Replacements for Spellbooks--Lets Work Out the Crunch!

[VirgilCaine]

Replacements for Spellbooks--Lets Work Out the Crunch!

There was a thread a few board upgrades ago on thew WotC boards about different methods for wizards to store their spells.
I'd like to flesh out those ideas into crunch, if it's necessary.

Several ideas were...

--Quipus: Strings of knotted string/twine/etc. with each knot a different "letter." Good for relatively primitive societies (without paper), but not very easy to protect from damage.

--Staves: Carved or engraved on wooden or metal staves. Limited space for spells, but useful and hard to lose.

--Scents: A concoction is burned in a magic brazier, the wizard inhales the smoke, and prepares a spell. The concoction is magically unburned after the preparation. Good for a culture advanced in alchemy.

--Scarring: The caster deeply engraves the information in his own body. Hard to lose, but when scribing spells, the caster takes HP damage that cannot be magically healed--perhaps not even healed using the Heal skill, just bed rest?
Ever wanted an Ogre Mage to be a real mage?

--Clothing: Cloaks or robes have patches sewn onto them, which have the spell information on them. Hard to lose, easy to smuggle, but time consuming to scribe spells onto?

I think I'll make these different methods be feats, taken at 1st level or after the appropriate training is received.
Should there be any bonuses to each method, and if so, what kind?

Perhaps +2 bonus to pertinent skills--e.g. +2 to Use Rope for Quipus or +1 Fort saves for Scarring, +2 Alchemy for Scent?

Depending on the medium, the "capacity" of the "spellbook" would be the same or less as a standard spellbook.
Scarring would have the smallest capacity, with Staves and Clothing coming up second and third.

Any help or ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Why a feat ?
most of these alternates seem weaker than the old fashion spell book, especially in terms of capacity. Especially if it is culture based, wizards would never be taught how to use a book in the first place. Perhaps a free pick and then a feat to learn a different medium.
This would obliviate the need for skill bonus - which seem far fetched to me.


Staff - assumption a spell takes up 2 inches of length per level. - a six foot staff could hold 36 spell levels. At 1 inch per level its still only 72 spell levels.
This would allow you to gauge the power of a wizard by the size of his staff *snicker*

Scarring - huge benfits over a book - you could just call this spell mastery - with perhaps + 1 to number of spells in exchange for the visable nature and painful process of creation. forbidding magical healing makes sense (no scars) but not the heal skill which is just doctorin' (leaves scars intact)


Another medium I have used is a box of carved sticks that are laid out in patterns to represent different spells. It was equivilent to a spell book
the same aproximate weight and size, perhaps slightly more sturdy.
But theoretically had no maxium limit to the number of spells that could be represented. The player could'nt use other peoples books, and had to personally scribe all his spells, we sort of ignored what he was spending the scribing costs on, as he still paid them.

In an up coming rainforest campaign I am tinkering with the idea of bark books- twice the weight, half the capacity, but won't rot from constant rain and emersion in water.

 

[akchf]

Staff - assumption a spell takes up 2 inches of length per level. - a six foot staff could hold 36 spell levels. At 1 inch per level its still only 72 spell levels.
This would allow you to gauge the power of a wizard by the size of his staff *snicker*

That would explain why most adventuring parties carry ten foot poles.
But I would have to agree with Evilhalfling that most of these ideas are less desirable than spellbooks in terms of capacity. Creative, but ultimately I don't think having different storage methods is worth a feat. Maybe storing a spell in an unfamiliar method would best be determined by decipher script and spellcraft roles, or something like that.

 

[VirgilCaine]

What benefits could I give so that these methods might be desirable, then?

I'd like to see if I could make some or all of these methods different from "normal" wizardry, without being overpowered or whatever.

I'll probably end up making it all flavor...

Edit: I decided to change my tactics...I'm detailing two of the methods for a certain region of my homebrew world.

I'm adapting the Wizard's Staff rules (from somewhere on this site...), and combining it with Magical Memory, a GURPS advantage that lets a wizard consult the memories of dead mages for information and help, into a ten level PrC focused on gaining the information of dead mages through the staff, gaining Legend Lore, Vision, and Foresight spells as X/day abilities, as well as bonuses to Knowledge skills and a limited "favored enemy" bonus after meditation with the dead wizards.

The Scent thing, I hope do something somewhat similar...there was an ideal PrC I had a long time ago, but unfortunately, it's lost. It'll be tied to alchemy, maybe a modification to the Adept class to make it a bit more arcane flavored ...maybe a Seeker of the Philosopher's Stone/Alchemist type PrC?

The quipu and clothing types I'll develop somewhat less I think for another region of my homebrew.

 

[Fieari]

I once saw a thread on the subject of making Vow of Poverty an option for non-monk characters, such as wizards specifically. One of the suggestions was to allow the wizard a staff instead of a spellbook, which would be considered outside the vow. Being able to take VoP could be considered an incentive for the staff spellbook... and since it has limited space anyway, no need to worry about needing gold to obtain new spells, because only the free ones would fit anyway.

 

[vithofnir]

tattoos!!!!

for primitive societies... instead of scarring: tattoos

if you've ever seen a pic of the "pazyryk man," he's a good example. this guy was a 5th century bc scythian king/prince/shaman buried in the altai mountains. he had magical animals tatooed all over his body.

one tattoo per spell, the size of the tattoo is a number of square inches per spell level (how many?). if the mage shows up and displays his or her tattooed covered arms and torso you know you're dealing with a badass

here's a link about the one i mentioned:
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_7b.html