|
Am I crazy, or are there no rules for a wizard casting a spell directly from his or her spellbook?
It seems to me like one of the most iconic images of the wizard, spellbook in one hand, wand or staff in the other, thunderously intoning the words therein. Which makes it seem strange to me that I can't seem to find any rules on the matter, anywhere.
Can someone direct me to rules for this, or at the very least an explicit ruling that they can't (for whatever reason)?
There is no rule saying you can use a spell you have not prepared crom your spell book. Your book is not a magic item that enables casting.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Those are the rules, yes. You can leave slots empty and prepare the spells for them later in the day, this could be flavored as reading them directly out of the book, but you would take the time to prepare it, and then cast.
There is no rule saying you can use a spell you have not prepared crom your spell book. Your book is not a magic item that enables casting.So, by reading it silently for an hour, I can cast a spell 18 hours later.
By reading that same book aloud, I can't cast the spell right now?
That's correct.. because spells come from the energy matrix prepared in your mind, or impressed on to a scroll. Text in your spellbook has no such bound energy.
Am I crazy, or are there no rules for a wizard casting a spell directly from his or her spellbook?
It seems to me like one of the most iconic images of the wizard, spellbook in one hand, wand or staff in the other, thunderously intoning the words therein. Which makes it seem strange to me that I can't seem to find any rules on the matter, anywhere.
Can someone direct me to rules for this, or at the very least an explicit ruling that they can't (for whatever reason)?
There is more than one iconic image of a wizard. Gygax chose the Vancian icon instead of the Charmed Ones icon.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Didn't there use to be a rule that you could cast a spell directly from a spellbook but it erased the page like casting it from a scroll? Or was that just a houserule my group used back in AD&D?
Didn't there use to be a rule that you could cast a spell directly from a spellbook but it erased the page like casting it from a scroll? Or was that just a houserule my group used back in AD&D?
It was the latter. It does sound like something that David Hargraves would put in the Arduin Grimoire along with a heavy percentage chance of various amouns of catastrophe occuring to the book itself.
So there's no rule saying I *can't* cast directly from the spellbook.
There is a rule that says you must prepare your spells daily in order to cast them. You are wanting to cast a spell you have not prepared, there is a rule stating that wizards do not work that way.
So there's no rule saying I *can't* cast directly from the spellbook.
There aren't any rules that say you can't engage in combat while dead and/or hacked to pieces either.
You should know by now that "can't" isn't how rules are written. There is no Paizo rule that says you CAN. And that's the full tale.
I allow casters to do this but it wipes the spell from the book along with 1-2 other random spells, sometimes you just have to do it.
I would make an extra spell book, containing mutliple copies of the spells I would usually carry on scroll. Faster and cheaper to make, and always at full caster level.
Didn't there use to be a rule that you could cast a spell directly from a spellbook but it erased the page like casting it from a scroll? Or was that just a houserule my group used back in AD&D?
That's how i'd play it too.
OR
If you're having trouble getting your head round the idea that you can't cast it from your spellbook but you use your spellbook to prepare spells, imagine what "preparing spells" actually means?
Maybe each spell actually takes a lot longer than 1 round to cast (1 minute minimum each or something). "Preparing" each spell actually means you do the first 90% of the ritual, leaving only a hand gesture or a single word before the spell is complete. You can then say the final word, or perform the final gesture at a later point to complete the spell.
Just an idea.
A group I play in has a feat that allows this, but it requires a higher level spell be sacrificed at the least. Playing a Ranger, I have only a slim exposure to the feat. I do know it must be a spell the caster has in her spellbook and it has serious negative effects on book and caster. The only time I 'observed it, the feat stunned or caster...mid fight!
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There is no rule saying you can use a spell you have not prepared crom your spell book. Your book is not a magic item that enables casting.So, by reading it silently for an hour, I can cast a spell 18 hours later.
By reading that same book aloud, I can't cast the spell right now?
So by reading a cookbook, you should be able to eat your cake right now?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There is no rule saying you can use a spell you have not prepared crom your spell book. Your book is not a magic item that enables casting.So, by reading it silently for an hour, I can cast a spell 18 hours later.
By reading that same book aloud, I can't cast the spell right now?
So by reading a cookbook, you should be able to eat your cake right now?
I could only wish, but damn would i gain way too much weight.
Maybe each spell actually takes a lot longer than 1 round to cast (1 minute minimum each or something). "Preparing" each spell actually means you do the first 90% of the ritual, leaving only a hand gesture or a single word before the spell is complete. You can then say the final word, or perform the final gesture at a later point to complete the spell.
