JoeJ wrote:
You want your bard to know a spell that other bards don't know, because it's thematically appropriate. Fair enough. But it's also thematically appropriate for fantasy characters to gain new magic through adventuring rather than having it handed to them. So my answer is still that you can't just write the spell onto your character sheet, but you can go on a quest to try and acquire it.
Sorry, JoeJ - I should have responded to you directly, although I do think I favorite-ed your post about this, which I intended to be taken as a sign of general agreement. I agree that such an approach can be fun, and doesn't necessarily presume that the player is just trying to game the system, and I wholeheartedly support the idea that using player (and character) motivations as quest hooks as a way to generate fun adventures.
In fact, your post was (IIRC) almost a perfect example of what a neutral approach might look like in practice - instead of assuming just "yes" or "no", you found a way to play it that meant everyone at the table would "win" by virtue of having a fun reason to go adventuring.
The only minor caveat I would have here is that I don't think I would ALWAYS handle it this way (which, to be clear, is not really what think you are advocating), but certainly it's a valid approach.
