Kargun, you sound like a very cooperative player, which is great. The opportunity is before you to have great fun with this situation. BUT...
As quite a few have mentioned, if it goes on for a while and your enthusiasm with the situation is starting to wane, do every player in the world a favour and make your feelings politely but unmistakably known. You owe it to yourself and your whole group to be honest if you're not having fun.
As for possible solutions, I would try to find out where your PC could discover more about the curse - surely your GM will respond and give you some leads to follow.
Failing that, I like the scarification idea someone mentioned above. Chicks dig guys with scars!
Response to the bolded part:
This is assuming that the DM is competent.
Nah, I'd call the DM lucky, since I don't want to call the Player a moron.
Nah, I'd call the DM lucky, since I don't want to call the Player a moron.
I'm guessing there's a fair amount of trust that's been earned through having lots of fun. Some people haven't been scarred by crappy experiences, and thus are well-adjusted gamers with no hang-ups :)
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If the curse is in your eyes, then cut 'em out and get them replaced.
Nah, I'd call the DM lucky, since I don't want to call the Player a moron.I'm guessing there's a fair amount of trust that's been earned through having lots of fun. Some people haven't been scarred by crappy experiences, and thus are well-adjusted gamers with no hang-ups :)
All it takes to start the downhill is one betrayal.
And I wonder if I'll ever get my trust back towards that one DM.
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Something like teaching a magical helper monkey to read the books to me!
something like a very, very FAMILIAR magical helper monkey that you have a Telepathic connection with?
if they can Read Magic somehow, then plasuibly they could share their perception/thoughts of the spell contents,letting you prep spells... or who knows? have fun with it@ ;-)
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Are any of the other characters likely to be willing to read to you? Maybe make a deal with the Inquisitor - you'll do his lying for him, and up your bluff and diplomacy checks to compensate, and he'll read your spellbook for you and jot down the new spells. By working together to overcome your curses you can totally get out of the situation your selfishness got you into!
...Dear Lord, I've watched too many of my kids cartoons...
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I think that so far the GM should be applauded for good engineering of the situation. He presented the player with a temptation that the player KNEW was going to get him in trouble, and it did. Then the player was tempted again (the box), and again knew that picking the naughty choice would get him in trouble. Judging by the size of the potential reward, he knew the potential punishment would also be quite dire. And his partner the naughty inquisitor could be counted on to pick VICE as well. So all in all he was walking into it with wide open eyes. The GM didn't do anything sneaky here; he was quite upfront about the scale and likelihood of the risks/rewards/punishments.
Then there's the second issue: a non-standard curse. Get your pitchforks, the GM used something nonstandard. Oh no.
With the story though, it becomes entirely clear why the GM resorted to a non-standard curse: to make the punishment fit the crime. The wizard was too greedy for new magic, and now he's entirely stuck with his old magic. Not stuck with no magic; stuck with OLD magic.
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As for how to resolve this... let me talk a bit about how I'd want to do it as a GM. Obviously the point here is to teach the character a lesson about greed.
Obviously the intended lesson is that greed is bad. But forcing someone to learn the intended lesson isn't quite fun; what if the player or character disagrees? It's more interesting to leave open exactly what is learned. For example, if the encounter with the box ended more fortunately (due to collusion with the inquisitor perhaps), then the lesson might be that you need to be smart to get away with greed. Or if he picked VIRTUE and the inquisitor VICE, then the lesson might be that you can use the law to screw people over.
So maybe I'd first dangle learning a lesson that greed is bad. But then some creepy hag comes along and offers to transfer the character's curse to someone else, if he'll just eat some kittens or suchlike. Then that lesson would be that if you're gonna be evil, you need to go all the way to get away with it. After that, maybe the character persists in a more "neutral" approach and eventually makes the first braille spellbook, proving that greed isn't good or bad, that raw intellect trumps morality. (How typically Wizard.)
In any event, the character has had development, eventually came out alright, and the player has a story to tell of how he played a wizard who overcame inability to read (which is bragging material in my book).
Some interesting ideas about "lessons" can be found here:
http://errantdreams.com/pages/spiritual_journey
If all was good and fine, then why not make that clear from the first post?
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If all was good and fine, then why not make that clear from the first post?
