It all came to a head when I tried to roll up an archmage in a mythic game. The "wild arcana" feature basically says "you always have access to every spell on your list," and so I felt obliged to play with the book open in front of me, furiously flipping to find the perfect spell on every round of combat. It was straight up exhausting.
That's the extreme end of the analysis paralysis problem, but anyone who's ever piloted a high-level wizard or druid has had to deal with the issue as well. When you've got 20+ spells in front of you, picking the right one can begin to feel overwhelming.
So my question to the forum's casters: How do you mitigate analysis paralysis? What strategies do you use to get your options down to a reasonable number? And how do you combat the feeling that you could have done more if only you'd picked a better spell?
Two words: direct damage. Being a blaster caster has one distinct advantage, namely that they do the same thing with their spells all the time.
Barring that, this is the primary reason why high level play is so daunting for folks that like playing full casters. One thing I've seen a player do in 2 of my longer term campaigns is have spell casting strategies worked out.
He literally put on sheets of paper spells/effects he put on his character every day, suites of spells for buffing/force multiplying, another compliment of spells for debuffing, and still another for "general utility." He did this for a Wizard and an Arcanist respectively but I'm sure this would work for any full caster.
Ironically putting limits on your character is a good thing for high level full casters. If you're playing a Universalist that chose to spend money every level to add extra spells to your spell books, this amount of freedom and diversity can really hamstring you in analysis. On the other hand building your Druid (Swamp Druid) specifically around Summon Nature's Ally spells, taking feats to this affect and picking mass buffs to boost your bug friends after they appear is a pretty niche character but it narrows your focus so you know what you're doing every round.
Another thing that helps is intel. Divination spells, scouting the area, Knowledge checks etc. tell you what threats to plan for. No need taking Circle of Clarity on your 14th level Cleric if you won't be coming across any Illusion spells/effects during your mission.
This is one advantage to being high level. Little surprises you anymore unless you let it. Being able to plan ahead provides a nice way of pre-trimming all that analysis you'll have to do in a fight.
Still, with the PC you're describing you specifically went out of your way to make a PC built around having the EXACT right spell at the right time out of a veritable SEA of spells. In that instance, here's what I'd suggest:
Note cards.
Make a pile of these cards with your spells on them....
Additional to this if you got the flash of omniscience you could ask the gm for weakness or for the best spell to use in this situation that will help you to reduce the list of spell
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Match the situation to the spell. My group put together a dozen challenge scenarios before we went from lvl 12 to 19 involving all of the tough spots we had been in as players up to that.
Each of us checked that our characters had something they could do to react to every situation, even if it was as little as spending a round getting their swarmbane clasps on or casting align weapon.
There weren’t many things that occurred in those ranges that weren’t some version of what we had seen before.
If you list out everything you think could go wrong and have a spell prepared for when it does go horribly wrong, your remaining slots can be dedicated to putting the enemies in the same terrible situations.
That's the extreme end of the analysis paralysis problem
Analysis paralysis roots in fear: The player worries that their choice won't be good enough unless they think about everything (and even then, they fear it might still not be good enough).
The counter to fear is confidence: Believe that a suboptimal choice is good enough. As long as a player clings to "must optimize, must optimize", they will never experience that less can also suffice. They have to face their fear, suppress their usual behavior and pick something that is good enough.
Disclaimer: Fear is a very basic, natural thing. Keeps us alive in some situations, but should be battled in others.
In a dangerous fight - not just one there to drain resources, if you can tell the difference, and not once any fight is decided - you use spells from your highest two spell levels. That cuts down the options a lot.
Try not to have very similar spells. If you're choosing between glitterdust, create pit, scorching ray, mirror image, communal resist energy, fly and haste then you've got clearly different spells to work with even though the list is long. If you have four different blasts or four different battlefield control spells on a similar list then analysis paralysis can set in.
