One thing I've seen occasional reference to is prepared casters using various Divination spells to help them figure out what challenges they might face on the following day, thus allowing them to prepare spells as appropriate. However, details of how they go about doing this are almost always non-existent. So, my questions are:
1.) What spells do you use to do this, and which generally aren't that useful, and why?
2.) What questions do you ask when using said spells?
Of course, I'd imagine that it all depends heavily on context, so allow me to throw out some basic context to attempt to shape the advice to what'll be the most widely useful:
- Your character knows that he or she will be going on some sort of adventure tomorrow, but for whatever reason, has no details of what that adventure might be or what it might involve.
- Your character will be travelling as part a well-rounded and generally competent party. Thus, traps and locks can likely be left to the party's rogue-analogue, etc.
You are very right about context (and your GM!) being very important on this. Work with your GM! Some of them don't like being told "hand me plot details on a platter", others are comfortable with the idea that high-level players can do decent prep on this level. Really clever GMs will note that some scrying/divination magics Just Don't Work against certain precautions -- but be on the same wavelength with your GM about how these things work and what you can/can't do, BEFORE you start laying out your player's scrying pattern.
To the details: If you know nothing about what you're doing next day, life is kind of difficult. Clerics have it better for unknown threats, wizards for (semi-)known ones. (I'm not, at this point, dealing with scouting-type spells like arcane eye or using one of the binding spells to have an outsider scout out the place you're going for you.)
In general, the main spells for this purpose are divination, commune, and legend lore. Contact other plane is possible but somewhat trickier and riskier to use. Note that high-level wizards can usually use limited wish to duplicate some of the clerical spells, and some clerics have some of the wizard spells as domain spells. Note that none of these spells are likely to answer "what spells do I need"; they'll tell you something about the situation, but you have to figure out from that what spells you would be likely to need. (Knowledge skills can be very helpful for this, as can consultation with PCs and NPCs of some experience.)
Divination asks about a specific course of action -- "if I stay in my sanctum, what will happen?"; "if we enter the ruins of Undermountain through the north gate, what we will face?"; things like that. The answer is likely to be a riddle of some sort (depends a lot on the GM!) so it's still a bit tricky. It can give you warning of dangers approaching, but it's more useful if you have something in mind to do and want to know how to prepare for it.
Commune is very high-powered (you get definite yes-or-no answers from the gods, who ought to know most things), but you have to ask the right questions -- recall the game of Twenty Questions you played as a kid? It's like that, only with gods. So it works better if you have some idea what to ask about, and you want to confirm/disprove suspicions. And nothing stops you from asking the wrong question for the situation. Things like "Did we destroy the Evil Lich's real phylactery instead of a decoy?" or "Is the Red Duke planning to send assassins against us in the next two weeks?" or "Are the djinn going to attack our city in the next month?" It doesn't work quite so well with open-ended questions, though players may note that if yes-or-no answers don't work the deity may choose to respond with a short answer.
Contact other plane is very open-ended, and therefore very subject to GM adjudication. More than any of the others, it can give you clues to things you didn't know were coming or didn't know to ask about. But it takes time, and it's risky. You can get brain-fried for a while.
Legend lore ultimately can tell you everything about something, but really depends on knowing something, or having something (you can ask about a person, place, or thing).
If you really have no details of what you're doing tomorrow, think of some possibilities, and ask about those.
The crazy-prepared wizards or clerics usually make sure to have Scribe Scroll as a feat, and then put together a collection of scrolls that will be useful for multiple different situations (detection, protection, evasion, things useful against specific foes) and then make sure to have a well-rounded collection of spells available. It's not just a matter of casting the right divination spells (particularly since most of the powerful ones aren't available until higher level).
If you're going to be part of a generally competent party, then you pretty much have it already: don't prepare spells that duplicate stuff everyone else can do. Prepare spells that solve problems by means other than hit-point damage (the fighter's job) or trapspotting (the rogue's) or protective magic (unless the cleric can't do it for you), etc. Prepare spells that make them better at their jobs (e.g., invisibility or see invisibilityfor the scout; haste for the fighter) or do things they can't do.
Way, way too much depends on the situation and your companions to give you specific advice.
tonyz's advice is excellent.
For the scouting type of wizard, one technique is to use Prying Eyes or Scrying or Clairvoyance to scout with while leaving some slots empty. Once you've scouted, memorise whatever seems most appropriate. Watch out for GMs getting annoyed and jumping your party, though.
