Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Thurbane 12-08-05, 04:39 AM	Here's an odd little question: I have a wizard PC in my campaign who was recently blinded (Cause Blindness effect), and has not had a chance to have the effect reversed yet. Can he memorize his daily spells without being able to see his spellbook?
Rhomphaia 12-08-05, 04:56 AM	Only Read Magic and any spells he has mastered with the Spell Mastery feat. Until he either gets the blindness reversed or gets a Braille spellbook, then he is pretty screwed.
Wrong 12-08-05, 05:05 AM	Spells like clairvoyance, arcane eye, prying eye can help you.
smrtgmp 12-08-05, 05:16 AM	Or get a brail spell book.
Thurbane 12-08-05, 05:25 AM	Thanks for the replies - boy, is the player gonna be miffed! :D Just another quickie: what removes the effects of Cause Blindess? It it Heal, Break Enchantment, Dispel Magic or Remove Curse? In other words, whats the lowest power Wizard or Cleric spell that will undo it?
Rhomphaia 12-08-05, 05:31 AM	Remove Blindness/Deafness, third level cleric spell...meaning it will typically cost a 150 gp donation to the cleric's church. It'll hurt to get it reversed, but isn't really out of reach for even a first level party to scrape together those funds.
Rulebook 12-08-05, 06:44 AM	i like the alternate rules for being able to scribe your spellbook on to things other than a book... imagine a braille spellbook on your wizards STAFF. how hardcore would that be, to have a few emergency spells for "just in case"?
smrtgmp 12-08-05, 06:48 AM	thats a great idea. worth sinking the skill points into speak language (brail), IMO.
Gemstone 12-08-05, 07:16 AM	Actually Im going to use an idea very much like that. It's a male Noble Lizardfolk (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=540082) that was blinded by a demon who accidently broke free of its bounds. It slayed his master, but when it was about to slay the matriarch of the family, the youn apprentice wizard interveined and thanks to a strange inert power he has, he managed to banish the demon back to the hell it came from. Now, he carries a blindfold and can see nothing, but thanks to his blindfold, he can sense the surrounding so that he's not so much impaired by his blindess. Effectivly as a normal character, but with a much cooler background. To memorize spells, he'll simply wield his spellbook in one hand and slowly drain the magic from the spells within, thus replentishing his own magical energy. The spellbook slowly regains its power and he can do this once every 8 hours, provided he has rested.
Kyuketsukiouji 12-08-05, 08:57 AM	"Braille" "Brail" is a rope on a sailing ship.
tarkin 12-08-05, 11:57 AM	Techinically it does not have to be braile per say. He just needs the lettering to be emobossed enough to feel, or carved into it. A spell book that consists of any of the following actual real world writing techniques, should be readable by touch: Clay tablets Mayan knot writing Foil stamping
Dev Vim 12-08-05, 12:04 PM	another option would be metal leaf pages like those mentioned in CA. anything put on pages like those would have to have enough texture to be felt easily
jaelis 12-08-05, 12:25 PM	Obviously, he needs his raven familiar to read it to him. :)
Gemstone 12-08-05, 12:35 PM	Obviously, he needs his raven familiar to read it to him. :) Very cool idea Raven: "Sqawk! Page 2! Bottom line 3!" Mage: "Yes, get on with it!" Raven: "And so goldilock ate the hot..." Fighter: "What the? Why do you have a CHILD STORY in your spellbook?!?" Mage: "AH... ehm... research, yeah research" Elven ranger: "yeeeeeaaaaah right"
The WarOverlord 12-10-05, 04:41 AM	Here's an odd little question: I have a wizard PC in my campaign who was recently blinded (Cause Blindness effect), and has not had a chance to have the effect reversed yet. Can he memorize his daily spells without being able to see his spellbook? Does he have any magical seeing spells memorized? How about magical eyes items (glasses or crystal balls) or even something like a robe of eyes handy?
VolkorTheRed 12-10-05, 04:53 AM	Make a homebrewed spell that lets you "read" texts by touch. :) It's what a player in my next campaign will do, as he will play a blind spellcaster, who sees (partially) through the eyes of his familiar.
