Prepared VS Spontaneous Casting

[Karoht]

I have a friend who loves Sorcerer's to death. I have a friend who loves Wizards to death. They argue a lot about which one is better.

The Sorcerer brings up an interesting point regarding prepared casting.
Sure, you know every spell in the known universe.
What good is it if you didn't prepare it that day?

IE-You're entire party just fell off a cliff. You didn't prepare featherfall, you're out of castings of fly.

Sure, your Wizard probably knows Featherfall. What good is it going to do you if you didn't prepare it, let alone prepare it enough times to save the party?

Hence, this person's complete and total love of Spontaneous Casting. If he knows it, he can use it, as many times as he needs to use it (to the limit of his spell slots of course).

I've read many a thread which states some great reasons why Wizards are better. My goal is not to make this person see the light, but his arguement now has me wondering if there is something about Wizards or Sorcerers that I don't know, having only had minimal experience in playing either (though I have played Clerics and Druids before, so I do have experience with prepared casting).

Thoughts?

[subject42]

Why not do both? There are a ton of options that can make wizards "almost" spontaneous.

Spontaneous Divination

Reserve feats

Shadow Conjuration/Evocation

Alacritous Cogitation

To name a few. I'm sure those more experienced than me can name some more.

[Tvtyrant]

Well, the ability to spontaneously use metamagic is in the sorcs favor; grappled? Use a stilled spell. Need to end a battle fast? Maximize Empower scorching ray. Its rather funny that the Wizard gets metamagic feats it cannot use very well, while the Sorc can but doesn't get the feats.

[Jude_H]

Wizards can leave spell slots open, to fill later in the day.

If a Wizard prepares a few general purpose spells, then gets a Rogue or Divinations to scout a little bit ahead, filling in specialty spell slots along the way, there's less danger in being caught entirely unprepared. Especially compared to a Sorcerer, who is probably only going to have that handful of general purpose spells.

I'd argue that this makes the Sorcerer a better class, but not in the sense that you probably mean.

[Pigkappa]

The sorcerer would not know Feather Fall, and that's even worse than not having it prepared.

What I find really troubling about Sorcerers is that 1-level offset they get, learning 2nd level spells at level 4. That's really unfair and whenever I want to play a Sorcerer, I end up giving up because it troubles me a lot :(.

[Cipher Stars]

... This thread has converted me to Wizard. I'd always play sorceresses before...

But spontaneous divination, Alacitous Cogitation, and just fill some slots with Shadow Evocations and the Wizard pwnz while leaving space for some variety among the days.

Any more Wizard help to make them more spontaneous? I always liked Sorcerer because they didn't have to waist time in a day, or lug around a big book...

[Divide by Zero]

Three main reasons:

1. Divinations. Wizards will usually know which spells they need to prepare if they do their homework. There's a reason people compare them to Batman.
2. Sharply limited spells known for spontaneous casters. It's simply not feasible for a sorcerer to have a spell to cover every situation, so they can be caught unprepared too.
3. Scrolls/wands/etc. Not sure when you'll need to prepare a spell? Grab a scroll or two of it, and now it's "prepared" all the time. Both spontaneous and prepared can use them, though.

Personally, though, I prefer spontaneous, just because I don't want to deal with the headache of managing a spell list.

[Karoht]

The sorcerer would not know Feather Fall, and that's even worse than not having it prepared.

The way my friend explained it was, it's equally useless in both situations if you're still falling off a cliff.

But as far as Divination/Scouting is concerned, that makes an interesting point. Prepared casting works well when you are prepared for the situation. Spontaneous perhaps excells when you have no idea what lies ahead?

[Quirp]

You could just be a mage of the arcane order (complete arcane I think) for every spell you need (although I think its great on both classes)

[subject42]

Any more Wizard help to make them more spontaneous? I always liked Sorcerer because they didn't have to waist time in a day, or lug around a big book...

Anyspell isn't optimal, but it works. So does Limited Wish.

