Scribe Scroll

[eldekar]

Dear Sundren,

Just because I did not get very far with my previous suggestion doesn't mean i'm not going to try again *evil Grin*

Today I created a cleric.
I got my fingers on a blank scroll and as I had given him the Scribe Scroll feat I was really anxious to get the scribing going.
Unfortunately for me I had just bought some armor, a shield and a weapon, so I only had some 250 gold left.

My first attempt at scribing a scroll gave me the message:
You cannot afford to scribe the scroll.

huh?, it drained my spell, and it was a simple cure moderate scroll I was trying to scribe.

Now, the shopkeeper had a seemingly endless suply of blank scrolls(5 gold each) and CURE MODERATE SCROLLS for the cost of 25 gold, but I, for some reason, had to spent more than 250 gold scribing the very same spell that costed 25 gold to buy?

Well, needless to say I deleted the cleric, as I do not wish to be a wandering fool with useless feats.

I tried to find out what the formula is for scribing a scroll but I never really found out.(Tried on Mirc)

Either way I have the following suggestion to perhaps make the Scribe Scroll feat useful and playable again, and at the same time try to balance it for Sundren.

I bet the usual Raise dead and the usual Use Magic Device problem is the fault of the current situation anyway.
My suggestion is fairly simple.

Any given scroll should/could cost the real PnP (GOLD price)*2 in XP to scribe.

Example.

Level 0 spell
Light - Cost 2 XP. (It is after all petty magic)

Level 1 spell
Sleep - Cost 4 XP.

Level 2 spell
Bull's strength - Cost 18 XP.

Level 3
375/25= 15 = 30 XP

Level 4
60 XP
Raise Dead +250 XP ?

Level 5
90 XP

Level 6
132 XP

Level 7
182 XP

Level 8
240 XP

Level 9
306 XP

Waddayathink?

[rustediron]

that or x10 in gold maybe? I don't like this xp loss thing PnP rules or no... but who am I to say :P doesn't affect me anyway

[Machiavelli]

Just some thoughts on this. One problem is that the scribed scroll has the caster level of whoever made it... The costs there look pretty low considering this, and there might be an epidemic of scroll-spamming super-destructive casters if the cost for transcribing them were made lower. I scribe scrolls fairly frequently, usually to pass on to other mages, and it seems to me the high cost is a good thing.

[Blue_Wyrm]

I must say I quite jumped when I scribed a simple Ghostly Visage spell for 750 gold... that was 3/4 of my starting money at level 3. :S Would it be possible to bring out a dialog box which mentions the price with a yes/no answer? Just wondering. And personally, I wouldn't mind paying less gold but an xp cost along. Because currenly a level 2 spell scroll sells for around 130-150 stags at scroll vendors, and costs 5 times as much to scribe by yourself, making scribing pretty much useless in my opinion.

[Satoshi]

Are all of you forgetting that vendors only sell petty magic under level 3 or so? Just a thought.

[Machiavelli]

Are all of you forgetting that vendors only sell petty magic under level 3 or so? Just a thought.

I'm surely not! The high cost of transcribing means it's only useful for sharing spells for other casters, and that you need to consider carefully whether you really want to help someone out by doing it. If it were lowered, every mage would have every spell, and that would kind of suck.

I don't think you even read my post Satoshi *looks hurt*

[Krya Flacongrace]

I see a major floor in your suggestion Eldekar, and that is when you have 0 Xp to take away.

I.e you just reached lvl Bla and have 100 xp then die - you only lose 100xp

If you had more xp - say 500, then depending on what lvl you were you loose 300xp and so forth.

The same would happen with scribing, no xp to loose; megga spells saturate the server.

Unless of course there is a way to stop scribing if you dont have the XP available.

[Satoshi]

I wasn't refering you to, Malaclypse. I was refering to the other geniuses who didn't seem to understand that they can surely buy several low level scrolls cheaply, but will have to spend real money to have any sort so stockpile of scrolls (which, believe it or not does help so much more when your out of spells at high level than you'd think), or, better yet, spend even more and have a wand. Sadly, wands can only be created to fourth level spells and below. Scrolls, ergo, are infinitely more versitile.

