Learning new spells - wizards vs clerics.

[Finback]

so, I have been having some minor issues getting my head around spells lately, specifically, how many players start with etc. I've gotten that straight, but now I have a question regarding the difference between a wizard and a cleric.

Wizards get their spells from their spellbook, which grows over time - but how does a cleric determine which spells they have access to? I understand their limitations (eg a third level cleric should have 2 level two spells, and 4 level one spells) - but effectively, do they get to repick from the cleric list of spells each morning, from their prayers? Likewise, I know the domain spells don't count towards their daily casting limits - or *do* they? I have a level three cleric of Nature domain, and while I know what our team wizard has in her spellbook, the cleric is confused over what spells she regularly has.

[Crafty Cultist]

A cleric knows all the spells on their list automatically. They can only cast spells that they have memorized. You can memorize your level + your wis in spells, taken from any level. Your domain spells are always memorized and do not count towards against your limit.

Hope this helps.

[Ninja_Prawn]

The cultist is right, but reading the below, I think there's another confusion to clear up...


(eg a third level cleric should have 2 level two spells, and 4 level one spells) - but effectively, do they get to repick from the cleric list of spells each morning, from their prayers? Likewise, I know the domain spells don't count towards their daily casting limits - or *do* they?

A 3rd level cleric has 4no level 1 and 2no level 2 spell slots. This is the number of times they can cast a spell - think of the slots as 'charges' or 'MP'.

The number of spells they can memorise is a completely different thing. That's equal to cleric level + wisdom modifier (so 6 for a 3rd level cleric with 16 Wis), excluding domain spells (of which this cleric should have 4, giving them a total of 10 spells memorised). You can cast any spell you have memorised with any slot of the same level or higher, but you still need to spend a slot to cast a domain spell.

The exception to this is rituals; when you perform a ritual, you don't spend a spell slot. Of course, the casting time for rituals is longer, so you can't really do it in combat. Wizards (and only wizards) can cast rituals without having them memorised; clerics still have to memorise the spell to cast it as a ritual.