Re: CF: Clerical "spell" scrolls

[Mark Wedel <mwedel@scruznet.com>]

David Andrew Michael Noelle wrote:

> I can imagine a few different ways prayer scrolls might work, and I
> think it should be decided exactly how they work in Crossfire and
> recorded somewhere, so we can stay consistent in implementing such
> things.
> 
> A prayer scroll could work the same way as a spell scroll, having a
> "canned" magical effect bound to it and released by reading it aloud.
> In that case, the prayer has alerady been granted by some deity and it
> doesn't matter who reads it.

 But in the case of some spells, the god granting the spell may affect its
results.  For simplicity, I would like to use the players god instead of having
scrolls for all the different gods.  But if we use the players god, that
suggests that the scroll does not really can the magic as much.

> 
> A more plausible explanation would be that the scroll has been
> consecrated by a priest and contains the wording of a prayer to that
> priest's god.  That would mean that the deity named in the scroll is
> the one who would grant the prayer, and the religion of the reader
> might be a consideration.

 Correct.  Reading a scroll of the opposite god is likely to have bad things
happen (both from your god, for actually using that others gods magic, and for
that other god - someone trying to use his power for something he does not find
desirable)


> My preference would be for the second option.  Randomly generated
> prayer scrolls, and those for which no religion has been specified,
> could have a religion randomly assigned to them, based on each god's
> attunement to that path, with denied meaning no chance, repelled
> meaning half as likely, and attuned meaning twice as likely.  The
> scroll would still be usable by anyone except worshippers of that
> god's enemy.  For worshippers of the same god, the prayer might even
> be more effective, adding some factor of the reader's wisdom level to
> the scroll's level to determine the effect.  Worshippers of the enemy
> god might get a reversed effect or take damage from scrolls of
> significantly higher level than themselves.

 It just creates a lot more variety of scrolls, and harder for a priest to find
a scroll of his god.  Perhaps this could be reduced to some extent by each
temple having at least a small shop containing the most popular scrolls of that
god.

 On the other hand, this could make some things more interesting - some gods
should only have prayers that they grant.  So a player may see some scroll for
some god and think 'wow - pretty interesting that that god gives that spell'.

 Note that you have the same problem with rods and staves (who is granting the
spell)

 Also, some spells may fall into the cleric category.  For example, there may be
some spells, like perceive self, which could be said to be more introspective
and not as much tied to a god.

> 
> > Also, doesn't a character _have_ to follow a god, in Crossfire, in order
> > to recite a clerical scroll? (see 2nd paragraph from the original post...)
> 
> I don't think so.  That would prevent atheist characters from using
> scrolls of word of recall.

 I believe you need the praying skill (either learned or in an amulet) to use
such things, but are not required to have a god go with it.
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