I'd suggest a potion-maker, since potions are often overlooked for their value in a combat sense (being instant, after all, and merely provoking an attack of opportunity).

[Saulus]

Scribing a scroll in Sundren is nearly half the cost from the OC, I modified this while overhauling Obsidians crafting, it won't be getting any cheaper than what I have it set at.

[Machiavelli]

I wasn't refering you to, Malaclypse. I was refering to the other geniuses...

I'd suggest a potion-maker, since potions are often overlooked for their value in a combat sense (being instant, after all, and merely provoking an attack of opportunity).

Firstly... what other Geniuses, I'm the only one here

Secondly, yeah, I wanna make potions!

Dig the avatar btw Satoshi, and on that note what Sundren really needs is a Sanity system!

DM: "From your hiding place you witness the horrors of a Banite holy festival complete with hideous Paladin sacrifice"
Player: "Meh, whatever"
DM: "Lose 400 sanity points, your character is now incapable of doing anything but drooling on themself and cackling!"

[Aux]

Dig the avatar btw Satoshi, and on that note what Sundren really needs is a Sanity system!

DM: "From your hiding place you witness the horrors of a Banite holy festival complete with hideous Paladin sacrifice"
Player: "Meh, whatever"
DM: "Lose 400 sanity points, your character is now incapable of doing anything but drooling on themself and cackling!"

Sanity system lol... Call of Cthulhu anyone?
I cant count the times ive had characters in Call of Cthulhu go insane, and develop all sorts of phobias. One managed to get agraphobia as well as claustraphobia (fear of open and confined spaces), he didnt live long after that

[eldekar]

I see a major floor in your suggestion Eldekar, and that is when you have 0 Xp to take away.

I.e you just reached lvl Bla and have 100 xp then die - you only lose 100xp

If you had more xp - say 500, then depending on what lvl you were you loose 300xp and so forth.

The same would happen with scribing, no xp to loose; megga spells saturate the server.

Unless of course there is a way to stop scribing if you dont have the XP available.

Of course your not supposed to scribe scrolls if you do not have the XP for it. It would work like gold - No gold, no scroll. No XP no Scroll. And by no means would the game be flooded with highlevel scrolls since it will take almost 1/10 a level to get the XP to scribe it.
Also take into account the higher priced POWER spells. Like i wrote earlier - Spells like Raise dead, ressurection, Change self etc.

And Satoshi, i'm not asking for a reduction but for something that would make more sense. I'm just implying that for a new player like i am. It was more than horrible to experience a simple level 2 scroll would cost me 750 gold to make when i could buy the very same scroll from the vendor for mere 25 gold. It simply makes no sense.

As it is now - Scribe scrolls for clerics is a complete waste - but perhaps there are other suggestions out there to make the feat usable/playable again for a cleric?

On a sidenote i'd like to call for a bit of discipline on the various threads - Please do not derail a thread. just scroll through this thread and see how fast it gets derailed from the original topic.

( All of above is written in good spirit )

- regards.

[Machiavelli]

Sanity system lol... Call of Cthulhu anyone?
I cant count the times ive had characters in Call of Cthulhu go insane, and develop all sorts of phobias. One managed to get agraphobia as well as claustraphobia (fear of open and confined spaces), he didnt live long after that

Hehe, I used to torture the players in my CoC games rather mercilessly... though I never let them actually die

[danisheraser]

I can only say that I agree with Eldekar in every point he says. And really if it's bad for clerics then it can only be worse for wizards. There is no real logic in how things work now.

[Vichtor]

There is a ton of logic. No wizard (ever) sits around scribing the devil out of scrolls to haul around. It's a taxing thing to do that pulls valuable time away from developing new spells or applications of magic. As it stands, and was put, the current system lends more toward the trade of spells between wizards, and even that is done only after considerable thought (which it SHOULD be).

Am I the only one thinking that this makes perfect sense (and follows the PhB outline on a Wizard's outlook to magic almost to the letter)?