Spell Books

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by tomc

This is cool. ... The impulsiveness of youth, and all that.

Thank you. Yes, it should not be mandated. A rash youthful hedge wizard may not even know literacy. The more flavors the more fun.

[hcobb]

Here's the spells I'd add to the list:

Drain Strength: If you've got 5 minutes for casting then you can spread the resting out across the party.

Cleanse Poison.

Scour.

Summon Scout.

And at IQ 14 Telepathy (to deal with language issues.)

[Original_Carl]

I haven't had enough campaign play to really get a handle on how to tweak the magic system outside of the RAW. I have some ideas, but nothing concrete.

I'm a huge Jack Vance fan, so my view of magic in my game worlds is that of a very advanced working unified theory of science being manipulated by people who have little to no knowledge of those underlying theories. This is done by memorizing the algorithms to unleash the energies necessary to achieve the desired result. It's kind of a "standing on the shoulders of giants" thing. That's why it's so tightly defined (few spells), the spells can't really be tweaked, and new spells aren't a thing.

Even the greatest wizards could only encompass a handful of the most powerful magics in Vance's Dying Earth. This sounds like Wizard to me. No wizard in The Labyrinth is a walking spell encyclopedia.

Later, the source of all magic is intimated to be based around the indenture of a race of genie-like beings known as Sandestins who exist outside of time. Not sure what I'll do with that, but having a even a relatively weak Sandestin in your indenture would make you a very powerful wizard.

[hcobb]

If you want to go all Vancey-pants then make Write Scroll take hours instead of days. And allow literate heroes who know Alchemy to read these scrolls. (Perhaps at an additional die rolled to cast?)