OOTS #1209 - The Discussion Thread

[Gurgeh]

As far as I know, it's currently day and thus not dusk yet, and that's when he would refresh his spells as an Evil-aligned cleric.

Just a correction here: spell preparation at dusk is not part and parcel of being an evil cleric.

A divine spellcaster chooses and prepares spells ahead of time, just as a wizard does. However, a divine spellcaster does not require a period of rest to prepare spells. Instead, the character chooses a particular part of the day to pray and receive spells. The time is usually associated with some daily event. If some event prevents a character from praying at the proper time, he must do so as soon as possible. If the character does not stop to pray for spells at the first opportunity, he must wait until the next day to prepare spells.

The High Priest of Hel prepared his spells at dusk, but that's got nothing to do with Redcloak - in fact, Redcloak's first appearance in this location had him just finishing up with refreshing his spells in broad daylight! Given the action is set at the north pole, there's also no reliable way to tell what time of day it is unless we've got a good indicator of the time of year. If it's midsummer then it'll be light all day long!

Or does Redcloak possibly have more than one 9th level spell slot as per 3.5e rules?

A Cleric will always be able to prepare at least two spells of a spell level they have access to, since they're always granted a domain spell along with their normal, level-scaled allotment. So even if Redcloak is 17th level and doesn't have high enough wisdom to get any bonus 9th-level spells, he's got capacity for one more 9th-level spell on top of the Implosion he just cast.