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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 9582388" data-attributes="member: 7737">Commentary:Let's see, we have our list of "Lesser" spells that we can only use once each (even though this adventure lasts a week, because reasons); and then we have an entirely separate set of "Greater" spells that we can only use… once… each….There is no game mechanical difference here! Every spell functions the same way:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Choose the spell you want to cast.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make an INT test to see if it works or not.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Either way, mark off the spell and you cannot use it again "in this adventure."</li> </ul>It doesn't matter if that spell was the very powerful Enchant an Item from the "Greater" list or the lowliest of the low Light spell from the "Lesser" list.Maybe if this gamebook series actually tracked your progress from one book to the next, then we would be more cautious with the "Greater" spells and not want to use them up in this book, knowing that would lock us out of using them in the next book. But it won't; book 3 will reset us once again. Thus there is no functional difference in the spell lists, and we can cast whatever we want with no long-term downside.---A word about the "Traveling Book of Greater Spells" that Carr "--may-- be able to use as if the parchment pages were magical scrolls."The concept of the Travelling Spellbook was introduced in Unearthed Arcana (the 1985 AD&D version, that is) as a smaller, lighter, and slightly less costly version of the magic-user's full spellbook.The size and weight/encumbrance differences were dramatic: 16x12x6 inches weighing 150 GP with encumbrance value 450 GP for a standard book compared to 12x6x1 inches weighing 30 GP with encumbrance value 60 GP for a travelling book. For the low-Strength magic-user, the difference in weight/encumbrance was enormously useful.The downside was that a travelling book could only hold one-fourth the number of spells as a standard book.The traveling spellbook allowed the magic-user to limit the risk of carrying his single most valuable item (the book containing all the spells he had ever learned) onto dangerous adventures.The same chapter of Unearthed Arcana also introduced "Casting spells directly from books", where we were informed that "in extremis, the DM may allow a magic-user to cast a spell directly from any sort of book just as if the book were a scroll."There were two significant downsides to casting directly from a book:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Direct casting of a spell from a spell book automatically destroys that spell." You're destroying your own incredibly valuable equipment! (Or destroying incredibly valuable loot, if you recovered a spellbook from a defeated enemy and then cast directly from it.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"There is also a 1% chance per level of the spell that the spells immediately preceding and following the spell cast will likewise be destroyed." So a 1%-9% chance you just wiped out TWO MORE spells from that book.</li> </ol>Per AD&D rules by-the-book, for Carr to take his father's "Greater Spells" with him to use like scrolls is ludicrously costly and risky. We could say this is an example of Carr's WIS 3 at work, but we could also say it illustrates the seriousness of the situation.However, as stated before, there is no lasting downside here. In book 3 Carr will have a new selection of spells, and it won't matter if he burned through Enchant An Item, Contact Other Plane, and Polymorph Other here in book 2.---From the list of Carr's Book of Lesser Spells we see that the highest spell level is 3rd, which suggests he is a 5th level magic-user. One might argue for 6th level, given that Perth refers to him as "magus", close the Level Title of Magician; and a 6th level magic-user would still be casting 3rd level spells at best.Let's give Carr the benefit of the doubt and say 6th level. It has been FIVE YEARS since the events of the first book, at which point he was (narratively) a 1st level magic-user. That is an absolutely TERRIBLE rate of advancement and whomever is playing Carr should be ashamed of his utter lack of AD&D game prowess.Maybe Carr's player is one of those non-dedicated people with a "real life" who is "too busy" to join the group for the regular game sessions, and only shows up when he has "nothing better to do." Bah! We normally wouldn't allow such a poor excuse for a D&D player along on this adventure, but we need a wizard ever since Thayne decided to commit suicide-by-sceptre.---Finally let us contemplate Carr's selection of spells.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He has not one, but two different spells for sealing doors (Hold Portal and Wizard Lock). For the love of Wendel's ancestral spirits, WHY?!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He has not one, but two different spells for manipulating people (Friends and Suggestion). At least here you can make an argument that the lower-level spell can be used on less dangerous out-of-combat situations while the higher-level spell has combat utility.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">And he has not one, but two different low impact offensive spells (Burning Hands and Magic Missile) that barely do enough damage to be worth using against enemies at their expected level here.</li> </ul>That's WIS 3 at work: waste a bunch of prepared spell slots on crap that isn't worth casting. Except I'm sure it will be, because presumably the gamebook wouldn't give us this stuff and never let us use it. Right?RIGHT?!</blockquote>

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