Wizards: Can they memorize every 8 hours, or once every day?

[Forrester]

I remember this thread arose on the old boards, but I don't recall what the final answer was.

I vaguely remember that one side was once/day, quoting the "Spells per day" section of the PHB. The other quoted the "8 hours rest" part of the PHB, and I *THINK* had a Sage email/advice to back them up.

What was the final verdict? Can a wizard cast, rest, cast, rest, cast, rest? I've got a wiz looking to bring a party into a cave using Gaseous Form who really needs to know how long it's going to freakin' take him.

 

[Magus_Jerel]

I think this is true for wizards - but not for clerics...

Namely - the cleric only has one time every 24 hours they can prepare or cast.

It would seem that a "day" means 16 hours - 8 of work and 8 of sleep...

I use 24 hours... not 16

 

[Dr. Zoom]

"Spells per Day" does it for me. Besides, I find it incredible that someone can sleep/rest for 8 hours twice in a 24 hour period. That's my take on it.

 

[Artoomis]

It's pretty simple, really. They need 8 hours rest, and can prepare a certain number PER DAY.

That's it. Unlike the cleric, they can prepare at any time of the day, if they get their 8 hours rest first.

 

[The Sigil]

Wizards...

Let me quote the relevant sections of the SRD on arcane spells:

Rest: To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must have a clear mind. To clear her mind, the wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The character does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but she must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If the wizard's rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time she has to rest in order to clear her mind, and the wizard must have at least 1 hour of rest immediately prior to preparing her spells. If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, she still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells.

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.

Spell Preparation Time: After resting, a wizard must study her spellbook to prepare any spells that day. If the character wants to prepare all her spells, the process takes 1 hour. Preparing some smaller portion of her daily capacity takes a proportionally smaller amount of time, but always at least 15 minutes, the minimum time required to achieve the proper mental state.

Spell Selection and Preparation: Until she prepares spells from her spellbook, the only spells a wizard has available to cast are the ones that she already had prepared from the previous day and has not yet used. During the study period, a wizard chooses which spells to prepare. The act of preparing a spell is actually the first step in casting it. A spell is designed in such a way that it has an interruption point near its end. This allows a wizard to cast most of the spell ahead of time and finish the spell when it's needed, even if the character is under considerable pressure. The wizard's spellbook serves as a guide to the mental exercises the wizard must perform to create the spell's effect. If a wizard already has spells prepared (from the previous day) that she has not cast, she can abandon some or all of them to make room for new spells.

When preparing spells for the day, the wizard can leave some spell slots open. Later during that day, the wizard can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, a wizard can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime. That sort of preparation requires a mind fresh from rest. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if the wizard prepares more than one-quarter of her spells.

The key thing to look at is the last paragraph... the wizard does not need to prepare all of his spells at once... he can leave some slots "open."

If he does so, he may fill the empty slots (only) later on after a preparation period (given by percentage of his total spell slots - not empty ones, but all slots - prepared times one hour with a minimum of 15 minutes).

So the short answer to your question is:

In order to memorize gaseous form "on the fly" the wizard needs:
1.) To leave a spell slot open (i.e., not fill all the spell slots he has with spells) during "morning spell prep" to "contain" the spell later.
2.) 15 minutes to prepare the spell (fill the empty spell slot up with gaseous form) prior to casting it.

As an aside, to gain the spell slot in the first place, he needs 8 hours of rest.

So if you have 1 third level spell slot (IIRC, gaseous form is a 3rd-level spell), you can cast gaseous form once, then you have to rest for 8 hours before the spell slot comes back.

If you have 2 slots, you can prepare one gaseous form in "Slot 1" and leave "Slot 2" empty. You cast gaseous form from Slot 1. It takes you only 15 minutes of prep to insert gaseous form into Slot 2. If you cast that one too, you then need 8 hours of sleep to get your slots back.

