Prodigy and Master seem both needlessly complicated (see number of posts about Prodigy + Level 1 spells) and also very restrictive, only affecting one spell in your already limited spellbook. That feels the opposite of a ‘prodigy’ to me.
I am considering house ruling these moves to this instead:
Prodigy – When preparing spells, the total levels of spells can’t exceed your level +2.
Master – Replaces Prodigy. When preparing spells, the total levels of spells can’t exceed your level +3.
This seems to be much simpler and cleaner, and much more versatile. It also resolves the issue of Prodigy + Magic Missile and all of the weird issues that creates. Is it a cantrip? If not, can it be memorized 100 times since it is effectively level 0? etc..
Has anyone else used a similar house rule? If so, how did that work out?
Seems like a pretty small bonus for a move. Perhaps level+3 for Prodigy, and level+5 for Master? This “upscales” the intended function of the level+1 rule (that you get your level in spells, plus a free 1st-level spell) to give you a free 3rd-level or 5th-level spell instead.
I don’t know what issues you’re talking about with Cantrips or with a level 0 Magic Missile, though. The text is pretty clear that you prepare and cast Cantrips (and Rotes) for free when you prepare the rest of your spells, and you use the Cast a Spell for them as normal. You still can’t memorise a spell more than once, though, and memorising/preparing a spell takes an hour of uninterrupted time.
So you can at least see what I mean. The current Prodigy and Master function effectively the same as my suggestion, only they apply to one single spell, like Magic Missile, chosen when you take the move.
By subtracting 1 level from your “prodigy” spell, you free up 1 extra spell level to spend. My method gives you the same 1 extra spell level all the time, not just when you happen to memorize the one “prodigy” spell.
Also, I can’t find any mention in the book that restricts spell memorization to 1x per spell. In D&D you often memorize the same spell multiple times, because there you lose it the moment it is cast. The same risk remains here if you roll poorly. So why not memorize Magic Missile twice? Especially if it is going to be your primary nuke, and you know you’re preparing for some major fighting where utility spells won’t be as helpful.
By that logic you can memorise Light and Prestidigitation infinitely. Which is not how it works, since preparing rotes (0 level spells) happens once, and before you prepare spells up to your quota.
And I would suggest that because the cantrips/rotes are handled separately from the “regular” spells, suggests the opposite. You can choose to memorize a “regular” spell any number of times you like. The only limit is that total spell levels do not exceed your level +1. I see no mention anywhere in the book stating you cannot memorize Magic Missile twice.
Since cantrips/rotes are effectively limitless due to being level 0, they are handled as a separate case. To me this suggests that in fact you can memorize a spell more than once. Why else would they go through the trouble of handling the zero level spells differently, if not to prevent their infinite memorization?
I really do appreciate this discussion, Muggins AU!
I also feel that our discussion highlights the problems I mention in my original post. 0 level spells are weird, and not really handled well by the rules as written.
My suggested change to Prodigy and Master effectively resolve this discussion. By adding an additional +1 / +2 to your total spell levels you never have to deal with a new level 0 spell. The issue never comes up. Thus making the Prodigy and Master moves much cleaner from a rules perspective, and also much more versatile than their current state.
🙂
I do still think that upscaling the bonus to +3/+5 would make for a more impactful move. Perhaps making a 1st or 3rd level spell an infinite-use cantrip would even be appropriate for a 6+ move; “signature spell.”
Since this is rewriting the existing Prodigy and Master moves, I won’t increase the bonuses they already give. Just making it a lot more flexible to use.
The rule book doesn’t say this, but the DW HTML SRD (link below) does say: “You can prepare the same spell more than once if you like.”
Likewise, Sage’s comments here indicate that a 1st-level spell becomes a cantrip with prodigy, and cantrips are only memorized once each, and that this is at least somewhat intentional.
As for your suggested change, it works okay. But it misses out on one element of the current wording: the ability to cast the spell a level earlier. So at 2nd level, I can take Prodigy and apply it to a 3rd-level spell. Now I get to prep that spell (plus a 1st level spell) at 2nd level.
Which is, admittedly, only a shortish-term gain. But it can be pretty clutch. The human wizard in one of my games did this, and took Cure Mod Wounds (Cleric 3) as his human “versatile caster” move, and Prodigy as his level 2 advance move. This was a replacement character (his ranger had just died) and the party was really feeling the lack of healing magic. So it made a huge difference.
acodispo.github.io – Moves in Detail | Dungeon World HTML SRD