Rules Catch: Witches can't use scrolls.


Rules Questions


http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2lfo8?The-Witch-and-using-scrolls
Read Magic is not on the witches spell list.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/scrolls.html
Spellcraft check DC20+ spell level to use a scroll of a spell on her class list without read magic.

Or: Two worlds magic... which still doesn't let you learn spells from spellbooks. In fact, even the Bard, Paladin, and Ranger get it on their list. That's every core class from the edition pathfinder was based on, which implies that it was a very necessary spell (everyone gets it).

bard 0, cleric 0, druid 0, paladin 1, ranger 1, sorcerer/wizard 0
Basically, every spell casting class in 3.5.

"It's still kinda weird that witches feed scrolls to their familiar."
"Oh, we just tell everyone that, we really just destroy scrolls because we're irked at being the only ones who can't read them."

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2n9xw?Can-a-Witch-use-Divine-scrolls
Also misses the mark. However, the fact that the witch's familiar EATS the scroll to learn the spell means arcane/divine is irrelevant. Is this a legacy rule that was missed? If so, what should replace it? As is, witches can't cast scrolls, might as well eat them.

The problem is that witches are one of the few classes that does not get read magic. Thematically, it does fit, but crippling their ability to use scrolls when even Mr. thwack n heal (paladin), bard, and ranger can... is weird.

The more I look at the witch class, the more crippling flaws I find. Please tell me, am I right? If so, how does it make sense for witch spells to be available as scrolls.

Hex Vulnerability
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/h/hex-vulnerability
How on earth can you buy a scroll of this? By all the laws of logic such things should not exist.

Please tell me I'm wrong, or that it's an error.

Witches have to pay 6000 minimum to back up their spells and can only do so at a certain level (when that is 1/4 their wealth). Witches have a living spellbook that many GM's try to kill, cannot learn spells from sources other than other willing familiars or scrolls (so none or little as loot, whereas a wizard could find an entire spellbook[or 'borrow' one]).

Heck, for the ultimate in broken-ness, (comparatively) a wizard who loses his spellbook can just borrow another mages, and can then proceed to prepare every spell he had in his old book, which he can then scribe from memory, even if that spellbook is destroyed. A witch who loses her spellbook, however, must begin again from the beginning.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qjro&page=1?PFS-and-NPC-Wizard-Spellbooks
The wizard can get any spell in the game for 1.5 times the cost.

Also, if a wizard or a witch finds a scroll, only one of them can use it to learn a spell in pfs. (Could cause conflicts).

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qs1d?Wizard-and-Witch-who-gets-the-scroll
This has been clarified according to the upper link, which is actually older.

Scrolls used in this way during an adventure do not need to be purchased, but are still consumed as normal.

Hmm... memorize page... memorize page functions on a scroll and does not consume the scroll (as it does not borrow, duplicate, or retain any of the magic), it would allow the wizard to scribe it later, then the witch could eat it, the wizard would retain perfect memory of the page for the entire duration of the adventure, good for up to 5th level spells for a good int wizard build. 6th if the familiar can memorize one page.

As for flipping a coin in pathfinder society: No. It's not in character to do so. I am a seeker of esoteric lore, the idea of allowing someone to burn a spell thus permanently destroying what might well be the only copy is abhorrent to me. My response would be simple:
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD? Can you not see reason, knowledge is something to be treasured, recorded, shared, passed down, not fed to a cat."
Familiar: "Hmmph"
Wizard: Not you, obviously.

The pathfinders are: "a legendary league of explorers, archaeologists, and adventurers dedicated to discovering and chronicling the greatest mysteries and wonders of an ancient world beset by magic and evil."

Does this sound like someone who burns scrolls before copying them, or who would risk the destruction of information when not absolutely necessary? (EG: someone needs the scroll to raise an evil god, sure, burn it).

Sorry for the PFS specific stuff, but people keep kicking threads out of Pathfinder Society when they ask rules questions, so I'm putting it here in expectation of that happening anyway.

