Emergency Spell Casting for D&D
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
- What's the difference between spell scrolls and a wizard's spell book? Find out in our proposed homebrew rule.
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00:00 Intro
00:29 Spell Scrolls: How do they work?
01:12 Are spell books magic items?
02:05 Emergency spell casting rules
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Now think of an evil warlock or sorcerer that takes an enemy wizard's spellbook as loot, and when facing the party, he cast spells by ripping the pages of the spellbook. The party wants to defeat him quickly because every round the loot gets worse for their wizard.
This is an interesting edge case... I might be worth making the case that only the owner of the spell book can use its pages as scrolls. As stated, the use of a spell scroll requires understanding, so its not a big stretch to say only the wizard who wrote the spell down truly understands it. (flavor that as a cryptic cypher...or bad handwriting).
I think this is also a quick fix for the problem of players just amassing as many spell book nukes as they can from fallen foes. If every wizard enemy is basically dropping a small stash of spell scrolls it all gets out of hand quite quickly.
wizard: please guys hurry up they just used wall of force i needed that spell
@@DJThermite This is actually a RAW interpretation. In the Wizard class it specifies the gold and time spent to write a spell in their spellbook is for experimenting with materials in order to understand the spell and then write it in your own book using special ink.
A wizard by RAW cannot pick up another wizard's spellbook and use it, even if they already have them in their own book. This is because every wizard uses its own interpretation.
Now were it that the PC mage describes it wants to use additional gold and time to make their spells accessible to all wizards or even all casters, we are getting in interesting territory... especially since you book would suddenly be wanted by everyone with a little connection to the arcane... better have a spare book around in my games lol
I was thinking of something similar
@@DJThermite no, this is a feat for sure though.
It's not a spellbook, it's a portable scroll library.
Ook.
Sooo kanade from bofuri
@@nyanwizard2735
Isn’t Ring of Spell Storing literally that? I was thinking about it ever since first reading that it exists.
..now we just need the thing that gives random spells every day. Omg, now *that* would be a fun subclass to play.
@@Kayta-Linda 1: your are totally correct
2: that sound like such a fun subclass
This is an awesome idea, hampered only by the fact that wizards really aren't the class that needs more power.
Yeah, my thought exactly. It is a shame that they are the ones that most easily justify it.
For the other casters, I'd maybe offer some sort "magical exhaustion" to overcast, but crafting penalty that would be delicate.
It would have to be similarly impactful to a wizard losing their spells, which can be anywhere from devastating at a low level to "One of my 80 spells, oh noooo.." for upper level ones, but also need a similar level of repair as finding the spell again, which is also very variable.
What's to stop a martial class from using the Wizards spell book in the same way? Have a Fighter that's proficient with Arcana and flavor it as continuing on their fallen friends legacy.
"Even after all these years, you still know just what to do, old friend..." *They rip out the last page of a worn tattered spellbook and activate Produce Flame.*
As the magic slowly swirls into the retired veteran's hand, they toss it into the fireplace. Sitting warm on their favorite chair, they get comfortable and slowly watch the magical fire burn, closing their eyes, they drift to sleep only to wake, young again. Hearing a familiar voice outside calling their name.
---
As the fire goes out, so to does the light in the old heroes eyes. The spellbook lay on the ground pulsing a faint blue light. It slowly crumbles and blows away as a soft breeze passes through the chilled cabin.
@@IanMitchener Now that's a cool idea. It wouldn't come up all that much, since it requires a party to have a wizard, and requires that wizard to die and not be resurrected, so it's no longer a general rule, but story-wise? An incredible potential for some really strong moments.
@@kRx1203 It could be part of some character backstory. Some lost comrades from your former party and after fulfilling their last wish or something, their family gives you the spellbook they left for you.
I can see a situation where the party w/o a Wizard comes across an old spellbook as an item and the casters can use it as an emergency spellbook trove for lower level spells.
In D&D 3.5, a scroll is a spell completion item, which means the spell is essentially already cast except for a final word or phrase. So, speaking that completes the spell. However, a spellbook has written instructions on HOW to cast a spell. It doesn't contain the completed spell, so it can't be used as a scroll. I tend to stick with those assumptions in all of my games.
I so agree here! Glad to see someone has some decent sense of game balance.
