I’m a little late to the game getting to this version, and I’m wondering if there are any Dopers out there with experience with this edition. I didn’t see a previous thread for it, so I thought I’d just toss out the first question…
Mages memorizing spells. Is it just memorize-cast-forget, like in 1st-3rd edition, or have they come up with an entirely new, badly-explained system? Do mages still have to memorize multiple copies of a spell if they want to cast it more than once, or are they all sorcerors now, with a badly-explained mechanic?
Wizards prepare spells from their spell book up to a maximum number per level. You can cast any spell you have prepared by using appropriate spell slots. It’s sort of a cross between the 1st edition “Memorize two Magic Missiles and one Sleep” and “Cast any first level spell you want”. You’re forced to plan ahead a little but you’re not screwed just because you should have memorized two Sleeps and a Magic Missile instead. But if you didn’t prepare Shield at all, you just don’t get to cast it (aside from a scroll, etc)
I assume that you meant wizards by “mages” since you refer to sorcerers separately and seem aware of their style.
Also, I’m not sure what you mean by “badly explained mechanic”. Mechanically, the rules are explained just fine and are easy to follow.
From a logic standpoint (such as one can apply to rules for magic), studying a few spells and then being able to cast them at will until your stores of magical energy are depleted makes more sense to me than the “I need to memorize a poem three times in order to say it three times” pure Vancian system. Wizards are still bound by their tomes and still treasure finding new spells but, again, you don’t find yourself regretting memorizing Detect Magic instead of Magic Missile for the third time. It’s logically consistent and more fun (although if I was playing an earlier edition I’d have no issues using those rules; different rules, different challenges)
5e has 3 mage-like spell casters. You can go here https://open5e.com/classes/wizard.html and look at the Wizard (classic magic user), Sorcerer and Warlock.
One major difference is the emphasis on cantrips, or 0-Level spells. These can be cast an unlimited amount of times per day, and some of them can do real damage; a 5th level wizard, for instance, can shoot a Firebolt spell for 2d10 damage every round if they don’t feel like casting something more powerful, which makes low-level casters actually useful in combat.
The three mage classes (wizard/sorcerer/warlock) are also pretty distinct from one another. They’re no longer three differently flavored spellcasters with minor perks. The individual classes also have tons of customization without veering into Pathfinder-style “Dungeons and Dragons and Spreadsheets” territory. I really enjoyed it.
Four: Bards are full casters now, too. In some ways, better casters than the others.
And a wizard’s (or a cleric’s, druid’s, or paladin’s) spellcasting now works basically the same way as a sorcerer’s, except that you can (if you choose) change your “known spells” every day. Note also that spells never become un-prepared, so losing your spellbook is only a minor inconvenience: You can still keep on casting whatever spells you had prepared when you lost it, day after day until you manage to recover or replace it.
A wizard is slightly different from a cleric, druid, or paladin, in that they can pick from all of the spells on their list, but the wizard can only pick from the spells they have in their book. You gain a few spells in your book for free as you level up, and can find others in loot.
Another advantage that wizards have is rituals. Some spells are labeled as rituals, which means that you can cast them in the normal way using spell slots, but you can also cast them without using a spell slot by spending an extra ten minutes casting them. Other classes still need to have a ritual prepared to cast it, but wizards don’t even need to do that: They can cast them straight out of their spellbook. So if some of your spells are rituals, then you never need to bother to prepare those, unless you expect to have to cast it quickly (most of them are the sort of thing you won’t mind taking a while to cast, anyway).
PH page 114: “If you’re a 3rd-level wizard, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With an Intelligence of 16, your list of prepared spells can include six spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination, chosen from your spellbook.”
What’s INT got to do with it? A 16 INT is a +3 modifier. Where does that fit into the above? Does it give me three extra spell-slot levels? Are they hinting at the previous rule that you had to have a +1 modifier for each spell level you wanted to cast, or is it mentioned somewhere else?
If I can prepare six spells in any combination, can I prepare six 2nd-level spells? How about six 1st-level spells?
Can I cast a 2nd-level spell using a 1st-level spell slot? I’m assuming not, because they didn’t include text for that, but they did include text for casting a spell using a higher-level slot.
Immediately before that, it says: “You prepare the list of wizard Spells that are available for you to cast. To do so, choose a number of wizard Spells from your Spellbook equal to your Intelligence modifier + your wizard level (minimum of one spell).”
You can prepare spells from any level you can cast and assuming they are in your spell book. So if you can cast 2nd level spells and you get six prepared spells, you can pick any combination of 1st & 2nd level spells to reach six total. You could even (in theory) prepare six level 2 spells although that is unlikely – both because you’d be wasting your level one slots and you probably don’t have six level two spells in your book at that point.
No. But you can upcast a spell using a higher level slot. Often this means a more powerful spell effect but sometimes it can just be an act of desperation when you really need that level two spell but only have level three slots left.
Yeah, as a rough rule of thumb, it’s usually a good idea to distribute your prepared spells equally over all of your spell levels. So a 3rd level wizard with 16 Int (who can prepare 6 spells) will probably want to prepare three first-levels and three second-levels, or maybe four and two because you have more low-level slots.
The calculation does change a bit when you get to high levels and very few low-level spells are worth bothering with at all. A 14th-level wizard, for instance, might not prepare any first-level spell other than Shield, because she finds that it’s never worthwhile to use a first-level slot for anything else. Or, she might also prepare (say) Magic Missile, and just always cast it using a higher-level slot.
So a 3rd level wizard with a 14 INT would only be able to memorize five, while one with an 18 INT would be able to memorize 7? And the player gets to decide which level of spell to add or subtract from the chart?
I don’t have the chart in front of me, but that sounds right.
I’m not sure what you mean by that. But, if you’re a level 3 Wizard with 18 Intelligence, you can prepare a total of seven spells spread across levels one and two.
I guess I was making too much of a connection between “how many spells can be prepared” and “how many spells can be cast.” It sounds like any connection at all is kind of a fallacy these days…
Not at all. Remember how clerics worked? You have the entire spell list available but could only cast X first level spells per day. Wizards work sort of like that now, only they have to pick their spell list (“prepared spells”) before going out adventuring. You still only get X first level spells per day, but now you can sacrifice a higher level spell to cast a lower level one if you want/need.
Not really useful. How clerics used to work is just like how wizards used to work (aside from the bit about wizards only having the spells in their book), and how clerics work now is just like how wizards work now (again, aside from the bit about wizards only having the spells in their book). Both of them are now more like how a sorcerer used to work, or if you want to get all splatbooky about it, almost exactly like how a spirit shaman used to work.