I'm confused about these runes you mentioned. In my own games, the only runes have been A) ancient giant runes that simply have historical meaning, and B) magic runes that don't carry meaning, just magic. Like Halaster Blackcloak's signature rune. Does it mean anything? Not really, it's just here to blast you with magic if you see it. The runic magic items from Storm King's Thunder bridge the gap between these categories, since they're emblazoned with real language, but you don't need to understand their meaning in order to use their magic. But when there are runes that hold meaning, the only reason the meaning is even a little bit hard to understand is because the language they're written in is dead. Ostorian, I believe it's called, the language of the ancient giants. Nobody uses it anymore, not even giants. Scholars only know bits and pieces of it. I wouldn't allow a player to take it as a starting language, because in practical terms it isn't a language.
simple... when you create magic as a trap or as something like magical items... the magic just doesn't appear randomly. it uses energy to power itself. it uses actual physical representation of that magic. taking your exemple of halaster runes... does it mean anything to you ? nope, does it means anything to him, for sure. otherwise what would be the point of using that rune ? the thing is when it comes to magic, magic sigils or runes are often crafted along door handles or along the wood carvings of a statue. the idea is to store the magic until it is released. but such feats requires actual signs of the magic.
any non arcanic non-versed people wouldn't understand said graphics... but a versed arcanic user would definitely recognises the patterns and could easily say what they mean. a good exemple of such runes in our real life, would be celtic runings. a symbol means something a word, and if mixed with other runes they form arcanic spells. all of this is literally explained in the lore of any dungeons and dragons games. i use such lore because its logical.
in d&d, magic is only written in draconic, elvish, celestial, infernal and i think one more language. reason being that none other cultures are engrained in magic as much as these ones.
again if you want an exemple that is overly used in games... its celtic runes !
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DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
I'm confused about these runes you mentioned. In my own games, the only runes have been A) ancient giant runes that simply have historical meaning, and B) magic runes that don't carry meaning, just magic. Like Halaster Blackcloak's signature rune. Does it mean anything? Not really, it's just here to blast you with magic if you see it. The runic magic items from Storm King's Thunder bridge the gap between these categories, since they're emblazoned with real language, but you don't need to understand their meaning in order to use their magic. But when there are runes that hold meaning, the only reason the meaning is even a little bit hard to understand is because the language they're written in is dead. Ostorian, I believe it's called, the language of the ancient giants. Nobody uses it anymore, not even giants. Scholars only know bits and pieces of it. I wouldn't allow a player to take it as a starting language, because in practical terms it isn't a language.
simple... when you create magic as a trap or as something like magical items... the magic just doesn't appear randomly. it uses energy to power itself. it uses actual physical representation of that magic. taking your exemple of halaster runes... does it mean anything to you ? nope, does it means anything to him, for sure. otherwise what would be the point of using that rune ? the thing is when it comes to magic, magic sigils or runes are often crafted along door handles or along the wood carvings of a statue. the idea is to store the magic until it is released. but such feats requires actual signs of the magic.
any non arcanic non-versed people wouldn't understand said graphics... but a versed arcanic user would definitely recognises the patterns and could easily say what they mean. a good exemple of such runes in our real life, would be celtic runings. a symbol means something a word, and if mixed with other runes they form arcanic spells. all of this is literally explained in the lore of any dungeons and dragons games. i use such lore because its logical.
in d&d, magic is only written in draconic, elvish, celestial, infernal and i think one more language. reason being that none other cultures are engrained in magic as much as these ones.
again if you want an exemple that is overly used in games... its celtic runes !
Fun answer. Just not RAW though. None of this is required in any setting, even if it might be true in some setting. What you're describing here is lore, and it isn't rules or mechanics, nor universally applied to every game in 5e.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I'm confused about these runes you mentioned. In my own games, the only runes have been A) ancient giant runes that simply have historical meaning, and B) magic runes that don't carry meaning, just magic. Like Halaster Blackcloak's signature rune. Does it mean anything? Not really, it's just here to blast you with magic if you see it. The runic magic items from Storm King's Thunder bridge the gap between these categories, since they're emblazoned with real language, but you don't need to understand their meaning in order to use their magic. But when there are runes that hold meaning, the only reason the meaning is even a little bit hard to understand is because the language they're written in is dead. Ostorian, I believe it's called, the language of the ancient giants. Nobody uses it anymore, not even giants. Scholars only know bits and pieces of it. I wouldn't allow a player to take it as a starting language, because in practical terms it isn't a language.
