If I recall, Scribe Scroll can be used at level 5, so you guys are within the window of having that work. Wizards operate a competing guild within the city and there are quartiers similar to districting in France. At least in Baden's Bluff, where you are beginning, assuming the conditions of some of the previous material which Lady Maevre asked me to clean up. So, to me, the latest is the city is being besieged by a demon and the wizard's guild, with a magical orb kind of like the Palantir sits like Foucault's Pendulum outside the street front.

I'm going based on memory of the books so some of my calculations will be slightly off. Wizards need eight hours of rest and a focus to temporarily add spells to their spellbook. Functionally this means that a "photographic image" of the book means basically a wizard needs faculties of sight to connect the raw tissue of Erethor to the godly realm above. Learning spells is done with the Create Magic Item feat, so the idea is that there are several guilds of book binders in Baden's Bluff. You need to write down your experience of the spell, having seen its presence in nature, to actually learn it but just on paper. It always needs to be read, as is canon. Later on rarer spells would be less common in nature as a bizarre phenomenon. Pre-adventure you have already seen the spells (the locations in the world of Midnight [just the map though] become seeds for channeling, but from the gods, kind of like the Old Gods of Game of Thrones.

HP is set up like Savage worlds dice, with classes having 1d4 through 1d12 plus CON. So multiclassing permits wizards to have more HP. So six times 1d4 with the concomitant CON at each level.

I don't do bennies that much. Also, despite the spirit of Midnight, characters don't really die that much, 'cause I find character creation somewhat tedious. Seems to be in violation of the idea of levelling up. Mechanically I think the game works better that way.

Crafting is xp based, leaving power nexuses to reduce the cost at later levels.

Lady Maevre, the point buy system was just an off-the-cuff mathematical idea, no weight to it unless you think. You, until we start, have the magic item forge to represent downtime. the +2 keen rapier senses bodily regions in cover to slide through holes all the smaller. It is thinner and costs less strength to wield. Not sure how strength can cost, but I was leaning toward energy drain.

Dionysus on the knee is based on the Greek myth about Hera tatooing Dionysus with a fire nearby, welcoming him into the panthon. Chances are there's some wild family-tree type-stuff going on.

Does that clarify a bit?

Not really, so let me reword my question.

Can I start with more spells than the wizard class gets automatically?

Is the cost for extra spells free, calculated at the base cost of scribing spells into a spellbook, calculated at the price of scribing the spell plus borrowing a friend's spellbook, or some other specified cost?

In reply to Nikodemus of the Hillfolk (msg # 10):

Sorry, in that case. My post was a bit convoluted, but I hope I can adress your concerns more fruitfully.

Spellbooks are x number of pages; freely transferable as a carried item but with real-world physics of book-binding.

You may start with thus infinite spells potentially, as tailored to your character's background. The remaining spells, in narrative, cost as per the DMG. Cantrips are 0gp.

Hi Nikodemus. I'm guessing you are being some sort of spell caster then :) That will probably work out well: I'm basically a melee character.

Yes; Niko is an arcane priest (aka wizard) devoted to Zeus.  He's a bit of a 'to whom it may concern' caster, so best not stand on the same line as him and his target(s).

Ah it's easy to resolve: I don't do pvp. You fireball me deliberately and I'll be leaving the game. If it's an accident that's different of course. But blasting the target through me isn't an accident.

We can of course coordinate to try and make our attacks sensible, and I'm happy to do that.

I'm not talking PvP; Niko's main action in combat is a lightning bolt, and barring that Burning Shocking Hands, Burning Shocking Sphere, and similar.  I'd rather not do collateral damage (Zeus, and Niko, are Chaotic Good not Chaotic Evil) but I would also like to be effective in combat.

While my spells are not finalized yet, I will probably invest in some energy protection.  Temporary immunity to -insert energy type here- should change the dynamic.

It should be straight forwards to make this work. We are going to outnumbered in most fights I think. Plus if we coordinate.. For example I wait until you have acted that will help a lot. Perhaps we can get some element resistance and then it should be possible to do with abandon blasting...

Ask me about Zeus later. Just for chatting: IRL he is chaotic evil (we normally call serial rapists and paedophiles CE and Zeus liked his little boys) . In the game he's fluffy. If this was like IRL then I would be tempted to follow the only goodies in the Greek pantheon: hades and prometheus

I like the  change of fire to lighting. Very cool and thematic. Same spells different element.

I have some minor fire powers (I grew up in a place full of ice and darkness so fire was a major survival advantage). If I'd thought about it more I might have tried to tweak them like you have.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:17, Fri 02 Dec 2022.

Actually, no tweaking; Niko's got a healthy amount of metamagic to change his spell damage.  And he is religious with all the associated perks.  I will be tweaking his light spells, but that's about all the skinning I'm doing so far.

Well I have to admit I am looking forwards to posting. How are you doing Nikodemus?

Have not gotten to descriptions.  In terms of bare-bones sheet, I still need to figure out half my gold allocation and which spells I will be purchasing.

Bought a Blessed Book so cost is less of a factor.  I THINK I can thereby know all spells level 1-3 outside of barred schools, but both practically and thematically it would be a waste of pages.

Well youd have to find the spells first to inscribe. The book doesn't come with spells in it, it 'just' makes it free to copy it in.

It looks like a really good item. I'd not seen it before. I'll really think about getting one for any wizards I make in the future

See if the Gm is bothered about 'how many spells you start in your book'. Me I'm all for as many as you can get! That's your shtick for being a wizard type. And paying all that gold for the book should help

I'm familiar with the general rules with learning spells.  Per discussion above, starting with spells beyond base allocation is allowed, at the cost of transcription.

