It's my understanding that Wizards need some sort of spellbook. Is the idea that they need to read spells on the fly to cast them, or do they need to read these spells at the start of each day to have them in recent memory to understand how to cast them? In either case, how viable would it be to make a wizard that covers themselves from head to toe throughout the campaign and uses his or her own body as their spellbook?
The idea is intriguing, but there are two problems I can see: space and visibility.
The space problem is pretty self explanatory: you only have so much skin :P As for the visibility problem, one could theoretically use the skin of their forearms and the front of their legs without much problem in reading the spells, even their belly, if they write the spells "flipped", but when it comes to the upper torso or the back, that's when it would be extremely difficult for the wizard to study the spells written there.
One possible solution could be to create a feat to allow the wizard to inscribe two spells up to their maximum slot level -1 (or even just max slot level) in either arm or leg, with the possibility of taking the feat up to 4 (or 5 if you also want to allow the belly) times. The benefit would be that even if they are separated from their spellbook, they can still prepare the spells inscribed, and maybe give them one use of these spells per long rest without the expenditure of spell slots.
Another option is to make this a Tradition, with more complex and possibly rewarding effects, starting from the feat proposed above. Maybe the first benefit could be to be able to inscribe 2 spells (one per limb) on their skin, and change them with each new level, should they wish for it (in the end, they can be considered magically-ereseable tattoos), granting the same bonus as the feat above, with an improvement of this feature at higher level allowing up to 4 spells to be inscribed this way.
At the beginning of each day, you spend time studying your spellbook which consists of memorizing the incantations and gestures you must make to cast each spell prepared for the day. So yes you would have to be able to read whatever spells you have inscribed on your body. As for the viability of such a wizard, that's very much up to your DM because there are both mechanical and fluff based questions that have to both be answered and be approved by your DM. For example:
Why do you want to use your body as a spellbook? Is it to get around the cost of losing a spellbook? If so, your DM will most likely rule out the option or impose a new disadvantage of being such a wizard i.e. when your body is damaged it causes you some cost to repair the damage to the affected inscriptions.
Does your skin provide a sufficient amount of space for all your spells? If no then your DM couldn't possibly approve of such. But this is very much up to your own way of inscribing spells and the lore of your DM's world in regards to such topics.
Is the skin an appropriate material for spell inscription? If your DM's world doesn't support such you would probably get denied.
How do you inscribe the spells upon your flesh? Via a magic ritual? If so, what does it involve? By hand? If so, how do you reach parts of your body you normally can't reach? A creative use of mage hand? And when creating tattoos in places you can't normally see, how do you see? A use of mirrors or your familiar's sight? And if you get help making them i.e. hiring a tattooist then an issue of how well they inscribe the tattoos may come up as well as the cost of their employ.
And lastly, when you prepare your spells for the day does that do anything curious to your body? Do the tattoos that are prepared act differently than the ones not? And how do you see ones in places outside of your normal field of vision? Again with mirrors or your familiar's sight?
So as you can see this could very easily become a headache for either your DM and/or yourself, which could result in your idea being shut down. But if it helps your case, Jeremy Crawford had no issues with the idea of a wizard using their body as their spellbook. And XGtE certainly has shown how creative one can get with what their spellbook is.
I have a question WHO takes away a Wizard's spellbook?!?!
I know it's a thing that is possible... but WHEN? Aside from making it a very temporary plot device or "You're captured and your gear is in a lockbox. The mission is to break out and get it" Because then the fighter and rogue are in the same boat (weapons gone). Literally, it's a single item that is the totality of the Wizard's every class feature (only has Cantrips left) A wizard's spellbook is literally the most expensive magic item a Wizard has. At first level it's worth 350gc (50 + 6 * 50)... at level 2 it's worth at-least 450 gc (assuming the wizard hasn't found/bought scrolls to scribe). It starts going up astronomically at level 5 alone assuming only spells gain from class features that book has 8 lvl 1 spells, 4 lvl 2, and 2 lvl 3... for a total of 1,150 gold. Without that item the wizard can... hit you with his staff or use Cantrips. (A backup of that spellbook cost 270 gold as it's only 10*lvl in reagents)
That above aside. It's say to say the negative is you SCREAM "wizard", there is no hiding you're a magician... also a super weird one. I personally think the idea is pretty cool. It also falls in with my love of blood magic.