The signature spell feat also lets you burn a prepared spell to cast a specific spell.

[Divide by Zero]

Anyspell isn't optimal, but it works.

Anyspell can't be used by wizards. The spell is prepared in your third-level domain slot, and wizards don't have domain slots.

And it would be completely useless anyway, since a wizard can just leave a couple of spell slots empty and prepare them later in 15 minutes (the same as Anyspell's cast time).

[Theodoxus]

Personally, though, I prefer spontaneous, just because I don't want to deal with the headache of managing a spell list.

This.

I've been assigned to Heal-Bot, in the current game (both the players and GM are huge WoW players, and can't seem to fathom a fight wherein you don't need an active healer - but I digress). The first character I made was pure Cloistered Cleric, very caster heavy, ran around in a dress and Sanctuary up, all the time. Bless and Prayer were his first spells up, every encounter, and then I'd heal as needed. BORING!!!! Seriously, all I ever prepared were Bless, Sanctuary and Prayer... and converted them to healing as needed.

First chance I got, I swapped out toons. Now, I'm playing Cloistered Cleric/Ardent/Psychic Theurge. With spontaneous divine spellcasting. Sure, my spell selection is a bit smaller, but more martially focused (follower of Heironeous, War domain makes for nice boom boom. Has the advantages of spontaneous domains, and can still cast healing spells as needed (and I can take better ones, to boot.) The Ardent side lets me do things like Empathic Transfer - heal the party member for 2d10, take 1d10 in return, and Faith Heal myself to full, without having to worry about the rest of the parties faith, or lack thereof.

Having to deal with a very small spellbook (instead of every single cleric spell, ever) keeps me from going insane. I get to tank it up - thanks to the ardents proficiencies while still keeping the advantages of cloistered. The psionics I picked (including Energy Ray from Expanded Knowledge) allow me to bounce around the battle field, zapping if I need to zap, or Dim. hopping behind a baddy to poke with my longsword. Emp. Transfer, Hostile keeps me right as rain and lets me focus my formidable healing power for after combat - something the party is finally realizing is just fine... though they all have Wands of CLW - just in case ;)

I'll never play another prepared caster - too many choices make my OCD vibrate like an overtuned string.

[Veyr]

Those arguing for Spontaneous's superiority, consider this: a Wizard has to plan out each day what spells he will need for that day. If he guesses wrong, he'll have to wait up to 24 hours to fix his mistake.

A Sorcerer has to plan out each level what spells he will need for the rest of his life. If he guesses wrong, he will at best be able to fix one mistake in a level or two.

A Sorcerer gets a number of Spells Known of each level that are very similar to the Wizard's Spells Per Day of the same level. The Wizard is more flexible, not less.

[Hyfigh]

Uncanny Forethought can be added to the list of things that give a Wizard spontaneous casting in a pinch.

Once divination is a big part of the game, spontaneous casters "having more of the right spells" ends up being moot because the Wizard knows what's going to happen before it does...

[Greenish]

Magelord (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050202a&page=2) has most annoying requirements, but does get quite a bit of spontaneous casting, as well as becoming less dependent on his spellbook(s).

[Reluctance]

Assuming similar levels of optimization on a day-to-day basis, they're about even. The wizard has an edge in their earlier access to spell levels, plus bonus feats and being based off a non-useless stat, but it's not as great as the board would suggest.

Where the wizard blows the sorcerer out of the water is in preparedness and non-encounter spells. Want to cast Contingency or Planar Binding? The sorcerer either needs to tie up a valuable known spell, or burn WBL on scrolls. The wizard needs to burn a bit of cash getting it into their spellbook, after which they can cast it when handy and ignore it when not. When wizards are a hair better as generalists and bounds ahead when you need something specialized, you see the advantage.

[subject42]

Anyspell can't be used by wizards. The spell is prepared in your third-level domain slot, and wizards don't have domain slots.

I thought you could do something stupid with arcane disciple to get it.

