One of my players and I think that the basic formula for prepared spells is too stingy. The RAW formula is that you prepare your level+1 in spell levels. So this means when you hit, say, level 7 and get access to that juicy new level 7 spell, you can prepare it…and “Detect Magic.” And that’s it.
To me, that isn’t as fun as having more choices, and it doesn’t seem to fit the old-school vibe. We’re experimenting with your levelx2 as a new formula (still can’t prepare any spell level>your level). Just wondered if other people had tried any other variations here, or if there’s something I’m overlooking.
Yeah… I’ve felt that 1st level wizards are also a bit underpowered, especially if you’re using the “Forgetting” partial failure option a lot. I’m inclined to go with (level + INT) for the spell levels at a minimum, but I agree: if you’re capping out at 10th level, then you’re spells are going to be pretty limited even then. Maybe ((2 x level) + INT)?
Iacopo – I definitely need to focus on Ritual much more. We haven’t used it at all yet – I don’t really grok it yet.
Sarah Newton What you need to remember about “Ritual” is that it covers pretty much every spell that isn’t listed in the book already. It covers any magicy effect that either wouldn’t do damage or would take more than a second to cast.
Need to turn someone turned to stone by a medusa back to flesh? Ritual.
Want to create a floating energy disk to carry your stuff? Ritual.
Want to let people breathe underwater? Ritual.
Want to scry on someone? Ritual.
Want to summon a monster? Ritual.
Want to project yourself into the Astral Plane? Ritual.
If you are struggling with ritual, I suggest devising a challenge that can be easily overcome magically, provide them with a place of power and gently remind the wizard that everything else magical he wants is covered by ritual.
Let imagination fly (theirs and yours).
So, in D&D spells are done ‘per day’. In other words there’s hours of prep, sleep, slot pyramids and all sorts of things.
In DW the spells are prepared per-hour. I’m actually playing an elven wizard in our current game (his magic is Stand based akin to Jo Jo’s). So if we hit a spot where I need a different spell selection I just take the hour and re-swap.
Also Ritual remains my favorite ability in the game so far.
I’m all for ritual, and we use it a lot.
But I’m talking about something different. I’m talking about stuff that’s ready to cast on the fly, under pressure, when the situation isn’t safe enough to stop for an hour and re-tune just because you now realize that the 3rd level spell you’ve been relying on for months didn’t stop being useful just because you got access to a 5th level spell.
That is the essential problem with vancian magic though, what i have been doing is point to the casters that high levels spells do not trump lower level ones, they just open up new possibilities.
Having little spells of higher level is something I am not too concerned with, they can only focus on the high power stuff if they give up versatility until they prepare again.
Ritual is awesome, yes.
However, it doesn’t address the problem I have with wizards, which is that if you use that new high level spell you just got access to, that’s damn near all you can do. Hit level 5, want to play with cage? Better hope all your problems can be solved with cages.
Yeah, you just need an hour of rest to reset the spell, but that’s a lot of time in an adventure timeframe. “Alright. Everybody stop. We’re gonna take a breather in the middle of the assault. Wizardboy over there only has fireball and detect magic for a close quarters corridor fight?”
My ideal change to this is simple: Detect Magic and Magic Missile become cantrips and elves get something else as a racial. This means that no matter what spell loadout the wizard takes, they all have a functional attack and Detect Magic, which are the Adventuring Basics for wizards. Yeah, they still give up a lot of options when they take that L7 spell at L7, but at least they’re not in a situation where all they’ve got’s Dominate and Detect Magic.
This also opens up additional spells at the lower levels since taking “Charm’ at L1 doesn’t feel like a waste of a spell, even if you know you’re only going to use it in town before you head out to the graveyard full of undead.
You can change spell levels, not the character level they gain it, that way you could have spell levels range from 1 to 5, instead of the current 1 to 9 odd levels only.
I know the thread is a bit old, but I was wondering if the level x2 solution was a success or had some unintended bad consequences. I was thinking about the same “solution”, but since DW has been playtested a lot before release, I guess that they settled for level +1 for some good reasons.
Right now, I just testing it in PbP, so the pace is slower–but no crisis yet. I think the Wizard, in particular, is having more fun, and so far it hasn’t made me regret the decision.
Definitely it’s a house rule that needs some more playtesting, though.
Thanks. Keep us posted!