Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Eliza_Stormwhisper 04-29-05, 12:54 PM	I was thinking... using the rule that it takes 15 minutes per spell level to prepare a spell, why not get rid of the limits for spells per day by the wizard? Torch the bonus spells from intelligence, and keep the old "spells per day" table as how many you can have prepared at once. So, let's say a first-level wizard prepares a magic missile, then casts it later on. Let him prepare another magic missile, or another 1st-level spell in his/her spellbook. However, s/he may not have more than one spell prepared at a time. What do you think of this idea?
Arcade 04-30-05, 08:05 AM	At high levels, wizards aren't going to use spend the time to remorize a spell that takes 2 hours to do it. In fact, they're likely to have to spend hours and hours in the morning just to memorize their normal spells. Limiting only 1 spell of each type to be memorized is rough. Some spells are really needed more than once, especially in fights. Imagine knowing you are going up against a red dragon, but you can only memorize one protection from elements, one dispel magic, and one cone of cold. You can hardly call yourself overly prepared in that case. At low levels, they will be spell casting machines, since the 15 or 30 minutes they spend to memorize their spells is about how long it will take the rest of the party to search the bodies and room they are in. Even a 3rd level spell at 45 minutes is not too long, so the party may decide to always open every fight with a lightning bolt or fireball. In summary, IMO, it will increase the power of low level casters and limit high level ones.
Eliza_Stormwhisper 04-30-05, 09:10 AM	At high levels, wizards aren't going to use spend the time to remorize a spell that takes 2 hours to do it. In fact, they're likely to have to spend hours and hours in the morning just to memorize their normal spells. Limiting only 1 spell of each type to be memorized is rough. Some spells are really needed more than once, especially in fights. Imagine knowing you are going up against a red dragon, but you can only memorize one protection from elements, one dispel magic, and one cone of cold. You can hardly call yourself overly prepared in that case. At low levels, they will be spell casting machines, since the 15 or 30 minutes they spend to memorize their spells is about how long it will take the rest of the party to search the bodies and room they are in. Even a 3rd level spell at 45 minutes is not too long, so the party may decide to always open every fight with a lightning bolt or fireball. In summary, IMO, it will increase the power of low level casters and limit high level ones. I think you may have misunderstood... A 20th-level wizard can cast, by the table, 4 spells per day of each level. Therefore, they can have up to four spells of each level prepared, including multiple copies of the same spell. So, they could prepare four fireballs at 20th level (and for that matter, 11th because that's when they first get four 3rd-level spells per day). I don't think it'll really limit the power of high level casters... but that's just my personal opinion. And as far as increasing the power of low level casters, yes... that's the idea here. In my opinion, 1st-5th level wizards are in need of some serious help. Pending consultation with my players, I'll probably be implementing this rule in my campaign. As far as how it balances out sorcerers, I won't have to worry about it, because none of my PC's are sorcerers, and I don't know of any significant NPC sorcerers... and I don't like the sorcerer class at all.
Penguinhobo 04-30-05, 03:49 PM	I think that your modification could be used easily for 3rd edition too with only some small changes. It would limit higher level casters alot but they are extremely powerful at higher levels too. So I think that helping lower level wizards and and limiting higher levels is a good thing because at those ends they are overbalanced anyway. :cool:
Eliza_Stormwhisper 04-30-05, 04:17 PM	Okay, now two people have said that it would limit high level spellcasters. Is there something I'm just missing here? I don't get it.
Draco Strang 04-30-05, 05:59 PM	Idea's ok with me. I don't think that it'll make or break a game. Just another way to do things.
Arcade 04-30-05, 06:27 PM	Ok, I get it now. It shouldn't change high level casters at all. They lose bonus spells which weakens them slightly, but otherwise they are the same. Their spells take too long to rememorize so they won't bother to do it that often. Some might argue that low level wizards being weak is to balance out the fact that high level wizards are so powerful. About the only thing I could see players doing is getting items like rings of sustenance and such to avoid having to sleep since now they don't need to rest to get spells (they just keep refreshing their spent slots). Hardly a game breaker.