That said as for space... in 3rd edition the game stated how many pages each spell took, all of that is now hand-waved and it's just cost per spell level in materials. As for how much room it takes it, it really would depend on the language used to scribe it. English is a (mostly) phonetic language and so the language takes a lot of space to write. For example my grocery list could take half a page of paper. My X-girlfriend is Chinese, her language is symbolic and so most words were 1-3 characters long... that same grocery list fit on a postie note. For example it takes 12 characters in English to ask "how are you?" it takes 3 characters to ask that question in Chinese. Also, see Shorthand which stenography still uses.
I like the idea of using Familiar's sight for reading the back or hard to reach places.
If the Wizard is captured... have them tar and feather him. He can't read his spells until he gets all that junk off.
K so after some digging and reading through comments, people generally seem concerned about it being imbalanced?
What the material says about spellbooks: - Player's Handbook: "The Book’s Appearance. Your spellbook is a unique compilation of spells, with its own decorative flourishes and margin notes. It might be a plain, functional leather volume that you received as a gift from your master, a finely bound gilt-edged tome you found in an ancient library, or even a loose collection of notes scrounged together after you lost your previous spellbook in a mishap."
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything:
Spellbook
Your wizard character’s most prized possession — your spellbook — might be an innocuous-looking volume whose covers show no hint of what’s inside. Or you might display some flair, as many wizards do, by carrying a spellbook of an unusual sort. If you don’t own such an item already, one of your goals might be to find a spellbook that sets you apart by its appearance or its means of manufacture.
Spellbooks
d6
Spellbook
1
A tome with pages that are thin sheets of metal, spells etched into them with acid
2
Long straps of leather on which spells are written, wrapped around a staff for ease of transport
3
A battered tome filled with pictographs that only you can understand
4
Small stones inscribed with spells and kept in a cloth bag
5
A scorched book, ravaged by dragon fire, with the script of your spells barely visible on its pages
6
A tome full of black pages whose writing is visible only in dim light or darkness
It seems like this is an area of flavor customization for those that want to play around with it. Speaking as a wizard, if I can carry around a bag of stone with simple runes on them, I think I can figure out a way to keep the tattoos small enough to keep from having a 1st level spell being an entire sleeve.
Sidenote: This is all made up with some basic rules in place to keep things fair and to help those lacking imagination.
I came up with some rules to impose on any tattooing magic to keep it reasonable.
The following is what I'd prefer to receive feedback on moving forward.
Tattooed Wizard In the Player's Handbook it says:
Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a spell level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
Copying that spell into your spellbook involves reproducing the basic form of the spell, then deciphering the unique system of notation used by the wizard who wrote it. You must practice the spell until you understand the sounds or gestures required, then transcribe it into your spellbook using your own notation.
For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the spell just like your other spells.
This makes it seem like the time and money invested is to practice the spell and document the results. With that in mind here's my suggestion for modification: - For each level of the spell, the process takes 3 hours and costs 100 gp. The time represents the amount time invested in practicing the incantations, designing a tattoo to represent the verbal, somatic, and material components in a small enough way to allow room for a great many more spells, and applying the tattoo takes an additional 1d4 hours per spell level. The gold accounts for the use of any material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it as well as the rare inks required to permanently apply the spell to your body.
- A wizard spell on a spell scroll can be copied just as spells in spellbooks can be copied. When a spell is copied from a spell scroll, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. A wizard being tattooed If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.
