Wouldn't it be nice if cantrips could be cast spontaneously?

[Sanackranib]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Wouldn't it be nice if cantrips could be cast spontaneously?

I agree. IMO, it's bad enough you don't get bonus cantrips for high attributes ...

I house ruled that in my game along with adding the priest zero level spells for paladins which also seemed to be a "no brainer" and somthing I was sorry didn't get changed in 3.5

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Sure, go ahead. I'd even go as far as to let everyone cast their cantrips at will. The lists had to be checked for problem-cases, but I don't think it would be to bad.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Sure, go ahead. I'd even go as far as to let everyone cast their cantrips at will. The lists had to be checked for problem-cases, but I don't think it would be to bad.

Cure Minor Wounds being the obvious one. Who needs a Ring of Regeneration when you can just heal up the entire group in a half hour or so? And if every Cleric can do this at level 1, what does that do to the balance of the world?
Having totally unlimited cantrips is bad for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it's not level-dependent. Anyone could take 1 level of Cleric to be able to Cure Minor Wounds at will.
Using the Psion-style system (level+3 free cantrips, plus the ones you have slots for) is okay, for classes with limited spells known. But for Wizards, Clerics, or Druids? It's just too much. You take away one of the spontaneous' casters big advantage, if you let Wizards or Clerics cast any spell spontaneously.

What I'd do is just give every caster a number of bonus cantrip slots equal to their primary stat mod. So, if you're a Wizard with an INT of 20, you get 5 bonus cantrip slots. At high level, a caster might have a dozen cantrip slots, more than enough to memorize all the things he wants, but not enough to allow abusable combos.

 

[Zogg]

Abusable combos w/cantrips? Huh?

I don't agree that wizards/clerics should have unlimited cantrips...or even more than their alotted slots. I just want the slots they have to be open for utility purposes.

I'm just saying that if a wizard enters a dark room and has a cantrip slot available, *boom* he can make light. I mean, imagine Elminster walking into a dark room and saying, "Damn. I didn't memorize a light cantrip today." Wizards shouldn't be pigeon-holed that way.

As for clerics and the whole cure minor wounds thing, I see no trouble with this. I mean, they are healers after all - and I think they can only have 6 cantrips at highest level. That's 6 HP per day assuming they waste every cantrip healing minor wounds.

I don't think giving wiz/clrs more cantrips is the answer - just allow them to pick from their list.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

CMW would not be that useful even if available at will. It's still only 1 HP per round. It's useless in a combat, and even out of the combat it would take quite a lot of time to heal the party - especially at higher levels.

And I don't think the spontaneous casters will be upset if everyone can cast cantrips spontaneously (of course, you would give everyone all cantrips as spells known).