D&D General Braille for various species?

[LordEntrails]

Well, the dwarven thought is pretty much on, but since I always see them carving into stone or etching into metal sheets, the runes might already be able to be read tactiley. No need for a separate alphabet.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Why would they be common? It's an assumption you're making.

Well, no. You brought up the prevalence of spellcasters, so the assumption is explicitly yours. It's beholden on you to describe why you think they would be rare.

Given the prevalence of deities seeking to exert their influence in the world, we know they all have clerics among their adherents. In addition, there are many clerics not associated with individual gods (e. g. "Some clerics in Faerun belong to an established religious hierarchy, but many do not." SCAG 125; natural English makes "some" a smaller set than the "many", but I won't push that). Now add the deities for other intelligent species, which each also have their own clerics (heck, even an Eye of Gruumsh has the ability to cast second-level cleric spells). So there are lots of clerics: we can assume a pyramidal hierarchy (fewer 10th level than 9th, etc.) and they are found, in temples and out, throughout society.

The second-level spell is available to any third-level cleric. It is also fantastically useful. No good cleric has any reason not to offer it to a believer or potential believer (or stranger, or patient, or petitioner, however you want to frame it) whenever possible: blindness, deafness, paralysis, and disease are all curable for no real cost to the cleric at the end of almost every day.

Yes, the spell necessarily has a radical impact on society's demographics so that they do not map onto pre-industrial societies on earth. Magic is transformative.

Now of course every table operates with unique assumptions, and DM fiat can make what's published for a setting no longer true. And so we come back to my question: why clerics capable of casting the spell would be rare -- so rare that they would not be accessible to someone wanting to be relieved of a lifelong affliction )not all will want to see of course, but some will).

Doctors are roughly 1 in 500 of the population in North America. If we make clerics capable of casting the spell 10x rarer than that, that's still 200 per million population. I'm comfortable offering 2 orders of magnitude (1 in 50000) and still stand by the claim that it is trivially solvable.

 

[Eltab]

Dwarves get out an awl or a knitting needle - instead of the usual big chisel - when they want to carve runes for a blind dwarf to read. The resulting handwriting is small enough that you can run fingers over it and not miss anything. This should also work with vellum (animal hides) but not well with paper or parchment.

Inherently-magical races would likely adapt Alarm and Magic Mouth spells to provide the blind individual with a sort-of-Blindsense and read messages to him. With some thought and time, most cantrips can be employed to similar assistant purposes. And of course Gnomes can easily attract seeing-eye pets.

 

[posineg]

I too don't see magic as common as you do. It would change a great deal of how I see my fantasy world if 3rd level spells were available to the poor.

Clerics tend to help the poor... unless they are a cleric of the evil gods, then they collect the poor for their, um, purposes.

 

[jasper]

Clerics tend to help the poor... unless they are a cleric of the evil gods, then they collect the poor for their, um, purposes.

Of course we do! Can't have blind orcs guarding my pies. Just pluck out the eyes of the poor and insert them into the orc's eye socket. They bake four and twenty peasants into a pie. I don't know how and who changed the recipe to 4 and 20 black birds.

 

[Eltab]

I don't know how and who changed the recipe to 4 and 20 black birds.

Probably some Bard who wanted to be able to put on two consecutive shows in the same town. Singing that song and starting riots (or bar fights) gets to be more trouble / stress than the coins are worth.

 

[Blue]

When Lesser Restoration is only a second-level spell, there is no excuse for any blindness in a D&D world. It is so trivially solved.

Wow, just read Lesser Restoration - you can go up to a creature that species never had eyes, and end the Blinded condition on it.

I was going to ask about those born blind vs. having become blind, but your species doesn't need to be sighted to have it remove blindness. That's ... interesting.

Now all it is is poor vs. those that can afford to have a 2nd level spell cast on them.

 

[Blue]

Back in earlier editions of D&D when some races had Infravision and saw by heat, I had dwarven runes designed that they were clearly readable with light or if you rubbed your hand on them to heat the surrounding area with friction.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Well, no. You brought up the prevalence of spellcasters, so the assumption is explicitly yours. It's beholden on you to describe why you think they would be rare.

Yes, I brought up the prevalence of spellcasters, because you were assuming a certain prevalence without question. When somebody points out that you're making an assumption, that doesn't mean they're making an assumption, or shift the burden of proof onto them.

You: There's no excuse for anyone to be burgled because their dog should alert them to intruders.
Me: You're assuming everyone owns a dog.
You: No, you're assuming they don't. You have to describe why you think they wouldn't.
Me: ...

Given the prevalence of deities seeking to exert their influence in the world...

An assumption.

...we know they all have clerics among their adherents.

An assumption.

In addition, there are many clerics not associated with individual gods (e. g. "Some clerics in Faerun belong to an established religious hierarchy, but many do not."

An assumption explicitly tied to a specific campaign setting.

So there are lots of clerics: we can assume a pyramidal hierarchy (fewer 10th level than 9th, etc.) and they are found, in temples and out, throughout society.

Now you're even using the word "assume" yourself.

Yes, the spell necessarily has a radical impact on society's demographics so that they do not map onto pre-industrial societies on earth. Magic is transformative.

I can just as easily run the reasoning in reverse: the fact that many D&D settings do map onto pre-industrial societies indicates spell use must necessarily be rare enough in those settings not to be transformative.

Doctors are roughly 1 in 500 of the population in North America. If we make clerics capable of casting the spell 10x rarer than that, that's still 200 per million population. I'm comfortable offering 2 orders of magnitude (1 in 50000) and still stand by the claim that it is trivially solvable.

Okay, if you're right, in some settings 3rd-level clerics must be even rarer than that.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Well, the dwarven thought is pretty much on, but since I always see them carving into stone or etching into metal sheets, the runes might already be able to be read tactiley. No need for a separate alphabet.

There were many alternative systems to Braille that worked on the principle of embossing standard Roman letter forms. Boston line lettering was a common one, for example. The dot patterns of Braille are apparently easier to read by touch than the lines and curves of Roman letters, and Braille became the predominant system. But the embossed letters did work. So I could see it going either way: dwarves might use their standard rune forms, or they might invent a touch-specific alphabet.