[Lateral]

Magelord (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050202a&page=2) has most annoying requirements, but does get quite a bit of spontaneous casting, as well as becoming less dependent on his spellbook(s).

I never understood Magelord. I mean, it's called a magelord, but it requires Evasion and gives Sneak Attack. It's for sneaky multiclass casters, so why the hell is it called a Magelord?!

[Greenish]

I never understood Magelord. I mean, it's called a magelord, but it requires Evasion and gives Sneak Attack. It's for sneaky multiclass casters, so why the hell is it called a Magelord?!Going by the fluff, it would be because it's a mage that likes to lord it over others. :smalltongue:

[Cipher Stars]

How about both!
Gesalt ftw?

Or just take a level or two of Sorcerer so you wont be completely useless if your surprised early in the morning.

[Greenish]

Or just take a level or two of Sorcerer so you wont be completely useless if your surprised early in the morning.Ultimate Magus with Practiced Spellcaster (Sorcerer), if you must do that.

I'd rather use Beguiler though.

[Divide by Zero]

I thought you could do something stupid with arcane disciple to get it.

You can get it with Arcane Disciple, no problem. You can even cast it. But it explicitly says that the new prepared spell goes into your third (or sixth, for Greater) level domain slot, which doesn't exist. And even the DM allows it to work, it's still useless, because wizards can already do that anyway.

[Calintares]

I prefer Sorcerers because it's much easier on the DM, and I wanna work with the DM. I also like having a set of limited abilities availible, and then making the most of them, sort of like James Bond.

Mechanicaly the sorcerer is shafted in every way compared to wizards. there's no good reason why wizard gets bonus feats while the sorcerer don't and there's also no good reason for why sorcerers gets spell levels later than a wizard.

[CodeRed]

Don't forget that despite the smaller number of spells known, there are a few REALLY GOOD Sorceror only spells if your splatbook happy. Wings of Cover is an absolutely amazing defensive spell and Wings of Flurry is in contention for the best aoe damaging spell period. Both are Sorc only and found in Races of the Dragon. Arcane Fusion and Greater Arcane Fusion from Complete Mage are similarly amazing. Casting two lower level spells in one action is outstanding when you make sure to have good spells.

For me what it really comes down to is where you want to put your prep time. If you do your homework for your Sorceror spell list beforehand, you can easily make it into the power level of the Wizard. Yes, the Wizard has more adaptability but for a great number of people having to deal with picking spells every single day is just a huge amount of effort. Wiz and Sorc are on par with each other but my reason to always pick sorceror is that I'd rather just make sure I do my spells right, once, then have to make sure I do them right every single day.

Edit: The one level behind spell thing is utter bull though. Most games I've played in houserule it away.

[Divide by Zero]

Don't forget that despite the smaller number of spells known, there are a few REALLY GOOD Sorceror only spells if your splatbook happy. Wings of Cover is an absolutely amazing defensive spell and Wings of Flurry is in contention for the best aoe damaging spell period. Both are Sorc only and found in Races of the Dragon. Arcane Fusion and Greater Arcane Fusion from Complete Mage are similarly amazing. Casting two lower level spells in one action is outstanding when you make sure to have good spells.

And their normally crappy metamagic mechanic actually lets them get more mileage out of Arcane Spellsurge, since they can still cast standard action spells without much difficulty. But they still lose hard when it comes to versatility, which is why they'll never be quite on the wizards' level.

[AmberVael]

Within the vast majority of games, Wizards (when played optimally) will be more potent than Sorcerers. Yes, they don't have the spontaneous versatility which is pretty fun and awesome, but ultimately they will have more answers to any given situation. They might have to wait some time to use it, but 8 hours is still less than "never," which is what it means to be a sorcerer without an appropriate spell for the situation.

Most of the problems in a given day don't really require a spell custom picked for the situation, anyway. A wizard can just prepare a wide splash of spells that will generally be useful, and perform nearly as well (if not the same as) the sorcerer. So the real advantage of the wizard is that, if need be, they can shift up their selection to deal with something unusual or rare, unlike the static sorcerer.

