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...and the cleric just prays for whatever he wants from a list of 30 spells a level? No spellbook, no % to know, not even a divine "Thou shalt have..."?
That's the way clerics have always worked. The versatility they gained was often worth the tradeoff in lower potency spells, for the most part. It's a balancing factor between them, and makes them play in practice quite differently. And having specialty clerics with access to certain domains was quite fun too, with some wizard spells on those lists.
Some players love playing fighters, some like the versatility of the cleric, especially if they're tailored with a good deity and backstory...clerics often end up being the party leader or face and roleplaying is a huge benefit. So what they do less damage in combat, they can still fight. In fact, with the right specialties you can get some of each. Which is a good thing. But the rules this time around seem really sparse and pared down.
I believe int-mod of free spells automagically appearing in your spellbook is too powerful. All of a sudden, you're in the depths of the dungeon and you can suddenly TP back home, disintegrate the cave troll, and ...etc? Without having come across a scroll? It's too similar to the cleric. I hated in 4e how clerics and wizards and fighters were all too similar in power structure and acquisition. But mostly I hated how incremental and silly those power bumps are. E.g. you get to fly at level 16...great. we quit playing by level 12, after three years.
Wizards should have to research their spells or learn to scribe them. If might suck if you fail your roll by 2%...better luck next time. Complain to the gods!! for all the good it'll do you. I don't want a game where poof the magic just flows into your spellbook, exactly the most powerful spells.
I wonder how many wizards will chose exactly the same spells...No randomness = no fun. Imagine a school of wizardry allowing their students free choice of spells...and one of the pupils in a class choses a really crappy spell instead of fly or invisibility. He'd be ostracized, or just outcast. Why do such a thing? Supposedly genius-level people don't invest in known bad investments, when there are "sure things" which are just plainly better. You can't balance it this way...your int mod free spells will almost always go to the top performing spells, if you're smart, otherwise your party will groan and you could very well all die. And if there's no risk of failure or barriers or penalties to spellcasting....why is everyone in the world with an int 13+ not casting 1st level spells, all the time?
"In a world full of people...only some want to fly...isn't that crazy?"