>From: "Roderick and Ellen Robertson" <rjremr_at_...>
>The drawbacks of Grimoires is that they are
>usually several volumes of heavy books (scrolls, stone tablets, etc), and
>are not easily replaceable. So you are unlikely to carry your Grimoire with
>you on your adventures (Unless you've got a wagon...)
Or unless you've got several followers to help. My Carmanian adept in the UplandMarsh game has an apprentice, a porter, a bodyguard and a manservant. All who I imagine terribly burdened by carrying his Grimoires around (including himself).
Put another way - so you just don't go on "adventures." That is, I don't think this is a huge limitation for a character from this POV. At worst...they get the wagon. Yes, the narrator can make a challenge out of books, but they can make a challenge out of anything, so it's no different than anything else, as I see it. All food for contests.
And it's not that Grimoires can be taken away, either - so can any talisman (or charms for that matter).
I think the bulk of grimoires really becomes an issue when you're actually casting. I mean it's one thing to wave a wand or something at someone, but if you're trying to transmute somebody into a toad so they don't kill you, and doing so by trying to read from a scroll, or, some big book, that can be pretty damn problematic, I'd think. Basically It seems to me that grimoires have some set-up time, and really aren't usable on the fly in desperate situations. If somebody falls off a cliff, and you have a "Slow Descent Spell" you'd better be able to cast it by clutching your broach. Because if you have to haul out some dusty tome first, your pal is going to be dead on the rocks before you can help.
(As it happens, I've intentionally decided not to take any independent spells with the character I've mentioned, because I really like the idea of somebody who can't do any magic without some lead time.)
Further, the balance is built into the costs. Even if you're only interested in elevating your ability with one spell, it still costs three times as much to raise a grimoire level up one. I think this balances pretty well. Yeah, it's cheap for breadth, but it's pretty harsh for trying to get good at using abilities this way.
On the subject of talismans, if I read it correctly, one can have as many spells connected to one talisman as one likes. This is a very cool rule, because it balances out well. If you have lots of talismans, you may have to fumble around finding the right one when you need it. But if one is stolen, then you only lose the fewer abilities associated with it. If one has only one talisman, you always know where to reach, but if it's taken or lost down a chasm, all yer spells are gone.
Animism used to be my big thing, now I'm liking wizardry a lot. Fun stuff to explore.
Mike
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