For 5e edition you must cast the spell to make a spell scroll . the spell is trap in the scroll until realase. you pay material componant and suffer drawback(exemple: for wish spell) when making the scroll. it is mecanicly the same.
because a wizard can have many spell book the homebrew rule is just wizard can make spellscroll for 10gp and 1 hours of for by spell level . the plate armor value is around 15 meteor swarm.
My Pathfinder mage would make invisibility spell scrolls at her highest level of ability for party use. Only allowed to make one a day per rules as written, but in downtime (when in a city) would make one, then go shopping, or study/investigate a library looking for more spells, or hang out in the town square or tavern practicing juggling with a cap with a copper piece in it on the ground in front of her, sometimes getting donations.
You can do a lot if your DM is flexible.
For the spell book nuke I would think that the limit of using only one spell scroll a turn (ie casting a spell) would take hold but the rule of cool says it’s might be worth doing.
the rule of cool says it will actually fucking implode and destroy a good chunk of land, similar to an actual nuke, including the arcane fallout and radiation
i would let em cause hey, if they want to destroy they character to let the party live, who am i to stop that (edit) BTW I DONT MEAN LITERALLY CHARACTER KILL (tho it is likely) i mean that if they want to essentially make they character useless by destroying all spellcasting ability, i wont stop em
@@verianlewolf2417 At least give the wizard a DC30 saving throw against magic. If they make the save, their spirit gets hurled into the Astral Plane, stopping their corpse from being resurrected as anything other than an empty vessel awaiting ensoulment. If the party can manage to work out what's gone wrong with their well-meant attempt to bring their friend back to life, they are in a race against time to find the wizard's spirit and restore it before some passing entity is attracted to the body and possesses it and/or the wizard figures out how to transit from the Astral Plane to whatever afterlife their deity espouses.
I would personally treat the spellbook nuke just like the breaking of a Staff of the Magi, making it a similar effect, but that's just me
@@pinguin4898 somewhere in the book should be Sickening Radiance, so at least the radiation is canon
The spellbook nuke (along with your on-screen DM's narration of it in use) sounds like a variation of how Eberron wound up with living spells in the Mournland.
I unwittingly did this when my wizard wanted to cast Teleportation Circle as an Action to escape capture. But since it's more than simply "casting it for emergencies," I had them sacrifice all their 1st to 2nd level spells rather than the spell inscription itself... and you're right, it made for one epic final scene and everyone at the table loved it.
Just a note here - the rules on copying a spell into your book states you can copy it "if it is of a level for which you have spell slots", so you can't copy higher-level spells into your book. You could apply the higher-level spells you were talking about casting from a book if you, for example, found another wizard's book and they had higher-level spells.
Minor loophole: Have a higher-level librarian or teacher transcribe it for you. (Not that I believe my players would think of it, but that is very much an option).
The thing is, there is no rule saying what makes a spellbook yours, so we can just assume that it is a spellbook in your possession.
Technically, you can get a spellbook with spells you can't cast yet, but since it's your spellbook you still have them in your spellbook. And you could even combine the new spellbook and your old spellbook, so that you don't lose transcription time and money.
Alternatively, the Tasha's magic school spellbooks include spells. And you can attune to them before being high enough level to cast those spells.
@@draghettis6524 it's something that would be up to DM interpretation. Since there are rules about being able to use spellbooks drop by wizard-like enemies and the seemingly universal truth that wizards have doctors handwriting.
@@JarieSuicune I could see spell transcription as a service being a thing in major cities who pride themselves on magic. Would probably cost a LOT more than transcribing the spell yourself though.
You steal teh spellbook from teh evil wizard who ws a higher level then you. You now have a spellbook with spells of a higher level. You jsut can't cast them
This might be one of the few homebrew rules I've seen where I'm actually intrigued, as it's not either entirely wholesale "rule of cool" nonsense, or stuff we already have rules for that the writer just was unaware of.
This is an interesting interpretation of spell books and spell scrolls, and the self-balancing aspect of permanently burning a spell is a great way to make sure it's not overused, only really being there as a "we're in trouble, and we need an answer NOW" option.
The idea of an enemy wizard using this reminds me of every time an enemy drinks a potion in front of the party, which requires me to mutter "..and cross that off the loot list" before describing the effects. I even had a very chaotic fight once where their was a goblin bard with a magic instrument who, when the fight started looking bad for his allies, hopped on a horse (owned by his, now dead, hobgoblin commanding officer) and rode away. The bard in the party eventually got a magic instrument, but not that one and not for another 7-8 levels.
