Spells, Inventory and Grimoire

magic
#1

Hello there! This is my first post on the runehammer forum and I would like to add a bit of context to it. :slight_smile: I’ve been obsessed with Crown & Skull over the past few weeks and I got to know the game while finishing a long high level D&D campaign were I was very tired the rule “constraints” of the system and the crazy high power level that 5E offers.

Long story short I think Crown & Skull offers everything I was looking for on a system: simple but tactical and cinematographic. And I’m using it now as a replacement for my campaign on the Forgotten Realms.

Reading the book across several different entries you can see references to relationship of Spells, Inventory and a Grimoire. Ex:

  • Sorcerers only use basic spells but don’t need to use slots
  • Mage-Custom Spells Expert: Spells can be bound to inventory, or not, depending on build details
  • The Ironpage Grimoire can store all the spells, cannot be destroyed

So I distilled this information and came up with this framework for Spells on our game:

Inventory: Each spell occupies 1 inventory (either skill or item); Spells stored as item inventory cannot be destroyed. Crossed off spells cannot restore expended spells therein.

Grimoire (2 pts): Use of the grimoire consolidates all spells into a single inventory item. It can be damaged or destroyed. Once it’s destroyed the spells must take space in the inventory (either skill or item). Spells that have no available space will be temporarily lost until Safety is found and either a slot is available or a new Grimoire is acquired.

#2

This is a good way to look at it. It cost nothing to get started on a path. Petty Sorcerers can learn the basic spells and can just keep them in their mind or by feel, but are not as flexible.

I feel like I really overlooked page 44 talking about acquiring new spells and Spell Storage. Just having a place to hold the spells is good, but it is not necessarily bound to that specific item. If a wizard decides to give the limitation of Linked to physical object, then when the object is lost, so is the spell. Otherwise, it is just a conduit that needs to be available to carry the spells.
Example would be if my player finds a Fire Blast spell inside of a ruby inscribed with fire runes, then they need to have that item to refresh its uses. If they take time, they can get that knowledge and inscribe it to their Spellbook, but with the knowledge that having all their spells condensed in one item can make all of their spells vulnerable to attrition (meaning they won’t be able to recover uses of spells until they can either get the book repaired or replaced).

#3

Now that you pointed I also overlooked the Spell Storage aspect on page 44 :slight_smile: It indeed adds this very interesting layer to the game.

I really like the distinction of the Scholar Wizard that adventures with his library or his grimoire in this case and the simple, yet now flexible Sorcerer.

From the experience of other games I like to see magic that needs to be studied daily as a very hard exercise to keep the spells in the Wizards “mind”. The role of the grimoire helps alleviate this burden by providing notes and shortcuts to get to the same result. Once you loose the grimoire the spell scatters to your inventory making it harder and cumbersome for it to be studied.

This can create interesting scenarios when the grimoire is lost, important decisions need to be made between on what spells to keep and the ones that will be lost.

Also traveling with spell containers, specially the fragile ones can create very interesting challenges for the campaign.

#4

A player can make very powerful spells by having it be bound to an item and requiring unstable rolls. They could probably get a bigger discount on the spell by having the item indeed be fragile.