--The Sigil

 

[Amrynn Moonshadow]

I think it's just convention to do it as a "per day" mechanic, because everything else is based / balanced against / with that. (much like sneak attacks cant be past 30 ft)

However, and of course there is a however, I think it is limiting in some ways, and it shouldn't be a flat "per day" deal for all casters. (which does cause game balance issues) Additionally I have a few things to say about how things are, so, behold the muddled post:

Cleric: spells / day as stands, however there is some flexibility that should be allowed (besides the spontanious castings). They should be able to (and probably are, IMO) keep a few slots open. Why, they already have spontanious casting? Well, we all read / see movies / imagine climatic fights, or interesting scenes during the calm before the storm. It's likely that a cleric would pray to his/her God/Goddess for guidance / help / a boon or whatever. I can see this being a cleric who leaves a slot open, and the party barracades themself in a room in some dungeon, and the cleric spends some time praying for the ability to see the evil that hides in the shadows (true seeing spell), because the party is getting worked on because they didn't prepare for those enemies. Maybe it's a roleplaying bit, but I think they can keep slots open. Now, as for the deal that they have to pray at the same time of the day everyday and all that jazz, well, that doesn't work in my example. (but if that was the case, how would spontanious casting work, you prayed for that specific spell, and now you're going to change your mind? at what point do gods get pissed off at your indecisivness?)

Wizard: Again, they can keep slots open for a later time when they need to pop in a good adventuring spell which means the PC is reacting to the game, and what's happening in it. A Transmuter who has ample time on his hands to study from his spellbook while in the middle of an adventure can almost do anything. Wizards, I think, shouldn't be under the limits of "spells / day" rather, be under something more like "max spells memorized / study session". such that said transmuter may run out of 3rd level spells pretty soon, and while he doesn't run out of spells, he can easily (if he has the time, and his spell book, enough light to read, spell components and a place to rest w/o being disturbed) study those empty slots again. But that does mean that he's spending x number of hours (where x is the time needed to prepare and study spells, is that also 8 hours including meditation? and rest?) a day TWICE (so 2x, or 16 hours in a day) just so he can cast more spells than he could under the "per day" limit. Is it worth it? Maybe, if you have time and good conditions to study spells in the middle of running for your life. But having to put away all but 8 hours from your day is quite a price to pay for this advantage.

Sorcerors: They aren't "spell beggars" like clerics, or bookworms like Wizards, so what are they? They are more versitile in that, they cast the spells as they are needed (unlike the transmuter who has to wait x number of hours to cast fly on himself, giving the goblin dominatrix enough time to break down the door and go to work on him). Does this versitility also afford a chance at also leaving the "spells / day" limit? Possibly, but their versitility makes it seem a bit unneccesary. She could wait for hours, just so she could cast that one more fireball (that she needs now, not 8 hours from now), or just use a higher spell slot to fireball that last 4th level ogre hippy, and give up a 4th level spell slot.

Bard: Well then, what's the deal with these guys? The Cleric is more flexible, but needs to spend mad time praying to get that flexible, but is still limited to spells / day. The Wizard is more flexible, because it's how many spells he can study / day. The sorceror could do that too, but more than likely will not. I figure that the bard plays it like the sorceror, so that Beavis the Half-Wit (Devis the half-elf?) could fire off as many charm person spells he can get off (by giving up higher spells), rather than wait around for 8 hours to do it again. (this is pretty much like the phb, right?)

Psions: If you don't use these freaks in your games, don't borther reading. I love psions though, and find them to be wizardly, in that if they rest and meditate long enough, they can get power points back. Some people go around thinking that psions regenerate power points over time (like some video games do with mana), maybe this works for them, and is a good alternative, but I don't ascribe to it. Maybe if they rest / meditate for half the time, they only get a quarter of their total power points back, and so on to diminishing returns? (but is it worth it for a 20th level psion to roll out his meditation mat down in the dungeon and stare blankly at the dunegon walls for 20 mins after every time he manefests some cheap-a$$ power)

Boy this post sucked, i need some rest . . . and it's not even 2 pm yet!