This is such a logical progression from -rules- guidelines as written I wonder why I've never heard of it before.
I'm sure someone playing a Scribes wizard could figure out a way to abuse this house rule (especially the Book Nuke), but with their ability to make cheap scrolls quickly, I think they'd be least likely to need to use it.
Then again, it's also an easy call for the DM to rule that because the wizard is doing it to their own spellbook, it counts as erasing the spell from the book, not just damaging/destroying the book which can be restored via ritual.
Not to mention if they have a spare blank book they can just copy the book in it's entirety for free over the course of a short rest this works even if their original book is destroyed. So in theory the wizard could rip out a page from the original book and use it as a scroll and then over a short rest restore that page in the book
Without changing the rules for backup spellbooks this would be pretty exploitable. Otherwise this could also be some nice loot. A spellbook made of spellscroll materials so it can double for both uses, as long as it has enough pages left. Another way could be to make the item an empty binder that lets you integrate spellscrolls into it, to then be used like a spellbook.
Yeah! We used to do this back in 2nd edition. You could cast directly from your grimoire, consuming the magic from those pages and losing the spell from your book.
This does make wizards even more powerful, but I love it.
A beautiful interpretation of the "writing is potential energy, reading is kinetic energy" meme. I love it!
My interpretation between a Spellbook and Spellscroll is the difference between Source Code and an Executable compiled from the same source code. The spellbook is used to record ones understanding of the spells various aspects and the procedures/materials required to recreate a desired effect, this ties in with the bonus to studying a spell in a field you're already familiar. However, a spell scroll or magical item is a spell that's been configured to automatically fire once given conditions and munitions are supplied; this would be why anyone could cast a spell but those casting the spell should still have some arcane knowledge to understand the standard procedure for handling the recoil, aiming the spells properly and ensuring one does not add the wrong material to cause a misfire/dude; they don't need to know magic but they need to have an basic understanding of the "gun safety" for handling a magic item.
That being said it's not unreasonable for programmers to have their own custom binaries to assist them with work, research and play. It's totally plausible a Wizard would have "precomplied" spells ready to go in their spell book should an emergency occur.
I'd say it's best viewed as an interpreted programming language. The spellbook is the pseudocode or design document, normal casting with a slot is typing the program directly into the interpreter line by line, and spell scrolls are script files that the interpreter can read at once. Not sure how well this analogy works for non programmers though...
only thing to beware is that if you have the spell prepared; you can write it down from memory - only losing it when you re-prepare your spells after a long rest. so holding off and finding time to re-scribe your fireball pages can be dramatic if the party doesn't have the hours of downtime, or is missing the materials to actually write it with.
Or if they just have a backup copy (which, really, any sensible wizard should. I imaging that would be part of Wizarding 101: "Taking Notes and Making Backups").
@@JarieSuicune is wizarding 100 how to get rich quick 😂
I love how you casually just drew Barbosa as a wizard perfectly slotted him in.
I love this idea! Sacrificing learned spells for emergency situations would make for very cool stories.
I might want to discuss with player beforehand how this will affect copying spells from a spellbook! In Xanathar's guide there is a table for DM's who want to allow players to create spellscrolls, with a 3rd level spell scroll costing around 500gp and a week of downtime! A wizard copying it from their spellbook to their backup spellbook to tear it from would only cost 1 hour and 30gp! At higher levels the differences become even more crazy.
Yes!
One fix, which would alter the point of this homebrew, is to say that rather than giving you a free casting, burning a page could allow you to cast a spell you haven't prepared for the day.
EDIT: You could also force the skill check to cast the spell succesfully, regardless of the level of the spell, to further promote using spell scrolls.
Using a spellbook page feels like smite slots where you tore a page to cast a spell and using a spellbook to as a bomb sounds like a fun idea
This is a clever idea. Especially for those hardcore 0 death saves games. I will take this into account if I ever get a Wizard in my game.
I’d like to think that the speelbook _itself_ is such a magical item that it itself is a tool to keep the all the spells inside it _stable._ So like, whenever the wizard reads a page in it, the page doesn’t go off as soon as they read it since that “scroll” is sealed inside the spellbook. The second they fully rip it out, however….
This page... the handwriting looks like I was drunk and all it says is "Exploding Runes" over and over again... oh crap
This is a really cool idea!
