Vixen's Dungeon

I am to the best of my knowledge not in Faerûn. As for the laws of physics, I know that during combat people aren't literally taking turns, so time works the normal way at least. I think the most sure-fire test of this is to see how quickly someone falling reaches terminal velocity, but regrettably maths and physics were never my top subjects so I might not be qualified to run that experiment. But I think for the most part things work as they would over there.

Right now based on what I’m reading, I see spell slots as a storage limitation, not a “mana” limitation. Do they explain that in the DMG and not the player’s handbook?

No worries on the rules lawyer thing, you just unintentionally gave me a good example of what that looks like. I figured it was most likely a genuine question.

To get to your follow-up, yes, it's a storage limitation, specifically for memorising spells. Because that's what you're doing, you're not preparing spells like in 3rd Edition, you're literally pressing the mystical gestures and words into your memory, from whence they will be wiped after use. The rationales are a bit different for magic-users and clerics but the same basic principle applies, and in both cases you draw the actual power from an outside source, as powering a spell yourself would kill you.

Can my level 1 priest prepare Command, cast it, then pray again later in the day to prepare Detect Magic?

Sure, should your priest have sufficient Wisdom to grant a second 1st-level spell, or you rest for 4 hours in between.

armed with catapults and ballistae.

So the encounter table for Cornelia is actually really simple in the game, you just have the chance to encounter 3-5 imps. To translate this into AD&D, we do a little digging to find out that what the original NES version of the game called "imp" is actually a goblin. So we just… plug that into the Conversio-Matic 2000™ and we go from…

100%: 3-5 imps

…toooooo…

01-00: 40-400 goblins

Just imagine, you could dress up as a dwarf! Or a wizard! But not dwarf wizard so help me God you’re no better than the douchebags who go to ren faire as Starfleet officers.

(Dressing up as a Starfleet officer disguised as a stranger from far lands is okay, that’s fully in the spirit of things for old D&D).

"But it must be fully comprehended to be altered. Otherwise, the results of change will never be noticed. The only way to understand the game is to play it, at least for a short amount of time, as it is written. After some experience with the game, you may feel your creative impulses suggest changes in the system. You may wish to borrow from other games, from other gamers, and from other sources of literature. By all means, do it. But at least know what it's like to play without the changes you and your players wish to install in the game. It will make the changes that much more rewarding."