Thurbane 12-10-05, 10:13 PM	Does he have any magical seeing spells memorized? How about magical eyes items (glasses or crystal balls) or even something like a robe of eyes handy? 3rd level Evoker, only spells memorized are offensive/defensive in nature (no vision type spells) and no magic items that would help. Guess he will just have to wait until the blindness is removed. :eek:
eloth983 12-10-05, 10:34 PM	Obviously, he needs his raven familiar to read it to him. :) This is a cool idea but brings up the entire question of whether you yourself actually have to read the spell yourself to prepare it, or whether spells can be prepared by dictation. I personally think that you yourself have to read the spell, but I have no idea what the official opinion is.
The WarOverlord 12-11-05, 04:13 AM	This is a cool idea but brings up the entire question of whether you yourself actually have to read the spell yourself to prepare it, or whether spells can be prepared by dictation. I personally think that you yourself have to read the spell, but I have no idea what the official opinion is. Well, the way spells work is that they are put into your mind by studying them and empty out of your mind when you cast them so it is more like "programing" then "reading" which requires you to actually see/feel/touch the Arcane Formulas as needed that causes the magical energies and emmenations to get stuck in your mind in the first place. (If you have to see C=M2^N/34+12+34/c&23 as part of the Spell studying then there is no way around it) Also how are you supposed to study something like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/TheRealArchangel/Mystryspellformula.jpg I mean you need eyes just so it can give you a headache :P
Loren Pechtel 12-12-05, 12:45 AM	As for the braille book: 1) Braille takes time to learn. I'd make someone spend a couple of skill points on it (and at that I'm being generous.) It's not so much the letters per se as learning to read by touch at a reasonable rate. 2) Braille is slow to read--say 3x as long to memorize would be reasonable.
Dev Vim 12-12-05, 08:56 AM	see the thing is that i think all you need to do is have the spell book with metal pages. again you have to imprint the spells onto the page and a mage with no sight could still FEEL the markings. it wouldnt take any real extra effort as that would be how he learned to use them and how he absorbs them, if he was born blind. if he was stricken after learning though id say skill points in some kind of touch-based reading would be good
Loren Pechtel 12-13-05, 12:23 AM	see the thing is that i think all you need to do is have the spell book with metal pages. again you have to imprint the spells onto the page and a mage with no sight could still FEEL the markings. it wouldnt take any real extra effort as that would be how he learned to use them and how he absorbs them, if he was born blind. if he was stricken after learning though id say skill points in some kind of touch-based reading would be good Raised writing is far harder to read than braille. A born-blind caster I wouldn't charge any skill points for braille--it's the equivalent of our learning to read. This case, however, is someone blinded after they became a spellcaster.
gooddragon1 12-13-05, 01:28 AM	When you scribe a spell you don't usually have diagrams because its just runes, so I'd go with get your familiar to read it to you even though I think familiars suck. EDIT: BTW if he actually scribed the spell he could feel the back of the page for the indentations.
Wrong 12-13-05, 07:44 AM	Here's an odd little question: I have a wizard PC in my campaign who was recently blinded (Cause Blindness effect), and has not had a chance to have the effect reversed yet. Can he memorize his daily spells without being able to see his spellbook? The answer is no. There's no braille without a standard language convention. Only someone who can decipher magical writings can help the wizard to recognize the runes in his spellbook. It will take to the wizard a very long time before being able to recognize without error each runes of his 0-level spells… Spells that give the ability to see have an awful casting time (10 to 1 minute), and do not last long at low levels, perhaps enough to memorize spells, but a spellcaster also needs to target, adjust areas and so on.
Thurbane 12-13-05, 09:58 AM	Well, the character in question recently got his Blindness reversed, but thanks all for the replies. :thumbsup:
Rulebook 12-13-05, 10:16 AM	WarOverlord... that is in fact NOT how spells work. spells are pretty much a long convoluted discription in words how things effect other things and what gestures and everything else that are needed. the diagram you had is a good clear example of the Geometer prestige class, not the standard Wizard.
Kalev 12-13-05, 10:30 AM	At the back of Complete Arcane there is a section on preparing spells from "tokens" by touch alone, without any skill prerequisites. Tokens can be pretty much anything from knucklebones (evil themed) to engraved gemstones, but with no difference in the actual mechanics, other than a hefty time penalty (15mins extra per spell i think, off the top of my head) The only real problem is that these tokens cannot hold much info, so you may keep your favourite spells like this, but an entire spell book would be unfeasable without taking Geometer levels. A while ago i built a Geometer that had most of his spellbook tattooed over his body, with handy scrolls and spellglyphs tattooed onto his arms for ease of use in battle. Its a cool concept, which i'm glad has been considered rule-wise. had to max out craft(tattoo) tho :P