- To copy a spell as a tattoo, the copier must succeed a Dexterity Check equal to 10 + 1/2 the spell's level (minimum 1). The tattooist may add their proficiency modifier if they are proficient with Calligraphy Tools. The wizard being tattooed must succeed a Constitution Saving Throw with a DC equal to 10 + the number of hours being tattooed at the end of each hour. For example, after being tattooed for 1 hour, the DC is 11 to continue sitting through the procedure. At the end of the next hour, the DC becomes 12, and so on. This is to make sure the wizard is able to sit still and endure the pain of being tattooed. If the wizard fails before the copying is finished, the portion of the scroll used to as a reference to tattoo the wizard fades, the remainder of the scroll is only able to be used to finish the tattoo, and the scroll can no longer be used to cast the spell. When the tattoo is completed, the scroll is destroyed. At the end of each sitting, the wizard takes 1d2 piercing damage for each hour they completed. This damage ignores resistances and immunities and can only be recovered after a long rest. If the wizard fails to complete the tattoo in a sitting, they cannot attempt another sitting until after a long rest.
Thoughts on the rules for this? I think this should remove the seeming desire to punish a player that thinks outside of the tradition ruleset.
well, personally, in my version that i am making (i'm using the forgotten realms, and adding in several new things that are newly introduced or never discovered yet) the spell tattoos are available to all class, but only up to the CON modifier, with a minimum of 0. They are made with an ink that has a special ingredient based off of the spells school (each school hasits own color), along with having its own quality. The higher the quality, the higher level spell you can cast, whether you are casting a lvl1 spell as a lvl 9, or just a plain old level 9 spell. The tattoo itself is a special pattern, which someone can find out the shape of through the use of Detect Magic and studying the spell in action. When you cast the spell, you take a certain amount of damage multiplied by the spell level.
In addition to this, you can layer 2 or more spell pattern on top of one another to create a fused spell. In this process, you can take a fireball spell and layer it with a magic missile. The spell becomes one that shoots out the number of missile from magic missile, but they have the same effect as Fireball. In addition, you can add a special symbol, either on or around the layered spell tattoo, which changes the area of effect of the spell. For example, you take a fireball, mix it with a frost bolt, and draw a circle around it, and you'll get a frost burn nova, which causes both freezing and burns onto things in the radius of a normal nova spell. this allows more versatility in spellcasting, for classes that wouldn't normally have access to this kind of spell. In addition, you can either have the patterns tattooed, or painted on. The tattoo causes damage to you and can only be used once in a long rest, but the painted on version causes no damage and disapears after being used, but can last for up to a full day (barring any water damage or swimming) I'll be posting the little file i made about the mechanics of it in my next post.
Spell tattoo ink can be used to tattoo or draw spell patterns onto a persons skin. These patterns are used to cast spells. if they are in tattoo form, then they cause the spell level times 2 plus 1 damage to the owner, and they must wait for a long rest before using that particular tattoo again. If it is painted on, then the owner takes no damage and doesn't have to wait, but the ink is turned to ash. The ink's quality affects the tier of spell that can be cast. the school of the spell also corresponds with the special ingredient added into the ink. (powdered iron for Abjuration spells, Grave Dirt for necromancy, animal fat for Conjuration, sulphuric Ash for evocation) the ink changes color depending on the type of spell school it was made for. When the ink is painted on, then the owner can cast a fused spell, which takes the properties of the two spells and combines them into one. if the spell has more than one form (ray[1 line through the middle], sphere[a circle with a cross in the center], missile[ an upside down teardrop], nova[ a circle around the whole pattern], cone[a triangle over the top of the whole spell pattern]) then a symbol has to be drawn on top of the spell patterns to indicate the form. This can also be used to change a single spell or a fused spell that uses one form.