As a wizard I've never had this problem. I restricted myself to core book spells
I do like the idea of self-imposed restrictions. I remember seeing a "Guilds of Ravnica" homebrew on reddit a million years ago, and it broke down spell lists according to your guild. Actually... Ha! Found it.
https://i.imgur.com/yQ7whVc.jpg
Seems like a fun challenge to self-restrict in this way.
There are pretty clear "winners" among spells when it comes to spell slots and situations. Analysis Paralysis boils down to experience. If you don't know your spells, the enemy or some combination of the two, then you're going to struggle a bit. Being a specialist helps here since your shtick is going to run along the same lines every round/fight. Summon monster/blast/debuff/control. Sometimes your first action each fight is obvious. Cast *insert buff here, typically Haste*.
Roll your knowledge check. Check and see if you have a spell that corresponds to a particular weakness. Otherwise start cycling through their saving throws to figure out which is the worst if you don't already have an idea of it.
Most turns I already have an idea of what I want to do while the others are going. Typically the only time I spend more than ordinary time thinking is if someone(OR ME) is about to immediately die.
I mean, when I've been in that situation I browse for spells and find ones I want to use specifically ahead of time-- a neat trick that is applicable to most combats and then I look for a chance to use it.
And having read a ton of other spells, I have those fresh in mind for when more specific situations come up.
Ultimately, however, there's about 3 spells at each level that are just better than the rest, and 99 percent of these are in the CRB anyways.
There are pretty clear "winners" among spells when it comes to spell slots and situations. Analysis Paralysis boils down to experience. If you don't know your spells, the enemy or some combination of the two, then you're going to struggle a bit.
I dunno. My particular case was evocation wizard 10 archmage 5 facing down some crazy flying darkness-themed incorporeal.
It turned out that wall of light was the right play given the creature's specific weaknesses...
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/w/wall-of-light/
...But finding that one felt like an exercise in manipulating the SRD rather than knowing my spells.
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You make a list ahead of time of spells to use. It's the same problem with brawler martial flexibility and combat feats. There's no reasonable way to know all of them, so just pick a few that sound good to you and try them out.
Just think of it as saving the rest for later. When you do another caster in another game down the road, you can pick different spells.
There are pretty clear "winners" among spells when it comes to spell slots and situations. Analysis Paralysis boils down to experience. If you don't know your spells, the enemy or some combination of the two, then you're going to struggle a bit.I dunno. My particular case was evocation wizard 10 archmage 5 facing down some crazy flying darkness-themed incorporeal.
It turned out that wall of light was the right play given the creature's specific weaknesses...
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/w/wall-of-light/
...But finding that one felt like an exercise in manipulating the SRD rather than knowing my spells.
Since you are an evoker why don't you use your wild arcana in you prohibited school?
First thing to do is to divide up your spells into niche spells and general use spells. Niche spells are only useful in very specific circumstances and don’t come up that often. When the circumstance of the niche spell comes up it is an incredibly useful spell, but most of the time is it useless. A general use spell can be used can either be used to solve multiple problems or the problem it solves comes up frequently. By this definition many combat spells are general use. Combat spells that only work vs specific targets would be classified as niche spells.
Next look at the type of campaign you are in and figure out a list of likely scenarios your character will be involved it. Almost all characters are going to have the following scenarios combat, traveling, in town and downtime. Others examples are exploring, dungeon crawl, intrigue, underwater, and fighting specific creatures. Each campaign will probably have different scenarios that occur regularly. Don’t go overboard on the initial list, because more can always be added as the campaign develops.
Before creating a list of spells for each scenario create a basic combat list with enough spells to handle at least one combat. The reason for this is that you never know when you are going to need to fight so you should always be prepared for something that comes up. Use the minimum number of spells you can for the basic combat list. The remaining spells are what you have left to work with so if you put too many on your basic combat list you don’t have any left for anything else. Remember that combat is one of the scenarios we are going to be adding.
