Wizard spells known, prepared, and slots

[herrhauptmann]

Hey all, me again with another newbie question regarding wizards.

I'm looking at playing a level 3 abjurer with 15 int.
The contents of my spellbook should be much the same as 3.x. At first level: 3 cantrips, 6 first levels. At second and third level, I learn 2 more spell each level. Total of 10 spells, 2 of which can be second level. Let's say after a few fights and downtime I've got 3 more 2nd levels, total of 13 spells. 8 at First and 5 at Second.

Spell slots at level 3 says: 1st=4 2nd=2.
But preparation is different. Level+Int mod is 5 so I can prepare any 5 spells I want.

Could I prepare 3 second level spells (and 2 first levels), knowing at least one of them won't get cast due to only having 2 slots at second?

[PhantomSoul]

Hey all, me again with another newbie question regarding wizards.

I'm looking at playing a level 3 abjurer with 15 int.
The contents of my spellbook should be much the same as 3.x. At first level: 3 cantrips, 6 first levels. At second and third level, I learn 2 more spell each level. Total of 10 spells, 2 of which can be second level. Let's say after a few fights and downtime I've got 3 more 2nd levels, total of 13 spells. 8 at First and 5 at Second.

Spell slots at level 3 says: 1st=4 2nd=2.
But preparation is different. Level+Int mod is 5 so I can prepare any 5 spells I want.

Could I prepare 3 second level spells (and 2 first levels), knowing at least one of them won't get cast due to only having 2 slots at second?

You can!
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[Unoriginal]

Hey all, me again with another newbie question regarding wizards.

I'm looking at playing a level 3 abjurer with 15 int.
The contents of my spellbook should be much the same as 3.x. At first level: 3 cantrips, 6 first levels. At second and third level, I learn 2 more spell each level. Total of 10 spells, 2 of which can be second level. Let's say after a few fights and downtime I've got 3 more 2nd levels, total of 13 spells. 8 at First and 5 at Second.

Spell slots at level 3 says: 1st=4 2nd=2.
But preparation is different. Level+Int mod is 5 so I can prepare any 5 spells I want.

Could I prepare 3 second level spells (and 2 first levels), knowing at least one of them won't get cast due to only having 2 slots at second?

You could. You can have as many prepared spell of a certain level as the rules allow, completely independently of your spell slot number

Not sure what you mean by "the content of [your] spellbook should be much the same as 3.x", though.

I would also very much *not* expect
to get several additional 2nd lvl spells after a few fights at level 3. That's a rather big reward for one lvl 3 PC.

[herrhauptmann]

You could. You can have as many prepared spell of a certain level as the rules allow, completely independently of your spell slot number

Not sure what you mean by "the content of [your] spellbook should be much the same as 3.x", though.

I would also very much *not* expect
to get several additional 2nd lvl spells after a few fights at level 3. That's a rather big reward for one lvl 3 PC.

I meant by total number in your book. In 3.x you started with I think 6+int for first level, then got 2 more spells every time you leveled. Then you got x/day to prepare at each level, with bonuses at higher int scores. But you needed a decently high int to get a bonus 8th or 9th level spell.

And yeah I know, not expecting spells unless I trade with another party caster. It was something I added solely to set the stage of my question. The sample wizard in the phb has 6 where I had 5. But slots/day was also 6, and the coincidence was messing with me, so I wanted to make sure.

[herrhauptmann]

You can!
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Awesome.
Thank you both.

edit. [/thread]

[Greywander]

Could I prepare 3 second level spells (and 2 first levels), knowing at least one of them won't get cast due to only having 2 slots at second?
Yup. You may not know which of these spells you'll need, so you can prepare them all. Once you cast two of them, or one of them twice, you're out, so you'd better hope you don't need one of the others, but just having the right spell ready to go can make a world of difference.

If you just spam the same spell at a given level, you may not need to prepare more than that one spell. Technically, you don't even need to prepare a spell for every level. If necessary, you can always upcast a lower level spell, although only some spells benefit from being upcast. And likewise, if you have several good spells that are all very effective for different situations, you might want to prepare all of them, even if you don't have enough slots to cast them all. It's better if you know what to expect and can thus prepare the right spells, but sometimes you have to prepare for something unexpected.

Don't forget that you have Arcane Recovery, allowing you to recover some slots on a short rest. This can help you get back a critical spell slot if you've used all your slots of that level up.

Edit: Just thought I'd add, cantrips are not in your spellbook. They're permanently memorized. I'm not sure this is all that important, except that you shouldn't expect to be able to add cantrips to your spellbook.

[herrhauptmann]

Edit: Just thought I'd add, cantrips are not in your spellbook. They're permanently memorized. I'm not sure this is all that important, except that you shouldn't expect to be able to add cantrips to your spellbook.
Yup, noticed them. They're essentially the at-will spammables from 4E.

Since I'm going for a gish, that makes Warcaster very attractive. I can suddenly booming blade someone as an AOO, ideally by casting it on my conjured Shadow Blade for 2d8 migraine damage.