Spell levels

[Valenswift]

I apologise in advance if this has been asked before.

I started last year with the beginner's box and in there it says a lvl 1 wizard gets first level spells, a lvl 2 wizard gets first level spells, a lvl 3 wizard gets second level spells and so on up to lvl 5.

Now i have the core rules i can only find a table which says which level spells a wizard is entitled too. This seems very arbitrary to me and i was just wondering if there was text anywhere that explains the why the levels are as they are?

Sorry if this is a bit of a pointless question but if there is a reason for it (does there even have to be?) i'd like to know :P

[IejirIsk]

Sorry I don't think I follow the question, but I will try to answer.

a wizard (indeed, any prepared full caster) gets their spells faster

at 1'st level, they get access to cantrips (0 level) and 1st level spells
at 3rd they gain access to 2nd level spells which are more potent
at 5th level, they start getting into the fun 3rd.

comparatively, a sorcerer (limited spells, but doesn't have to pick before casting) gets the higher level spells a level later.

[Grick]

Valenswift wrote:

i was just wondering if there was text anywhere that explains the why the levels are as they are?

Not really, but it's presumably done for balance. If a level 9 wizard had access to the existing 9th-level spells, it would completely wreck the game.

While they could have doubled the number of spell levels and spread the existing spells out in between, (taking half the old 1st-level spells and re-labeling them as 2nd-level spells, then half the old 2nd-level spells as 3rd and 4th, etc.) that's a lot of extra work, both for the developers to re-organize the spells, and for players who have twice the amount of work to do in choosing spells, and end up far more limited in what spells they can cast. It would also make all spellcasting incompatible with d20/OGL, and also with the first generation of OGL Pathfinder content. It's also harder to then balance partial casters, like bards, who have a different casting progression.

-edit- Level vs Level (Comic)

[Skeld]

The 9 levels of Wizard spells is a legacy D&D thing; previous editions had arcane Wizard spells split into 9 levels of power. When this was adapted into D&D 3rd edition, they had to spread the 9 levels of spells over the 20 levels of the Wizard class. They chose to allow access to a new spell level on odd numbered class levels.

Every edition of the game has certain elements the designers decide to bring forth from previous editions. These legacy elements have to mesh with the new elements that are added by the edition.

Look closely and you're see a great many things that appear arbitrary. Most of those things have some level of reasoning behind them. Some of that reasoning is carryover from previous editions of the game.

-Skeld

[Skeld]

Another thing that may help: Keep in mind that certain words have specific meaning within the game. Unfortunately, some words have multiple meanings. "Level" is one of those words. When you're talking about "spell levels," as in, "a 9th level spell," you might find it handy to do like my group and use a different word. We use the word "circle" instead of "level" with regard to spells. So "a 9th level spell" gets called "a 9th circle spell" instead.

-Skeld

[Daniel Williams 954]

Thanks a lot for the explanations. I figured it was something like this, i just don't have the knowledge (history) of D&D and RPG's like a lot of the people on here :)

As i said initially it was a pretty pointless question but i got exactly the answer i was looking for, thanks.

[fretgod99]

Yep. This would be loads less confusing for new players had they chosen to use something like "degree", "grade", or "tier" for spell levels.