An example- Fireball X Magic Missile = Magic Fire Missile (10 mini fireballs) Fireball X Cone of Cold X nova Symbol = Circle of Freezing Fire (deals fire and cold damage, while having a chance of inflicting the Burned or Frozen status) Fireball X Magic Missile X 1 line through the middle = Arcane Fire Ray Healing Word X Nova Symbol = Healing nova (also works as an attack against undead)
Spell tattoo ink can be used to tattoo or draw spell patterns onto a persons skin. These patterns are used to cast spells. if they are in tattoo form, then they cause the spell level times 2 plus 1 damage to the owner, and they must wait for a long rest before using that particular tattoo again. If it is painted on, then the owner takes no damage and doesn't have to wait, but the ink is turned to ash. The ink's quality affects the tier of spell that can be cast. the school of the spell also corresponds with the special ingredient added into the ink. (powdered iron for Abjuration spells, Grave Dirt for necromancy, animal fat for Conjuration, sulphuric Ash for evocation) the ink changes color depending on the type of spell school it was made for. When the ink is painted on, then the owner can cast a fused spell, which takes the properties of the two spells and combines them into one. if the spell has more than one form (ray[1 line through the middle], sphere[a circle with a cross in the center], missile[ an upside down teardrop], nova[ a circle around the whole pattern], cone[a triangle over the top of the whole spell pattern]) then a symbol has to be drawn on top of the spell patterns to indicate the form. This can also be used to change a single spell or a fused spell that uses one form.
An example- Fireball X Magic Missile = Magic Fire Missile (10 mini fireballs) Fireball X Cone of Cold X nova Symbol = Circle of Freezing Fire (deals fire and cold damage, while having a chance of inflicting the Burned or Frozen status) Fireball X Magic Missile X 1 line through the middle = Arcane Fire Ray Healing Word X Nova Symbol = Healing nova (also works as an attack against undead)
How do you determine what level a fused spell is?
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It would be the level of the lower spell level. Unless it is a spellcaster that did the tattoo and has that particular set of spells, in which case he can raise its power by expending a spell slot.
Why lower? Are you meaning If a spell can cast at higher levels it will be the lowest level unless the artist can cast it higher? If you mean the overall level of a fused spell it should be higher, like adding the power of a 5th level spell to a 3rd in my mind. By using the lower level it makes it accessable to characters earlier, this means a barbarian will be "casting" 9th level tattoos before casters have 9th level spells... It also implies that while not seemingly reducing the spells power it's easier to use, which I personally doubt would be the case unless you're using the lowered effects for the spell and just changing the flavor of it. The section of the DMG on making spells said that's the easiest way to change them, just tweak the damage flavor or the save stat, which could be just the thing for you to look at here to see of it's balanced. This just seems to be a player decision, for the player rather than a game element or balance element. Also wanting to openly admit I havent read all posts before this, mostly the fused spell level and wanting that to be the lower level of fused spell... I may have totally the wrong idea here lol
Literally, it's a single item that is the totality of the Wizard's every class feature (only has Cantrips left)
... Without that item the wizard can... hit you with his staff or use Cantrips. (A backup of that spellbook cost 270 gold as it's only 10*lvl in reagents)
What? No. You lose Arcane Recovery, Ritual Casting and the ability to change your prepared spells. If the book is stolen, the spells they prepared last time they are probably still good enough to get by until they can get it back.
Also, you mainly need to back up the spells you don't prepare every day; the rest can be written down from memory.
Spellbooks are important to a wizard but the physical appearance of a spellbook in game terms is just fluff. Make it however you want so long as its fun for you. Fancy tome, etched on rocks, strips of leather, pictographs, shaved onto the side of a cow, do whatever you want. Tattoos are a completely reasonable way to have do this and wont break or wreck anything in your game. You dont need any extra rules to go along with this because you are really just changing how you describe your spellbook. So you cant take the spellbook away... who cares. There are lots of in game ways to prevent this already: spare spellbooks, slight of hand to hide it, secret chest, etc. Cant read the ones on your back... write them backwards and read them with a mirror. Use your imagination and just have fun with your game. Bravo for being creative and adding flavor to your wizard i say.
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Mechanical game advantages I see are: It can't be separated and it weighs nothing.
Role play disadvantages I see are: If skin is visible, you're publicly announcing what you are and it can't be separated.
