Vulnerable mages

maliszew: I’ve got your 15-minute adventuring day right here ...

Wizards conduct their adventures with caution and forethought. When prepared, they can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught be surprise, they are vulnerable.

OK. Now the spell memorization/preparation thing from D&D makes more sense to me. It is the magic-user’s Achilles heel. An exploitable weakness.

I mean, I understood it as a game mechanic. A spell-point system with some extra rules that meant giving the character the ability to cast one very powerful spell didn’t give them the option of casting a lot of low-level spells in exchange. But now it makes more sense with this tidbit.

My group subbed the word “preparation” for “memorization” in the 1980s.