39
« on: September 07, 2020, 07:05:23 PM »
Intro
Greetings, all!
I've played D&D 3.x since the 3.0 books were hot off the presses at GenCon 2000, but I've studied the rules far more. Much or most of this was from forums - handbooks, discussions, etc. Now that I've played D&D more since then (including lots of D&D video games of varying editions), and noticed how people playing Pathfinder 1e seemed to prefer to play spontaneous casters over prepared casters despite the 1 level tax/penalty/delay on all spell levels of 2-9, I became curiouser and curiouser: In practice, what matters more (spontaneous or prepared) and why?
The Arcane Experiment
I conducted an experiment by playing Baldur's Gate II with a Fighter (Kensai) dual classed to Wizard (who effectively acted as a Wizard for the BG2 portion of my run, complete with prepared casting) and another run done as a pure Sorcerer. No spell swapping was allowed in this case, meaning whatever I chose, I had to use. (One notable exception was using a save editor to change a spell known since the Enhanced Editions of the games 'fixed' the sunfire spell and made it subject to spell resistance, but that was all.)
In each case, I played to the EXP cap which put me as a level 31 Sorcerer and a Fighter (Kensai)13/Wizard28. (I played a Sor first.) I discovered just how burdensome spell preparation felt when I beat Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition for the first time as this Kensai/Wizard. Sure, I could know every spell in the game a Wizard could learn, and I at least came close to doing so, but smart spell selection and use were key to victory in each case. Scrolls, potions, and wands were common enough that I could use them to supplement whatever spells I knew or had prepared. Nevermind that as a Sorcerer Sorcerer I felt like a poser when I was awarded my Planar Sphere stronghold at the end of a quest chain, and didn't feel that way when I finished this quest chain as a Fighter/Wizard.
The Baldur's Gate games are normally long with tens or hundreds of hours of content in each game if you do everything. (In each case, I did all the optional quests except for some NPC-specific quests in chapters 2 and 3 before progressing to chapter 4.) In theory, my Kensai/Wizard was better because it didn't need to cast spells as much due to having 13 Fighter levels, and there were plenty of times I didn't cast spells because it was faster to auto-attack stuff, but guessing what spells would be most useful that day as well as long term (since I didn't like changing my spell preparations often) was nowhere near as satisfying in the long-term as playing "Superman" as one person put it and just spontaneously casting what I wanted.
A significant concern for me was that time spent swapping spells at first made me feel smart because I was adapting, then more burdensome since I missed the spontaneity of a Sorcerer. I only realized how useful consumables were when I started using them as my Fighter/Wizard because I had horded these things, realized I was pretty close to the end of the game, and started using my stash. I never got close to depleting it.)
Once the Enhanced Editions were available, I also ran characters through Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition since it included the Sorcerer class. (Wizards were included since the original BG1's 1998 release.) At lowish levels (1-9), Wizards were more favorable. They had fewer spell slots than Sors, but their day-by-day repertoire flexibility mattered more. It was quite possible to accidentally be a one-trick pony or feel useless as a Sor if you didn't do the research on the best spells, and you had to seriously consider your character's end level since learning spells with saves could work well in BG1 but not in BG2 since foes there very reliably passed their saves. With a level cap for Wizards and Sors of 9, Wizards also got access to level 5 spells in BG1 whereas Sors only got level 4 spells. (Oddly, Wizards were able to cast level 6, 7, 8, and 9 spells starting at the same level as Sors, reducing their relative advantage, though that's a minor point since I've only rarely played tabletop characters in any D&D edition past level 6. This was also primarily a Baldur's Gate II thing.)
Sorcerers had another advantage in the Baldur's Gate series: They could learn any spell of any level they could cast. Wizards got 0 free spells per level past character creation (with the exception of 'epic' or high-level abilities starting at 3 million EXP or level 18, just like Sors), forcing Wizards to find all scrolls of spells they could cast.
Now, I understand this experiment was done with a small sample size of just me in a fixed environment of Baldur's Gate II. This game series focuses on exploration and dungeon crawling, not intrigue, camping, base building, nor certain other things that are available in the D&D system. However, the BG series was intentionally made to feel as close as possible to a real tabletop campaign, and just like in these video games, tabletop has certain top-tier spells and abilities that seem like obvious picks to pick, or that are generally useful overall when you don't know what to expect.
D&D 3.x Experience
Baldur's Gate since the 90s influenced me heavily to be a Wizard in D&D 3.0 when I played in my first non-convention campaign. I didn't like needing to call every shot (that is, prepare every spell) then or now, but I kept playing Wizards instead of Sors with rare exceptions because Wizards got higher level spells sooner, and because Wizards Abrupt Jaunt, bonus feats, and generally better class features than Sors. Considering that various campaigns I played started at level 1 and ended at level 3 or 4 (and, again, rarely went beyond level 6), having higher spell levels and probably more spell slots overall was mechanically a great boon, but I eventually felt like I was forcing myself to play Wizards without enjoying them as much as I should have because I didn't like feeling penalized. If the people on the forums thought prepared casters were more worth playing than spontaneous casters due to higher tiering and generally more praise, I should just listen, right? I only learned later that forum logic often focused on the theoretical view of acting perfectly instead of focusing on my preferences.
Now, I understand why forum logic exists: We need a common basis for evaluating and suggesting things. It's also a forum, and we want to talk about something: That's why we're here! Dwelling on the possibility of power is often more appealing to theorycrafting and dreaming than the likely reality of what people face. Being able to change what spells you have available to you every time you prepare spells (normally daily) can be a huge boon, but, at least in my experience, people don't play that way. They pick a certain number of favorite spell preps on a near-daily basis (like grease and enlarge person every day on a Wizard) and might swap out a spell or two per spell level to do something different (like preparing color spray one day and magic missile the next). In short, prepared casting focuses on what you can be while spontaneous casting tells you more of what you are.
In 3.x, I've played or thoroughly made Druids, Clerics, Wizards, Sorcerers, Psions, and other character classes. Only after playing a Druid from level 1-11 did I realize the power of spontaneously-cast spells. Being able to transform a spell slot into something that would likely be useful in most circumstances was wonderful, and I used it occasionally since I liked buffs. Yes, Druids are spiffy for reasons in addition to their spells. Likewise with Clerics. Still, Wizards and Sors are primarily what spells they know and have available to cast at any moment, and a bad spell pick for today for a Wizard or for much longer for a Sor is painful. Yes, in D&D 3.x and Pathfinder 1e and probably many other games, there are generally useful, generally optimal spells that people are normally assumed to get soon after they become available: Research matters in-game as it does elsewhere.
3.x consumables are still useful if done properly, and, in short, my Red Hand of Doom experience varied greatly between a high-powered group that generally plowed through content with little difficulty and a purposefully low-powered group that barely made it through the module, having spent an uncomfortably high amount of in-game currency in my opinion on consumables. (Perhaps 10,000G+ for the group.)
Conclusion
There's more than one way to play any edition of D&D, and I felt that spontaneous casting is the better, more fun, and more convenient way to handle casting. WotC eventually implemented spontaneous casting of sorts as standard for every casting class in D&D 5e, at least in the 5e PHB. (Prepared casters chose a certain number of spells/spell levels to prepare and cast them spontaneously. Fully spontaneous casters remained fully spontaneous with limited numbers of spells known.) Actively using forums and heeding their advice drastically influenced how I played D&D, and I sometimes listened to others more than myself even when it hurt for the sake of making or playing something better.
Disclaimers
Explaining Baldur's Gate mechanics or D&D 5e in great detail also aren't main the points of this thread beyond what I've already shared.
Show Posts