I am unsure why he had to. He wasn't complaining about what his DM did, but was asking for creative solutions to a Roleplaying problem. I think it is easy for us to bring our own baggage to a problem, when it happens it is usually best to go, "Oh my bad," and move on with the conversation.
I'd go with Dark Sun. In old 2e, dark sun mages couldn't read (most people couldn't). Their spell books were cords, with knots. That made for a kind of braille, which worked to learn and memorize spells. You can do something similar.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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If you're fine with it, I'd have fun while 'looking' for a solution.
Do you have Craft Wondrous Item? See if you can use ghost sound to 'enchant' your spellbook to be a magical speak-and-spell.
"Fireball. F-I-R-E-B-A-L-L. Fireball." Kawhoom!
Scroll Fax machine. You have a helmet you 'feed' the scroll into and it stores the spell in your mind. Expensive, but funny.
Spell-o-vision! A refinement of speak-and-spellbook. You open it to a page and a little illusion goes through the gestures while ghost sound provides the words.
Think of all the trouble you could get the party into looking for a cure. "Sure Mister Demon, you lift this curse, I'll give you an inquisitor! Best of all he can't lie, so you can ask him all about his church!"
Edit: Forgot, design an ASR (Arcane Spell Reader) tool. A wand that can hold X spells, by 'scanning' your spellbook.
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If all was good and fine, then why not make that clear from the first post?I am unsure why he had to. He wasn't complaining about what his DM did, but was asking for creative solutions to a Roleplaying problem. I think it is easy for us to bring our own baggage to a problem, when it happens it is usually best to go, "Oh my bad," and move on with the conversation.
Agreed. Everyone's perspective is colored by experience. When I read the first post it seemed clear to me this was a case of "help me find cool ways to do stuff" rather than a "help me deal with this unfair thing the DM did to me", but I have never had any issues with bad DMs in the past (quite the opposite).
There is also an underlying habit (as I believe was touched on earlier) in these threads to assume that someone must be doing something unfair and wrong, and someone must be villainized, even though in this situation it is not the case.
My two cents on the thread topic:
I really like the idea of taking Perform (Oratory) and developing an oral/aural method of spell storage. Maybe take Leadership to get an apprentice to help you convert your spellbook and add spells going forward. Granted, this depends on buy in from the DM.
To fully sell this, I suggest actually coming up with haikus/sonnets/limericks/etc that you recite to the group when preparing spells (An aura present/Hinting at strange mysteries/Do I see magic?). I can't speak for your DM, but I would allow it for the sake of coolness. :)
Otherwise, definitely play the desperate type. Be willing to make shady deals with unsavory folks to get your power back (after all, you should be a mighty wizard!). Maybe even sell out the inquisitor as suggested.
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Agreed. Everyone's perspective is colored by experience. When I read the first post it seemed clear to me this was a case of "help me find cool ways to do stuff" rather than a "help me deal with this unfair thing the DM did to me", but I have never had any issues with bad DMs in the past (quite the opposite).
There is also an underlying habit (as I believe was touched on earlier) in these threads to assume that someone must be doing something unfair and wrong, and someone must be villainized, even though in this situation it is not the case.
I have had one or two bad GMs, but I'm not so bitter about it that I assume incompetence until proven otherwise.
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Even if you can't cast it, would it be possible to stock up on potions of comprehend languages for the purpose of spell preparation, until you can get the curse fixed?
You don't need to read a potion, and you could pay someone else to make it for you.
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As a side note, I'd like to point out that the formula books of goblin alchemists contain no words, only crude instructional drawings depicting in an individual coded form, how to make the sparky-boom-boom goo.
Perhaps this now-illiterate wizard could discover the secret cache of an ancient mage, who was secretly dyslexic. Unable to parse simple arcane text, he trained himself to learn magic in other forms, recorded as art and music. The color palate of a great mural, held in the minds eye, serves as a prepared spell, as may the negative space of the trees, the complex stitching of the his cloak, or the memory of a distant tune.
This is mostly a fluff-based approach. Other spellcasters may interpret his "spellbook" and scrolls with a Spellcraft check, and he may or may not suffer a penalty to add spells to his spellbook. You may want to do some research on neurological damage that affects literacy and speech as well. There's recorded cases of people who have had the Broca's area of their brain damage, and can no longer talk...but can still sing.
