What would happen?

[TabletopGamer]

What would happen if you made a Wizard who instead of needing a book of spells had Eidetic Memory who rather then a spell book acted like a Cleric in that he knew all Arcane Spells from the Sorc and Wizard spell list but was restricted to just spells per day.

What would happen if you made a Cleric who used a Prayerbook instead and needed to learn spells from Holy Books to know them and still had a spell per day limit as it does now?

Would that really change them a whole lot?

I figured it would for the Wizard but I was curious.
Totally a thought experiment.

[Lord Haart]

Wizard would become stronger, cleric would become weaker, both of them would stay Tier 1. Pretty obvious, yes?

[TabletopGamer]

I was curious how it would play, not simple mechanics of tier 1 talk

[Red Fel]

I was curious how it would play, not simple mechanics of tier 1 talk

Oh, that's an easy one.

Wizard: I know ALL THE SPELLS. *ends world*

Cleric: I, uh, don't know that spell. *party dies, perhaps*

Or, as Haart said, Wizard gets stronger, Cleric gets weaker, both stay Tier 1.

Seriously, "how it would play" depends on the player, not the mechanics. When you have a class that can basically do anything, there's not really a way to gauge how any single player would play it.

[Lord Haart]

I was curious how it would play

Wizard now can prepare any spell on his list on a whim, rather than either investing money into being able to do so or not having access quite to all spells. Cleric now has to either invest into ability to prepare any spell he needs or be unable to pull out Summon Desert Ally 4 when party happens to desperately need that exact cleric spell. I really don't understand what else is expected.

[GoblinArchmage]

What would happen if you made a Cleric who used a Prayerbook instead and needed to learn spells from Holy Books to know them and still had a spell per day limit as it does now?

Then you would have an Archivist (Heroes of Horror).

[TabletopGamer]

Stupid question I guess

[Blueiji]

Stupid question I guess

Not a stupid question, it just doesn't have a very interesting answer.

[Fax Celestis]

What would happen if you made a Wizard who instead of needing a book of spells had Eidetic Memory who rather then a spell book acted like a Cleric in that he knew all Arcane Spells from the Sorc and Wizard spell list but was restricted to just spells per day.
So...Rainbow Warsnake?


What would happen if you made a Cleric who used a Prayerbook instead and needed to learn spells from Holy Books to know them and still had a spell per day limit as it does now?

So...Archivist?

[JaronK]

Well, Archivists can learn all sorts of other stuff too (Druid, Adept, Ranger, Shugenja, etc).

JaronK

[nedz]

It would depends a lot on the player.

Player X: whose Wizards only ever cast Fireball: no change
Player Y: who plays a Batman style Wizard: becomes a lot more powerful.

Player A: whose Clerics only ever cast Cure X spells: no change
Player B: who plays Clericzillas: no change
Player C: who plays a problem solving type of Cleric: becomes weaker.

Basically the OP ceiling for Wizard increases whilst the OP ceiling for Cleric decreases.

[Chronos]

It would obviously improve the wizard... But as it is, it's really not all that hard to get every spell you might conceivably ever need into your book, so it would be only a small improvement.

Likewise, if all clerics needed a book, then cleric spells would become just as easy to come by as wizard spells are now (possibly even more so, since clerics already have organized temples in most towns, more than wizards have schools), so it would be only a small drawback for the cleric.