From: alex@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Alexander Forst)
Subject: Re: Small query on multiple mages in a party...
Organization: Technical University of Vienna
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 11:18:39 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.155957.17336@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Coyt D Watters) writes:
|> In article <712@blue.cis.pitt.edu> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
|> >In article <1992Dec14.191728@cc4.kuleuven.ac.be> stud02@cc4.kuleuven.ac.be writes:
|> >>I have a party in which we have a human mage and an elven thief/magic-user.
|> >>The mages would like to learn spells from eachother.  Because they have
|> >
|> >	[...]
|> >
|> >	At the very least, the mages should be able to memorize spells from
|> >each other's books, and write them down from memory (losing the spell slot
|> >for the day, of course).
|> >
|> >                                 Sea Wasp
|> >                                   /^\
|> >                                   ;;;
|> 
|> I'd make it a mite more complicated than simply allowing the players to
|> swap spellbooks, especially at lower levels.  Unless your players all
|> apprenticed to the same mage, or the colleges of magic are standardized, 
|> there will be some differences in how the spells are written in the spell
|> book.  Even with _Read Magic_, which I'd require when trying to read another
|> mage's spellbooks, the differences in explanation of somatic gestures could 
|> cause confusion (borrow a couple of books on Sign Language by different 
|> authors, ignore the pictures and read the descriptions...).


Doesn't "Read Magic" allow you to understand magical writings? Or do you think
a spell description is like a riddle which you could read but not understand?


|> Thus, the characters would have to teach each other how the spells are cast,
|> which should require some kind of check on an attribute besides %know. 
|> 
|> For argument's sake, let me list a set of attributes and why I think they 
|> should be included in the formula:
|> 
|> INT:  This score is already considered via the %know rating.
|> 
|> CHA:  A charater with a low charisma score will have a hard time teaching 
|> 	another, because they do not have the leadership qualities required
|> 	to hold the trainees attention.  Teaching does require leadership.
|> 
|> But, a smart trainee could glean the needed information from the trainer.
|> 
|> How about something like:  (Made up on the fly)
|> 
|> COS = Roll under INT [trainee] - (18 - CHA [trainer]) on a d20
|>       if successful, roll the %know score.
|> 
|> So, a char with 16 INT, learning from another with a CHA of 5, would have:
|> 
|> 	16-(18-5) = 16-13 = 3 in 20 chance of being able to be taught by the
|> 	trainer.  If they made this roll, then the character would have to 
|>         make the %know roll to actually add the spell to their spellbooks.
|> 
|> What y'all think?
|> 
|> -Coyt


That means, for the mage above, the chance to learn spells from the other mage
with CHA 5 (nothing said about INT) is

	15% * %know

which is very low.

I don't have the PHB with me right now but when i remember right, the %know
for a mage with INT 18 is 85%.
So if this mage wants to learn spells from another mage with CHA 18 the chance
for him is

	18 - (18-18) = 18 in 20 = 90%

and then 85% which means the actual chance is 76.5%.

Now compare the propability of finding a teachee with INT 18 and a teacher
with CHA 18 and learning the spell from a scroll (85% with INT 18).

*** Do you really want this ??

I as DM would say it depends on the characters, what they want to do. If they
really want to have all the same spells (and reach their maximum number of
spells per spellevel early) then why not.
There is still the %know chance (Specialists with INT 18 have a 100%/70% chance
if i remember right) and this should do it.

	Alex

Looking forward to followups.

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"Dad! You shot the Flanders-Zombie!"       |          Alexander Forst
              "He was a Zombie?"           |  alex@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at
                                           |  University of Technology Vienna
                    Bart & Homer Simpson   |  Institute of Computer Languages
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