I come from a non-D&D background and have been playing the PF rules for about a year and a half. I have instituted some house rules recently and added a few of the variant rules from Paizo.
One of the aspects we have been struggling with is the vancian style wizard - the fact that the wizard can only pull from those spells he has memorized that morning.
I know there is a bonded object option, but I feel this is very limitted. So I was thinking of trying this house rule.
"Wizards must prepare their spells in advance but, if the situation arises, they can substitute a memorized spell for another spell in their spell book. The look-up time for this spell is 1 full round which will open them for an Attack of Opportunity. They can opt to “search their spellbook” defensively (no AOO) which will require a DC15 concentration check. Once found the spell can be cast the next round with typical casting times and such. This spell will eliminate one of the memorized spells of the same casting level (choice of the Wizard)."
Of course, while the spellbook is in hand and being scanned it will be subject to possible sundering which could be tragic.
Let me know your thoughts.
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I think it's unneeded. You just need to remember that cooking pancakes takes time, and you can't have strawberry pancakes when all you cooked was chocolate ones.
One thing I have seen is allowing wizards to prepare spells and then cast spontaneously from those prepared spells. If that suits you better, cut out the sorcerer and just use the wizard.
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First and foremost: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MEMORIZED SPELL!
Ahem. Sorry, that is pet peeve of mine. And as you mention that you come from non-D&D background you have absolutely no excuse of old grognard clutching pointlessly to the obsolete terminology
If you dislike the prepared spellcasters just leave them out of your games. There are spontaneous casters to fulfill that role. Adding too much, too easy ways of casting any spell you want is just cheapening the magic and removes the challenge and fun of playing the wizard in the first place (which, I admit has grown somewhat tedious due to progressing spell bloat, which was terribly visible at the end of 2nd edition and it was visible after a few years of 3rd edition).
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We use a similar houserule in our game, but it takes a full 10 minutes to swap out a prepared spell. That eliminates the possibility of swapping spells in combat, but allows a bit more flexibility for prepared casters.
If you want to stick with RAW (Rules as Written), the prepared wizard can leave spell slots "unprepared" and fill them in with spells later by taking time to study them.
Spell Selection and Preparation: Until he prepares spells from his spellbook, the only spells a wizard has available to cast are the ones that he already had prepared from the previous day and has not yet used. During the study period, he chooses which spells to prepare. If a wizard already has spells prepared (from the previous day) that he has not cast, she can abandon some or all of them to make room for new spells.
When preparing spells for the day, a wizard can leave some of these spell slots open. Later during that day, he can repeat the preparation process as often as he likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, the wizard can fill these unused spell slots. He cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because he has cast a spell in the meantime. That sort of preparation requires a mind fresh from rest. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if the wizard prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.
I think that next party I GM, I am going to go with RAW for prepared casters, though.
-Aaron
Wizard can already cast any number of spells each day as they want. They get Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat for a reason.
back in 2ed we had an(optional ?) rule: Mages and clerics had to spend 10 minutes per spell level of the spell he wanted to memorize in study or meditation. It led to alot of sitting around outside dungeon doors flipping hourglasses (not recommended)
What about clerics, then?
And all of the other prepared casters?
I mean this with no condescension whatsoever: if prepared spells are a deal-breaker for you, play another game. Pathfinder is largely about spell management, be it prepared or per-day stuff. Trying to strip that out creates so many problems that you may as well play something else that was built from the ground up without it. Don't even get me started with how this affects monsters, etc.
I often just go play Shadowrun or Burning Wheel when this stuff bothers me, then come back to Pathfinder/D&D when I'm ready to deal with the system's assumptions. When I am actually in the mood, and I feel like "Hey fire-and-forget spells that are like intangible objects that the caster assembles and then carries around like loaded weapons, that's cool and as realistic as any magic system amiright?"
... that's when you play Pathfinder.
EDIT: Incidentally, I find that just working on some metaphysics to explain the behavior of the mechanics (rather than changing the mechanics to fit your imagined behavior) can be a wonderful solution. Pathfinder magic is weirdly consistent, and if you give yourself over to the strange behavior of spells-as-objects-not-as-skills, then you actually have a really rich and interesting setting to draw upon.
Sorry can't hold this in. Finally playing my first shadowrun game. I'm running as an ex covert ops troll adept. I can't wait until next wednesday
If you find yourself wishing for Shadowrun's rules in a fantasy setting (with Soul-Calibur-esque combat) you could do worse than to pick up Burning Wheel.
But I should reiterate — I love playing Pathfinder for Pathfinder! Once you have a "modern" system to scratch the itch, sometimes you really still want to return to the old ways. To me, that's why PF exists!
I've never been a fan of Vancian spell casting. My main role playing group has been using spell points for all spell casters for many years - with AD&D, D&D 3.x, and Pathfinder. We've never had any problems with it in all that time and have enjoyed it very much.
In HackMaster.. a Wizard can take his spellbook and cast spells off of them as a Scroll.. .ripping the pages out and the magical ink disappearing as you cast the spell (obviously in an emergency)...
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In HackMaster.. a Wizard can take his spellbook and cast spells off of them as a Scroll.. .ripping the pages out and the magical ink disappearing as you cast the spell (obviously in an emergency)...
We used to play AD&D 2E with this same house rule... Result was we had to go and buy the wizard a new spell book after almost every adventure. He was always casting the things out of the book...
DM: A group of four goblins sit in the sewer junction ahead, discussing something while hurling stones at the nearby rats
Weaver the Wizard: "AAAAAAGGGGHHHH. I have no decent spells left. I open my spell book to fireball and hurl one down the corridor at them!"
Everyone Else: <Collective sigh and shaking of heads>
Thanks all for the valuable input!!
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I come from a non-D&D background and have been playing the PF rules for about a year and a half. I have instituted some house rules recently and added a few of the variant rules from Paizo.
One of the aspects we have been struggling with is the vancian style wizard - the fact that the wizard can only pull from those spells he has memorized that morning (...)
Let me know your thoughts.
Don't forget that by RaW, you can leave some spell slots "opened" in order to prepare them later. By RaW this takes 10 minutes and a calm setting, so not usable in combat.
Basically, it means that for prepared casters, casting a spell takes more than 6 seconds, which is mighty inconvenient for your typical adventuring wizard. Perhaps that's why they came up with spell preparation as a method of shortening casting time when the spell is needed by pre-casting the spell and holding the triggering components; which (apparently) can be done within 1 round.
We could assume that part of that 10 minutes includes the (potentially) time-consuming storing of "spell energy" and triggering part of spell-preparation which, I guess, you you could houserule down to 1 full-round per spell level if you are casting the spell there and then (plus a move-equivalent action to retrieve and open your spellbook if you want to be consistent with the rest of the rules).
That, IMO, wouldn't be erring too far from RaI and offer more flexibility with 1st and 2nd level spells especially (higher level spell would benefit much less from spending several rounds casting, plus retrieving spellbook).
'findel