I have a homebrew rule for spellcasting that I had to come up with one the fly one session and have since just made a standard house rule in games I run:
Any spellcaster who runs out of spell slots can still cast spells, but they suffer Exhaustion equal to the level of the spell they wish to cast. So a lvl 1 spell cast in this way gives them Level 1 Exhaustion, a lvl 2 spell causes Level 2 Exhaustion, etc. These effects stack so a spell caster could cast a lvl 1 spell one turn and a lvl 2 spell on another turn, and be up to Level 3 Exhaustion. Also, a spellcaster would never be able to cast above a lvl 6 spell and casting a spell at lvl 6 would kill them since Level 6 Exhaustion = death. But a great self-sacrifice move!
Oooh, interesting! I rather like it. I've already incorporated a slight variant of the Exhaustion beta test from One D&D and this could work quite well with it! (With my players' agreement, we all think it is far better.)
My version of Exhaustion:
Exhaustion has 10 levels (11 is death).
-For every level of exhaustion, all skill rolls get a -1 penalty.
-For every two levels of exhaustion, all speeds get a -5 ft. penalty (min. of 5 ft., because if you aren't dead you SHOULD be able to crawl/limp along)
That would allow for casting up to a 9th level spell or a couple of mid-level spells, but with extreme risk/reward (being only two stages from death). I would have the exhaustion occur immediately after the casting resolves so it doesn't impede the last-ditch effort.
The wizard could recall being told by his mentor/ teacher never to activate the spell book. Kind of like a "Never cross the streams" moment! 😁
This is genius
No, this is Patrick
This idea of a wizard's spellbook-nuke is going straight into my current games! Also, what an amazing thing to have emergency scrolls for a heavily magical faction. Thank you :D
"Spell scrolls are detailed in the DMG on page 139" oh boy "detailed" is really generous of you
The thing with this rule is that its very exploitable. Copying a spell from one spellbook to another is cheaper than buying or making a spell scroll, so a wizard could be carrying more than one spellbook to use specifically for this.
This is my concern as well.
I get so excited everytime I see Master The Dungeon has a new video. Excellent as always!
This is a really freaking cool idea!
On an unrelated note, I really like the character designs you folks use in these videos. Props to the artist, and anyone else who's helped design them.
I literally cannot remember the last time I was so excited about a D&D homebrew concept.
That is such a great optional rule to have added to the game.
I love this idea! At least, the emergency scroll one. The Spell Nuke needs a bit of refinement for some players, groups, and game settings.
I may end up implementing it in future campaigns. (Especially since I nerfed most casters with another house rule I use in campaigns.)
I am now imagining a level 20 Wizard going out in a blaze of glory by casting 'Time Stop', casting every spell in his book and every scroll on his person all at once and just grinning as time resumes and Reality violently rends itself inside-out across 15 dimensions.
Imagine if an enemy got a hold of your spellbook and started ripping out pages to cast them as scrolls against the party.
You asked what the difference between a speel book and spell scroll was and I outloud stated that the spell book is bound which stops the page from destroying itself, which immediately precedes you describing ripping a page out and turning it into a scroll. Such a cool idea
Sacrificing a page of the spellbook to use it as a spell scroll is a super cool idea! I'll probably add this to my games.
Just be careful of savvy players. The rules explicitly state that they can make multiple copies, so there is some risk of major (and fully legal-by-rules) abuse if they apply much logic to it (which their character, at least, as a Wizard should be easily smart enough to notice powerful loopholes). Once you introduce something like this, it might be hard to revoke, if problems arise, without hurting player trust.
I posted my full thoughts on the matter, including a couple of ways to badly handle this and one I think can safely fully allow this!
I absolutely adore this idea and will be implementing it immediately.
The only problem I have come up with so far is that the magic spellbook can not be considered a magic item as a whole entity. Because, outside of specific rules, magic items are indestructible. An indestructible spellbook would mean you can not "tear out" the spell scroll page.
Also, you only get one free nonmagic item interaction per round. Activating a magic item, unless otherwise stated, is one action. So, using all the "spell scrolls" from the Spellbook at one time, would need to be a rule of cool ruling.
Using a spell scroll, taking or giving a potion, activating a tattoo or dragon mark, all Actions unless otherwise stated.
