All the time when I see people giving new players advice they lean towards spontaneous casters. They always say that spontaneous is better because they don't have as much to deal with, but why would you recommend a class that must deal with its poor choices for many levels instead of the class that can change its mind every day. And for people who say they suffer from decision paralysis when preparing spells don't you have the same issues when you pick spells at level up? It shouldn't be a problem at the table unless you rp out every morning preparing spells, unless nobody else picks out a list of spells to prepare and only changes them when the situation demands it. What are your thoughts on the whole situation?
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Bait name title is a bait. (Yes, I rolled a 1 on my Will Save.)
Besides that, Prepared have the better spell choices and progression. The only way Spontaneous can compare is by having powerful features to compensate for their reduced spell choices and progression.
Cleric and Oracle is a solid example of good "versus," Wizard and Sorcerer is a solid example of bad "versus."
Spontaneous casters are likely recommended to new players over prepared casters because then the new player doesn't have to learn the rules for a thousand spells. They only need to learn the rules for a handful of spells.
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And for people who say they suffer from decision paralysis when preparing spells don't you have the same issues when you pick spells at level up?
Looking at the mega list and choosing 1 spell known is big decision 1 time.
Looking at the mega list and choosing a dozen spells to have in my book and then each day looking at may pretty mega list of spells and choosing 1 for the day is a big decision followed by a pretty big decision.
Also, wizards can suffer from the, "dang if only I prepared X that I know" OR "dang, I only have 2 fly's and we could use a third". While sorcerers are just like, "How can I use X today?" and "oh I know a spell for this."
Spontaneous casters don't need to predict how many castings of a spell they'll need, which is huge. Recommend the first two spells per spell level (one combat, one utility) for new players.
Spontaneous casters don't need to predict how many castings of a spell they'll need, which is huge. Recommend the first two spells per spell level (one combat, one utility) for new players.
Also recommend that they make picks they will want/expect to use multiple times a day.
I prefer spontaneous. With the feat versatile spontenaity and the item mnemonic vestments.
Between the feat and the item you can get a lot of the versatility you are missing. This was made even better by the FAQ that you don't need to be a wizard to write in spellbook. Now it is clear that a sorcerer can write spells in a spellbook for use with things like versatile spontenaity.
The Arcanist is a good compromise between prepared and spontaneous casters. You still need to decide which spells to have available to you each day, but you do not need to decide in advance how often you will be casting each spell.
The arcanist does have the least ammo however.
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You are correct in a vacuum. However, most players receive help in making their character, but not so much in what choices they make during the game.
When I get a new player in my groups, either I or an experienced player is going to sit down with them, help them figure out what they want to play, give them some of the better options for where they have to make choices and explain what the differences between those options are. So a new player won't have to choose between all the feats for their character, they will just need to choose between the few I recommend (they are free to look through all the books and make their own choice of course.) The same is true for spontaneous casters and spells, I'll give them suggestions for some of the good ones. This process repeats when we level up.
On the other hand, during play, suggesting a course of action is much less common, including what spells to memorize (and I will pretty much never do that as a GM, since I know exactly what spells are likely to be useful) if a player asked if I knew a good 2nd level fire damage spell, I would answer, but I'm not going to say you should memorize a, b and c. For new players of prepared divine casters this can especially be a problem, since they have access to ALL the spells, without even a spell book to help them filter down the good ones.
Yeah, you can help your new friend pick his known spells.
I'm in agreement with Dave. Case point: we had a relatively new player (previous experience was a couple of sessions as a gunslinger)who chose a fire elemental bloodline sorcerer. Broadly he has a good instinct for spell selection e.g. his damage spells are typically non-fire based since he can change them to fire damage with his bloodline arcana. However one of the spells he chose was Bull's Strength which would have been of little use since the party already had multiple ways to boost strength. I suggested he might prefer to take Eagle's Splendour since it'll boost his spell DCs and the GM isn't one for putting the standard ability score boosting items in the game. Now he doesn't have to worry about changing or gaining new spells until the next level. Also the wider class features of the sorcerer are relatively simple: A bloodline arcana to change the energy type of spells, a fire ray attack, 10 points of energy resistance.
If he had gone with a wizard, in addition spell prep he would have had to pick a familiar or bonded item, pick a school or stay general; if he picked a school he would then need two opposition schools. There's also the matter of keeping the spell book safe which a sorcerer doesn't need to worry about.
There are certainly advantages for the new player choosing a prepared caster and I think it all depends on the individual. My (short lived)first character in d&d was a wizard (necromancer with evocation and enchantment as opposition schools) and I didn't find organising their spells to be particularly difficult.
the amount of stress one of my players experienced picking an opposition school was ridiculous. xD He also kept thinking he could only cast fireball if evocation was his favored school .-.
Some people agonize over "what spells should I prepare today" (I do, and I've been playing since the 80s). When this happens, in addition to being unfun for the player, it slows down the game for everybody else. As does "hold on, let's stop and rest so I can fill these spell slots I left empty early in the day."
It's probably best to avoid that particular problem until you have the opportunity to figure out if it bothers you and/or the people you're playing with.
There's no universe I see in which "choose your spells once, then choose them again every day" is easier than "choose your spells once". There are certainly advantages to playing a prepared caster, but for new players *choosing spells once* is complicated enough to pose a problem for a lot of people, so I see no reason to make this worse.