That said, I highly prefer Sorcerers, and it doesn't bother me that they're less powerful. This is possibly because it isn't really that Sorcerers aren't powerful and don't have some awesome benefits and capabilities, it's just that Wizards are just that good.

Basically, sure, a rocket launcher is not as potent as a nuke. But I still wouldn't want to be hit with the rocket. :smalltongue:

[ericgrau]

The sorcerer would not know Feather Fall, and that's even worse than not having it prepared.
I don't think I've ever made a sorcerer without feather fall. But whether "unknown" or "unprepared", the point was that they're in fact about the same not that one is better than the other.


Why not do both? There are a ton of options that can make wizards "almost" spontaneous.

Spontaneous Divination

Reserve feats

Shadow Conjuration/Evocation

Alacritous Cogitation

To name a few. I'm sure those more experienced than me can name some more.
The problem with those is that they're all super weak.

Basically what it comes down to is if you don't like the book-keeping or scouting involved in swapping your spell list every morning, you'd probably be a lot stronger with spontaneous casting. If you do like it, then ok play a prepared caster. Prepared gives more fuel for forum theory and other meticulousness, but a lot of casual players can do more and have more fun with spontaneous so that's an option too.

[Grendus]

I've always preferred sorcerers, but always ended up building wizards. That lost spell level and the painfully limited spells known list is just hard to work with. Sorcerers do have the advantage in metamagic, and in those situations where the sorcerer chose the right spells he does better. But wizards are a stronger class on the whole, the gap between the upper tiers is fairly large.

[Divide by Zero]

The problem with those is that they're all super weak.

What.

Spontaneous Divination is incredibly powerful. Or are you forgetting that divinations are part of what breaks wizards? The others aren't as powerful, but they're hardly "super weak."

[AmberVael]

Yeah, Spontaneous divination rocks. And Shadow Conjuration and Evocation aren't pushovers, either.

Reserve feats... yeah, they're not so great. And I probably wouldn't take Alacritous Cogitation (it's the 1/day thing that makes me hesitate... and you can get an amulet that does it, which is way better than spending a feat).

[prufock]

Why not do both? There are a ton of options that can make wizards "almost" spontaneous.

Spontaneous Divination

Reserve feats

Shadow Conjuration/Evocation

Alacritous Cogitation

To name a few. I'm sure those more experienced than me can name some more.

There's also Arcane Preparation if you're a sorcerer, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's inferior to a wizard with spontaneous casting.

[Hyfigh]

Not inferior... You just don't have the massive spell selection.

This can be fixed through Mage of the Arcane Order, though...

[subject42]

it's still useless, because wizards can already do that anyway.

It's the any bit that's always caught my eye. I kind of like the idea of being able to cast hexblad/duskblade/bard/trapsmith spells at their natural level without having to make a UMD check.

[navar100]

I think it's a matter of playing style. Some players like to do different things each day. They like the flexibility of diversity of talents. They'll play wizards. Other players like having a set of abilities they know and can rely on. They develop the best techniques and adapt them as necessary for the situation. They'll play sorcerers.

I chose sorcerer for my current campaign because I know me. Playing a spellcaster, I prefer having a standard operating procedure spell list. Most of the time I'm not going to know what particular bad guys the party will be facing. I'll have a variety of spell types, but to know the exact spell needed and when is a rare thing. I know when I've played clerics from time to time I have changed a couple of a spells prepared, but most often I just prepare the same spells. If I'm going to do it as an arcane caster, I might as well play a sorcerer for more spells per day. I feel the delayed gratification of higher level spells, but I have fun making the most out of the spells I do know. It was a bit frustrating playing levels 1-3, but now I'm level 4 and the true power is starting to come out. It helps I'm playing a Pathfinder Sorcerer.

[FMArthur]

Sorcerers require more careful thought in spell selection than a Wizard. Look at it this way: you're still preparing your spells as a Sorcerer, but your selections are permanent and only happen at level-up. It's more difficult at character creation but at least it's easier in day-to-day play.