Now you are ready start figuring out what spells to memorize. For each scenario on your list create a list of spells that will be useful for the scenario. Try to only use general use spells for these lists where possible. If you find yourself putting a lot of niche spells on the lists maybe your need to reclassify your lists. If the caster is high enough level you can divide the lists in half and create a smaller lists that can be mixed and matched. For spell levels where you have a lot of slots available consider leaving one spell slot per spell level open so it can be filled as needed.
The last thing to do is to deal with your niche spells. The best way to do this is with magic items. Wizards that have not traded away scribe scroll can simply create scrolls of their niche spells to be used as needed. Other casters may want to consider picking up scribe scroll for this purpose.
Now when you are ready to memorize your spells you are choosing lists not spells. So if your character is expecting a big battle he simply memorizes his combat spell list. If he is traveling he memorizes his traveling spell list. If you know that you are going to want or need a specific spells that is not on the list simply swap out one spell. This is a lot better than trying to figure out everything from scratch each time.
Also keep in mind that you don’t need to have the perfect spell just one that is good enough to get the job done.
Just pick a spell, babe.
There are pretty clear "winners" among spells when it comes to spell slots and situations. Analysis Paralysis boils down to experience. If you don't know your spells, the enemy or some combination of the two, then you're going to struggle a bit.I dunno. My particular case was evocation wizard 10 archmage 5 facing down some crazy flying darkness-themed incorporeal.
It turned out that wall of light was the right play given the creature's specific weaknesses...
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/w/wall-of-light/
...But finding that one felt like an exercise in manipulating the SRD rather than knowing my spells.
Roll your knowledge check. Check and see if you have a spell that corresponds to a particular weakness.
I'm playing a level 16 Wizard in a Rise of the Runelords game, and my analysis paralysis moments come up when I level, not when I need to select spells to memorize each day or choose a spell to cast during an encounter.
My solution is to just find a class guide I like that evaluates spells, and review the guide's suggestions. It narrows down the options I need to review considerably.
My solution is to just find a class guide I like that evaluates spells, and review the guide's suggestions. It narrows down the options I need to review considerably.
I feel like this works well for spontaneous casters. However, that mess is rough when the niche spells come into play for classes like cleric and druid. All of the guides seem to focus on the best spells to know most of the time whether the ones that are occasionally great depending on situation.
Most of the guides I've seen review universally useful spells and niche spells and call them out as such. And unless you're flush, you're going to prioritize universally useful/combat spells over spells that you may or may not need. And the good guides will point out when multiple niche spells do essentially the same thing, so that also narrows down options.
Most of the guides I've seen review universally useful spells and niche spells and call them out as such. And unless you're flush, you're going to prioritize universally useful/combat spells over spells that you may or may not need. And the good guides will point out when multiple niche spells do essentially the same thing, so that also narrows down options.
You can always relay in old books like complete mage of d&d 3.5 in here there are some archetype to see what role you have in the game, the best feat and skill and most good spell
Note: archetype in d&d were not a class change it was a advance option that help the player to roll an expected pc. This answers it for guidance lots of the spell and feat are similar
Most of the guides I've seen review universally useful spells and niche spells and call them out as such. And unless you're flush, you're going to prioritize universally useful/combat spells over spells that you may or may not need. And the good guides will point out when multiple niche spells do essentially the same thing, so that also narrows down options.
They do so, but in a way that doesn't really help with the problem at hand. If spell is red or yellow (using the Treantmonk nomenclature) it tends to disappear into the sea of red and yellow "bad options," meaning that it doesn't really help a pressed-for-time player to make a niche selection.
1. Get a Wizard hat.
2. Write down the name of all the spells you know on separate pieces of paper.
3. Put the pieces of paper into the Wizard hat.
4. Draw spells from hat one at a time.
Bonus points for spontaneous casters that let every spell they cast be decided by the Wizard hat.
I cast Wish.
It's a single Goblin.
Well, then I Wish that there were 1000 Goblins! Oh wait...