Bone or Ivory carving - highly detailed, some with interlocking parts. Can be individual spells or larger pieces a group of spells.
D&D 5E Beyond the book: new ways to represent a wizard's spells known
I tend to use a variety of spell books, whether it is crystals, runes on an object, tattoos, etc. Spells known is pretty abstract, just like how many times a fighter can swing a sword. So I honestly never saw the value in changing it to a representation in the physical world. I have a hard enough time requiring a spell caster to track components.
Woven belts, made from cloth, with spells being inscribed as patterns. Similarily there existing belts and ribbons that serve funcion of scrolls or similar items.
The picture how such spellbooks and scrolls would look: http://nissivallakultuurikeskus.ee/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/m_DSC_0457.jpg
The picture how such spellbooks and scrolls would look: http://nissivallakultuurikeskus.ee/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/m_DSC_0457.jpg
The Grassy Gnoll
Explorer
I like the tattoo idea, especially for non-wizard casters such as Druids, Rangers, Clerics. I know that kind of misses the point of this thread being about Wizards.
Although for wizards, it would necessitate a third party. To ink the wizard. Other classes could have the tattoos appear or reform through divine/diabolical/nature magic directly onto the skin. But for wizards, of course they can tattoo themselves to an extent but at some point they're going to run out of space and need someone to do their backs.
Unless... When they graduate from wizard school as level 3 wizards having chosen their school, they are tattooed with every spell known to that school all over their body, in a distinctive style that immediately identified the faster as an abjurer, evoker, whatnot.
But as time goes on they gain the ability to access and tap in to tattoos they aren't able to at level one, effectively "unlocking" new spells.
Spell scrolls would be tattoos copied on to parchment that only one who bears that tattoo can cast. A Magic Initiate might have a few tattoos as opposed to a whole body "sleeve" like a full wizard. Or for spells of level 5 and higher, a spell scroll would need to be a piece of a wizard's skin...
Raises couple of questions:
Big trade in selling dead wizards' bodies...what about safe disposal?
Also, how would other people view tattoos? Avoid them (maybe forced to by the magicians guild)? Or fake them?
Alternatively as a wizard reaches
Although for wizards, it would necessitate a third party. To ink the wizard. Other classes could have the tattoos appear or reform through divine/diabolical/nature magic directly onto the skin. But for wizards, of course they can tattoo themselves to an extent but at some point they're going to run out of space and need someone to do their backs.
Unless... When they graduate from wizard school as level 3 wizards having chosen their school, they are tattooed with every spell known to that school all over their body, in a distinctive style that immediately identified the faster as an abjurer, evoker, whatnot.
But as time goes on they gain the ability to access and tap in to tattoos they aren't able to at level one, effectively "unlocking" new spells.
Spell scrolls would be tattoos copied on to parchment that only one who bears that tattoo can cast. A Magic Initiate might have a few tattoos as opposed to a whole body "sleeve" like a full wizard. Or for spells of level 5 and higher, a spell scroll would need to be a piece of a wizard's skin...
Raises couple of questions:
Big trade in selling dead wizards' bodies...what about safe disposal?
Also, how would other people view tattoos? Avoid them (maybe forced to by the magicians guild)? Or fake them?
Alternatively as a wizard reaches
aramis erak
Legend
Going back a few decades... all of the following have shown up:
- tattoos (we allowed a 10x10 inch tat to hold 1 spell level)
- Statuary, especially if comprised of nesting eggs. Again, 100 sq in of surface area per SL, but just had to be visible, not of need on the surface.
- Intricate beads in the 2" range. (each was multi-layered, and intricately carved.) 1 per SL. Cantrips on a 1" bead.
- big scrolls. (slightly different from a book...) at 1 foot wide, every 8 inches was a "page". Much like Torah Scrolls.
- Quipu. Each spell level took 20 strands 8" long, off an 8"+ long master. Each spell was usually one "master" and attached to a ring. 1st levels were roughly 4x8", 2nd 8x8", 3rd 12x8" or 6x12" or 4x16", etc...
- wire knots. a diameter of 1"+1" per spell level, and spell level squared linear feet of wire.
- A permanent illusion magic item. Same as a book, except that it was one big panel.
- Hair braids. Same as Quipu.
- A board of nails. Similar in size to tattoos... but on big boards.
- Punched sheets of copper. Essentially, braille spellbook on copper.
- Carved rigid leather panels. Heavy duty spellbook. 1 lb per page.