Also, the Wizard feat Uncanny Forethought from Exemplars of Evil is exactly like Alacritous Cogitation, but usable your Int-mod times per day. Yeah. So basically, Sorcerers are outclassed really hard by Wizards. The difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer is almost perfectly analogous to the difference between a Sorcerer and a Warlock. They have a small handful of special tricks, but at the end of the day it's a sacrifice of power for simplicity, which is appealing for enough reasons that I very rarely pick the greater of either of those pairs in most scenarios anyway.

[Necroticplague]

I prefer spontaneous spellcasters because I have bad experiences with prepared casters. My first exposure to DnD (and thus, the 3.5 rules) were a video game, so I remember aganizing over re-doing the spell selections for a druid, cleric, and wizard. EVERY SINGLE DAY. From then on, I prefered to make psionic characters.

[ericgrau]

What.

Spontaneous Divination is incredibly powerful. Or are you forgetting that divinations are part of what breaks wizards? The others aren't as powerful, but they're hardly "super weak."
Well that only brings divination up to par really. Ya, true, it's worth a feat. The biggest problem with divination is you need to already be psychic to know which divination to prepare. And if you're psychic who needs divination. Char op brags about doing X with Y divination but they assume you have Y prepared. All spontaneous divination does is bring divination closer to the pre-existing theory so really what that means is, without spontaneous divination, practical divination is much weaker than the theory.

Reserve feats are somewhat better than a crossbow, but ideally you want to avoid running out of spells which is usually do-able and a far better option. The shadow spells add a 2nd save and lower the spell level by 1. Or add the 1st save when many conjurations/evocations have no save for a reason. Not to mention ant-magic field immunity/dispellability and so on. The spells become pure suck otherwise. Alacritous Cogitation would be ok but it's an entire feat for only 1 spell.

None of these even come close to letting me take actual effective high level combat spells and mix and match them to my hearts desire, with as many or as few of each as I want up to my daily limit. So on the topic of acting as a viable substitute for spontaneous casting... these aren't even in the same ballpark.

[dextercorvia]

It's the any bit that's always caught my eye. I kind of like the idea of being able to cast hexblad/duskblade/bard/trapsmith spells at their natural level without having to make a UMD check.

Try Chameleon.


Sorcerers require more careful thought in spell selection than a Wizard. Look at it this way: you're still preparing your spells as a Sorcerer, but your selections are permanent and only happen at level-up. It's more difficult at character creation but at least it's easier in day-to-day play.

Also, the Wizard feat Uncanny Forethought from Exemplars of Evil is exactly like Alacritous Cogitation, but usable your Int-mod times per day. Yeah. So basically, Sorcerers are outclassed really hard by Wizards. The difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer is almost perfectly analogous to the difference between a Sorcerer and a Warlock. They have a small handful of special tricks, but at the end of the day it's a sacrifice of power for simplicity, which is appealing for enough reasons that I very rarely pick the greater of either of those pairs in most scenarios anyway.

It has Spell Mastery as a prereq. and if you are spontaneously casting a spell that isn't one of your mastered spells, you are doing so at -2 CL. There are some definite tradeoffs.

That said, Focused Diviner with Uncanny Forethought and Versatile Spellcaster casts more spells per day than a like level Sorcerer (blows them out of the water on highest level spells), has the spells known mechanic of a Wizard, only gave up two schools, and doesn't have most of his slots restricted to Divination anymore.

[Greenish]

It has Spell Mastery as a prereq. and if you are spontaneously casting a spell that isn't one of your mastered spells, you are doing so at -2 CL.I thought the non-mastered spells just took longer to cast.

[dextercorvia]

I thought the non-mastered spells just took longer to cast.

I double checked the CL thing, (EoE 26)and I'm right. It does that, too. But, IIRC, so does Alacritous Cogitation.

Edit: Double checked AC, and it also requires a full round action.