simple... when you create magic as a trap or as something like magical items... the magic just doesn't appear randomly. it uses energy to power itself. it uses actual physical representation of that magic. taking your exemple of halaster runes... does it mean anything to you ? nope, does it means anything to him, for sure. otherwise what would be the point of using that rune ? the thing is when it comes to magic, magic sigils or runes are often crafted along door handles or along the wood carvings of a statue. the idea is to store the magic until it is released. but such feats requires actual signs of the magic.
any non arcanic non-versed people wouldn't understand said graphics... but a versed arcanic user would definitely recognises the patterns and could easily say what they mean. a good exemple of such runes in our real life, would be celtic runings. a symbol means something a word, and if mixed with other runes they form arcanic spells. all of this is literally explained in the lore of any dungeons and dragons games. i use such lore because its logical.
in d&d, magic is only written in draconic, elvish, celestial, infernal and i think one more language. reason being that none other cultures are engrained in magic as much as these ones.
again if you want an exemple that is overly used in games... its celtic runes !
Fun answer. Just not RAW though. None of this is required in any setting, even if it might be true in some setting. What you're describing here is lore, and it isn't rules or mechanics, nor universally applied to every game in 5e.
play as you want... if you preffer to just follow the rules as RAW then your entire world is not even a thing. and thus none of your campaigns are even a thing either. as for RAW...
if you follow the VSM of casting a spell, and you read the actual description of how a spell is made, then why are materials a thing to begin with ? after all, magic is just energies, resonance and the likes. its hard to imagine a small tart having a resonance on said energies.
all that said... play the way you want. but magic does have a writting style, prooven by the scrolls that one can make. so there must be a writting style involved. just saying that this is RAW by the way...
Scrolls
Most scrolls are spells stored in written form, while a few bear unique incantations that produce potent wards. Whatever its contents, a scroll is a roll of paper, sometimes attached to wooden rods, and typically kept safe in a tube of ivory, jade, leather, metal, or wood.
A scroll is a consumable magic item. Whatever the nature of the magic contained in a scroll, unleashing that magic requires the user to read the scroll. When its magic has been invoked, the scroll can’t be used again. Its words fade, or it crumbles into dust.
Unless a scroll's description says otherwise, any creature that can understand a written language can read the script on a scroll and attempt to activate it.
case closed, there is actually RAW rulings about magic in writtings. this is in the dungeons masters guide. now i'll grant you that, they don't say any real stuff about what that writting is... oh wait... there is... though again its minor... but if you count the fact that the PHB and DMG are official rulings book, then again its easy to see these as the official ways.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest languages and is often used in the study of magic. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.
thats in the languages section of the dragonborn race. if you read the books in their entirety you will discover many things that makes the world around them much more believable then saying "is magic is magic point final"
but again, reguardless of what i just said... you play the way you wanna play. in my world magic has a written form. which is what we see on traps and spell scrolls.
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DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
That's fine, just understand that you've invented the problem you're trying to solve.
The spell to store magic energy in the form of a runic trap is called Glyph of Warding, and it doesn't specify a language at all. What's more, careful study of the glyph created by this spell doesn't reveal anything about its nature -- you can't "read" it to find out what it does.
Plus, the text you cited for spell scrolls says a creature that can understand *language* can use it -- it doesn't describe the scroll being written in a *specific* language. In fact the implication is the opposite. If you can read a language at all, you can use the scroll. If you can read elvish, but the scroll was written in dwarvish, then how would it make sense that you can use the scroll? Conclusion: It's not written in a language. The ability to understand language is being used here as a metric for mental acuity, or for the possession of the general logical framework needed to activate the scroll. Like how the ability to understand language is used, in real life, to help judge IQ, for example. Or how your players probably use "can it talk" as a starting point to figure out "should we spare its life."
Again, you're welcome to alter these things, obviously, but your players wouldn't be picking draconic to read spell runes if you didn't add draconic spell runes to the game, is all.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest languages and is often used in the study of magic. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.
...