- a jacquard-method calliope with a specific metal program board for each spell. the calliope was 500 lbs, but the spells were on 5 sq/in of copper per spell level.
- Micro-engraved using a reducing pantograph into copper sheets and acid ink. Required a loupe to read. 4 sq in per spell level was what I used. Later, the player scribed some into his circlet of rank... making...
- Micro-engraved into a coronet.
Tia Nadiezja
First Post
I'll be playing in a two-worlds campaign soon (a setting where there's a split universe where one side is more classic D&D and the other is urban arcana-style modern). I expect someone will be using a smartphone as a spellbook.
I play a homebrew class I found here on EnWorld (Runeseeker). Runes on a weapon. Not as wizardly as a wizard but still pretty cool.
I like a lot of the ideas here.
Inspired by my own beard and the Minigiant's signature and knowing full well that proper wizards have long flowing beards, how about fetishes entwined into the beard, or knots made in the hair?
I like a lot of the ideas here.
Inspired by my own beard and the Minigiant's signature and knowing full well that proper wizards have long flowing beards, how about fetishes entwined into the beard, or knots made in the hair?
Celebrim
Legend
I would personally allow any sufficiently complicated mode of expression to encode for a spell. Reading and understanding it might be a wholly other matter, but if a spell can be written down in a book than it can be written in some form anywhere and on any surface or medium. Likewise, while there is - to my knowledge - only one language which has been invented in which to write spells on my homebrew world and which when written looks something like illuminated calligraphy meets complex musical notation, any language which could encode for the verbal, somatic, and material components of a spell would work provided you had a key to unlock what it meant.
'Book' in my campaign is rather a loose term that just means 'a collection of writing'. It's only recently coming to be a term for 'codex' or 'folio' as the printing press makes that technology more available and affordable. Older 'books' might be written on scrolls, loose collections of hides, or even carved on clay tablets or stone stela. Recently in my campaign the players investigated a tomb where the walls were carved with spells.
It would presumably be possible to memorize a spell on the basis of an incomplete version of the language, provided that you had been taught the complete version of the spell based on the simplified mnemonic you used. This would allow for a greatly simplified spell language. But there would be a very high cost. It wouldn't be possible to learn new spells by reading the language since much of the key was missing from any record. The problem would be similar to the problem faced by a native Mandarin speaker who encounters a new word and either wants to know how to pronounce it or else wishes to know how to write it. While the pictographs or ideographs might represent language very compactly, they don't provide complete clues how to decipher the relationship between the thing represented (in this case a sound) and the word itself. Note that this is a different problem (but related problem) to encountering a word and not knowing what it means. A language for writing spells has to do a very good job of both encoding the sound (and thought, and motion!) of the spell and also the meaning of the spell, something either pictographs or alphabets don't do a good job of alone. A skilled student of the language encountering a new spell both gets the sense of how the spell sounds and what it means.
'Book' in my campaign is rather a loose term that just means 'a collection of writing'. It's only recently coming to be a term for 'codex' or 'folio' as the printing press makes that technology more available and affordable. Older 'books' might be written on scrolls, loose collections of hides, or even carved on clay tablets or stone stela. Recently in my campaign the players investigated a tomb where the walls were carved with spells.
It would presumably be possible to memorize a spell on the basis of an incomplete version of the language, provided that you had been taught the complete version of the spell based on the simplified mnemonic you used. This would allow for a greatly simplified spell language. But there would be a very high cost. It wouldn't be possible to learn new spells by reading the language since much of the key was missing from any record. The problem would be similar to the problem faced by a native Mandarin speaker who encounters a new word and either wants to know how to pronounce it or else wishes to know how to write it. While the pictographs or ideographs might represent language very compactly, they don't provide complete clues how to decipher the relationship between the thing represented (in this case a sound) and the word itself. Note that this is a different problem (but related problem) to encountering a word and not knowing what it means. A language for writing spells has to do a very good job of both encoding the sound (and thought, and motion!) of the spell and also the meaning of the spell, something either pictographs or alphabets don't do a good job of alone. A skilled student of the language encountering a new spell both gets the sense of how the spell sounds and what it means.
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The Grassy Gnoll
Explorer
I kind of envision a spell being written in copperplate calligraphy in a dead tongue, and an archaic alphabet - possibly written contrary to most languages eg Arabic R to L, with above and below the words a sequence of dots and squiggles (somewhat like shorthand) representing the somatic component, with illustrations of the material components needed and where they are used/how held/when brandished. To a layman it would look incredibly complex.
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