[Raendyn]

Well, the ability to spontaneously use metamagic is in the sorcs favor; grappled? Use a stilled spell. Need to end a battle fast? Maximize Empower scorching ray. Its rather funny that the Wizard gets metamagic feats it cannot use very well, while the Sorc can but doesn't get the feats.

Sure, it's nice to be able to max/empo Scorching ray. But at the sametime you are turning the casting to a full round action, which in return means that you have just invited everyone through voice & sight to attack you far better that a giant neon-light sign with huge speakers above your head would. so you are either dead, and/or the spell got interupted.

So, until spellsurge, metamagic on sorc is a joke...

[dextercorvia]

Sure, it's nice to be able to max/empo Scorching ray. But at the sametime you are turning the casting to a full round action, which in return means that you have just invited everyone through voice & sight to attack you far better that a giant neon-light sign with huge speakers above your head would. so you are either dead, and/or the spell got interupted.

So, until spellsurge, metamagic on sorc is a joke...

Repeat after me. A full round action is not the same as a 1 round casting time.

[John Campbell]

3. Scrolls/wands/etc. Not sure when you'll need to prepare a spell? Grab a scroll or two of it, and now it's "prepared" all the time. Both spontaneous and prepared can use them, though.
Or, better, make some. Wizards get Scribe Scroll automatically for free, and get other bonus feats that they can use for other item-crafting feats. And since making an item of a spell requires being able to cast the spell in question, the Wizard can trivially use some downtime to make scrolls of all those spells in the back of his spellbook that he can't usually justify preparing, but occasionally really needs, or make wands of the spells that he might need to be able to spam ten times a day.

The Sorcerer, who has lots of castings of a very limited number of spells, has little use for the latter, and can't do the former. If the Sorcerer wants items of spells that aren't in his puny list of spells known, he has to buy them for twice the price, or at least enlist the assistance of another caster to make them. And the Sorcerer doesn't get the bonus feats that Wizards do, so if he wants item-crafting feats, he has to spend some of his precious few general feats on them.

(Yeah, crafting has an XP cost. Because of the way 3.5's XP reward system works, it's completely meaningless. I played a crafting wizard for 15 levels; trust me on this.)

[Tvtyrant]

How to make the Wizard spontaneous: Make a dozen rings of theurgy, then simply leave your slots open until you need to cast. Place your daily spells in slots, then the others just use rings of theurgy.

[Divide by Zero]

Well that only brings divination up to par really. Ya, true, it's worth a feat. The biggest problem with divination is you need to already be psychic to know which divination to prepare. And if you're psychic who needs divination. Char op brags about doing X with Y divination but they assume you have Y prepared. All spontaneous divination does is bring divination closer to the pre-existing theory so really what that means is, without spontaneous divination, practical divination is much weaker than the theory.

You don't have to be psychic to cast scrying on the BBEG before you go try to kill him. I really think you're underestimating the power of information.

[Infernalbargain]

Now there's some things that don't show up in theorycraft that really matter.

First is are you lazy? If you keep essentially the same list of prepared spells each day then you have sacrificed the ever so cherished flexibility. What's the difference between a wizard who prepares fireball and haste every day and a sorcerer who knows fireball and haste? The sorcerer's better at it. In my sunday game, there's a wizard in the party who keeps essentially the same every day. I know he'd be better off if he just played a sorcerer because of the extra slots, spontaneous casting, and better class features (in PF).

Second is how mean your GM is. If your GM constantly makes efforts to steal /destroy your spellbook, then all those extra spells you scribed into your spellbook really feel like a money pit. If he follows RAW to the letter, things can get very sucky. Such as interpreting rain as to be sufficiently inclement weather to hinder preparation or that the spellbook is simply written in ink. Also determine if your GM likes to railroad. If he does, then things will be happening to you rather than you doing things. If they are railroading, then it is immensely harder to take advantage of preparation and you'll likely just have make do with whatever is on hand. If you get more freedom (and aren't lazy) then things can be more in line with what you see on the boards.

