Wizards can't read...!

[Quintus]

A friend rolled up a character last night. We thought we'd try out the Wizard, in anticipation of the Magic book thats due out. I remembered from the old days, that wizards started with somehting like 2 spells (Palsy & Protection of some sort) and one of the Manipulation Skills. So we translated the Runecasting (Other) in the Wizard character profile to read as two spells, and the optional Runecasting (Other) as the Magnitude Skill. (Without it, he would be a great Rat killer, but thats about it...)

Then we noticed that Wizards, Priests etc also only receive a +50% to native language...plus their INT. So without spending any free points in languages, we have people that ought to know how to read be illiterate? Odd for certain. He raised the skill to the required 80%, but I thought and still think that is not a fair treatment of these classes...they get very few skills (add up the percentage points for various professions...).

Any thoughts...?

Q...

 

[Rurik]

I don't have my book handy - does it say a language skill of 80 is necessary to study spells?

In past versions of RQ 60+ was more than competent in a language. 80+ was the realm of people who actually study a language.

Here is a link to the Language Proficiency example table from RQ3 that was posted in a thread a way back.

 

[Malakor]

As I recall (book is at home) 80+ indicates Literacy [No reason you can't change that in individual campaigns though]

Also, when I first started to do Imperial Professions, I looked over the professions in the core book, and as I recall, all the ones I spot checked were built with the same number of 'points.'

Anthony

 

[Quintus]

Well. of course I can do whatever I want, and the book does say that 80% is required to read and write a language. Just feel that something as important as Languages and Writing (as rare as they are) would be at least in the providence of scholars, and would not require a player to change the rules to correct that omission. Its similar to saying that warriors must have a minimum resilience skill of 50% or so...otherwise he cant be a warrior. Anyway, silly...but seems just a blatant disregard to me.

Q...

 

[Halfbat]

There's nothing I can see that says you need to be able to Read and Write to learn a sorcery spell. Studying is one way, but the other way (specifically mentioned) is to be taught by a Mentor - which a beginning Sorcerer would probably have done. ::shurgs:: if he wants to continue studying he can always add in additional bonus skill points to Language to read and write....

INT 18
Language +50% = 68%
+12% from the 100 and, bingo.

It's not too difficult. Or am I missing something?

 

[Quintus]

Nope. Your not missing a thing. Just odd that one is required to add these skill points at all...meaning that Wizards and Priests have no more training in their own language then a peasant, a town guard, or a primitive for that matter - evryone gets +50 to their own language, and as mentioned before, the classes that are scholarly do not get a bonus at all, neither do less worldy and studious types (Thieves come to mind) ought to have a lesser base language %...anyway. Just trying to figure out why, other than arbitary rulling, and if there was an errata somewhere. But I supose that there is not.

Thanks for enduring my passion for languages and such...it's actually something I do care quite a lot about, beeing a dual spaking person and all, and fluent in both languages equally well. It takes tons of time and dedication to get there...and your kinda at a serious disadvantage if you cannot speak a language.

Q...

 

[weasel_fierce]

Magic isnt inherently reliant on the written word, and a lot of ancient and medieval cultures, literacy is a very rare skill, especially if there is no bible as such.

Im okay with the rules as written, but if you want to change it, just let them trade a skill for more points in their language.

 

[Nagisawa]

Here's something else to consider: What language is the Wizard using to cast his spell?

Literacy works on a language like English or French, which theoritically everyone can learn, but what if his casting skill allows him to 'read' spells of the same style as well as cast them?