Yeah I understand the mechanical aspect, I was just wondering if anyone had come up with a fun house rule or concept to integrate something even temporarily. The party has no wizards and with 5e being fairly stingy on character-specific loot/items until higher levels it felt unsatisfying to have characters essentially clear a dungeon and walk away with nothing more than some cash.
This is kinda a problem with published material and I wish the people writing the modules thought about this sorta thing, when your just gonna have 1 item as a reward not every group is going to be able to make use of that so having some suggestions that the DM could feel to swap for it would be better. I know the DM could change it themselves but it would be good if they gave some suggestions because not everyone is comfortable tossing out random items to a group.
But yeah we ran into this ourselves while playing saltmarsh we found a wizards spellbook and a scroll. Like well great my sorcerer took the scroll and the spellbook.. its weighty? holds down some papers nicely? I'm sure if I was playing a wizard I woulda been like neato! but would of been nice if the module was like hey if you don't have a wizard than make the spellcaster a sorcerer and give em some potions or more scrolls or maybe like a fancy shield or something. Just a side bar of customization you should feel free to make when the items being rewarded are super niche
In my game i decided that a sorcerer would have to use a sorcerer point to do a spell from a wizards spellbook. I mean a sorcerer is naturally gifted in magic (exlcuding wild magic sorcerers) so why wouldnt they be able to use a wizards spellbook that has its spells meticulously written down in detail. I mean at 3rd level a sorcerer only has 3 sorcerer points, so if they wanted to use anymore spells from the spellbook they would have to sacrifice a regular spell slot to refill their sorcerer point.
It takes wizards time and resources to decode how other wizards' spellbooks are written. Many hyper-intelligent people are eccentric and may leave context-sensitive notes or complicated formulas written in odd places that make perfect sense only to the owner.
It would be like searching through a computer manual for a specific procedure without an index or table of contents to help you locate what you're looking for or a glossary to help you understand what exactly you're reading.
On the note of casting spells from a spellbook, there are features that directly work with that: the Ritual Caster feat and wizards' Ritual Casting feature.
Nope, sorcerers normally don't even have Ritual Casting.
If multiclassed into wizard or picking up the Ritual Caster feat, you're stuck with whatever rituals you have, but they DON'T need to be prepared. Other classes need to know those spells or have them prepared, which bogs down their options.
There was an episode of Avatar the last air bender, where they found advanced water bending technique scrolls. Maybe have it that they can spend X numbers of days "Practicing" (Roll above a certain number) to learn the technique. Increase the DC dependent on the spell level
Nope, sorcerers normally don't even have Ritual Casting.
If multiclassed into wizard or picking up the Ritual Caster feat, you're stuck with whatever rituals you have, but they DON'T need to be prepared. Other classes need to know those spells or have them prepared, which bogs down their options.
But sorcerers are prepared to execute rituals to invoke anyone. So, they can get the Ritual Caster Feat, then buy the required Ritualistic book, and the rest is easy to guess. Warlocks are the masters of rituals, so they can do that with ease. Or not ??
Warlocks are neat in that they can get invocations that let them cast some spells without spell slots or prep times. This is great for them since Pact Magic slots tend to be very limited.
For raw ritual-casting options, however, nothing beats a wizard (or Ritual Caster: Wizard). They get the most options for rituals, and once those are in the book, they almost never need to prepare them.
Have them succeed X number of rolls during short/long rest or downtime activities. Make X based on spell level & how close it is to a spell they have access too. Avatar the last air bender had a few episodes where they found old water bending scrolls & had to practice them for a while before they learned the techniques.
Sorcerers have no use for the spellbooks and ancient tomes of magic lore that wizards rely on, nor do they rely on a patron to grant their spells as warlocks do. By learning to harness and channel their own inborn magic, they can discover new and staggering ways to unleash that power.
Sorcerers power is innate and grows as they level. It comes naturally and no amount or reading and studying is going to give them more innate power.
But if a DM wants to home brew it that’s completely fine.
