I am new and chose wizard to be my first character. I generally know how most things work in dnd, but this confused me.
I had assumed you had to prepare spells at long rest but when I was reading rules I saw this. “Preparing a new list of wizard spells requires time spent studying your spellbook and memorizing the incantations and gestures you must make to cast the spell: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.”. Is this literal or just ‘flavor’ text to describe what is happening during the long rest.
Can I just sit in the corner of a room with my spell book for 2 minutes and prepare ‘Locate Object’? If I can, would I need to leave an empty preparation slot after my last long rest, or can I unprepare a spell midday?
Secondary Q. I am Order of the Scribe, so I can learn spells quickly (2 minutes per spell). Could I instantly prepare new spells since I JUST learned them, or do I have to wait for next long rest? (This question is nullified if the the first one works)
Thank you and sorry if this sounds nooby. I just thought the wording was vague
Don't apologize for asking something like this. And it's your first character, it makes sense that you have questions like this. <3
You can only prepare your spells when you finish a long rest. Like, right after you finish it. You can't do it midday.
What do you mean with "learn spells"? Wizards don't actually do that (except for cantrips). They add spells to their spellbook. Once they're added, you can then prepare them as usual. So you can add spells to your spellbook, but that doesn't mean they're immediately prepared. You need a long rest for that.
Whenever you finish a Short Rest, you can study your spellbook and replace one of the level 1+ Wizard spells you have prepared for your Spellcasting feature with another level 1+ spell from the book.
So a 2024-rules Wizard can switch one spell per short rest, by replacing one of their other prepared spells.
Whenever you finish a Short Rest, you can study your spellbook and replace one of the level 1+ Wizard spells you have prepared for your Spellcasting feature with another level 1+ spell from the book.
So a 2024-rules Wizard can switch one spell per short rest, by replacing one of their other prepared spells.
Correct, on a Short Rest, a Wizard can switch one of their prepared spells with another that is in their spell book. Also keep in mind that Wizards are the only class that do not have to prepare their ritual spells in order to cast them. So long as they are in their spell book, they can cast them as a ritual at any time. Great for common ritual spells like Detect Magic and Find Familiar.
2014 using an elf. a short rest of 4 hours gives you all your spells. how often can you do that per day?
Once.
Under 2014 rules, a character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period. This is explained in the section on Resting in chapter 8 of the 2014 Player's Handbook.
(What you're describing is not a "short rest" in D&D terms; it's a long rest that takes less time than normal because you're an Elf.)
For the sake of completeness, I'll point out that this was changed slightly in the 2024 rules, which say that you have to wait 16 hours after a long rest before starting another one. This is functionally the same for most characters, but people like Elves who only need 4 hours for a long rest can now squeeze in two in a 24-hour period.
I am new and chose wizard to be my first character. I generally know how most things work in dnd, but this confused me.
I had assumed you had to prepare spells at long rest but when I was reading rules I saw this. “Preparing a new list of wizard spells requires time spent studying your spellbook and memorizing the incantations and gestures you must make to cast the spell: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.”. Is this literal or just ‘flavor’ text to describe what is happening during the long rest.
Can I just sit in the corner of a room with my spell book for 2 minutes and prepare ‘Locate Object’? If I can, would I need to leave an empty preparation slot after my last long rest, or can I unprepare a spell midday?
Secondary Q. I am Order of the Scribe, so I can learn spells quickly (2 minutes per spell). Could I instantly prepare new spells since I JUST learned them, or do I have to wait for next long rest? (This question is nullified if the the first one works)
Thank you and sorry if this sounds nooby. I just thought the wording was vague
Don't apologize for asking something like this. And it's your first character, it makes sense that you have questions like this. <3
You can only prepare your spells when you finish a long rest. Like, right after you finish it. You can't do it midday.
What do you mean with "learn spells"? Wizards don't actually do that (except for cantrips). They add spells to their spellbook. Once they're added, you can then prepare them as usual. So you can add spells to your spellbook, but that doesn't mean they're immediately prepared. You need a long rest for that.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for clearing this up. This is how I assumed it worked. The "1 minutes per spell level" bit confused me, but I suppose that's just flavor. TY
👍
I think they removed the "minutes per level" thing in the 2024 PHB, so yeah, it was probably just flavor.
They did. In my experience no one ever paid attention to that anyway.
In the 2024 rules, at level 5, gets this feature:
So a 2024-rules Wizard can switch one spell per short rest, by replacing one of their other prepared spells.
Correct, on a Short Rest, a Wizard can switch one of their prepared spells with another that is in their spell book. Also keep in mind that Wizards are the only class that do not have to prepare their ritual spells in order to cast them. So long as they are in their spell book, they can cast them as a ritual at any time. Great for common ritual spells like Detect Magic and Find Familiar.
2014 using an elf. a short rest of 4 hours gives you all your spells. how often can you do that per day?
Once.
Under 2014 rules, a character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period. This is explained in the section on Resting in chapter 8 of the 2014 Player's Handbook.
(What you're describing is not a "short rest" in D&D terms; it's a long rest that takes less time than normal because you're an Elf.)
For the sake of completeness, I'll point out that this was changed slightly in the 2024 rules, which say that you have to wait 16 hours after a long rest before starting another one. This is functionally the same for most characters, but people like Elves who only need 4 hours for a long rest can now squeeze in two in a 24-hour period.
thank you.
so basically with 2024 they forgot elves can do a long rest in 4 hours it seems?
I would say that it seems vastly more likely that it was an intentional change to allow Elves to make full use of that advantage.