Remembering It All

RiddickDale

RiddickDale

Knight
Moderator
New Hampshire Staff
Chief Publicity and Digital Content Officer
Greetings,

I recently spirit forged from a fighter to a large blocked earth scholar. I went from having a handful of tagged skills to keep track of to having over 100 when you take items into account.

I know I can;'t be the only person who has trouble remembering their column. What tricks do the rest of you have to help keep from forgetting things? I'll take just about anything at this point because my rides home lately have consisted of a lot of battle board review... and cussing (loudly) over what I didn't cast because I forgot.

Also... before it comes up... lets not turn this into a discussion about whether or not people having that many spells is a problem. I am pretty sure I'd mess up a 4 column at the rate I'm going. :hahaha:

Stephen
 
QB/Sideline coach wrist pocket with my spell list.
 
Frequent battle board checks.

Taking an index card, re-writing my load-out on it and keeping it somewhere more easily accessible.

Tape a battle board to the back of a shield (if you use one.)
 
honestly? you will never remember everything.

it helps if your column/pyramid is consistent. for instance, i walk into each event with a pretty much identical column as the last, with the exception of events where i know that i will need something different (such as taking banishes for an elemental heavy weekend). it will help you build a consistent system to reference, and when you do have to make small changes, they're easier to work into our daily casting regime.

it also helps to review your battle board prior to each mod to give yourself a refresh on pinch abilities that you might not normally use (for me, it's my enflames which i always manage to forget about until i check my card before a mod). it can also help to attach your battle board, or a copy of your weekend spells, to the back of your shield. i had a little plastic pouch i taped to the back of mine for the first few months while i acclimated to sevaria's new spell list. it lets you analyze your abilities mid battle pretty easily, you just need to make sure you police yourself on having an accurate battle board.
 
Memorizing the same set consistently.
Creating patterns in items and in memorization. (For a while, I had a PC with two banes and a cloak versus everything useful. Made it easy to remember what I had cloaks and banes for.)
But yeah, keeping your battleboard handy and checking it frequently is the big one. Keep it accessible enough that you can whip it out mid-fight if you need to.
 
It's also harder to remember your load-out if you didn't start out the character that way. If you started at Level 1 and played a Scholar over several years, it mostly becomes second nature (especially if you mostly memorize the same setup, or have "sets" of mems for specific purposes). So don't be too hard on yourself, just takes time and practice. :)

One thing I do when playing NPC's with lots of spells is to memorize the same thing on every level (all sleeps, all cure morts, etc.) and then changing it up slightly after playing it several times when I feel comfortable doing so.
 
I play a celestial scholar with a fair number of spells, and I typically do the following:

1. Memorize generally the same thing per each level. All Disarms, All Spell Shields, etc.
2. Memorize similar spells every event.

I do really like the idea of re-writing your memorization on a note card before mods so you can review what you have. I know that with the above 2 techniques I have still ended a fight only to remember that my bundle of Shatter spells would have been great to use :)
 
Steve: I forget what I've memorized *all* the time, and I have a 4 block. When I've had to memorize large blocks (like the Baroness) I do most of the things mentioned above.

Memorize the same thing (or nearly) every time, and don't split your column up in odd ways. I never split an 8 block with 4/4 and then 6/2 on the next level. It's either all are 1 spell, or half-and-half.

I tend to use my offensives in bursts: if I'm throwing one shatter, I'm throwing at least two. That way I remember they're expended when it comes time to cross off my battle board.

Healing is tougher, but when I'm playing my dark elf I rarely use more than one spell to heal someone at a time in battle. She also assumes that if someone takes a Crit and runs off without refitting they deserve to end up smeared all over the floor.

I also tend to stick to a handful of effect groups, which makes me think faster on the battlefield about wether I memorized something odd (like Solidifies.)
 
Also lock into usage patterns. You tend to remember the encounters you have done. If you do not throw spells around like water just so you can say you did something and keep them tight for when actions have meaning then you will more easily be able to handle them. I know, its harder for pure scholars. I guess its why I don't play one. Except I have, and I did the same thing so who knows.

The other thing is memorizing things in at leat pairs. Honestly if a spell is not worth memorizing more than once it is generally not useful enough to memorize once. Unless its something like Wall of Force or Circle of power...

Joe S.
Resident Jerk
 
Just memorize your column and keep track of everything you do. Works every time.
 
Deadlands said:
Just memorize your column and keep track of everything you do. Works every time.
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Thanks Gary.

That was deep. :thumbsup:
 
SkollWolfrun said:
QB/Sideline coach wrist pocket with my spell list.
Click to expand...