The book is great, but it does take 125 levels of spells to break even.  I expect to choose 20-30 at most, meaning it might be a few more (spell) levels before it pays for itself.  It's more of a long term investment, and coolness factor (this is a Greek mythos game, so I figure it's a filigreed scroll that opens to the right spot every time instead of a proper bound tome).

From https://www.d20srd.org/srd/mag...rcaneMagicalWritings

There are severals ways to get spells

Leveling up
Two per level if you are a wizard

From someone else's spell book


Independant Research
Lots of down time! And I've not really seen rules for this: we've always made our own. If you know where a good set is, I'd be very interested

GM Gift
The GM can obviously give you a NPCs spell book, or have a guild where membership includes access to spells, or all sorts of other things. This is the the bit I think you should explore. Especially the guild

---

With all of these you then have to make a copy (except leveling up). And that's the transcribing cost. Which for you is zero
This message was last edited by the player at 21:51, Sat 03 Dec 2022.

Yes, I know.  As I said, I'm quite familiar with wizards and spellbooks.

I would like to gently request that any core rules not be explained to me.  I have been playing 3.5 since it was released, 3e before that, and so on.  My concern with how spells be handled is something that stems from lots of possible interpretations on just how wizards gain extra spells, and the topic was clarified by the DM already.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Sat 03 Dec 2022.

Ah I think I was just out of sync. So 'Way to go!'. From a 'balance' point of view, that book is more expensive I think that just the raw transcription of a LOT of spells, but it's a lot more portable.

As you said it might be a waste to copy them all, but I'd certainly copy all the ones you think you might even possibly/maybe need! And guard that spellbook! (I know you don't need this advice, I'm just chatting)

More just chatting

• I assume you have a bag of holding or equivalent? If not I do anyway
• The item I like the most as a mage is 'Pearls of Power'. I tend to make a lot of them. Actually I usually get Make Wonderous Item and put almost all the treasure I get for a few levels into them

If we do get into a fight do you have a way of avoiding people pounding on you? (Flight / invisibility / something). I can obviously stand in front of you and that should help.

Nikodemus,

Since Lady Maevre asked about bag of holding, the secret pouches you have (don't have the Magic Item Compendium) probably work in the same way, they exist on another plane, unless you'd prefer to have them work differently. I am probably not as experienced as you guys, but I'm trying to see eye-to-eye. So magic is Spellcraft, Create Wondrous Item and Concentration primarily, just saying so I can get my bearings. Scrolls, polythesistically, are like the first illuminated texts, rare, but sought after by almost every city. I should say there are rarer types of scrolls that aren't just parchment but use rarer plants harvested by druids and wizards outside this city anyway.

Lady Maevre asked me whether the demon who attacked the city occured after your presence in the city. I should say that there is smoke rising from the city even now, you are on your way in but recall from certain texts that the portcullis bars you from entrance unless you pay a version of tariffs. Obviously the wizard knows the most history, and this city is somewhat legendary even for the sake of magic items being done in secret in the past, kind of like Christian worship. But now magic items are surfeit. You will shortly be at the hinterland-type area where the scrolls are, and the city is your oyster once you walk in. Keep in mind a demon just attacked so you're potentially entering a riot, which obviously means the tariff is the last thing on people's minds. The green plants, also used for dyes, are known as Queensbane. The pavilion was a celebratory event that (kind of like Fahrenheit 451 with the drifting population eking out existence) and two elves stood out from the pack as you made eye contact.

If you want to start posting IC ideas or continue OOC discussions, please feel free. And I hope the game stays fun.

Bags of holding
Sound fine.

Magic
I think that will be you Nikodemus :) And I can't recommend Create Wonderous Item enough (but you probably know that)

Starting cash
Are you OK if we start with 100gp. I have quite a lot more than unspent (which I will be carrying in the form of gems) but it's good to have some ready cash

Lady Maevre had set up camp in a little bluff overlooking the city and was watching it carefully. The smoke rising from it was not a good sign: Great Fires were the enemies of cities everywhere. Well everywhere except her homeland of course

Turning to view her little camp: a small but comfortable and watertight tent, a place for her pony and saddlebags. The firepit dug down and lined with stones so it would hidden at almost any distance

"What do you think Nikodemus?" she asked her new traveling companion "I would fly over the walls. At night I wouldn't be noticed. I can carry a rope and lower it to you if that would help. Or do you have your own way of getting in?"

"Alternatively we can pay the tax. My worry is the 'attention' we might get not the money. I do have a disguise magic so..." she shrugged

"I'll leave it to you to decide. I'm happy both ways"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:58, Mon 05 Dec 2022.

I have about 3k of gold I should probably spend on something, and then descriptions and background before I'm ready to go.

I start a new job tomorrow, which meant thirty some-off pages of forms and affidavits.

As a suggestion, leave this as a dedicated OOC thread and start a dedicated IC thread, because otherwise every time some asks for clarification or announces they will be out of town it'll get confusing.

I accidentally posted in the wrong thread!!!

How is the new job Nicodemus?

It's going to be challenging but rewarding, if the schedule doesn't kill me.

Hi, new player checking in. Gregor is a giant of a man and melee tank beatstick with a VERY big stick who used to be one of Napoleon's soldiers and an insider for the coup that led to his death. Now looking for a new employer and/or new purpose in life.

Hey Gregor! Great to have you here.