Analytica
2011-11-14, 11:35 AM
In a number of places, people have mentioned how high-level wizards are not bothered by having to prepare spells, since they can predict which obstacles they will encounter and prepare accordingly.
I don't really understand how this works, but would like to, not least in order to see if it can be toned down to whichever balance level I am looking for.
What I have seen mentioned is using Contact Other Plane. If I understand it correctly, you contact some creature on another plane, which will answer a question in a one-word answer. There is a percentage chance that the answer is true, false or nonsensical, but if you're good enough, bad outcomes are unlikely. I assume that the argument is that since RAW any question can be answered truthfully and correctly, even tricky questions such as what will happen in the future even when said future is affected by the results of multiple concurrent divinations.
If so, you could certainly ask things like "will I need plane shifting to accomplish my objectives during the next day?" or the like. However, how would you actually formulate a good list of some questions, in practice, and how often would you cast the spell?
More complex solutions have also been suggested, where each potential spell preparation set is represented by a number representing a binary encoding, so all your prepared spells for one day can be adressed as a single-word answer. I have no idea if any actual games involve this or not.
In any case... are there other spells that contribute to this wizard spell preparation prescience? Could those of you who know help me find a suitable question scheme for these spells that will accomplish the result?
Furthermore, if you game or DM with these options in place, how do you handle it in practice? If your wizard knows they will need plane shifting, disintegrating and greater stone shaping one day, will the DM make sure that events take place where these spells actually are needed, regardless of what else happens?
With the binary encoding option, I can see how the actual spell selection could be treated as a literal Schrödinger's Box, so that they are in fact already prepared, but the player decides post hoc which spells they are as they are about to cast them, making the wizard cast spontaneously from their spellbook. The DM would then remain unconstrained, despite the future being predicted. Does anyone do this in their games?
Most importantly, are there other similar divination options I am missing?
Note: I realize that any of this may or may not be unbalanced. That is another question entirely. I am just interested in what is in fact possible, under RAW or different interpretations, and if so, how it is in fact done?
I don't really understand how this works, but would like to, not least in order to see if it can be toned down to whichever balance level I am looking for.
What I have seen mentioned is using Contact Other Plane. If I understand it correctly, you contact some creature on another plane, which will answer a question in a one-word answer. There is a percentage chance that the answer is true, false or nonsensical, but if you're good enough, bad outcomes are unlikely. I assume that the argument is that since RAW any question can be answered truthfully and correctly, even tricky questions such as what will happen in the future even when said future is affected by the results of multiple concurrent divinations.
If so, you could certainly ask things like "will I need plane shifting to accomplish my objectives during the next day?" or the like. However, how would you actually formulate a good list of some questions, in practice, and how often would you cast the spell?
More complex solutions have also been suggested, where each potential spell preparation set is represented by a number representing a binary encoding, so all your prepared spells for one day can be adressed as a single-word answer. I have no idea if any actual games involve this or not.
In any case... are there other spells that contribute to this wizard spell preparation prescience? Could those of you who know help me find a suitable question scheme for these spells that will accomplish the result?
Furthermore, if you game or DM with these options in place, how do you handle it in practice? If your wizard knows they will need plane shifting, disintegrating and greater stone shaping one day, will the DM make sure that events take place where these spells actually are needed, regardless of what else happens?
With the binary encoding option, I can see how the actual spell selection could be treated as a literal Schrödinger's Box, so that they are in fact already prepared, but the player decides post hoc which spells they are as they are about to cast them, making the wizard cast spontaneously from their spellbook. The DM would then remain unconstrained, despite the future being predicted. Does anyone do this in their games?
Most importantly, are there other similar divination options I am missing?
Note: I realize that any of this may or may not be unbalanced. That is another question entirely. I am just interested in what is in fact possible, under RAW or different interpretations, and if so, how it is in fact done?