If it feels MIN/MAX because the game is using Variant Encumbrance and you have a dump stat 4 STR, I might require a special 3lb crystal to read them through. Otherwise, awesome color and uniqueness, go for it. Full and detailed characters give more for the DM to work with. Encounter a settlement or NPC that hates wizards, role play. Captured by the guard? They're going to know to get "creative" about disarming you. Local wizard notices something interesting on your arm to add to his collection and hires some toughs to skin you. If you defeat another wizard with the same feature, how do you manage to copy his spell book without stopping everything for hours? Fun ethical choices abound about claiming your corpse attached prize. Just more levers for the DM to pull.
The 'Keen mind' feat kind of replaces most of the spellbook's uses, should you lose one.
Granted, you only have a month before you forget, but you could spare yourself some pain if you don't bring your spellbook with you; perhaps in a pocket dimension?
Tattooing only goes so far... if you want something better, i suggest taking that feat.
I like the idea, hopefully this gets more traction without invoking the mortal instruments imagery of power runes.
I was thinking you could have a pattern, design or credo tattooed on the forearms, but it re-arranges into the text for the spell you are trying to call to mind. Like a recipe card if requirement sort of thing.
I like the idea, hopefully this gets more traction without invoking the mortal instruments imagery of power runes.
I was thinking you could have a pattern, design or credo tattooed on the forearms, but it re-arranges into the text for the spell you are trying to call to mind. Like a recipe card if requirement sort of thing.
don't forget anyone who isn't a caster can't read the words of a spell anyway...so it might just look like a design to most. Also check this out for some variant tattoo rules, its free (and imo, simple as it isn't really anything new, just variants of existing rules). https://www.dmsguild.com/product/303247/Spell-Tattoo-5e
I see what you mean as a tattoed Wizard, and I could ask then, what kinda tattoes have that wizard ??? Because if those tattoes are related to those ritual needings, then the specific tattoo it could disappear at the cost of causing a severe necrotical damage on the wizard skin ......
It's my understanding that Wizards need some sort of spellbook. Is the idea that they need to read spells on the fly to cast them, or do they need to read these spells at the start of each day to have them in recent memory to understand how to cast them? In either case, how viable would it be to make a wizard that covers themselves from head to toe throughout the campaign and uses his or her own body as their spellbook?
Thoughts?
The idea is intriguing, but there are two problems I can see: space and visibility.
The space problem is pretty self explanatory: you only have so much skin :P
As for the visibility problem, one could theoretically use the skin of their forearms and the front of their legs without much problem in reading the spells, even their belly, if they write the spells "flipped", but when it comes to the upper torso or the back, that's when it would be extremely difficult for the wizard to study the spells written there.
One possible solution could be to create a feat to allow the wizard to inscribe two spells up to their maximum slot level -1 (or even just max slot level) in either arm or leg, with the possibility of taking the feat up to 4 (or 5 if you also want to allow the belly) times.
The benefit would be that even if they are separated from their spellbook, they can still prepare the spells inscribed, and maybe give them one use of these spells per long rest without the expenditure of spell slots.
Another option is to make this a Tradition, with more complex and possibly rewarding effects, starting from the feat proposed above. Maybe the first benefit could be to be able to inscribe 2 spells (one per limb) on their skin, and change them with each new level, should they wish for it (in the end, they can be considered magically-ereseable tattoos), granting the same bonus as the feat above, with an improvement of this feature at higher level allowing up to 4 spells to be inscribed this way.
This is just brainstorming, anyway.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
At the beginning of each day, you spend time studying your spellbook which consists of memorizing the incantations and gestures you must make to cast each spell prepared for the day. So yes you would have to be able to read whatever spells you have inscribed on your body. As for the viability of such a wizard, that's very much up to your DM because there are both mechanical and fluff based questions that have to both be answered and be approved by your DM. For example:
So as you can see this could very easily become a headache for either your DM and/or yourself, which could result in your idea being shut down. But if it helps your case, Jeremy Crawford had no issues with the idea of a wizard using their body as their spellbook. And XGtE certainly has shown how creative one can get with what their spellbook is.
I have a question WHO takes away a Wizard's spellbook?!?!
