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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Artificers, or any spellcaster, and scribe spells feat
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<blockquote data-quote="SteelDraco" data-source="post: 2865685" data-attributes="member: 359"><p>I think you've got that backwards. The scroll is the limited summary, and the spell in the spellbook is the full thing.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The actual spell itself isn't something that can't be written down. What you've got in a spell book is the <em>instructions for casting the spell</em>. The magical energy (the spell) doesn't exist in a spell book. That's the essential difference between the two. A scroll does have that magical energy in it.</p><p></p><p>Here's another metaphor; see if it makes more sense. Think of the spell itself as a one-shot gun.</p><p></p><p>The spellbook would contain instructions for building that gun. Preparing the spell from a spellbook is that process - the wizard takes the instructions and builds the gun inside his head, and then just needs to pull the trigger to make it go off. If he knows a lot about guns, he can fiddle with the instructions, and make an Empowered or Silent gun. But he's still building the gun to trigger later, with the help of his spell book.</p><p></p><p>The scroll, then, <em>is the gun</em>. It's not in the wizard's head, it's in paper form, but it's still a product, rather than a process. You just have to know enough to point it and pull the trigger to make it do its thing, and then it's gone. The magical energy was moved from inside the wizard to the paper, and it's sitting there, waiting.</p><p></p><p>IMO, a spell scroll and the spellbook pages for that spell have almost nothing in common; even a wizard would have to look at it for a bit to know what he's got.</p><p></p><p>More later, have to go to work. Stupid work.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SteelDraco, post: 2865685, member: 359"] I think you've got that backwards. The scroll is the limited summary, and the spell in the spellbook is the full thing. The actual spell itself isn't something that can't be written down. What you've got in a spell book is the [I]instructions for casting the spell[/I]. The magical energy (the spell) doesn't exist in a spell book. That's the essential difference between the two. A scroll does have that magical energy in it. Here's another metaphor; see if it makes more sense. Think of the spell itself as a one-shot gun. The spellbook would contain instructions for building that gun. Preparing the spell from a spellbook is that process - the wizard takes the instructions and builds the gun inside his head, and then just needs to pull the trigger to make it go off. If he knows a lot about guns, he can fiddle with the instructions, and make an Empowered or Silent gun. But he's still building the gun to trigger later, with the help of his spell book. The scroll, then, [I]is the gun[/I]. It's not in the wizard's head, it's in paper form, but it's still a product, rather than a process. You just have to know enough to point it and pull the trigger to make it do its thing, and then it's gone. The magical energy was moved from inside the wizard to the paper, and it's sitting there, waiting. IMO, a spell scroll and the spellbook pages for that spell have almost nothing in common; even a wizard would have to look at it for a bit to know what he's got. More later, have to go to work. Stupid work. [/QUOTE]
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Community
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Artificers, or any spellcaster, and scribe spells feat
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