This was one of my first ideas. However, [Brew Potion] cannot be used to create potions who's target is "you" and range is "personal". So by those rules you can't have a potion of "comprehend languages". :(Even if you can't cast it, would it be possible to stock up on potions of comprehend languages for the purpose of spell preparation, until you can get the curse fixed?
You don't need to read a potion, and you could pay someone else to make it for you.
Hmm... How about a potion of Share Language then? It's an iffy case, since by the potion rules you would be both the target and caster of the spell (essentially you'd be sharing a language with yourself. Share languages doesn't technically prohibit this, it's just a pointless use of the spell in most situations, but some GMs might in a situation like this) but the spell allows its target to read, understand, and communicate in a language the caster knows. As the potion drinker, and therefore the caster, you'd be allowing yourself to read, understand and communicate in a language you know.
Assuming you still know whatever language your spellbook is in (which sounds like the case, since you haven't mentioned being unable to talk), the spell's effect may very well allow you to read it. At the very least it may allow for a caster level check to temporarily overcome the curse and let you read that language.
Might be worth asking your GM about.
--EDIT: Or get a wand of comprehend languages (can't believe I didn't think of that). 750gp, doesn't require reading to activate, or any check at all if you have the spell in your spellbook. Seems like it would work.
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To the OP, i wouldn't allow a wizard who cannot read to be a wizard in the first place...
The wizard could read in the first place, but has been cursed to be unable to.
I may be wrong in assuming that you looked at the topic title and then posted without reading even the original post, but... um... well, please at least read the original post of a topic. It really helps comprehension of what's being discussed.
Kargun, I faced a similar situation some years back, when my wizard lost the ability to memorize spells due to a curse/spell. He could still read, but he simply could not regain spells at all once expended, and since the curse was cast at the end of a mission we had just accomplished, he had already expended a lot of spells. Furthermore, any attempt to cast a spell he still retained in his memory from before the curse necessitated a saving throw with a high DC, with a failure on the saving throw resulting in a permanent loss of a level.
The way I dealt with the situation was by multiclassing into a Psion, which was thematically appropriate, as I had been interested in Psionics and 'mental spells' anyway. It did leave me with 7 levels of wizard that were of not much use, so my Psionic ability did not correspond to the level of the party, but nevertheless, it did allow for staying within a similar theme and using psionic powers in place of spells.
Kargun, I faced a similar situation some years back, when my wizard lost the ability to memorize spells due to a curse/spell. He could still read, but he simply could not regain spells at all once expended, and since the curse was cast at the end of a mission we had just accomplished, he had already expended a lot of spells. Furthermore, any attempt to cast a spell he still retained in his memory from before the curse necessitated a saving throw with a high DC, with a failure on the saving throw resulting in a permanent loss of a level.
The way I dealt with the situation was by multiclassing into a Psion, which was thematically appropriate, as I had been interested in Psionics and 'mental spells' anyway. It did leave me with 7 levels of wizard that were of not much use, so my Psionic ability did not correspond to the level of the party, but nevertheless, it did allow for staying within a similar theme and using psionic powers in place of spells.
Okay, that is a dick move by the GM, and would move me into "okay, retiring this character" territory.
Agreed . . . How remorseful is the wizard? or how likely is he to perform penance? After all, everything he did was to achieve greater heights of arcane mastery! If the inquisitor had helped him rather than ditch him, everything could have been fine!
I would definitely consider implementing many of the good suggestions in this thread and have long term "I don't see what I did wrong" syndrome, coupled with an attitude of "it's your fault this happened to us" toward the inquisitor. Could be interesting playing as unrepentant for a while and maybe work with the DM to have a snapping point placed in front of you (or maybe it is already in your past waiting for you to uncover it).
The one thing I am curious about, and this is more regarding the curse mechanics than anything else, is how the DM plans to handle you gaining a level while under this. Would you get new spells added to your spellbook? Would you get spell "credit" so when you finally can read/write without drawback you can scribe all those spells you would have gotten? When you gain new spell slots, do you get more spells in you mind, or are you stuck with only the current spells regardless? I think this is a pretty cool mechanic, and kudos to your DM with coming up with it.
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Perfect. You can muck about in character with mitigating or circumventing the curse or following up false leads on removal for as long as you like. If a good RP opportunity presents itself, you can go for the penance. If you stop having fun playing with the curse, you can always ask the DM or the other players to give you an in-character prod in the right direction to remove it.