When is a Wizard's "Golden Hour"?

[phillipjp]

Let's suppose our heroic wizard memorizes his spells the morning of day one. Our wizard then spends the next 30 hours traveling to a dungeon. (Assume it's now around 2pm.) He then unloads all his spells in combat.

Can this wizard now climb up a rope trick, rest for 8 hours, then memorize new spells? (It is, after all, over 24 hours since he last memorized.)

Or, even though he didn't use any spells during the day of travel, his day is still considered to have begun at ~8am, so he has to wait until tomorrow to remem?

 

[XCorvis]

Count time from the point that spells were prepared, not the start of the day. Some wizards keep odd schedules, and having the turnover be at 8 am for all of them doesn't make sense.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

the only requirement is 8 hours of rest plus the time needed to re-memroize the spells. time of day or night has nothing to d owith it. Now divine casters on the other hand...

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

According to the PHB, wizards have x spells of y level per day. This means that, although wizards may prepare spells at any hour they desire, they may not use their spells in the morning, rest 8 hours and reprepare them, and cast them again in the evening of the same day.

The original question as to when the "day" starts is a good one. Personally, I would figure that the day starts when the wizard wakes up and ends when the wizard wakes up the next day. If the wizard tries to rest again in the middle of the day, I would specify this to dawn and tie magic in with the power of the sun deity or the power of the moons (as in Dragonlance). It is, however, a completely arbitrary decision as the rules don't specify when the "day" starts in this case. Although the original question seems to be an attempt to sidestep the rules, I can see cases which wouldn't be (for instance, a party is attacked at 1AM and, after waking up, the wizard expends his last unused spells to defeat the monsters. Can the wizard prepare and cast spells as usual in the morning?).

 

[Thanee]

IMHO the 'day' starts with the memorization of the spells.

After that, 24h have to pass before they can be rememorized.
There is no requirement to rememorize them at the same or even a similar time, tho, as has been pointed out.

Bye
Thanee

 

[NilCat]

I seem to remember that any spellcasting in the last 8 hours before memorising/preparing spells count against the number of spells you can cast in the following day also.

 

[Ristamar]

I seem to remember that any spellcasting in the last 8 hours before memorising/preparing spells count against the number of spells you can cast in the following day also.

You are correct, sir.

From the SRD:
Recent Casting Limit/Rest Interruptions: If a wizard has cast spells recently, the drain on her resources reduces her capacity to prepare new spells. When she prepares spells for the coming day, all spells she has cast within the last 8 hours count against her daily limit.