Rules Cyclopaedia
pg44 “By ancient tradition—of necessity and common
sense—magic-users are loathe to trade spells among themselves. “
Many RPGs say that
player Magic Users are reluctant to trade spells. But why? So I
started to think of some possibilities for house rules to limit spell trading.
Magic is personal
and jealously guarded. A wizard would normally never teach another
how he cast a particular spell, because it would weaken the effect of
his own magic. Too many people on your network slows it down.
1. So similarly,
teaching apprentices a spell, damages the effectiveness of that spell. All spells
that are shared, now function at half power. Each shared spell has half range, duration and damage. If a master taught an apprentice his version of Lightning Bolt, then the range would be 90ft and cause 1-3 damage per level. Likewise, if the apprentice (or the master) had a unfortunate fatal
accident, the Lightning Bolt spell would revert to a fully
powered spell.
2. So in this world,
players usually gain spells through research. If a player finds a
scroll, the player would still have to do the research (at half
cost/time) to make their own version of the spell. But even then, it
actually taps power from the original source. Learning from a stolen
fireball scroll written by the wizard Moe the Merciless is extra
dangerous, if Moe suddenly finds his own fireball is now half powered. Otherwise, scrolls work the same as usual.
For
PCs, it
is combat
mechanics. Trading spells increases party survivability. Tactically
it is a good idea for each of the party magic users to be able to
cast fireball. Swapping spells between characters is the easiest way
to achieve this. PC wizards make their gold by adventuring and not
dying. Not by having a monopoly on a spell. Spell casters who pool
their knowledge, are more valuable to the party then those who don't.
However, Spell books in a campaign can quickly become identical. I think there is more role playing in enforcing some penalties for trading between spell casters. That may be what some of the original books were getting at. Every spell caster in the party can have magic missile. They just can't get it the easy way by trading spells with each other.
However, Spell books in a campaign can quickly become identical. I think there is more role playing in enforcing some penalties for trading between spell casters. That may be what some of the original books were getting at. Every spell caster in the party can have magic missile. They just can't get it the easy way by trading spells with each other.
