Dealing With A Few Issues With Group Without Seeming Demanding.

[Jiece18]

Run a game a few times a month and the group for the most part is great. Good mix of experienced and new players with the experienced players more than happy to try experimental un-optimized builds to keep all players ruffly on the same level. All in All, as close to a dream group as a DM can get.

The main issue is that most of the players who like to play casters and their selection of said spells are not really a problem, it is the fact they don't keep track of them at all.
Combat has been brought to a complete halt at least three or four times a round because a caster has to look up the spell they wrote down (If they write it down), figure out ranged touch attack value (If applicable), DC Save (If there is one), and effect (Including how many die of dmg it does).
An equal mix of new and experienced players seem to cause this and it annoys the players who aren't playing casters or the one caster who actually came to the game prepared.
I was hoping to figure out a solution that didn't seem like I was picking on the players or demanding too much of their free time. Everyone at the table has busy lives and taking time off to game is no small feat. But an encounter that features a handful of bandits shouldn't take nearly three hours.

My secondary issue is player engagement. A small number of the players want to role play and interact with the world a lot more than kill this thing and repeat. But most of the table seems fine with a railroaded game where they just need to kill what is in an area and get moved to the next killing area. I have been trying a mix of the two types with a few simple choices that change the story slightly without too much character interaction. Should I try to make the game more interactive, or just keep things as they are.

Any responses would be very welcomed and thank you for you time.

[Crake]

Combat has been brought to a complete halt at least three or four times a round because a caster has to look up the spell they wrote down (If they write it down), figure out ranged touch attack value (If applicable), DC Save (If there is one), and effect (Including how many die of dmg it does).

There's a section on the character sheet for attacks where they can put in their ranged touch attack bonus, and also where they can put in their spell save DCs, so neither of those should take any longer than a glance at their character sheet.

If you want to make this less of an issue, tell players that they can't look things up on their turn, they should have things ready to go by the time their turn rolls around, and if they don't then their character wasn't ready either, and they can delay, letting the next person act while they look something up.

[Mnemius]

On the spell side, notecards!

Each spell slot is a notecard. Write the spell on it, and pertinent info. Have 1 pile for available spells, another pile for used and not-prepped spells. Multiple copies of a spell prepped? make multiple cards.

If it's a spontaneous caster, still have them make note cards and then track as they spend the spell slots.

[Quertus]

Have the good caster show them how it's done. Tell them that every time they fail to do that, their spell does nothing. Have the good caster show them *how* they do that. Or punish failure with a ruler.

Either way, don't waste game time on them. Move on to the next player immediately, as rudely as necessary to get the message across.

Unless they're 7. Then be just a hair nicer about it.

As to the balance of encounter types, talk to your group.

[King of Nowhere]

I feel your pain, I have the same issues with my group and I never managed to fix them. After over two years, I still have the casters who don't know what their spells do.

Now, other posters suggested to use harsh measures to punish those players, and that is certainly an option; however, you yourself said that those are busy people, asking them to spend hours to familiarize with a game is unfair, and may be above the level of committment they want to put in it. I don't like to punish a player because they are not hardcore nerds like we are.

Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that those most casual players simply cannot be expected to play the game like the rest of us. So you have to decide to either keep going like that, or disband the group.

I personally decided to finish the current campaign, then avoid starting a new one. But that's me.

Regarding the railroading, I also adopted your solution. Give them a bunch of strategic options to pursue, and then railroad what follows. Or give them an objective to accomplish, and leave them free to be creative in how they accomplish it. It works well enough.

Ultimately, though, there is a stress between those that want more immersion and those that want more casualness. It can't be fixed.

[AmeVulpes]

In my experience, such players usually stop playing casters if you just glare at them intensely enough while you wait:smallyuk:.

Otherwise, if it's not an incredible hassle for you to do so, and it is genuinely this much of a problem, you could just snag his character sheet, write down his DCs and whatnot, and carry on. As for not writing down spells in the first place, that doesn't fly at my tables. If you can't make a spell list, you don't play a caster (at my table).

When doing net-based games, I always set up a Discord server with the players, and every player gets their own channels, including one with all of their spells, DC and castings/day included, but this sounds like an IRL game, and electronics get distracting at the table.

[Malphegor]

I've found lately that rather than using the PHB, writing down my spells in a small pocket notebook (the kind that's like a mini-bible-esque book, not the flipkind that's easily tearable) with just the mechanical features, minimal to no fluff, has made things a lot smoother as a wizard player. Plus, you don't need to flick through all the spells ever- just the spells that you know of in-character.

Probably wouldn't work for a caster who gets all the spells of their class at once (the hell, clerics?), but it's kept things going a bit smoother for me as a wizard, plus it's a nice prop for roleplay- I have pages written in it which are cursed with sepia snake sigil, for example, so if the DM ever has someone steal my spellbook, well, good luck to him.

Turns out that it's easier to actively make a spellbook to keep your spells organised the same as your character does, lol.

(The annoying thing is that the most useful spells have a LOT of effects going on and variations depending on your mood and the circumstances. For example, the summon monster spells are either a hassle to note down what your monsters are for the caster in the spellbook, or kinda unhelpful to copy them as they appear in the phb.)

[jdizzlean]

in my current game i play a primary caster. it is the very first primary caster i have ever played in over 25 years of D&D. after a few sessions of the DM and the group calling me an idiot (deserved) for not having things ready to go, i now have all those things ready to go. i have spells printed out, broken down by level, the source those spells came from, and any and all numeric info for them, along w/ minor notes about what those spells do.

if i'm going to summon crap (also all printed out by level) and apply all the things to them, i write all that out at the beginning of the session or on someone else's turn. when it's my turn to act, i simply state what i'm doing, or having made rolls ahead of time ask if things hit and then provide the damage/effects.

it really does help move the game along for everyone, and I feel like less of a **** because I'm not dragging my friends down. That of course isn't to say I'm always effective at what I'm doing, but at least I'm prepared...

+1 on the vote to have the prepared player explain things to the others, and maybe you should mention it at the beginning of your games. for those that just want to hack and slash, perhaps telling them that they'd probably have 10x the encounters if they were prepared would be motivation enough to do so.

[exelsisxax]

Tell the slow casters to rebuild as spontaneous casters.

For #2, talk to your players.

[Quertus]

I'm harsh with 3e because I've taught multiple 7-year-olds to play the game mechanically (if not tactically) competently.

If you're dumber than a 7-year-old, stop ruining my / the group's fun, GTFO.

[Jiece18]

Want to thank everyone for their responses. I am working with one of my players to put together some samples on how to keep track of their spells and show it to the rest of the group.