That's pretty explicitly how magic worked in the Dying Earth series as well as in Zelazny's Amber series (esp. the second chronicles). Merlin, in particular, speaks of "hanging" spells and trying to figure out what specific words/gestures should be left out of his prepared spells, to be used when the time came to cast the spell.
This was a fairly common houserule i found in 3.5, and it made sense, because scribing spells was far more costly, both in terms of time and price.
Since pathfinder lowered the costs to scribe spells drastically, if you allowed this option, no one would scribe spells again. instead they'd cast from their 'book' of the same spell over and over and just use it instead of scrolls.
|
Didn't there use to be a rule that you could cast a spell directly from a spellbook but it erased the page like casting it from a scroll? Or was that just a houserule my group used back in AD&D?
Unearthed Arcana, I believe. I think there might have been something about a percentile chance to wipe every page clean if casting this way.
Arcanist and Exploiter Wizard can do this over two rounds- prepare a spell in one turn and cast it the next.
Keep your scrolls in a book.
Play a spontaneous caster with copies of your spells known in a book. (Combining with the last idea, Mnemonic Vestments allow you to avoid using up the scroll.)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So there's no rule saying I *can't* cast directly from the spellbook.
Sure there is. What class would you be doing this with? That class (supplemented by the general Magic rules) says how they cast magic. The rule saying I can't use d2s for falling damage is the rule saying to use d6s for falling damage.
Am I crazy, or are there no rules for a wizard casting a spell directly from his or her spellbook?
It seems to me like one of the most iconic images of the wizard, spellbook in one hand, wand or staff in the other, thunderously intoning the words therein. Which makes it seem strange to me that I can't seem to find any rules on the matter, anywhere.
Can someone direct me to rules for this, or at the very least an explicit ruling that they can't (for whatever reason)?
in what way exactly? <grin>
as this is a Rules thread, using a spellbook to directly cast a spell is a Homebrew messageboard topic as it's not allowed By The Book(BTB). I'm sure a supplement and variant method will come out sometime.
Or not. no such rule ever came out for any version of D+D, excluding third party sources such as the Arduin Grimoire. (Considering that mechanic involved the possible destruction of one's entire spellbook, it never quite saw common use.)
There is no rule saying you can use a spell you have not prepared crom your spell book. Your book is not a magic item that enables casting.So, by reading it silently for an hour, I can cast a spell 18 hours later.
By reading that same book aloud, I can't cast the spell right now?
So by reading a cookbook, you should be able to eat your cake right now?
Actually that's exactly how it works.
You read the cookbook in real-time, following directions as you go, and at the end of the casting/baking, you have a cake.You don't read the cookbook in full, and then put it away, and then a couple hours later "remember" all the steps in baking the cake and do it then. That's just silly. ;)
To OP: You're wanting either 5th Edition or Homebrew. Personally, I'd say you can cast directly out of your spellbook, but the casting time takes 1 minute per spell level to cast. No one is gonna take 30 rounds to cast a fireball, and doing it that way makes utility spells available without eating up your precious slots, but doesn't totally trample the idea (and pricing) of Scrolls, which can be activated as fast as a memorized spell.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So by reading a cookbook, you should be able to eat your cake right now?Actually that's exactly how it works.
You read the cookbook in real-time, following directions as you go, and at the end of the casting/baking, you have a cake.
You don't read the cookbook in full, and then put it away, and then a couple hours later "remember" all the steps in baking the cake and do it then. That's just silly. ;)
I am uncertain to which side of the argument this simile is intended to give credibility to.
Preparing the spell is like cooking the cake. You are making sure all the ingredients/incantations are done in the proper order, and in the end make sure the cake/spells are stored away in the right place.
Then, later in the day, you eat the cake/cast the spell. But if you wait too long, the cake/spell goes bad and you have to fix a new one the next morning.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A lot of long-time players get hung up on "Memorizing" spells.. and "forgetting" them once cast; the wording from (original) D&D, AD&D, and AD&D 2nd Edition.
As of 3rd Edition, "Spell Preparation" became the term, and references to Roger Zelaznys' Amber were used to illustrate the process.
The spellbook contains the instructions for preparing the spell.
When you prepare a spell, you leave it unfinished.. ready for the last words or gestures to trigger it. You can prepare multiples of the same spell if you have the capacity. You do not "memorize" or "forget".. you "prepare" and "expend".
A scroll, unlike a spellbook, contains the energies of the completed spell (including the used up material components) in the magical writing. Casting from the scroll releases the spell, "expending" it.
Now, wish me luck trying to find where I read that before. :)