I know it's a thing that is possible... but WHEN? Aside from making it a very temporary plot device or "You're captured and your gear is in a lockbox. The mission is to break out and get it" Because then the fighter and rogue are in the same boat (weapons gone). Literally, it's a single item that is the totality of the Wizard's every class feature (only has Cantrips left)
A wizard's spellbook is literally the most expensive magic item a Wizard has. At first level it's worth 350gc (50 + 6 * 50)... at level 2 it's worth at-least 450 gc (assuming the wizard hasn't found/bought scrolls to scribe). It starts going up astronomically at level 5 alone assuming only spells gain from class features that book has 8 lvl 1 spells, 4 lvl 2, and 2 lvl 3... for a total of 1,150 gold. Without that item the wizard can... hit you with his staff or use Cantrips. (A backup of that spellbook cost 270 gold as it's only 10*lvl in reagents)
That above aside. It's say to say the negative is you SCREAM "wizard", there is no hiding you're a magician... also a super weird one. I personally think the idea is pretty cool. It also falls in with my love of blood magic.
That said as for space... in 3rd edition the game stated how many pages each spell took, all of that is now hand-waved and it's just cost per spell level in materials.
As for how much room it takes it, it really would depend on the language used to scribe it. English is a (mostly) phonetic language and so the language takes a lot of space to write. For example my grocery list could take half a page of paper. My X-girlfriend is Chinese, her language is symbolic and so most words were 1-3 characters long... that same grocery list fit on a postie note. For example it takes 12 characters in English to ask "how are you?" it takes 3 characters to ask that question in Chinese. Also, see Shorthand which stenography still uses.
I like the idea of using Familiar's sight for reading the back or hard to reach places.
If the Wizard is captured... have them tar and feather him. He can't read his spells until he gets all that junk off.
K so after some digging and reading through comments, people generally seem concerned about it being imbalanced?
What the material says about spellbooks:
- Player's Handbook: "The Book’s Appearance. Your spellbook is a unique compilation of spells, with its own decorative flourishes and margin notes. It might be a plain, functional leather volume that you received as a gift from your master, a finely bound gilt-edged tome you found in an ancient library, or even a loose collection of notes scrounged together after you lost your previous spellbook in a mishap."
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything:
Spellbook
Your wizard character’s most prized possession — your spellbook — might be an innocuous-looking volume whose covers show no hint of what’s inside. Or you might display some flair, as many wizards do, by carrying a spellbook of an unusual sort. If you don’t own such an item already, one of your goals might be to find a spellbook that sets you apart by its appearance or its means of manufacture.
Spellbooks
It seems like this is an area of flavor customization for those that want to play around with it. Speaking as a wizard, if I can carry around a bag of stone with simple runes on them, I think I can figure out a way to keep the tattoos small enough to keep from having a 1st level spell being an entire sleeve.
Sidenote: This is all made up with some basic rules in place to keep things fair and to help those lacking imagination.
I came up with some rules to impose on any tattooing magic to keep it reasonable.
The following is what I'd prefer to receive feedback on moving forward.
Tattooed Wizard
In the Player's Handbook it says:
Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a spell level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
Copying that spell into your spellbook involves reproducing the basic form of the spell, then deciphering the unique system of notation used by the wizard who wrote it. You must practice the spell until you understand the sounds or gestures required, then transcribe it into your spellbook using your own notation.
For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the spell just like your other spells.
This makes it seem like the time and money invested is to practice the spell and document the results. With that in mind here's my suggestion for modification:
- For each level of the spell, the process takes 3 hours and costs 100 gp. The time represents the amount time invested in practicing the incantations, designing a tattoo to represent the verbal, somatic, and material components in a small enough way to allow room for a great many more spells, and applying the tattoo takes an additional 1d4 hours per spell level. The gold accounts for the use of any material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it as well as the rare inks required to permanently apply the spell to your body.
- A wizard spell on a spell scroll can be copied just as spells in spellbooks can be copied. When a spell is copied from a spell scroll, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. A wizard being tattooed If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.
