Avoiding Spell Preparation?

[zephiros]

Does anybody know of a way to do it? Sorcerer spell knowledge limits can be effectively bypassed by use of knowstones.

I was wondering if spell preparation has any way of being bypassed (get as cheesy as you like, though closer to RAW is better, I'll take any workable answers I can get to this).

Also, similarly, is there any way to bypass spells per day to get a wizard closer to a sorcerer's total in that respect for example?

More interested in avoiding preparation overall, but knowing any existing methods of both will be extremely helpful.

Thanks!

[TuggyNE]

Focused Specialist will get you one more spell/day/level than a Sorc. Uncanny Forethought allows you to pretend you'd prepared a spell, but IIRC it costs a full-round to cast and the spell has -2 CL.

If you take 15 minutes, you can prepare up to a quarter of your total slots, so it's often sensible to only maintain one encounter's worth of any spells you expect to use, preparing replacements or situational choices as needed.

[Bullet06320]

u could load up on reserve feats, only have to prepare spells once, and have a bunch of spell like abilities available to use all day long

[nedz]

There are lots of methods for increasing a Sorcerer's spells known.

There are similar methods for the fixed list casters: Beguiler, Warmage and Dread Necromancer.

There are several methods for gaining spontaneous spells for Wizards, which appears to be the question you are asking.

Spontaneous Divination (CC p53) ACF which allows you to cast divinations spontaneously.

Spellpools class feature, available with the Guild Wizard of Waterdeep [3.0], Mage of the Arcane Order and Skypledged PrC.

In fact there is a whole handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7150) devoted to this subject.

[Gemini476]

Focused Specialist will get you one more spell/day/level than a Sorc. Uncanny Forethought allows you to pretend you'd prepared a spell, but IIRC it costs a full-round to cast and the spell has -2 CL.

If you take 15 minutes, you can prepare up to a quarter of your total slots, so it's often sensible to only maintain one encounter's worth of any spells you expect to use, preparing replacements or situational choices as needed.

Do note that while it takes a full-round action to cast an Uncanny Forethought spell... It ALWAYS takes a full-round action. Even if the spell's casting time is normally greater than that.


Oh, and for getting spontaneous access to all arcane spells, a Convert Spell to Power Erudite is stupidly good. Psionics is what Spontaneous casting wants to be, except even more flexible and ordinarily even more limited in powers/spells known. Not so with the Erudite.

[Crake]

Focused Specialist will get you one more spell/day/level than a Sorc. Uncanny Forethought allows you to pretend you'd prepared a spell, but IIRC it costs a full-round to cast and the spell has -2 CL.

If you take 15 minutes, you can prepare up to a quarter of your total slots, so it's often sensible to only maintain one encounter's worth of any spells you expect to use, preparing replacements or situational choices as needed.

IIRC, uncanny forethought is a full round action to cast (unless it's one of your spell mastery spells) and is limited to your int modifier spell slots per day.

[Rubik]

Oh, and for getting spontaneous access to all arcane spells, a Convert Spell to Power Erudite is stupidly good. Psionics is what Spontaneous casting wants to be, except even more flexible and ordinarily even more limited in powers/spells known. Not so with the Erudite.A regular psion paired up with a StP erudite with the Psychic Chirurgery power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psychicChirurgery.htm) and a thought bottle keyed to the erudite can learn every spell the erudite has and manifest them all spontaneously. Furthermore, it's not particularly difficult for a StP erudite to gain every spell in the whole game, arcane or divine or other, nor is it particularly difficult for a psion to gain infinite pp via recharge mechanics or other tomfoolery. Combine that with the magic mantle and the Supernatural Transformation [Psionics] feat from Savage Species, and you've got so many advantages over a wizard OR a sorcerer that it's not even funny.

Arcane PrCs can still give you a run for your money, though. (They're just that nuts.)

[Petrocorus]

Spontaneous Divination (CC p53) ACF which allows you to cast divinations spontaneously.

Spellpools class feature, available with the Guild Wizard of Waterdeep [3.0], Mage of the Arcane Order and Skypledged PrC.


Skypleged is normally for divine caster.

On topic, you have the Alacritous Cogitation feat from CM which allows you to leave one spell slot open and to use it to spontaneously cast a spell of the appropriate level or lower. Not that great but useful. Great in conjunction with reserve feats.

You also have Spontaneous Casting from ECS which allows you to cast a spell spontaneously for the cost of 2 action points.

You also have the Sha'Ir class from Dragon Compendium who has access to all wizard spell but also have a list of favoured spell they can retrieve in a matter of rounds.

[zephiros]

Hmm. Seems interesting so far. Thanks.

So it seems like the ideal options really are reading up on the Erudite or following the handbook at the moment.

The one person mentioned that I basically want to convert wizard to spontaneous, which is somewhat accurate, but I'd also like to be able to increase their casting per day?

Using psionics as a workaround is a valid option, but knowing that I can do that, I'd like to see what people can come up with strictly in terms of magic-users.

Although Rubik mentioned that Psions can get infinite PP, I thought I recalled hearing before that it was Erudites who could do that (or at least that they also could). I could be wrong as I've never played a psionic yet but I seem to remember asking about it after first being introduced to the STP Erudite concept. I thought there was a spell or something that could give them additional power points which could then be infinitely replicated using STP with those power points. I believe it was intended for magical characters dipping psionics but it was pretty broken in that interpretation.
Anyway, the psionics issue is a relevant side question to whoever can answer it, but as far as the main topic, even if I can convert a wizard into a sufficiently spontaneous caster (haven't had time to read through the guidebook provided yet) is there a way to up their spells per day to match?

Basically I want a best-of-both-worlds thing from the Wizard side in terms of the three categories of spells known, spells per day, and spontaneous casting. I realize it's easier to fix on the sorcerer side on account of knowstones, I just want to know about the possibility of it.

And also, if anyone wants bonus points, finding ways that will also work for an Archivist could get them for you. :D

[nedz]

This (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=185.msg613#msg613) handbook page contains relevant stuff for the Archivist.

[TuggyNE]

IIRC, uncanny forethought is a full round action to cast (unless it's one of your spell mastery spells) and is limited to your int modifier spell slots per day.

Yeah, I couldn't remember if there was a use limit or not.