiddliness”. “Prepare spells of each level you can cast, equal to your spell slots of each level” is not fiddly.

It’s dead simple.

 

[ECMO3]

Giving prepared spells and access to full spell list is a net fun increase for players.
Preparing cantrip too, and that was started in Tasha for the Wizard.

Forcing to follow the spell slot to prepare spell is a nice counterpart. It will limit key high level spell which is a good thing.

For now spell casting is the best part of the playtest.

I will say often players make a bad pick, not realizing how it will go in play or it might be a great pick, just not with this specific group. This isn't usually that bad on spells, because you always have other spells to spend slost on, but on cantrips it can be really bad.

Being able to prepare cantrips takes care of this and I like it as a change. Maybe not on EKs and ATs, but all other casters that have cantrips should prepare them

 

[Neonchameleon]

Giving prepared spells and access to full spell list is a net fun increase for players.

Giving prepared spells and access to full spell lists is a net fun increase for some players. Other players either like to have more thematic characters or dislike the extra faff that comes with being able to adjust your spells like that. One of the advantages of a class based system is you don't have to play one size fits all.

(That said respecs should be allowed, especially for new players).

 

[Vaalingrade]

Giving prepared spells and access to full spell list is a net fun increase for players.

Not having to prep spells every day is its own reward. I would legit rather never play a caster again than play a prep caster.

 

[Clint_L]

I don't care about this change that much. Worse for optimizers, which I kind of like, but decreases player choice a bit, which I don't really like. A bit of a wash. I don't think it will be hugely consequential for most players.

 

[Krachek]

Giving prepared spells and access to full spell lists is a net fun increase for some players. Other players either like to have more thematic characters or dislike the extra faff that comes with being able to adjust your spells like that. One of the advantages of a class based system is you don't have to play one size fits all.

(That said respecs should be allowed, especially for new players).

Ok, it will be to Wotc to satisfy the most of us.
But actual DnD have too much immunity and resistance to allow thematic spell caster to be effective without some adaptation tools.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Ok, it will be to Wotc to satisfy the most of us.
But actual DnD have too much immunity and resistance to allow thematic spell caster to be effective without some adaptation tools.

The way WotC can satisfy the most of us is by having different classes work in different ways. Having some prepared classes and some fixed list classes. Which is the way it has been done (and not having this sort of variety was one of 4e's actual mistakes)

And 5e is very short of immunities to anything other than poison in my experience while 4e let the pyromancers burn through fire resistance.