This. I recently picked up a few to test out how it would hold up during a weekend of NPCing. I frequently have to play the Bigger cards and have a tough time remembering everything perfectly.

You can memorize the important things like body, damage, intelligence and "special effects" pretty easily. But for the 10 block, or that dual school 4 column, or that super-trick-scout-guy, this is the way to go.

I suspect it'll work for a PC who only has the one card all weekend ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Unique-Sports...F8&qid=1372857998&sr=8-1&keywords=wrist+coach

Seriously. Hyper useful. At a glance, you see exactly what you're looking for.
 
Thank you for all of the advice. I'm going to experiment with a bunch of those different ideas.

I've already ordered the wrist coach. $9 bucks is cheap enough.

@Alavatar: I know I mad it harder by building a giant column in a day as opposed to growing it organically. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
 
I like the 3 window version. I can put a LOT of spells on it.
 
SkollWolfrun said:
I like the 3 window version. I can put a LOT of spells on it.
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I agree.

I think it has a lot of potential to help me keep organized.
 
RiddickDale said:
@Alavatar: I know I mad it harder by building a giant column in a day as opposed to growing it organically. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
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Did you mean Avaran?

Now I know you're thinking of me. :shades:

P.S. I also generally just memorize one spell per spell level. Remembering that I have 6 casts of 9 spells is easier than a mixed jumble, IMO.
 
Alavatar said:
RiddickDale said:
@Alavatar: I know I mad it harder by building a giant column in a day as opposed to growing it organically. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
Click to expand...
Did you mean Avaran?

Now I know you're thinking of me. :shades:

P.S. I also generally just memorize one spell per spell level. Remembering that I have 6 casts of 9 spells is easier than a mixed jumble, IMO.
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All you A-names look alike.

:twisted:
 
Alavatar said:
Remembering that I have 6 casts of 9 spells is easier than a mixed jumble, IMO.
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Truth. Having a big column does you no good if you can't remember to use it. Start easy and limit the number of spells you use, then add more in as situations warrant and you get used to having a large loadout.
 
While moving to a mod, review your remaining spells, then repeat the incants. I find this helps me recall them, and minimizes the likelihood I'll flub the call.

Like the others said, prep the same patterns. For example, I don't prepare Shun anymore, because I kept forgetting I did. I keep a couple of special-circumstance spells (Earth Storm/Earth Blade). Everything else is fairly evenly split between protective/healing/bindomancy/sleep/paralysis.
 
Templates and mnemonics. While NPCing I frequently have to use three, four or even five different caster cards over the course of a day. A lot of people have said to always take the same thing, but that's not an option if you're playing a lich, an eldritch researcher, a tribal elder and a templar all in the course of 12 hours, sometimes on short notice. I use templates based on ratios for different roles, such as healer, necromantic healer, fire support, control and containment or generalist. Most of those vary depending on whether I'm earth or celestial (or both, occasionally). Obviously not everyone needs to do this, but I find it easy enough to identify each level as being split 2-to-1, 1-to-1, or solid. Knowing what my intended role is will tell me which spells are which. I rarely take more than two different spells at a level while doing this for single school characters.

In the circumstance that I do deviate from a template I find it useful to find a mnemonic key to fill in anything unusual. For example, as a celestial "healer" I would usually be taking

1: 2 Fortress to 1 Disarm
2: Magic Armor
3: 2 Bind to 1 Wall of Force
4: 2 Awaken to 1 Elemental Blade
5: Spell Shield
6: 2 Elemental Shield to 1 Magic Blade
7: 1 Confine to 1 Charm
8: Dispel
9: 2 Prison to 1 Circle of Power

However, suppose that I backing up ice elementals in a fight against fire elementals. Clearly I'm going to drop everything at 3rd and 7th level for Ice spells, but I should make a few other adjustments as well. 4th level is going to switch over to Banish and only Banish; nothing else makes sense. At 6th level Elemental Shield becomes the only useful spell in role. 9th level is the toughest change, because I'm going to switch to 2 E. Blast to 1 Prison. I'll take a second to note that 469 is actually part of a childhood phone exchange for me, so that's easy enough. For 9th level specifically, I will do two things: I'll note that E comes before P alphabetically, and reinforce this by thinking hard about the onomatopoeia "eep" which notates that exact ratio. Finally, I'll resolve to link those Prisons to the Banishes in level 4; since they're both Eldritch Force I'll know that I have 1 Prison after 3 Banishes, which will be helpful since I'll probably be using the Prisons offensively in conjunction with the Banishes anyway.
 
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