4:20 "As all these spells are about to be cast suddenly you see the spell antimagic field nearing the end of its casting before everything and as despair begins to reach you, the bard you saved three sessions ago appears, casting counterspell at the antimagic field that is about to be cast, letting your nuke go off".
Ripping a page out of a book to use as a scroll that is destroyed. That is a (homebrew) interpretation of the rules that is hard to argue against allowing and using. --You blew my mind with that suggestion.
Why did I tear up when the wizard said goodbye to his spellbook
I instituted this some time back, back in the 3e days, infact; with a couple of differences: First, I also used spell substitution. Let's say the party was chasing someone/something that began to fly away and it was absolutely necessary that the party get them, but the Wizard did not have Fly prepared that day(didn't know the target could Fly). The Wizard could replace any currently prepared spell with one that he has in his book, but the unprepared spell is lost from the book in the process, and it is cast at the level of the slot used(cannot downcast spells). We didn't use the spellbook nuke idea.
I'm finding it weird that more people weren't doing this. It makes backup spellbooks really useful.
We have personal reservations about this rule... But we also think it's an amazing video and we like the idea!
Thanks for the vid!
For the campaign I was running for my work buddies the party battled an evil Wizard that was the right hand man of a slaver. The only arcane caster in the party was an Artificer, so when they killed the wizard I always assumed the artificer could use her spell book like a book of scrolls. However when they killed the wizard the rogue pocketed the spell book before the artificer ever got a chance to look at it.
Situation: normal.
For the "use the whole book" idea, consider what happens if you break a Staff of the Magi (DMG pg.123) Short version: caster saves vs 16x the number of charges left, enemies adjacent save vs 8x, more damage further away. One charge = roughly one spell level, so add up the spells spell levels, multiply by 8 and let fly.
ive always wanted to run casters where they can use either exsaughtion or hitpoints or even limbs to cast when theyre out of slots, full metal alchmist style
I think how it'd work in my DM's setting is that the sheer amount of magic would drag everything in the area to the equivalent of the astral sea
My favorite spellcasting homebrew is something I ripped out of CoC, using health to cast spells when you're out of slots. The system works by burning a hit die and dealing damage to the caster based on the spell level. For example, a wizard doing this with a fifth level spell expends five d6 hit dice as if they had been expended during a short rest. Instead of regaining hp, however, they instead lose the amount rolled and the spell is cast. Obviously, this is to be used in dire circumstances.
I strongly appreciate this because finding new ways to use Hit Dice as a resource is always EXCELLENT since so many games these days just don't use Short Rests. XD
This flavor wise makes Scribe Wizards, my personal favorite school for wizards in 5e, so much more immersive in my opinion. With their ability to craft spell scrolls more easily it would make sense for them to think of their spellbooks as repositories for spell scrolls. Not to mention their intrinsic link with their spellbook that they gain the further into the class you go. Losing a spell to them would be like losing a piece of themselves and their friend, the Awakened Spellbook. I don't know I just think this homebrew rule has a lot of fun roleplay potential and I definitely want to implement it in my next campaign!
I've got a homebrew rule where if a player uses spell components and actually keeps track of them then they can use the spell components in place of spending a spell slot. This is a rule I feel fits my homebrew world as magic is so ingrained in the universe that it's similar to background radiation particals so everyone from Arch Mages to Farmers has the capacity to cast magic but only with study can actively improve it
One small homebrew I've added for spellcasting is that for any spell with verbal and/or somatic components, you can double the casting time in order to use exclusively one or the other. This allows for silent casting in noncombat scenarios, verbal casting when one's hands are bound, and for a few types of disability to still allow for spellcasting when it otherwise may not.
In particular, if a PC wants to play a disabled spellcaster whose disability would get in the way of their spellcasting, I may offer to bend this homebrew farther in their favor since they'll be practiced more than anyone else in their flavor of casting.
My wizards are like IT guys: Backup your backup of your backup. Always have a spare book kept somewhere safe.
This emergency rule would only deny them of spells in the short term, but I don't see why they can't have multiples of the same spell in their active spellbook for just this reason.
It even inspires an enhanced version of the spellbook that recovers torn out pages over time, maybe after a long rest it gets 1-4 pages back.
Oh, great minds DO think alike!
I've been running my home games with this kind of rule for _years._ Fear the nerd whom you've pushed to burn their book.
