Rules Question

30 thoughts on “Rules Question”

1. Off the cuff, I’d say nothing as cantrips don’t count against your limit, so their effective level is unimportant.

2. I’d say that’s probably a fair assessment.

3. Yeah, still – what happens when i am a Magic Missile prodigy?

4. In that case you can prepare Magic Missile and it counts for zero levels worth when calculating the maximum total spell-levels you can have prepared (level + 1)

5. What Scott McGougan said. 

   The only thing you can’t Prodigy is a Cantrip. Or I guess you could, but the benefit would be for you to find out. Maybe a Prodigy Cantrip has greater effects? Or is easier to cast?

6. “Turns out I am just really really really really really good at making Light.”

7. “Laser light show time.”

8. I can prepare a spell multiple times right? Can I then just prepare magic missile 200 times (still count as 0 spells) and then always forget 1 instance of the spell? Giving me auto success on the spell?

9. No, I don’t think that’s how that works.

10. lol

11. So i can’t prepare 2 instances of the same spell?

12. Tim Franzke there’s only one check-box on the spell sheet for a reason.  Though, we left this vague in the rules intentionally, so that groups could interpret for themselves.

13. “When you spend uninterrupted time (an hour or so) in quiet contemplation of your spellbook, you:

    -Lose any spells you already have prepared

    -Prepare new spells of your choice from your spellbook whose total levels don’t exceed your own level+1.

    -Prepare your cantrips which never count against your limit.”

    You don’t choose which cantrips to prepare, they just all get prepared once.

14. You can choose to prepare the same 1+ level spell, sure. Cantrips don’t count as 0-level. They’re just auto-prepared and don’t count against your limit.

15. I disagree with Adam Koebel, I think the default is you can prepare the same spell more than once. The move says you can choose spells that add up to your level+1, so that’s what you do, even if it’s the same spell more than once.

    Cantrips aren’t part of that. They get auto-prepared. You don’t choose them. If you could, then every wizard would prepare light 10000000 times, then get prodigy and prepare magic missile the same number.

16. But a prodigy magic missile is considered level 0 (1-1) or is it s cantrip then?

17. Tim Franzke ask the Wizard.

18. Cantrip != Level 0.

    A Cantrip is a different sort of spell, not a level spell. They don’t count against your limit (which is not the same as counting against your limit but being worth 0). The fact that level 1 – 1 = cantrip is an oddity, it does not mean that a cantrip is worth 0.

19. Yeah I understand the cantrip thing, but how to deal with 0 level spells? There would not really be a problem with auto success on 1 spell for a move BUT the idiom of the spell is up to the caster. If he needs 15sec to gather up energy and chant and stuff then he has fictional cost to the spell. If he fires up magic missiles like iron man does repulsor blasts then you have a problem…

20. When you subtract a level from a 1st level spell it becomes a cantrip. It is prepared and cast like a cantrip (i.e. automatically prepared once).

21. There’s a bunch of ways to go about this.  I’d say there’s no such thing as a “level 0 spell” and say Prodigy doesn’t affect level 1 spells.  Bam, done.

    Also, you still Cast a Spell when you activate a cantrip.  It’s not a free trick you get to just throw around.

22. You just gain a new (and only one) cantrip this way Tim

23. I think the canonical way is:

    A 1st level prodigy spell becomes a cantrip.

    That’s it. No special rules. Just cut and paste it into the cantrip section, prepare it once, etc.

    You can of course approach it differently if you like. Adam Koebel’s option works great, as does some crazier ones (“a 1st level prodigy spell stays 1st level, but you prepare it once for free when you prepare spells”).

24. Cantrip is the way I would go to personally. It was just something that was on my mins. Thank you guys for the feedback.

25. What’s wrong with a level 0 spell? If you choose to forget it, you forget the spell and can’t cast it again. Just because you “memorized it twice” doesn’t mean it’s a different spell. So you would forget each and every one of the 10000000 times you memorized it.

26. I don’t really think so. Otherwise what would be the point in memorising multiple instants of the same spell? You could do the same in normal dnd right?

27. D&D says specifically you can memorize the same spell twice. Real life says you can only memorize the same thing once. My interpretation above means there’s no contradictions in the DW RAW and doesn’t involve D&D contradicting real life. Although in practice, I would consult Jack Vance before D&D, and whoever is playing the wizard before Jack Vance. Unless Jack Vance is playing the wizard, in which case I’d let him make up all the rules he wanted to play by..

28. Johnstone’s ruling is going into the errata.

    First, check if you are playing with Jack Vance…

29. Jack still rox !

30. A mathematically equivalent way to specify Prodigy that doesn’t leave a “but what about level 1 spells” question might be:  “Pick one of your spells.  If you include that spell, you may now Prepare spells whose total levels don’t exceed your own level+2.”

    Johnstone Metzger  I’m not sure exactly how it works in Vance’s books; I think it was Zelazny’s Trumps of Doom that finally explained preparing spells, D&D style, in a way that made sense to me.  There, “preparing” is not “memorizing”, it’s more like pre-casting the whole thing, but leaving out the last step.  Casting is finishing, and that instance of the spell is now fired off, served up, and dished out.  Casting again is not a question of remembering, so much as it is of having time and quiet to re-do the first 43 steps of the spell to get another instance ready to go.

    This interpretation doesn’t quite jibe with the mechanics of DW cast a spell, but it would be easy enough to retrofit if the Wizard wanted.

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