My two cents -
When I play a prepared caster, I usually have three or four premade spell lists. One would be useful while in an neutral or friendly urban environment, one would be useful while travelling in wilderness or long distances, and another would be useful if combat was expected to become a common occurrence. Those are examples, yet you get the idea.
I usually leave a few blank slots to fill in should terrain or situation require it, and if the group has scouted or heard rumors I will change the list accordingly.
So far this has helped me a great deal in having most or all of my spells be considered useful.
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My two cents -
When I play a prepared caster, I usually have three or four premade spell lists. One would be useful while in an neutral or friendly urban environment, one would be useful while travelling in wilderness or long distances, and another would be useful if combat was expected to become a common occurrence. Those are examples, yet you get the idea.
I usually leave a few blank slots to fill in should terrain or situation require it, and if the group has scouted or heard rumors I will change the list accordingly.
So far this has helped me a great deal in having most or all of my spells be considered useful.
^^^This is probably some of the best advice a prepared caster can get. Start leaving slots open and preparing different lists at even the lowest of levels. Not 1st or 2nd, but 3rd+, you probably have at least 1 1st level slot you need not prepare.
There aren't really any questions that people ask regularly, though, or for more specific threats? Using Commune as an example, consider the following:
"Am I likely to find myself fighting one or more swarms tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Guess I'd better prepare a couple Fireballs or something, then."
I could see other potential things you might change "swarms" to, some of which might be more useful than others. As examples:
Helpful: Undead, Evil Outsiders, Constructs
Not-so-helpful: Goblinoids, Aberrations
Paranoid: Oozes, Rust Monsters
It might be interesting to make up a list of such questions, particularly ones that don't just follow the same format as above, swapping out one monster type for another. As another example, a blaster-type might ask something to the effect of "What energy type will be the most effective against my enemies tomorrow?" to know what type of blast spells to prepare (ignoring the fact that most of the really good blasters are spec'd heavily into one damage type). Of course, if a wizard asked that and got "Positive Energy" as an answer, it'd prolly be a good idea to inform the party's cleric.
Are there any other good, general-purpose questions that I'm not thinking of? Of course, keeping the questions IC-viable can be a bit tricky on occasion, like you can't ask if you're going to be fighting a bunch of low-hitdice monsters or the like, but a question about "strong-willed enemies" might work.
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There aren't really any questions that people ask regularly, though, or for more specific threats? Using Commune as an example, consider the following:
"Am I likely to find myself fighting one or more swarms tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Guess I'd better prepare a couple Fireballs or something, then."I could see other potential things you might change "swarms" to, some of which might be more useful than others. As examples:
Helpful: Undead, Evil Outsiders, Constructs
Not-so-helpful: Goblinoids, Aberrations
Paranoid: Oozes, Rust MonstersIt might be interesting to make up a list of such questions, particularly ones that don't just follow the same format as above, swapping out one monster type for another. As another example, a blaster-type might ask something to the effect of "What energy type will be the most effective against my enemies tomorrow?" to know what type of blast spells to prepare (ignoring the fact that most of the really good blasters are spec'd heavily into one damage type). Of course, if a wizard asked that and got "Positive Energy" as an answer, it'd prolly be a good idea to inform the party's cleric.
Are there any other good, general-purpose questions that I'm not thinking of? Of course, keeping the questions IC-viable can be a bit tricky on occasion, like you can't ask if you're going to be fighting a bunch of low-hitdice monsters or the like, but a question about "strong-willed enemies" might work.
Be careful with this. You might get responses that aren't exactly what you were asking. For instance "Evil Outsiders" might turn out to be Evil-aligned native outsiders. If the GM feels you are going overboard with divinations, he might feel perfectly justified in giving this sort of thing.
Also, for general advice, this doesn't help with preparing spells too much, but Clairaudience/Clairvoyance might be a helpful spell for filling blank slots, letting you[with some GM interpretation] see through doors/walls[it would seem to me "the other side of this door" is obvious, but YMMV].
Well, isn't having things twisted on you half the fun of divinations (or wishes, for that matter)? You just have to be careful about how you word things. I've been trying to think of a way to ask about the risk of catching a disease, without having the DM go "Well, you were at risk of catching a cold." A risk of negative levels might be another good one to ask about, but I'm not even sure how you'd approach that from an IC-terminology perspective. "Life drain" could be interpreted as effects that steal HP, or damaging Con while giving the monster a benefit, or any other number of things... Hmm...
And all this is why talking with your GM is really useful.