- To copy a spell as a tattoo, the copier must succeed a Dexterity Check equal to 10 + 1/2 the spell's level (minimum 1). The tattooist may add their proficiency modifier if they are proficient with Calligraphy Tools. The wizard being tattooed must succeed a Constitution Saving Throw with a DC equal to 10 + the number of hours being tattooed at the end of each hour. For example, after being tattooed for 1 hour, the DC is 11 to continue sitting through the procedure. At the end of the next hour, the DC becomes 12, and so on. This is to make sure the wizard is able to sit still and endure the pain of being tattooed. If the wizard fails before the copying is finished, the portion of the scroll used to as a reference to tattoo the wizard fades, the remainder of the scroll is only able to be used to finish the tattoo, and the scroll can no longer be used to cast the spell. When the tattoo is completed, the scroll is destroyed. At the end of each sitting, the wizard takes 1d2 piercing damage for each hour they completed. This damage ignores resistances and immunities and can only be recovered after a long rest. If the wizard fails to complete the tattoo in a sitting, they cannot attempt another sitting until after a long rest.
Thoughts on the rules for this? I think this should remove the seeming desire to punish a player that thinks outside of the tradition ruleset.
well, personally, in my version that i am making (i'm using the forgotten realms, and adding in several new things that are newly introduced or never discovered yet) the spell tattoos are available to all class, but only up to the CON modifier, with a minimum of 0. They are made with an ink that has a special ingredient based off of the spells school (each school hasits own color), along with having its own quality. The higher the quality, the higher level spell you can cast, whether you are casting a lvl1 spell as a lvl 9, or just a plain old level 9 spell. The tattoo itself is a special pattern, which someone can find out the shape of through the use of Detect Magic and studying the spell in action. When you cast the spell, you take a certain amount of damage multiplied by the spell level.
In addition to this, you can layer 2 or more spell pattern on top of one another to create a fused spell. In this process, you can take a fireball spell and layer it with a magic missile. The spell becomes one that shoots out the number of missile from magic missile, but they have the same effect as Fireball. In addition, you can add a special symbol, either on or around the layered spell tattoo, which changes the area of effect of the spell. For example, you take a fireball, mix it with a frost bolt, and draw a circle around it, and you'll get a frost burn nova, which causes both freezing and burns onto things in the radius of a normal nova spell. this allows more versatility in spellcasting, for classes that wouldn't normally have access to this kind of spell. In addition, you can either have the patterns tattooed, or painted on. The tattoo causes damage to you and can only be used once in a long rest, but the painted on version causes no damage and disapears after being used, but can last for up to a full day (barring any water damage or swimming) I'll be posting the little file i made about the mechanics of it in my next post.
Spell tattoo ink can be used to tattoo or draw spell patterns onto a persons skin. These patterns are used to cast spells. if they are in tattoo form, then they cause the spell level times 2 plus 1 damage to the owner, and they must wait for a long rest before using that particular tattoo again. If it is painted on, then the owner takes no damage and doesn't have to wait, but the ink is turned to ash.
The ink's quality affects the tier of spell that can be cast. the school of the spell also corresponds with the special ingredient added into the ink. (powdered iron for Abjuration spells, Grave Dirt for necromancy, animal fat for Conjuration, sulphuric Ash for evocation) the ink changes color depending on the type of spell school it was made for.
When the ink is painted on, then the owner can cast a fused spell, which takes the properties of the two spells and combines them into one. if the spell has more than one form (ray[1 line through the middle], sphere[a circle with a cross in the center], missile[ an upside down teardrop], nova[ a circle around the whole pattern], cone[a triangle over the top of the whole spell pattern]) then a symbol has to be drawn on top of the spell patterns to indicate the form. This can also be used to change a single spell or a fused spell that uses one form.
