... now with 35% more arrogance!

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Casting from Spellbooks

I said in my post about spellbooks that I don't treat spellbooks as really big, emergency scrolls. In Delving Deeper, for example, you can cast a spell from a spellbook, but the spell disappears when cast this way. Not only do I not like the "written spells disappear when cast" trope, I think this creates a problem when exploring a dungeon that includes a spellcaster. They'd have spellbooks, right? That means, if you find their spellbooks, you've just found the equivalent of 10-20 scrolls or more.

That doesn't mean I won't allow casting spells from a spellbook. It's just not like prepping and memorizing a spell.

What I would do is use the emergency spell prep time of 1d6 turns per spell, but double it, since the M-U isn't prepping then casting. This only works with spells the M-U knows and could prep. Even though the spell isn't being memorized, if the M-U doesn't have an "empty slot", there's a chance the spell is miscast: 5+ on 1d6, modify target # up or down for high/low Intelligence, but add the spell level to the roll. For the effect of a miscast spell, use the unmodified result:
  • 1 to 4 -- No effect.
  • 5 -- Fizzle. Minor ineffectual version of spell being cast.
  • 6 -- Backfire. Roll for random spell of same level, apply to random target. If the random spell is the same as the original spell, the effect is reversed, if possible.

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