D&D 5E Spell Slots by Class

[Riley37]

Do bards, clerics, druids wizards, and sorcerers all use the multiclass spell chart?I'm seeing 2, 3, 4/2, 4/3, 4/3/2, 4/3/3 on all of those tables. Is there a difference that I've overlooked?

 

[Ashrym]

Bards, clerics, druids, wizards, and sorcerers use full class levels on the MC chart. Paladins and Rangers use half class levels rounded down. Eldritch knights and arcane tricksters use a third of the class levels rounded down. Warlocks use a separate system and don't use any levels added to the MC spell slot chart, and other classes don't add any levels either.

For example, if you had a bard 6, ranger 4, arcane trickster 4, warlock 2 the character would be 16th level and any cantrips are at 16th level. Spells slots would be as a 9th level character on the MC chart -- 6 for the bard, 2 for the ranger, 1 for the rogue. There would be none for the warlock on that table, but the warlock would still have his own slots.

Any spell known can be used in any slot, and the related spell caster ability modifier is based on the class that learned the spell. Spells are learned separately. That character would have spells known from each class individually.

Does that answer your questions?

 

[Riley37]

No. I'm asking whether the MC spell chart, the bard chart, the cleric chart, the druid chart, the wizard chart, and sorcerer chart have identical spell slot progression. (If yes, then ALL those casters use the MC chart.)

Which of those classes (bard, cleric, druid, wiz, sor) has this chart for levels 1-6:
2
3
4 2
4 3
4 3 2
4 3 3

 

[Tormyr]

Yes, all full spell casters use the same chart. The progression is the same as the multiclass chart.

 

[Ashrym]

My apologies for misunderstanding. Yes, the MC chart is the same as the regular spell caster progression for bards, clerics, druids, sorcerers, and wizards. All spell casters except warlocks use the same chart, including paladins and rangers et al, but they just advance along the chart more slowly. This was deliberate to facilitate multi-classing rules for a shared table.

 

[Riley37]

It's good writing, that the classes which use that chart all have an ability called "Spellcasting", while warlocks have "Pact Magic"; that usefully signals a structural difference in their access to spells.

I see a huge jump at level 3, when a full caster goes from total 3 slots (all 1st level) to 6 slots (including a pair of level-2 slots). Seems consistent with the way a LOT of other class abilities kick in at level 3.

 

[Pickles JG]

Oh noes good writing!

There's a lot of that in 5e. They use coherent systems for things and functional keywording without calling it out all the time.

Powerlevel does indeed increase rapidly over the first 5 levels (at least) as the class features are spread overthose levels and hp increase rapidly proportionately plus second attack at 5th is huge.