One interesting feature of ACKS is the spell repertoire. Basically speaking, you don't have to memorize or prepare your spells. So, if a 4th level cleric can cast 2 first level spells and 1 second level spell per day, he can choose--at the time of casting--from any first or second level spells in his repertoire.
Each divine casting class has its own pre-made list and each member of the class has all of the spells in the list in his repertoire. So, it's a big plus for the divine caster classes.
For the arcane casters it's different. Their repertoire contains a number of spells equal to the number of spells they could cast per day. So a fourth level mage can cast 2 first level spells per day and 2 second level spells per day. He will also have 2 first level spells and 2 second level spells in his repertoire.
Example: Magic Mumford: level 4: repertoire: level 1: sleep, magic missile; level 2: invisibility, detect invisibility.
It's a pretty thin list, but he doesn't have to decide whether he's going to cast 2 sleeps or 2 magic missiles, or one of each until the second he casts a spell.
It seems to me a net plus the mage over D&D, but I'm not sure.
It's here that an INT score is INCREDIBLY potent. If you have a +1 INT bonus (int 13-15) then you get one extra spell in your repertoire for each spell level. So if Mumford were INT 13, his repertoire might be: Level 1: sleep, magic missile, and charm person and Level 2: invisibility, detect invisibility and ogre power. It's a big-ass jump in versatility. And, a +2 and +3 INT bonus are 2 and 3 spells per level in the selection list too.
There are still spell books, but they are not the same as the repertoire. All your repertoire spells are in your book, but you can have spells in your book that aren't in your repertoire. You can at any time, take a spell that you've collected in your book and add it to your repertoire, by paying a hefty fee and by removing a like level spell from your repertoire.
So, all in all, INT is absolutely critical for making an awesome wizard. However, all WIS does for a cleric is saving throw bonus and EXP bonus, no spelll or turning jive, as far as I can tell.
You know, at first I was kind of disappointed in the arcane type spell caster thing that I had read. But between Dave's explanation of the spell book/repertoire thing, and the fact I realized that ALL the arcane types I've ever run have only ever used maybe 3 or 4 spells from each level anyways, this is a pretty cool thing.
ReplyDeleteFor the divine casters, you're right, that's pretty snazzy.
I'm rather anxious to see spell lists and such.