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Ulir
 
PostPosted: Tue, Apr 17 2012, 12:23 PM 

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Joined: 09 Mar 2009

I am assuming that the pages allows a wizard to study certain parts of spells and replace a few words, gestures, ingredients, some part of it which alters the outcome. Sort of like chemistry. You change this for that and create a different effect.

On my sorcerer, I imagine him either changing a gesture or word (that triggers a specific part of the spell), perhaps even concentrating on wanting a different outcome of the spell, creating an electricity charged weapon instead of fire for instance, but I do see difficulties in having the book with me currently, as I'm not sure why he would need it, unless it states "To alter the flame weapon spell, you use a different somatic component such as this (then it is described)".

I see BoT pages working fine ICly for wizards, but less so for druids, sorcerers, bards and clerics. The benefits a wizard may get from a specific page, wouldn't necessarily apply to another class, or? Wizards and druids share the flame weapon spell for example.

How do they work for each of the classes?
What do they do exactly?
What makes the BoT book so special, being needed to change your spells, while a single spell page does nothing on its own?

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Dark Immolation
 
PostPosted: Tue, Apr 17 2012, 16:06 PM 

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Location: The downeaster "Alexa"

There's no default way that they are said to work IC. Given that there are so many different paradigms and ways to cast even within the same class, it would be a little bit hard to do so anyway.

All that is known for sure is that they present the user with information that allows them or directs them on how to change their spells.

Concerning same spells, empirically a spell is a spell no matter the source. Mechanically, Flame Weapon from a Wizard is the same as Flame Weapon from a Druid. You can add flavor and RP so that they look different or have different feels, but the benefits are the same without you even bringing the BoT into this.

In the case of my Sorcerer, I RP something similar to what you said: the book taught him to modify a specific gesture or thought when casting that results in a slightly different spell. For a wizard, he most likely has to re-consult the book every time he's going to memorize the spell differently.

To answer your questions specifically:

1. However you want to RP it.
2. Show or tell a caster how to differently manipulate their spells.
3. ICly, you could learn from just one page I imagine, but mechanically you need to put it into the book to access the script. That or the actual "book" part of the BoT contains important info on how to interpret the following pages.

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Yossarin
 
PostPosted: Tue, Apr 17 2012, 17:56 PM 



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Joined: 23 Jan 2006

Since you will need someone more qualified than DI to answer that, I'll just go ahead and say that he is pretty much correct. The only time they become literal as opposed to figurative is when you are bartering for them with someone else, and I don't think that happens much anymore, not at all like it used to. With my bard PC I roleplayed the pages as actual wizard formulas, but he had to study them, understand them both logically and intuitively, and then he was able to "rewrite" them as a modification to his spontaneously cast spells.

As an example, the magic weapon formula teaches a wizard all about weapon design, construction, and manufacture, but also makes a connection between the construction of, say, the typical offensive evocation/transmutation spell and the construction of the weapon. In addition, the formula shows the exact ideas (and possibly literal measurements) where the use of the weapon and the use of the spell sync up, allowing the magician to use the conceptual transitive property to instill a weapon with raw magical power.

My bard does the same thing, but places it in the framework of the literary epic. There are a score of famous magical weapons through history, and his paradigm has him enchanting or "convincing" the weapon that it has the potential to be as great as the dwarven battleaxe Trollslayer, the javelin dubbed Thunderbolt, the dagger named Witchblade and the infamous Master Mysterio's Belligerent Bonker. It draws the same formulaic parallels, but these parallels, instead of algebraic, are allusory.

The Transmutation page that allows it to apply to ranged weapons (that's one, isn't it?) just teaches the wizard the details of the ranged weapon rather than the traditional melee weapon.

Likewise, the variation for my bard's paradigm is to do the same thing, but to invoke Starscream, Firespitter, and the The Crossbow of 1000 Needles.


 
      
Ulir
 
PostPosted: Wed, Apr 18 2012, 4:41 AM 

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Alright, thanks.

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