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I find a lot of people hate Vancian spellcasting. I think people like that don't like to have to think with their characters.

I like Vancian spellcasting because I like to have character options that are interchangable more often than leveling and character creation. Vancian spellcasters have those options READILY available. Know how it feels to have brought just the right item to a dungeon? Vancian spellcasters do that with their spells.

Yes Vancian spellcasting has its drawbacks, but I would be severely disappointed to see the aspect of preparation for a specific encounter taken away from the class that is supposed to be the smart one who would be most qualified to come up with plans.

Mixing per day vancian style with other at will and per encounter abilities is actually a good idea. The per encounter abilities can be prepared for a certain fight, (The ghouls around the corner, paralysis removal may be needed, prepare!) the per day ones can be prepared for what you feel is good for the day (This dungeon is supposed to be in an undead bastion underground. Anti-undead and light spells, forget the enchantment!) and the at will for when what you dont plan on happens (Whats a group of orcs doing down here? They ambushed us! Oh well, at least I have my fire blast at will to use. My per encounter and per day spells wont help, but at least I am not useless.)

hawkinsthedm wrote:

I think most people do not like vancian spellcasting because it is one of the least common used spellcasting systems in fantasy literature. The only place I have every run into it is in D&D literature. Though I know from its name that it obviously came from Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. People want to be able to cast magic like Gandalf, Garion, Harry Dresden,....

As far as we know, Gandalf used Vancian spellcasting. We know so little, it certainly could be interpreted that way, and maybe even Gorion? In fact, other than Vance, few Fantasy novelists spell out the way magic actually works. It is true that there is "none of the memorization of spells per a day mechanic in any of those or most wizardly magic in fantasy novels" but there is NO mechanic at all in most fantasy novels.

AaronDireBear wrote:

I want Vancian magic in. It encourages players to think and plan ahead. The new system is for little kids who are used to doing 9999 damage and being able to bust out a million of such spells every battle and recharge just by drinking an "ether".

I want Vancian magic in, but in the way they're planning. It encourages players to think and plan ahead as well as making casters useful after expending all their per day (i.e. Vancian) spells. The new system is for people who want to have an element of strategy as well as usefulness for every class, and not just non-casters.

My problem with Vancian casting is that every class except casters is still useful from battle to battle, even if you go through a dozen of them. Casters become useless if all they have is per day stuff. My other problem with Vancian casting is that no other class has something comparable. In other words, players of any class other than a spellcaster are not encouraged to plan ahead and think. Now, with every class having per day abilities or spells as well as per encounter abilities or spells, you have every player thinking and planning ahead and retaining their usefulness from encounter to encounter.