[FMArthur]

Now there's some things that don't show up in theorycraft that really matter.

First is are you lazy? If you keep essentially the same list of prepared spells each day then you have sacrificed the ever so cherished flexibility. What's the difference between a wizard who prepares fireball and haste every day and a sorcerer who knows fireball and haste? The sorcerer's better at it. In my sunday game, there's a wizard in the party who keeps essentially the same every day. I know he'd be better off if he just played a sorcerer because of the extra slots, spontaneous casting, and better class features (in PF).

Second is how mean your GM is. If your GM constantly makes efforts to steal /destroy your spellbook, then all those extra spells you scribed into your spellbook really feel like a money pit. If he follows RAW to the letter, things can get very sucky. Such as interpreting rain as to be sufficiently inclement weather to hinder preparation or that the spellbook is simply written in ink. Also determine if your GM likes to railroad. If he does, then things will be happening to you rather than you doing things. If they are railroading, then it is immensely harder to take advantage of preparation and you'll likely just have make do with whatever is on hand. If you get more freedom (and aren't lazy) then things can be more in line with what you see on the boards.

Someone who always prepares the same list of spells every day is sadly still going to be stronger playing a Wizard.

A Specialist Wizard with a good Int can prepare 3 spells of his highest level as soon as he gets access to it, growing to 6 as he gains access to better and better spells. He can have all of those be different spells in a single day. When the Sorcerer is "caught up" on even levels and learns the one uber spell that is better than everything else he has up until then, he can only cast that one spell 4 times while the Wizard has 4 different spells of that level. A Focused Specialist even has more spell slots than a Sorcerer and is always ahead in the highest level they can cast even at even-numbered levels. The Sorcerer only passes a Focused Specialist in the spell slots two lower than the highest they can cast.

Half the Wizards I make never change their list of prepared spells until they level up. They still have more versatility within that one unchanging list.

[John Campbell]

What's the difference between a wizard who prepares fireball and haste every day and a sorcerer who knows fireball and haste?
The Wizard can do it at 5th level, and the Sorcerer can't cast either of them until 6th, and doesn't get both until 7th, by which point the Wizard knows at least two more 3rd level spells, probably has the slots to prepare them every day, too, and knows at least two 4th level spells and can prepare at least one of them.

Oh, yeah, I'm reminded of another advantage for the Wizard. His casting stat, which is going to be ludicrously pimped for other reasons, helps compensate for his disadvantage - his lesser spell slot allocation - while the Sorcerer's ludicrously pimped casting stat only adds to his advantage, and his big disadvantage - that he only knows one or two spells of his best level at most levels - is more difficult to compensate for.

[Talya]

There are ways to cheese more spells into a sorcerer's known list, and there are ways for a wizard to cast a hell of a lot of spells spontaneously. However, in my experience, sorcerer's are just more fun than wizards. Playing a wizard is mostly like playing a freakin' accountant.

A very well played wizard is definitely superior, but no, nobody is always prepared. The diviner knowing what's coming today relies heavily on one's DM being ...well, a bit of a pushover, to put it kindly. The spells don't really let him do that quite the way some would have you believe. The problem with playing "batman," (in this sense, not in TLN's guide sense) is you need to think like batman. Since most of us do not have superhuman intellect or intuition, that's not really gonna work. All the wizard needs to do is make one mistake, and he's dead. The sorcerer? Not so much. He's planned out his spell selection for weeks, even months. He's always got a useful tool. Maybe not the best one, but he's always got one.


This is why Druid > Wizard. The druid is a prepared caster, and can play "batman" to a degree. But if he screws up his spell selection for the day, he's got a D8 hit die, medium BAB, decent fort save, wildshape and an animal companion as tough as the party fighter at his beckon call. The wizard messes up, and he's got two things. One of them is called jack. The other rhymes with "Quit." Wizards are only as omnipotent as the person playing them. They have no real ceiling on how powerful they can get. But they have no safety net, either.