It takes a long time to put those spells in memory. So casting a spell that is in memory is easy. Back in the day, I played games in which one casts spells using a mana pool. Like in MERP, my elf only knew 1 spell. Also, casting wasn't so easy. I needed a pretty high roll for the spell to be effecti...

I like knowing the weather far in advance since forecasting is a huge business and it impacts the campaign in many ways. It's not like the PCs can ignore the weather and travel through storms.

The simplest way I found to handle the weather is to record the actual weather for a year. Then I use that for my next campaign year accounting for the difference between my location and that of the party. E.G. If the party move north, it's going to be colder. Nobody has caught on and the players ar...

I think I used a Bumblebear once.

In my narrow mind, and "encounter" is when one's path meet with wandering monsters outside of their lairs.

I think it's mostly a matter of level.
Level 9 used to be when the player starts attracting followers.
In a campaign, players can become known for their deeds.
Notoriety is a lot like rumors.
Most of the rumors are false and so many false stories can start to spread about the players.

I think what you describe has more to do with notoriety than any particular abilities.
As my players gain in level, they attract more attention even if their abilities increase.
Also, the magical stuff they find tend to stand out, so it's all on how they present themselves.

I think this usually applies more to Thieves in my games more than anything else. Most of the time, unless there is a compelling reason to call for a roll, I assume they can climb most things easily, and probably move through a crowded street or dark area mostly undetected unless there are sentries...

I find monsters with names attached less attractive.
They sound like unique creatures that need their own adventures to put things in context.

I have no idea if there is a character limit on forum posts and I don't want to type a whole bunch only to find it gets cut off. I've put 30 pages of typed edits into some of my posts. Thanks for taking a look at this. I just go back and edit the post as I go, like I'd do with a text editor.