The thread on wizard intelligence reminded me of something that's been bothering me, and something that's made me shy away from prepared spellcasting classes for decades now.
Namely ... how do you decide which ones to pick up for the day? How do you decide that you need two Colour Spray, or one Colour Spray and one Grease, or two Grease, or just stick a metamagic Dancing Lights in that spot and cry?
I've not really seen any guides to point out how to decide on this, especially at later levels when your spellbook takes up two cases in your castle library. Is there a guideline, or are you just subject to learning from Prof. Trial and Dr Error? (Dr Error's a harsh one, too.)
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This is what I do:
1st. know your enemy: p.e. if you are playing a campaign full of undead you will probably want more spells that will target Reflex, few that will target Fortitude (if p.e. these undeads are minions of an evil wizard), and probably no spells that will target Will.
2nd. balance: if you don't know what to expect, try to have a spell for each save, having will>reflex>fortitude until level 10, and reflex>will>fortitude past level 10.
3rd. spells that you know you want: p.e. haste, invisibility, fly. there are some spells that you will find to use more often than other, or that you want always be able to cast.
4th. open slots: you don't have to fill all you slots in the morning, especially at higher levels you can leave 1-2 slots from the lower spell levels open, so you can adapt yourself or have the right tool at the right moment.
EDIT:
5th. Consider your DM if they like encounters with lots of mooks then take a few area spells, if he prefers BBEGs then try the single hitters.
A good list give by 4mb4r4b4 (God that is a pain to type lol). Just one to add:
5th. Consider your DM if they like encounters with lots of mooks then take a few area spells, if he prefers BBEGs then try the single hitters.
In some respects it is easier to decide what kind of caster you want to play and prepare for that. There are many ways to skin a cat and there really isn't s right or wrong.
Enjoy it, I love selecting spells.
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I just go for variety. Divide your spells into broad groups (e.g. damage spells, cloud/zone effects, party buffs, enemy debuffs, and countermeasures) then on each level grab a spell from each group. Within each group, try to vary so that e.g. not all of your damage spells are the same element, and not all of your debuffs target the same save. Countermeasures can be narrow (e.g. See Invis is a good choice even if you don't know if there'll be invisible opponents). Have a clearly organized sheet of spells per category, to make prepping easier.
The result is that whatever happens to you, you'll probably have a spell available to deal with it. Because a fun way of playing a wizard is being prepared for everything.