AD&D: How long did it take to regain spells?

[Ozreth]

Once a cleric or wizard used all of his/her spells, how long did they need to wait to regain them? I always assumed it was 8 hours, but I'm thinking I'm wrong. I have a 2e PHB but can't seem to find the answer it in anywhere.

[Matthew]

It is not exactly defined for second edition, but a good guide for a "restful night's sleep" is 6-8 hours. In first edition it was 4-12 hours depending on the level of the spells to be memorised (4 hours for first level spells, 12 hours for ninth level spells).

[hamlet]

Eight hours rest followed by 10 minutes per spell level per spell memorization time.

[Ozreth]

Alrighty, so I wasn't far off. Somebody had said it could take days to regain your spells, especially as a cleric, and that just didn't make sense to me.

[Premier]

Actually, you sort of WERE far off, because you're ignoring the part where it's 10 minutes per spell level (15 in 1st ed.) in addition to the 8 hour rest.

For a 6th level Cleric with no extra spells from high Wisdom (unlikely as it may be), that's an extra 1 hour 40 minutes after rest; for a 10th level one, it's an extra 7 hours and 10 minutes. For a 15th level Cleric, including the extra spells from having a Wisdom of 18 (which is the minimum he needs to cast 7th level spells), it's 18 hours and 40 minutes after resting. So yes, it does take a whole day or more for a high level character who has used up all or most of his magic.

And that's 2nd edition AD&D. All these times would be roughly* 50% higher in 1st ed..


*"Roughly" because PCs wouldn't have the exact same number of spells at the same level.

[Balain]

For clerics they get all their spells at a certain time of day after praying. A sun god the cleric would get new spells at the break of dawn after prayer ing before and during sunrise, or some such thing as an example. It could be dusk for a god of night for another example.

[Premier]

Balain, it's certainly within a DM's authority to make it that way through a house rule, but I'm very doubtful* about any actual rule saying that in either edition of AD&D. Please provide a specific citation.


*By which I mean I'm pretty positive that the 1st edition PHB does not say anything to the effect, and a quick look at 2nd edition didn't yield any citations, either.

[kaomera]

Alrighty, so I wasn't far off. Somebody had said it could take days to regain your spells, especially as a cleric, and that just didn't make sense to me.
That would only be the case if the cleric had failed to maintain alignment and / or religious restrictions / responsibilities. Then you're looking at a minimum of 2-8 days of fasting / praying to attempt atonement (the spell of the same name may or may not be an appropriate substitute, given the situation).

[Matthew]

Alrighty, so I wasn't far off. Somebody had said it could take days to regain your spells, especially as a cleric, and that just didn't make sense to me.

As Premier says, it is probably study time they are referring to. One ninth level spell takes an hour and a half to memorise, for instance, so very powerful spell casters may find it takes days to memorise their full allotment of spells.

[hamlet]

As Premier says, it is probably study time they are referring to. One ninth level spell takes an hour and a half to memorise, for instance, so very powerful spell casters may find it takes days to memorise their full allotment of spells.

And thus hesitant to "nova" as the kids say these days.

[ken-do-nim]

Which is why all hail the illusionist and his mighty Tempus Fugit spell!

[LibraryOgre]

For a 6th level Cleric with no extra spells from high Wisdom (unlikely as it may be), that's an extra 1 hour 40 minutes after rest; for a 10th level one, it's an extra 7 hours and 10 minutes. For a 15th level Cleric, including the extra spells from having a Wisdom of 18 (which is the minimum he needs to cast 7th level spells), it's 18 hours and 40 minutes after resting. So yes, it does take a whole day or more for a high level character who has used up all or most of his magic.


Oh, and remember that you can only spend 8 hours a day at it.

[Premier]

Oh, and remember that you can only spend 8 hours a day at it.

Hmm... where's that, exactly?

[Lapak]

Hmm... where's that, exactly?
Not sure. Page 40 of the 1e AD&D Player's Handbook covers memorization. Both clerics and magic-users have to spend 15 minutes / spell level, and it requires 'a mind rested by a good sleep and nourished by the body.'

So you can't memorize while starving either, apparently. :smallwink:

[LibraryOgre]

Hmm... where's that, exactly?

Huh. Can't find it. May have misremembered.

[Sidmen]

Huh. Can't find it. May have misremembered.

After spending 8 hours studying pages of arcane text to memorize a spell, do you think you'd still count as "a mind rested by a good sleep and nourished by the body." Because I spent 2 hours studying easy-to-digest material and I'm already zombified.

Edit: I'm suggesting that it might have been a declaration by a GM at some point, and not a written rule... not sure if that got across.

[Telok]

I recently found a resource that could be useful here. It's a AD&D SRD style site.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22333214/2ph/ph.htm

It isn't a professional job but it's clean and fast. There are also archived comments and discussions by Gary from somewhere.

[Matthew]

Yeah, that is Prespos' work from over at Dragonsfoot; obviously, it infringes on any number of copyrights, but no doubting its usefulness.

[Lapak]

After spending 8 hours studying pages of arcane text to memorize a spell, do you think you'd still count as "a mind rested by a good sleep and nourished by the body." Because I spent 2 hours studying easy-to-digest material and I'm already zombified.

Edit: I'm suggesting that it might have been a declaration by a GM at some point, and not a written rule... not sure if that got across.That's pretty darn reasonable, yes. Maybe I'd allow for longer memorization routines in crunch-time and treat it as a forced march. :smallwink: