Game mechanics for "preparing ahead of time"

[supermonkeyjoe]

Players are rarely as strong as barbarians, as quick as rogues or as smart as wizards (though some would definitely argue otherwise) Whereas a genius with an intelligence of 20 or worldly traveller with a crazy high wisdom score could plan several steps in advance, In my experience players can rarely coherently plan one step in advance and often don't even have a plan for what they're doing in the present!

What gameplay mechanics/skills/feats/spells let a character act as though he has planned in advance, I recall there's a feat that lets a wizard keep some spell slots open to spontaneously cast a spell later as if it had been prepared all along, and I'm sure there is a feat somewhere that lets a character produce a cheap mundane item on a whim as if they had it tucked in a pocket for just this scenario but is that it? Are there any other ways of pulling off a "I have prepared a contingency for just this occasion" effect? (without the obvious craft contingency).

[Preaplanes]

Clerics can look into the Oracle or Planning domains, good lists for that.

[Flickerdart]

Uncanny Forethought is precisely this, and Alacritous Cogitation and the Magelord class can also be used for that "I knew we'd need Bigby's underwater basketweaving hand today" feel.

[Kornaki]

Also just buying scrolls of every spell in the spell compendium

[jokeaccount]

In my opinion what you're asking for cannot exist. It is the same principle with the Detective Mode in Batman: Arkham series. If you haven't played it the principle is that:

Batman is a genius detective with tons of experience solving crimes, riddles and fighting any kind of opponent. You as a player however are not like him so you are given a "mode" that essentially freely gives you all the information that Batman knows via his experience (like enemy positions, breakable walls, weak points etc).

Normally it should be the same with a genius PC. But since nothing is predetermined and everything in D&D is ever changing one cannot achieve this. Except if the DM gave you all that information (from his perspective obviously). This works in a lesser way for example with some traits like if you have a character with eidetic memory. Of course you as a player don't remember everything but your character in the story does so your DM gives you all the information you're supposed to have. In the more general sense of correctly preparing ahead though, that cannot really work in my opinion

[Xerxus]

Scrolls scrolls scrolls. And potions. Also staves, and most important of all - you can leave as many as 25% of your spell slots unprepared in morning, in order to prepare them in 15 minutes later. That way, you can have any spell you want in only 15 minutes, so good for clerics that it is ridiculous.

There is also a very nice arcane PrC in Pathfinder that lets you prepare an empty spell slot in one minute called Collegiate Arcanist. And at character level 14, you can do it in one full round action! Just hold your spellbook in your hand and poof - any spell you want. The PrC also gives you some fun spontaneous casting options, as well as a few divine spells etc.

[Karoht]

Pathfinder varient.
Be a Half Elf. Or Human with Half-Elf racial heritage feat.
Be a spontaneous caster. Pick whatever you want for a spell list, it's cool.
Carry a wand of Paragon Surge, a Half-Elf racial spell.
In a standard action (casting the spell) you buff your Dex and Int, and it grants you access to any feat you can currently qualify for. The feat flexibility alone is worth it. But we will stick to spell selection for the time being.
Select the feat Expanded Arcana. Which grants you extra spells known. 1 at your highest spell level or 2 at any level lower than your highest.

Want some more cheese?
Place the spell Paragon Surge on your spell list, carry a Rod of Quicken Spell or take the Metamagic Feat Quicken Spell. Now you can do this as a Swift Action, have any spell you need access to.

BUT WAIT! We can do one better!
At 13th and 17th level, an even better trick comes online for you.
Take the Feat, Eldritch Heritage, and select the Arcane Bloodline. This will grant you a Familiar if you want, which is pretty cool right? If you are a Sorcerer to begin with, take any bloodline other than Arcane if you want.
Cast Paragon Surge.
Select Improved Eldritch Heritage-New Arcana

New Arcana (Ex): At 9th level, you can add any one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list to your list of spells known. This spell must be of a level that you are capable of casting. You can also add one additional spell at 13th level and 17th level.
Source: www.pathfindersrd.com/
So in a Standard or Swift action, you can call to mind any 3 spells from any spell levels you want. Want 3 extra 9ths? A 9th and two 8ths? Go nuts.

And if you are a Sorcerer, take the False Priest Archetype and Sage (goes with the Arcane Bloodline). Buy lots and lots of Divine Scrolls. Then take the Prestige Class known as Cyphermage.
Sage gives you Int as your casting stat.
Arcane Spells: 9 levels at your CL. All spells accessable with a Swift or Standard action
Divine Spells: 8 levels at your CL+1 using all your feats and double your Int bonus. All spells accessable with a Standard or Move Action (to find the scroll in your inventory)

Swiss Army Spontaneous Batman Caster. If you have access to virtually all the tools in existance, on demand, you effectively have a contingency for pretty much everything.

[Feralventas]

ctrl+f
"Fact-

Nothing.

FACTOTEM!

Add int mod to almost anything at a moment's notice with the power of INSPIRATION!

Small amount of Spells for when you did actually plan.

Plenty of skill points.

All the knowledges to actually Know what you'll need more often than not.

Half the class can be interpreted as "just as planned."

Also PF's 3rd party Time Thief class.

[Deadline]

I've seen Shadowrun groups use something similar to what you are talking about. I think they called it a "planning pool". Shadowrun is a dice pool system, and most of the fun is in the planning. However, these groups felt that to better reflect the fact that the player's weren't necessarily as savvy as the characters, they instituted a pool of dice that could be drawn from on the fly with some reasonable explanation.

So let's take a character who is dressed as maintenance personnel, and is trying to break into an office. A guard comes across them, and the character needs to fast talk their way out. By reducing the planning pool, other players could offer suggestions or the character could use extra dice from the planning pool to enhance his fast talking skills under the guise of "our grifter gave some pointers/coaching on the kinds of things to do or say if you run into security guards to avoid raising suspicion."

My vague understanding of the mechanic notwithstanding, all accounts indicated that it kept the game fast, fun, and more importantly, the theme stayed intact. So instead of standard Shadowrun fare (i.e. "We are professional thieves, but every op we plan just turns into a failed smash 'n' grab"), the game played a bit more easily.

The same sort of idea could be ported to 3.5, but in both cases it would require a GM that would be cool with the idea, and players who would avoid trying to abuse the system with ridiculous reasoning.

Also, if I recall, the game Feng Shui was pretty much built around this concept in that the player had quite a bit of free reign (again, with GM having veto power) to add things into the environment that seemed reasonable to be there whilst describing what kind of smackdown they want to lay on the bad guys.

But a mechanic in 3.5 that mimics this sort of thing? Aside from Contingency, Time Stop, and planar time shenanigans, I'm not aware of anything.

D20 Modern has a class ability tree for the Smart Hero Class that does something like this:


Plan: Prior to a dramatic situation, either combat or skill-related, the Smart Hero can develop a plan of action to handle the situation. Using this talent requires preparation; a Smart Hero can't use this talent when surprised or otherwise unprepared for a particular situation.
The Smart Hero makes and Intelligence check (DC 10) with a bonus equal to his Smart level. The result of the check provides the Smart Hero and his allies with a circumstance bonus. A Smart Hero can't take 10 or 20 when making this check:

9 or lower - +0
10-14 - +1
15-24 - +2
25 or higher - +3

This bonus can be applied to all skill checks and attack rolls made by the Smart Hero and his allies, but the bonus only lasts for the first 3 rounds. After that time, reduce the bonus by 1 point (to a minimum of 0) for every additional round the situation continues, as the vagaries of circumstance begin to unravel even the best-laid plans.

[NichG]

Homebrew-wise, in my campaigns there's a 3-level PrC called Mastermind. They get a pool of points they can spend equal to their class level which refresh each game. By spending a point, they can retroactively have made some sort of preparation that would not require them to make a roll or change any onscreen fact.

For instance, they could retroactively have stopped by the market and bought the exact item needed for the situation. Or they could retroactively have trapped a room that is being charged by the enemy (assuming they can take 10 on the trap setting). But they couldn't e.g. have secretly replaced the artifact with a fake if the artifact's powers were already used this scene.