Is there a maximum number of prepared spells?

[Altaica]

I'm unsure if it's meant to being able to cast a spell and having the spell prepared are to diffrent thing?

The only place Were it's even implied that preparation is tied to spell slots is: "When preparing spells for the day, a cleric can leave some of her
spell slots open."

IMBUE WITH SPELL ABILITy says, "You transfer some of your currently prepared spells, and the ability to cast them, to another creature." implying that you can have a spell prepared and not have the ability to cast it.

THey seem to go out of their Way to keep them different.

[Andre Roy]

All Spellcasting Classes has the ability to cast spells. All Non-Spellcasting Classes does not have the ability to cast spell.

For non-Spontaneous Spellcaster, Spells needs to be prepared in order to be able to cast. Your maximum limits (how many and how powerful) are determined by your level in that class. Preparing less spells that your maximum limit is just crippling yourself for no good reason.

So yes Ability to Cast Spell and Preparing Spells are 2 distinct, albeit connected, things. And no you cannot prepare spells thay you are unable to cast.

I think you misunderstand the sentence for IMBUE WITH SPELL ABILITY. Let see if this example will help illustrate its meaning: You get ready for a fight an decide to IMBUE the spell Cure light wound that you prepared to the fighter (A class that DOES NOT have spellcasting ability as a norm). If you just IMBUE him with the spell he can't use it as he doesn't have the ability to cast spell, you must IMBUE him with both the spell and the ability to cast it For him to be able to cast it.

[Meirril]

Let me see if I can say the same thing as Roy but in a slightly clearer way.

If you are a caster that uses Spell Preperation, you are only allowed to prepare a certain number of spells per day of each level. The only spells you can cast are the ones you have prepared. If you have not prepared all of the spells you are allowed to you can spend an hour to prepare the remaining amount that you didn't prepare before. Specific rules and abilities will let you prepare spells faster, or use the 'slots' without preparation.

For most of the preparation classes the only spell list they have is "Spells per Day". This chart says how many of each level of spell may be prepared. Most of these classes can benefit from a high stat allowing additional spells to be prepared as well as class abilities. For example Wizards have Schools of Magic that very frequently allow for 1 additional spell to be prepared for each spell level.

So no, you are very limited on the number of spells you may prepare.

Even spontaneous casters are quite limited. While they don't need to prepare specific spells to be cast and are allowed to choose from their entire list of spells known, spontaneous casters are limited on how they may add to their spells known. Also they are limited on how many spells they can cast per spell level per day much like preparation casters. Usually spontaneous casters get a larger allowance of spells per day to make up for their more limited range of spell known.

[Magda Luckbender]

One excellent use of Imbue with Spell Ability is to imbue the Hulking Barbarian with Shield Other, which is then used on some wimpy-but-important character, such as a Wizard. This helps spread around damage, which increases both heal efficiency and team durability.

[Joesi]

Altaica wrote:

implying that you can have a spell prepared and not have the ability to cast it.

It's just being clear, not implying anything. It's a logical error to assume that it implies that even though the ability to cast spells and having them prepared ARE different. It's just that prepared spells are almost always castable. However it's true that there are situations where a spell can be prepared but not cast, such as ability drain that lowers the score sufficiently, or the Touch of Idiocy spell. Note that ordinary ability score damage does not do-so though.

It's specifically saying that all the prepared spells transfer over and can be cast. In theory they could have just said that they gain the prepared spells, but then some people who are nitpicky about rules will point out that it didn't say that it grants the ability to _cast_ them. They're just being explicit. In addition they mention it specifically to ignore the facts about having sufficient ability score as well (although the minimum 5 and 9 ability scores implies that in itself)

Why are you asking about this anyway? Ask that question that you want to know about rather than this pointless roundabout question.

[Cevah]

Andre Roy wrote:

Preparing less spells that your maximum limit is just crippling yourself for no good reason.

Clearly you don't value versatility. Nothing says "I can fix it" than taking a few minutes to get the needed spell rather than spending overnight.

Meirril wrote:

If you have not prepared all of the spells you are allowed to you can spend an hour to prepare the remaining amount that you didn't prepare before.

Per Preparing Divine Spells, it only takes 15 minutes unless filling more than 1/4 of your spells.

Per Preparing Wizard Spells, the same rules apply.

/cevah