"You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. 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." This is the rule for wizards changing their prepared spell lists, and many spellcasters share this rule, but it leaves some questions unanswered.
Can you only do this in the X minutes after your long rest finishes (where X is the time needed for the new list)? Can you do it whenever, and the long rest merely replenishes your ability to do so? Can a monster interrupt your spell preparation and prevent you from replacing your old list with a new one? If the wizard wakes up and is immediately forced into combat, do they lose the option to change their spell list until the next day?
The rules say you can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest so this is when you can do so.
If you are interrupted before or during your spell preparation, you should be able to start or resume after it as there's no indication that you must start over or skip it in such case.
Agree with Plaguescarred, in that the rules don't stipulate when the preparation of the list be accomplished, only that the spell slots are restored at the end of the Long Rest. You might flavor the preparation as part of the 2-hours of light activity during the Long Rest.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Aside from the DM being antagonistic, I'm trying to think of a time when it would be important to split that hair. You finish your rest, you pick your spells, you move on with your day.
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"Not all those who wander are lost"
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"You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. 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." This is the rule for wizards changing their prepared spell lists, and many spellcasters share this rule, but it leaves some questions unanswered.
Can you only do this in the X minutes after your long rest finishes (where X is the time needed for the new list)? Can you do it whenever, and the long rest merely replenishes your ability to do so? Can a monster interrupt your spell preparation and prevent you from replacing your old list with a new one? If the wizard wakes up and is immediately forced into combat, do they lose the option to change their spell list until the next day?
The rules say you can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest so this is when you can do so.
If you are interrupted before or during your spell preparation, you should be able to start or resume after it as there's no indication that you must start over or skip it in such case.
Agree with Plaguescarred, in that the rules don't stipulate when the preparation of the list be accomplished, only that the spell slots are restored at the end of the Long Rest. You might flavor the preparation as part of the 2-hours of light activity during the Long Rest.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
To be honest, it's a time-consuming mechanic that many DM just handwave.
Primarily the idea is that you do it around the start of the day.
You can't leave it until later in the day (e.g. lunchtime or later) when you realise what spells you might want to use in the rest of the day.
Aside from the DM being antagonistic, I'm trying to think of a time when it would be important to split that hair. You finish your rest, you pick your spells, you move on with your day.
"Not all those who wander are lost"