[3.5] Need some help with some casters. Lots of help!

[Willfor]

I like using random encounter generators like the excellent one here. Unfortunately, I would also like to be able to randomly choose spells for the casters it generates via my own set of tables. Unfortunately, I also want to remove spells that no one in their right mind would pick, and add spells from sources that aren't core. (to my knowledge, there are no random encounter generators that randomise spells in the way I'd like)

I believe every caster has a unique personality that can generally be seen by the spells they use. I would rather pick exemplar spells than ones no one uses at all. I, however, don't want to pick spells myself, because I find spell selection to be the worst part of playing a caster (I am indecisive by nature, and trying to pick from such a giant archive as I have at my disposal leaves me feeling completely overwhelmed, and eats hours of my time. per caster)

So, I want to make a 3d8 (possibly larger for spell lists that end up giant) table of spells for each level of each class I have to pick spells for. Buffs, blastings, save-or-die spells, ALL OF IT IS COOL. Feel free to suggest metamagic'd spells as well. I want to base it on what casters pick in actual games.

So I'd like to hear from Bards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerors, and Wizards. What do you dudes and dudettes use in general play?

[Any book published by WotC, and if your DM generally allows it, the homebrewed spells you use]

[FuryOfMetal]

Though I can't really help you much (I'm only starting to play casters now), I'd be very interested to see the results of this thread. It'd be an extremely useful resource. You could have all the info in excel i guess. If you eventually provided some sort of downloadable file we could all profit from your idea

[Eldariel]

Do you want multiple lists for different archetypes of each class or one generic list for each class? And 24 spells per level per class?

[Willfor]

Though I can't really help you much (I'm only starting to play casters now), I'd be very interested to see the results of this thread. It'd be an extremely useful resource. You could have all the info in excel i guess. If you eventually provided some sort of downloadable file we could all profit from your idea

I was already planning on posting the created tables. Excel would likely allow for a bigger randomization... Yes, that does seem like the best option. I'm open to doing it once I have a good idea of what I'm looking at.

Do you want multiple lists for different archetypes of each class or one generic list for each class? And 24 spells per level per class?

Just one generic list of what you generally use. I figure most players have a casting archetype they enjoy, and they would know their archetype's spells best. I may be wrong!

The higher levels are not going to have nearly as big lists simply because they don't have enough spells. The lower levels have a good deal of spells though, and restricting things to 11 or 16 in that regard seems pretty small compared to how many are out there.

[gorfnab]

Here is a list of Wizard spells rated (versatility and over all use) and organized by school. It does include a guide on how to build wizards first, so you may have to do some scrolling to get down to the spells. So with this you could make more school centric wizard builds.

[Endarire]

A simple method is to determine the best spells by level and have your casters prep those. The spells need not vary much from caster to caster; a Transmuter's spell list is similar to a Conjurer's.

Also, read handbooks. They usually have the best spell picks, and include extracore spells.

[Malbordeus]

you might also want to look at personality and school archetypes in the complete mage, it has some useful suggestions there.