Thank you. I like the idea of a house rule of proficiency in the draconic language being a prerequisite for becoming a wizard and perhaps artificer and for writing or reading a spell scroll or other magical text. The game, after all, is dungeons and dragons.
simple...
when you create magic as a trap or as something like magical items... the magic just doesn't appear randomly. it uses energy to power itself. it uses actual physical representation of that magic. taking your exemple of halaster runes... does it mean anything to you ? nope, does it means anything to him, for sure. otherwise what would be the point of using that rune ? the thing is when it comes to magic, magic sigils or runes are often crafted along door handles or along the wood carvings of a statue. the idea is to store the magic until it is released. but such feats requires actual signs of the magic.
any non arcanic non-versed people wouldn't understand said graphics...
but a versed arcanic user would definitely recognises the patterns and could easily say what they mean.
a good exemple of such runes in our real life, would be celtic runings. a symbol means something a word, and if mixed with other runes they form arcanic spells.
all of this is literally explained in the lore of any dungeons and dragons games. i use such lore because its logical.
in d&d, magic is only written in draconic, elvish, celestial, infernal and i think one more language.
reason being that none other cultures are engrained in magic as much as these ones.
again if you want an exemple that is overly used in games... its celtic runes !
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
Fun answer. Just not RAW though. None of this is required in any setting, even if it might be true in some setting. What you're describing here is lore, and it isn't rules or mechanics, nor universally applied to every game in 5e.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
play as you want... if you preffer to just follow the rules as RAW then your entire world is not even a thing. and thus none of your campaigns are even a thing either.
as for RAW...
if you follow the VSM of casting a spell, and you read the actual description of how a spell is made, then why are materials a thing to begin with ? after all, magic is just energies, resonance and the likes. its hard to imagine a small tart having a resonance on said energies.
all that said... play the way you want. but magic does have a writting style, prooven by the scrolls that one can make. so there must be a writting style involved.
just saying that this is RAW by the way...
Scrolls
Most scrolls are spells stored in written form, while a few bear unique incantations that produce potent wards. Whatever its contents, a scroll is a roll of paper, sometimes attached to wooden rods, and typically kept safe in a tube of ivory, jade, leather, metal, or wood.
A scroll is a consumable magic item. Whatever the nature of the magic contained in a scroll, unleashing that magic requires the user to read the scroll. When its magic has been invoked, the scroll can’t be used again. Its words fade, or it crumbles into dust.
Unless a scroll's description says otherwise, any creature that can understand a written language can read the script on a scroll and attempt to activate it.
case closed, there is actually RAW rulings about magic in writtings.
this is in the dungeons masters guide. now i'll grant you that, they don't say any real stuff about what that writting is...
oh wait... there is... though again its minor... but if you count the fact that the PHB and DMG are official rulings book, then again its easy to see these as the official ways.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest languages and is often used in the study of magic. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.
thats in the languages section of the dragonborn race.
if you read the books in their entirety you will discover many things that makes the world around them much more believable then saying "is magic is magic point final"
but again, reguardless of what i just said...
you play the way you wanna play. in my world magic has a written form. which is what we see on traps and spell scrolls.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
That's fine, just understand that you've invented the problem you're trying to solve.
The spell to store magic energy in the form of a runic trap is called Glyph of Warding, and it doesn't specify a language at all. What's more, careful study of the glyph created by this spell doesn't reveal anything about its nature -- you can't "read" it to find out what it does.
Plus, the text you cited for spell scrolls says a creature that can understand *language* can use it -- it doesn't describe the scroll being written in a *specific* language. In fact the implication is the opposite. If you can read a language at all, you can use the scroll. If you can read elvish, but the scroll was written in dwarvish, then how would it make sense that you can use the scroll? Conclusion: It's not written in a language. The ability to understand language is being used here as a metric for mental acuity, or for the possession of the general logical framework needed to activate the scroll. Like how the ability to understand language is used, in real life, to help judge IQ, for example. Or how your players probably use "can it talk" as a starting point to figure out "should we spare its life."
Again, you're welcome to alter these things, obviously, but your players wouldn't be picking draconic to read spell runes if you didn't add draconic spell runes to the game, is all.
Thank you. I like the idea of a house rule of proficiency in the draconic language being a prerequisite for becoming a wizard and perhaps artificer and for writing or reading a spell scroll or other magical text. The game, after all, is dungeons and dragons.