One workaround (and a precaution that almost any wizard worth their salt will have taken) is to always have a backup spellbook stored in a safe place. Sure, it would need to be copied again to create the new backup (or new primary), which will only get more expensive over time, but it’s worth it to never risk losing your repertoire.
I worry about a sneaky enemy thief taking the wizard's spellbook and passing it off to an enemy wizard...
A player could also make spell scrolls from their book during downtime but that takes time and resources they may not have. I really like this idea thanks for sharing.
The issue for the wizard trying to use all of the spellbook as spell scrolls at once is that it's an action to use a spell scroll, so it'd be an action to use each one, not the whole thing. It's a bunch of spell scrolls bound together, not one massive one.
you could interpret the difference between a book and scroll as a book has wards cast on it to protect the pages, but when ripped out they act as normal
Slight reminder, but spellbooks, per the item description, has 100 pages, and thus 100 levels of spell to be scribed in them.
Tearing pages out is definitely an emergency option, as replacing the pages means either rebinding the spellbook to add the lost pages, or transcribing the entire thing into another spellbook.
Spellshards from Eberron are dragonshards that can store 320 levels of spell, and thus have more room to store. But, as they have no pages, they can't be emergency cast like you would for a spellbook outside of sacrificing the entire thing.
This introduces a neat dynamic, I think.
Love this idea and the chaos it can create specially a high level wizard
This idea talks so much with the Scribe subclass, love it (i have a Scribe nerd as fuck with tons of spells)
I have a homebrew rule I call blood magic. Basically it gives every caster a pool of six spell points, which when spent incur the cost of levels of exhaustion. Each point spent also costs a little hp, and you can die doing this, from either the hp loss or the exhaustion.
I love this idea. I am going to ask my group if they want to use it.
A Homebrew spellcasting rule I have used before was the 'gemstones as spell holders' rule. Basically you could cast a spell into a gemstone using the same rules for creating a scroll (including the XP cost) as long as the gem had a value at 5 times that of the scrolls material components. When the time comes to active that gem it just has to be on/connected to your person and can be activated by will (though only one per round). After the spell is cast the gem goes back to being a normal gem and can be reused if desired.
My reasoning for this was that you always see spell casters with wands/staves/rods with many gems on them and I figured why not have a reason for said gems. It also allowed a caster to have some spare spell slots for those situational spells you might need, but don't want to dedicate a daily spell slot too. The not having to see, hear, speak or move to cast the spell was another major boon that can come in handy.
For balance I had additional rules for spells that had long casting times or expensive material components, but that was the basic gist.
I always kind of assumed that in the case of scrolls, they're not so much instructions for the spell, as a mostly-prepared spell that can be activated if you know how to do it. The magical equivalent of a spring-loaded trap, when compared to the trap schematics, which is what you'd find in the spell book
interesting,
in the one home-brew game that I run there exist something called spell tags, and are essentially spell scrolls light, with the added little problem of that anyone can use them.
though they are essentaly considered dirty magic.
I do like the idea of just ripping pages from your spellbook
I feel like using all the spells at once ought to cause the spellbook to become a sentient entity.
I always assumed that making a spell scroll involved having to expend whatever spell slot it uses, and that's why using it later doesn't require a slot, but that wouldn't allow the energy casting displayed here.
I've been using this idea for a long time, since AD&d in fact. In my world burning an entire spell book will create a retributive explosion of arcane damage (1d6 per spell level in said book in a 120ft sphere centered on the spell book and caster)
I have something similar going. They can upcast using a normal spellslot in exchange for a point of exhaustion for every level above the normal. Or no slot for an exhaustion at first level. This would allow a caster to pour all their stamina into one wild haymaker of a spell as a last resort.
I’m prepping a first session of a Spelljammer campaign for next week. One of the encounters I have planned will require the group to pick one last thing to load aboard their ship as they are being chased out of port. I thought a chest of special ship-focused scrolls might be a good option as one of their choices. So, standard spells like haste or invisibility, but only targetable on a Spelljammer vessel.
I think it is an awesome idea to give this overlooked class (at least among my friends) a new way to shine. Didn't read all the comments, so maybe someone else already said something related, but this is something that I thought watching the video: the usage of the whole spellbook could be flavorized with the school of this particular mage, maybe an explosion for destruction, but maybe an stasis inducing AoE for illusion and escalating with the quantity and power of the spells written. Just an idea ;).
Keep up with the good work!
