Partial literacy in Sorceror's Tounge

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

I think you've made my point for me. LIGHT and most of those other spells are handy (if not foundational) for any wizard. You're putting mages at a disadvantage if you expect them to wait for when they can afford their own chest and spellbook before having access to those spells.

I'm certainly not expecting a wizard to do without all those spells. (Unless it's an epic game and the GM lets you generate a wizard with a chest.) But chances are they will have to do without some of them, because there are so many and they need a lot of their IQ for other things. The chest provides access to all the out of combat IQ 14 or less spells you didn't learn. That's not nothing.

I thought your point was

scrolls get the job done much more efficiently and economically.

That was what I was disagreeing with in my last reply.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

I thought your point was

No, my point was simply that the rules for casting from a book are unnecessary. The game is more fun, more interesting, without them IMO.

TBH, I also think scrolls are (generally) too expensive and too hard to make since RAW restricts the ability to IQ 16 or higher wizards. In my game, enchanting items is the more complex magic.

[Steve Plambeck]

LIGHT is an ironic choice of spells for this discussion.

"Hey, it's gotten dark in here. Good thing I brought my book with the LIGHT spell in it. Now... if only it wasn't too dark to read..."

[hcobb]

How badly do TFT scrolls suck? I did the math...
https://www.hcobb.com/tft/scrolls_suck.html

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by hcobb

How badly do TFT scrolls suck? I did the math...
https://www.hcobb.com/tft/scrolls_suck.html

Do those prices factor in the cost of labs?

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Do those prices factor in the cost of labs?

You don't need lab or chest to write scrolls.
Or do you? ITL 149 suggests not.

[Shostak]

I was thinking more of the cost of potions and magic items. One need not have a lab to create a scroll, but an alchemist will need one to brew potions. Let's take the Fireproofing potion as an example. Its entry on ITL 147 says that it has a suggested retail price of $250 and that it takes two weeks to make. If one doesn't have their own lab, one needs to be rented ($150/week)--see ITL 145. This leaves me wondering about the profitability of being an alchemist if a Fireproofing potion costs more than $400 to manufacture (lab rental plus common ingredients) but only sells for $250.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Shostak

I was thinking more of the cost of potions and magic items. One need not have a lab to create a scroll, but an alchemist will need one to brew potions. Let's take the Fireproofing potion as an example. Its entry on ITL 147 says that it has a suggested retail price of $250 and that it takes two weeks to make. If one doesn't have their own lab, one needs to be rented ($150/week)--see ITL 145. This leaves me wondering about the profitability of being an alchemist if a Fireproofing potion costs more than $400 to manufacture (lab rental plus common ingredients) but only sells for $250.

Yeah, none of the crafting rules work.
https://www.hcobb.com/tft/Potion_Problems.html

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by hcobb

How badly do TFT scrolls suck? I did the math...
https://www.hcobb.com/tft/scrolls_suck.html

I agree with that and I'm not even thinking about the price. Also I don't care if it takes two hands and an extra turn -- or even three.

To my way of thinking, a scroll should embody a completed spell, and therefore be a self-powered thing. And it should work for whomever can read it, wizard or not (and I'm not even partial to non-wizards ever casting spells, but I'd like a scroll to be an exception to that).

But scrolls should have to be written in the language of magic, which in Cidri is the Sorcerers Tongue. (In my old campaign world it was something else, the so-called Language of Creation, and people other than wizards might learn it.)

The only thing I like about TFT scrolls is that little rule about peeking at one to see what spell it contains, but having to make a saving roll then vs IQ to stop yourself from reading the rest and using up the spell -- I always thought that was a very cool and fun idea.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

scrolls should have to be written in the language of magic, which in Cidri is the Sorcerers Tongue.

The Mnoren conquered 11 worlds with magic. I imagine that Sorceror's Tongue was a native language from one of those 11. But the other 10 seem to have developed magic independently and probably had their own magical languages. I suppose in theory you could write a scroll in one of those.