The Holmes Basic D&D as a complete game thread on Dragonsfoot is having a major effect on my thinking about my Caves of Chaos project. Because of Geoffrey’s aguments in this thread, I am seriously thinking of limiting memorizable spells to first and second level spells for both magic users and clerics. Higher level spells could only be directly cast from scrolls (or other magic items). Otherwise they could only be cast from spell books in long rituals in a wizard’s lab (M-U spells) or temple (cleric spells) or be placed in magic items. Not only does Geoffrey made a good Swords and Sorcery literary case for limiting memorizable spells to 1st and second level in the Dragonsfoot thread, but doing so would be closer to the Vancian source material as well. One Dying Earth story mentioned only two types of spells the magic user could memorize: lesser and greater spells.