TFT Questions about books, scrolls, and magic items

[Skarg]

Some magic items have specific descriptions saying they do some things without needing ST, but others do mention a ST cost. If an items says it lets you use a spell, without saying it has no ST cost, it has the spell's ST cost unless enchanted to be self-powered.

Originally Posted by cmcknight

3. If the spell is written in a book or on a scroll, is a lack of literacy the reason that a non-wizard cannot cast a spell that he/she has not memorized or is it merely just being a non-wizard that prevents the use? Would it not be more reasonable to just assess the 3x cost penalty regardless?

No, and wizards are not automatically literate. Literacy costs one spell/talent-learning point for both wizards and non-wizards.

Being a non-wizard prevents the use of magic scrolls and books.

Assessing 3 x ST penalty instead could be a house rule, but it would have some setting/balance/economic implications. I would tend to think that at the very least, casting a spell from a book would require some magical training - the non-wizard would need to have not only literacy but some other talent that would allow them to know what to do and be able to do it well enough.

For example, read the narrative description of Yzor's spell casting in Wizard, and then imagine trying to do that yourself from a list of written instructions - seems to me it would be telling me to do things I would not have any real knowledge or experience of.

Book: "Now create a knot of psychic force..."
me: "what?"

I imagine those things come much more naturally to wizards than non-wizards. It's reasonable to my imagination that non-wizards just can't do it, but I could see house-ruling a possible talent that could be learned.

As for TFT scrolls, those are magic items which do some of the magic themselves when read, using the reader's ST.

Of course, if you imagine magic as being more like something anyone can and will do if they just do a series of things in the right order, it might make more sense to allow non-wizards to do it.

(Note that in original Advanced Wizard, non-wizards had -4 DX to cast a spell they had memorized.)