An example- Fireball X Magic Missile = Magic Fire Missile (10 mini fireballs)
Fireball X Cone of Cold X nova Symbol = Circle of Freezing Fire (deals fire and cold damage, while having a chance of inflicting the Burned or Frozen status)
Fireball X Magic Missile X 1 line through the middle = Arcane Fire Ray
Healing Word X Nova Symbol = Healing nova (also works as an attack against undead)
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It would be the level of the lower spell level. Unless it is a spellcaster that did the tattoo and has that particular set of spells, in which case he can raise its power by expending a spell slot.
Why lower? Are you meaning If a spell can cast at higher levels it will be the lowest level unless the artist can cast it higher? If you mean the overall level of a fused spell it should be higher, like adding the power of a 5th level spell to a 3rd in my mind. By using the lower level it makes it accessable to characters earlier, this means a barbarian will be "casting" 9th level tattoos before casters have 9th level spells... It also implies that while not seemingly reducing the spells power it's easier to use, which I personally doubt would be the case unless you're using the lowered effects for the spell and just changing the flavor of it. The section of the DMG on making spells said that's the easiest way to change them, just tweak the damage flavor or the save stat, which could be just the thing for you to look at here to see of it's balanced. This just seems to be a player decision, for the player rather than a game element or balance element. Also wanting to openly admit I havent read all posts before this, mostly the fused spell level and wanting that to be the lower level of fused spell... I may have totally the wrong idea here lol
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Spellbooks are important to a wizard but the physical appearance of a spellbook in game terms is just fluff. Make it however you want so long as its fun for you. Fancy tome, etched on rocks, strips of leather, pictographs, shaved onto the side of a cow, do whatever you want. Tattoos are a completely reasonable way to have do this and wont break or wreck anything in your game. You dont need any extra rules to go along with this because you are really just changing how you describe your spellbook. So you cant take the spellbook away... who cares. There are lots of in game ways to prevent this already: spare spellbooks, slight of hand to hide it, secret chest, etc. Cant read the ones on your back... write them backwards and read them with a mirror. Use your imagination and just have fun with your game. Bravo for being creative and adding flavor to your wizard i say.
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Mechanical game advantages I see are: It can't be separated and it weighs nothing.
Role play disadvantages I see are: If skin is visible, you're publicly announcing what you are and it can't be separated.
If it feels MIN/MAX because the game is using Variant Encumbrance and you have a dump stat 4 STR, I might require a special 3lb crystal to read them through. Otherwise, awesome color and uniqueness, go for it. Full and detailed characters give more for the DM to work with. Encounter a settlement or NPC that hates wizards, role play. Captured by the guard? They're going to know to get "creative" about disarming you. Local wizard notices something interesting on your arm to add to his collection and hires some toughs to skin you. If you defeat another wizard with the same feature, how do you manage to copy his spell book without stopping everything for hours? Fun ethical choices abound about claiming your corpse attached prize. Just more levers for the DM to pull.
The 'Keen mind' feat kind of replaces most of the spellbook's uses, should you lose one.
Granted, you only have a month before you forget, but you could spare yourself some pain if you don't bring your spellbook with you; perhaps in a pocket dimension?
Tattooing only goes so far... if you want something better, i suggest taking that feat.
I didn’t read everything sorry :/
I like the idea, hopefully this gets more traction without invoking the mortal instruments imagery of power runes.
I was thinking you could have a pattern, design or credo tattooed on the forearms, but it re-arranges into the text for the spell you are trying to call to mind. Like a recipe card if requirement sort of thing.
don't forget anyone who isn't a caster can't read the words of a spell anyway...so it might just look like a design to most. Also check this out for some variant tattoo rules, its free (and imo, simple as it isn't really anything new, just variants of existing rules). https://www.dmsguild.com/product/303247/Spell-Tattoo-5e
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neat idea.... though I kind of pictured him like the guy in the movie Memento :D
I see what you mean as a tattoed Wizard, and I could ask then, what kinda tattoes have that wizard ??? Because if those tattoes are related to those ritual needings, then the specific tattoo it could disappear at the cost of causing a severe necrotical damage on the wizard skin ......
Is this what you meant ??
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