I have a rule for Counterspell. If a spell is countered using a spell slot that is at least 2 levels higher than the spell slot used to cast the original spell. The caster can choose to redirect the spell towards a new target. It's simple and it has given my players plenty of fun moments in combat.
Generally, I consider the writing on a scroll to be a far simplified version of the way a spell is recorded in a spell book. A scroll would feature ciphered arcane text on what spells are stored in the writing and parchment and the incantations needed to harness the magic, but not much else.
Spell books would feature ALL of what makes the spell tick: the energy from planes that the spell taps into when casting the spell, the precise hand gestures needed, esoteric metaphysical formulae, the proper enunciation of verbal components, etc. All of which must be meticulously inscribed using a wizard's personal method of understanding and encoding the insane gobbledygook that makes up a spell.
When a wizard tries to learn a spell from a spell book or scroll, read magic isn't enough. In both cases, it must be reverse engineered. In the case of the scroll, read magic only tells you what is on the scroll, your Spellcraft/Arcana check means you dug into the magical aura of the scroll to understand the exact workings of the stored spell, which when paired with the writing on the scroll, allows you to translate it into your own arcane coding language.
Thus, scrolls are like a hand grenade, but a spell book is like a manual on how to make the grenades.
This rule is actually so metal I love it
Now I want to play a character that just has a wizard spell book, but uses it like a scroll case. Could be a fun approach to playing a character without a class.
Great idea! I've always wanted to play a scroll mage who can't cast from a book and can only cast disposable scrolls. It's a fairly similar concept!
Also, the music and voice acting felt like it clicked really well this time! Good job!
Do you think you'll do some PF2E content because of the WOTC/Hasbro issues? Your channel and teaching methods would be phenomenal for easing into PF2E!
Thanks again for more great work! Can't wait for the next
I came up with this idea too, while playing second edition. In my homebrew rule, what you did this, it doubled the level of casting but then the spell was lost forever, so that Mage..
One thing about this home brew rule is to know that a wizard still has some of their spells memorized as part of their daily work routines. Assuming they burned a spell from their spellbook that they had memorized that day, the wizard would only need to find the materials required to write the spell down into their spellbook again, but they would not need to find the spell itself.
Alternatively they could use a spell from their spellbook that they do not have memorized, and therefore have to find the spell from a scroll or tome all over again.
I like the rule at first glance without thinking on it.
An obvious thing to point out is that you can also copy spells from another spellbook "without" destroying the spells in the book, so that shows there is a clear difference between spell scrolls and spellbook pages, but hey maybe ripping pages out the book removes that protection.
Also if we look at older editions, higher level spells took up more pages in a spell book, and longer time needed to copy spells suggests this might still be unmentioned lore intent. I mentioned only to colour the flavour of an emergency cast, that if it's a high level spell it might be fun to imagine tearing multiple pages out at once.
"Now, imagine if an enemy caster tried it..."
Me, a beginner DM: Holy... I have try do that beautiful shit.
Can I just say that after watching an older video to watching this one, the mic quality is a lot better to my ears. Previously it always sounded like you had to much saliva in your mouth which made a constant “wet” ticking noise. Now I don’t hear it. Idk when the mic change actually happened, but my ears and I thank you for it.
Another thought, what of wizards using alternate spellbooks? I like the idea of a wizard that has his spells tattooed on him being able to burn out a tat in a pinch, though I might caveat that with him taking at least a number hit points equal to the level the spell is cast at.
I always enforce that you need a minimum of 6 intelligence to be able to cast a spell. That way things like polymorph can interupt spellcasting which I think makes a lot more sense personally.
This actually works well with a Scribe Wizard I was trying to make: he is very methodic and organized, wanting to be the next [insert the Creative Commons version of Modekainen], with his attempts to invent his own spells. Such a character would totally write out his spells like scrolls and have auto backups set up just in case... the book might even guard the group as it sacrifices itself (or he might have Metamagic Careful Spell) leaving him devoid of all but cantrips until he's able to access one of his duplicates.
I love this very much. One of the best homebrew rules I ever heard.
I use this rule at my table and came up with a different name for doing it: "Ripping" a spell. You can do it with any spell in your spellbook except for 0-level spells because you "can't rip" them. Can't rip? Cantrip? Get it?
This is pretty similiar to a homebrew rule I intend to introduce in a campaign I'm writing right now; Book of Spells.