As a DM I have learn one thing. It's a quote I found. " I believe you'll find the rule clearly spelled out on page f*** you I'm the Dungeon Master." I tell my gang what i learned from E2. The rule book say it's a guid book. It's your world, it's fantasy, you make the rules. It is very confussing when it come to a sorcerer. So make a rule and stick with it.
The only use a sorcerer would have for a spellbook is if it has dunamancy spells and the DM is willing to let non dunamancers learn those spells when they find them.
I've had a similar question from a player and hate to stand in the way of opportunity. I told her she could choose one spell from it to try and learn. Since it's written for and by a wizard to be his personal manual for that spell it won't make a lot of sense and require a lot of experimentation. Once per day she can attempt to learn the spell, taking an hour of time and 2 GP for materials (she's early level and poor but I think I might ramp up the cost not sure yet). Essentially she can roll a d20 and on a 20 learns the spell. With each attempt I roll on the wild magic sorcery table and have an effect happen to represent her messing with new and unfamiliar magic.
It's fairly new but that's what I came up with. If this proves too powerful/easy I won't let her gain a new spell at the next level to balance it out. This way she essentially learnt a new spell early at a significant cost (I hope).
Has anyone come up with a homebrew/house rule idea to possibly modify this? I'm currently DMing a Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign and one of my players is a sorcerer. Fairly early on you find a spellbook on a vanquished foe and she asked if there's any way she could benefit from the spells in it. I hesitated to say "no" and told her I'd think on it and let her know next session. I'm tempted to just say she can essentially use each page as a scroll, but I was wondering if anyone had schemed up an idea for how to allow a sorcerer to potentially roll arcana and learn a spell, even if only for a single use per attempt.
I would say if she HIRED a wizard to read and translate the sorcerer spell which was kept in wizard notation (aka spellbook), then she can learn the spell.
Has anyone come up with a homebrew/house rule idea to possibly modify this? I'm currently DMing a Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign and one of my players is a sorcerer. Fairly early on you find a spellbook on a vanquished foe and she asked if there's any way she could benefit from the spells in it. I hesitated to say "no" and told her I'd think on it and let her know next session. I'm tempted to just say she can essentially use each page as a scroll, but I was wondering if anyone had schemed up an idea for how to allow a sorcerer to potentially roll arcana and learn a spell, even if only for a single use per attempt.
I would say if she HIRED a wizard to read and translate the sorcerer spell which was kept in wizard notation (aka spellbook), then she can learn the spell.
there is no unified wizard notation it all depends on the wizards internal logic how the layout there spellbook
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This is kinda a problem with published material and I wish the people writing the modules thought about this sorta thing, when your just gonna have 1 item as a reward not every group is going to be able to make use of that so having some suggestions that the DM could feel to swap for it would be better. I know the DM could change it themselves but it would be good if they gave some suggestions because not everyone is comfortable tossing out random items to a group.
But yeah we ran into this ourselves while playing saltmarsh we found a wizards spellbook and a scroll. Like well great my sorcerer took the scroll and the spellbook.. its weighty? holds down some papers nicely? I'm sure if I was playing a wizard I woulda been like neato! but would of been nice if the module was like hey if you don't have a wizard than make the spellcaster a sorcerer and give em some potions or more scrolls or maybe like a fancy shield or something. Just a side bar of customization you should feel free to make when the items being rewarded are super niche
In my game i decided that a sorcerer would have to use a sorcerer point to do a spell from a wizards spellbook. I mean a sorcerer is naturally gifted in magic (exlcuding wild magic sorcerers) so why wouldnt they be able to use a wizards spellbook that has its spells meticulously written down in detail. I mean at 3rd level a sorcerer only has 3 sorcerer points, so if they wanted to use anymore spells from the spellbook they would have to sacrifice a regular spell slot to refill their sorcerer point.
It takes wizards time and resources to decode how other wizards' spellbooks are written. Many hyper-intelligent people are eccentric and may leave context-sensitive notes or complicated formulas written in odd places that make perfect sense only to the owner.
