Symbol Drawing and Artist

[otghand]

Does Symbol Drawing interact in any way with Artist skills? I am specifically thinking Artist: Body Art, Calligraphy, or Woodworking? I would think so, but the rules seem to preclude that. Thoughts?

The rule for Symbol Drawing says in part:

This is the art of scribing magical symbols. Depending on your magical tradition, you might carve these symbols with a ritual dagger, draw them on the ground or an altar using blood or ceremonial powders, write them in ink, trace them in the air with a wand or your fingers, or something else.
...
In traditions where the symbols themselves imbue items or places (or even people, in the case of tattoos) with magic, the magic is only as good as the symbols. Roll against the lower of Symbol Drawing and your skill with the enchantment itself. This is most common in rune magic. Each runic alphabet is a separate Symbol Drawing skill with no default. For instance, Symbol Drawing (Futhark Runes) would let you scribe the runes used in Norse magic.

[starslayer]

You might want to rule that symbol drawing is an artist skill that does not default from other artist skills (to prevent someone from taking painting and using it as symbol drawing at -2). So a symbol drawer could default to other art skills at -2.

Or you could limit symbol drawing to artistic ability. Ice you can not have symbol drawing skill greater then your highest applicable art skill.

[Phantasm]

Another thing you might consider:

Symbol Drawing is a knowing just which symbols to use as well as the ability to draw them. The appropriate Artist specialty might be able to give a TDM on the act of Symbol Drawing equal to ... let's call it half the margin of success/failure when the GM feels such things necessary, such as when the symbol is quite intricate to make and not just a triangle, star, or similar primitive shape. Translating a text or discovered drawn magical pattern would not benefit from such a TDM.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by otghand

Does Symbol Drawing interact in any way with Artist skills? I am specifically thinking Artist: Body Art, Calligraphy, or Woodworking? I would think so, but the rules seem to preclude that. Thoughts?

I don't see any reason for there to be an interaction. Consider the bit on Runes, you certainly don't need a skill that took hundreds of hours to learn to draw a rune - they're mostly a handful of *straight lines* - but there's still a Symbol Drawing roll to use them magically.

Symbol Drawing is effectively a spell skill. Even a crude symbol drawn with Symbol Drawing does something supernatural, an incredibly fancy one drawn with Artist does nothing except look pretty. Personally I'd allow a magician with Symbol Drawing to "energize" a symbol manufactured with Artist by tracing over it with a fingertip or something, and maybe that would be a little faster, or get a little bonus for the high quality of the symbol, but that's about it.

[Refplace]

I would say no.
Think of it like the skills Writing and Calligraphy.
Writing (Symbol Drawing) is knowing the best Runes/Symbols to use and mystically activating them.
Calligraphy is making the writing look real sharp and possibly easier to read, at least vs. bad penmanship. Though some Calligraphy can be harder to read.

So Symbol Drawing would be needed to make the Symbols but is so basic that it wont help an Artist make better Art. On the other hand someone with both might have access to different mediums (say Sculptor or Gem cutter) and make it look better. This could up the sale price for magic items as better decoration.
I would allow it to do what MA Loyd suggests, though probably not by much. Same opinion as him on that.
I would also allow the combo to create artwork that had hidden symbols in it.

[CoyoteGestalt]

In campaigns where Symbol Drawing magic interacts with spirits, using Artist alongside Symbol Drawing to make the symbols more attractive might give a reaction modifier from the spirits invoked.

[Not]

Hiding hieroglyphs is a great idea! Now, how to spot hidden hieroglyphs? Connoisseur? Symbol Drawing? Observation? Mage sight?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Not

Hiding hieroglyphs is a great idea! Now, how to spot hidden hieroglyphs? Connoisseur? Symbol Drawing? Observation? Mage sight?

Mage Sight if they are active should work.
Symbol Drawing at a penalty based on how well they were hidden would be the main way I think. It lets you spot the symbols because you know what your looking for and will more easily recognize it when you see or feel it.
Connoisseur might do it but at a severe penalty, mostly it would help if a known artist had a rep for such things.
Observation is mostly about looking without it being obvious so would not help you spot them. However it would help you look for them in say paintings in a museum without alerting guards you were doing more then admiring them.

[DangerousThing]

For the most part magical symbols are easy to draw. At least as easy to draw as the various alphabets we use everyday.

It probably takes artistic ability to combine them in an especially attractive way. I don't know, I used a computer to help me get it looking right.

I do like the idea of using art to hide the symbols. I can picture the downfall of a rich family because they owned a cursed statue that had hidden symbols for the curse. This might happen over generations in a low/hidden magic world.

[Flyndaran]

Finally a purpose for Artist: Illumination.
The text is unimportant. It's the hidden information in the overly intricate illumination that matters.