A Book of Spells comes with a number of spells written into it and comes in standard sizeses of twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty pages. Each spell takes one page per level in the book, and for the purposes of the Book of Spells one page counts as both sides of the paper that make it up. A Book of Spells is usually made with multiple copies of one spell, though some are constructed with different spell such as a Book of Utility Spells or a Book of Fire Spells. Each book costs 20 GP plus the cost of each spell included in the book times eighty percent (20 GP + (Spell levels * 0.8). To cast a spell in a Book of Spells the caster must either be able to cast a spell of that level on their own spell list, or must make a Use Magic Device check with a DC of 10 + the spell's level minus two (10 + (SL - 2)) (mininum of spell level 1). When cast, a page (or pages) associated with a spell from a Book of Spells burns in arcane fire as the spell is used, destroying the page. The rest of the book is not damaged by the flames. If the last spell in the book is cast, the Book of Spells is rendered useless and innert.
i always treated a spell book as a collection of spell scrolls...but never thought about using the book as a nuke before....
Seems like a pretty cool improvised action
For non wizards who are feeling the pressure and are out of spells slots I propose they be allowed to use Desperate Casting. When Desperate Casting the character sacrifices 1d4 health per spell level desired in order to cast a spell already known.
Last Saturday I made a continuation of a two part prequel one shot. I made a group of 5 level 10 characters fight an Ancient Purple Dragon, they gave a good fight, but at the end they were losing.
The aasimar paladin did what he could to smite the hell out of it but a breath weapon to the face was enough.
The yuan-ti bard was trying to inspire everyone while on a wooden box in-between debris.
The cleric and the hexblade warlck were near tryin to hit it but the dragon flying was not easy task.
Finnaly, we got a human wizard “Dr.Mangungu” an expert lifting curses and a comic relief with an puerto rican accent (we play in spanish cuz we are from Chile). The party were on the verge of a TPK, 3 characters down and no hope ahead… until Dr.Mangungu makes the last move: he sacrificed his spellbook to make the most devastating spell combination with the hope of unaliving this dragon. As all the pages revolved around the wizard lifting him in a whirpool of arcane energy making him fly in front of the dragon and releasing a power never seen before, the dragon prepares a last breath weapon trying to counter it… and all goes white.
The dragon prone on the floor, with 20 Hp left, Dr.Mangungu on the floor unconscious because the breath got him, and the plaza they were in, obliterated with just silence… 120 feet around the wizard was devastated in a magical way…
The dragon says a few words before the warlock at 8HP made the final hit with an eldritch blast…
The credit was all for Dr.Mangungu, that now has to re learn many spells… enough for a lifetime.
And Neverwinter will never know, about the attack of a purple dragon right at the gates at 4Am…
And will never know about the heroes who made it.
I would think that the difference in crafting scrolls vs pages in a spellbook would be the explanation for the difference in casting requirements; the scroll has the components woven into the page, and the energy of a spell slot infused into those components.
Emergency spellcasting is precisely why a wizard MUST have a "Spare" spellbook.
This should especially apply for “Order of Scribes” Wizards, Scribe Wizards are able to create Spell Scrolls as well as transcribing them into their spellbooks.
I like The Homebrew that once could be used by any class but have a limited use to them rule
THIS IS SUCH A COOL IDEA!
My biggest spellcasting homebrew: Players get 5 special points per level
These points can be used as follows:
5 points - learns a spell at its lowest level providing you are at least double the spells level, this is treated as a simulacrum feature for warlock and each spell can only be learned once
10 points - upgrade the level of a prior chosen spell
20 points - add an additional use to a prior chosen spell
40 points - make a prior chosen spell at its lowest level a cantrip
Thanks the gods, one content creator not whining about the OGL. Thanks for that. I just wanna watch good content and chill.
My favourite spellcasting homebrew is Overload as I call it. I can't exactly remember if i'd come up with it on my own or seen somewhere. So it is as follows.
If a caster runs out of spellslots of certain level, they can attempt to cast a spell of that level using Overload. Doing so will requre DC 10 + Spell Level Constitution save which brings one Exhaustion level on a fail and increases base DC by 5 cumulatively regardless of the save. Cannot cast spells higher than 5th level and base save difficulty resets after a long rest.
It is basically another casting mechanic to make a desperate move or two in a dire situation but available for everyone and not only wizards :)