It would be like searching through a computer manual for a specific procedure without an index or table of contents to help you locate what you're looking for or a glossary to help you understand what exactly you're reading.
On the note of casting spells from a spellbook, there are features that directly work with that: the Ritual Caster feat and wizards' Ritual Casting feature.
can sorcerers switch out their ritual casts?
Nope, sorcerers normally don't even have Ritual Casting.
If multiclassed into wizard or picking up the Ritual Caster feat, you're stuck with whatever rituals you have, but they DON'T need to be prepared. Other classes need to know those spells or have them prepared, which bogs down their options.
There was an episode of Avatar the last air bender, where they found advanced water bending technique scrolls. Maybe have it that they can spend X numbers of days "Practicing" (Roll above a certain number) to learn the technique. Increase the DC dependent on the spell level
But sorcerers are prepared to execute rituals to invoke anyone. So, they can get the Ritual Caster Feat, then buy the required Ritualistic book, and the rest is easy to guess. Warlocks are the masters of rituals, so they can do that with ease. Or not ??
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
Warlocks are neat in that they can get invocations that let them cast some spells without spell slots or prep times. This is great for them since Pact Magic slots tend to be very limited.
For raw ritual-casting options, however, nothing beats a wizard (or Ritual Caster: Wizard). They get the most options for rituals, and once those are in the book, they almost never need to prepare them.
Have them succeed X number of rolls during short/long rest or downtime activities. Make X based on spell level & how close it is to a spell they have access too. Avatar the last air bender had a few episodes where they found old water bending scrolls & had to practice them for a while before they learned the techniques.
Sorcerers can't innately cast rituals. Pick up the Ritual Caster feat and a spellbook expands your usefulness considerably.
From the PHB sorcerer description:
Sorcerers have no use for the spellbooks and ancient tomes of magic lore that wizards rely on, nor do they rely on a patron to grant their spells as warlocks do. By learning to harness and channel their own inborn magic, they can discover new and staggering ways to unleash that power.
Sorcerers power is innate and grows as they level. It comes naturally and no amount or reading and studying is going to give them more innate power.
But if a DM wants to home brew it that’s completely fine.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
of course sorcerers can use spellbooks.
they can beat their enemies to death with them.
oh, you meant spells? no
ni! (that's a link, click it).
I like spell points.
Please ignore my old homebrew, and for the love of every god out there don't use it.
I (used to, it's kinda dead now) participate in the Level 20 Gladiator Arena with a nameless hero (actually I think I deleted him, whoops).
As a DM I have learn one thing. It's a quote I found. " I believe you'll find the rule clearly spelled out on page f*** you I'm the Dungeon Master." I tell my gang what i learned from E2. The rule book say it's a guid book. It's your world, it's fantasy, you make the rules. It is very confussing when it come to a sorcerer. So make a rule and stick with it.
Not completely useless. The vellum feels nice on the tushy.😁
The only use a sorcerer would have for a spellbook is if it has dunamancy spells and the DM is willing to let non dunamancers learn those spells when they find them.
I've had a similar question from a player and hate to stand in the way of opportunity. I told her she could choose one spell from it to try and learn. Since it's written for and by a wizard to be his personal manual for that spell it won't make a lot of sense and require a lot of experimentation. Once per day she can attempt to learn the spell, taking an hour of time and 2 GP for materials (she's early level and poor but I think I might ramp up the cost not sure yet). Essentially she can roll a d20 and on a 20 learns the spell. With each attempt I roll on the wild magic sorcery table and have an effect happen to represent her messing with new and unfamiliar magic.
It's fairly new but that's what I came up with. If this proves too powerful/easy I won't let her gain a new spell at the next level to balance it out. This way she essentially learnt a new spell early at a significant cost (I hope).
Any ideas to add to this?
I would say if she HIRED a wizard to read and translate the sorcerer spell which was kept in wizard notation (aka spellbook), then she can learn the spell.
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there is no unified wizard notation it all depends on the wizards internal logic how the layout there spellbook
i ask dumb question