Am I right, a Witch can't use a scroll without a DC20+spell level spellcraft check?


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Except witches get read magic, at least on the PRD that the interwebs show me.

Scarab Sages

Java Man wrote:
Except witches get read magic, at least on the PRD that the interwebs show me.

This^

Scarab Sages

If Witches don't get read magic, that's news to me (someone who has an 8th-level Witch) - maybe you have a goofed-up edition of the Advanced Player's Guide?


Man, I'd be pretty pissed at myself if I wrote a big wall of text about something like a class not getting something they actually get.

Liberty's Edge

Perhaps MathNerd was reading the Witch spell list on pp. 200 of the APG, which lists the new spells created for the class, rather than the spell list on pp. 70, which lists all of the spells available to the class.


MathNerd is probably reading the Core Rulebook PRD entry on Read Magic which doesn't include non-core classes.

MathNerd, check out the main Witch page PRD entry from the Advanced Players Guide.

Or even the last witch page in the Advanced Players Guide book if that's what you're referencing.


Ouch, that's a bad miss.


The first link is to the idea of witches not being able to cast certain spells because they are divine spells. It makes no mention of read magic not being on the list. In any event witches do get read magic.

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

Protoman wrote:

MathNerd is probably reading the Core Rulebook PRD entry on Read Magic which doesn't include non-core classes.

Yeah, that was my guess.

In case anyone is wondering, the reason non-core classes don't appear in the spell entry for read magic is that everything on the PRD is intended to appear exactly as it does in the printed books. Since the core rulebook predates the Witch base class, it doesn't mention the witch in any of its spell entries.


Swing and a miss slugger

Sczarni

Looking at the OP's profile, it seems that typing a "wall of text" is their style.

If you're still reading this, MathNerd, may I make a suggestion?

There's a place under the comment box below labeled "How to format your text". I encourage you, going forward, to post your links according to that format.

If you check your original post now, you'll see that most (if not all) of your links are broken. Paizo breaks them up in an attempt to curtail spam.

Posting them as guided below fixes that (and makes it easier for others to follow your links).


If you use Paizo's official PRD, you'll run into issues around the fact that Paizo does not adjust that document when they release new rules.

So, Paizo's read magic doesn't say it is on the Witch spell list (even though it is) because that page dates from before the Witch was published and it has never been updated.

The same is true for all the spells the Witch gets in the core rulebook. For example, bestow curse doesn't say a word about witches either, even though as of the Advanced Players Guide, it was put on the witch spell list.

For up to date spell pages, d20pfSRD is better. They can be slow - for instance, that page doesn't reflect the ACG's Shaman yet - but they do work to reflect newer books on older pages.

Scarab Sages

If you scroll down (or Control+F), you'll see that the PRD actually does list Read Magic on the Witch's spell list.


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MathNerd wrote:
Please tell me I'm wrong

No problem, you're wrong. :)

The Exchange Owner - D20 Hobbies

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I'd recommend Archive of Nethys over D20pfsrd. They have less mistakes and less instances of editing the words in the book for "clarity".

Sovereign Court

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It's disappointing to see how many people are taking the time to post here just to pile on someone who made a simple mistake. Some posts here are useful and genuinely try to address the OP and improve the discussion, but some are just jabs to make fun of him.

We all make mistakes people; there's no need to be a jerk. Simply point the mistake and move on to address other parts of the OP's question.

I *have* noticed, when playing alongside people with a witch PC, that the resulting party does seem to be missing "something" compared to when a sorcerer or wizard would join the table. Maybe it's due to their spell list in part. I just don't get the sense that they are meant to replace wizards in any way, and those tables that forego the said wizard because someone is playing a witch... well... we all soon realize you then lack the utility a wizard brings to the game (i.e. most adventures are written with some basic assumptions that most party have X by time Y, which may not work well if a party brought alternate caster types)


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Oh man.
This guy sure did go through a lot of trouble writing a long post for nothing.

Let's keep commenting on it so that his shame will never die!


MathNerd wrote:

Hex Vulnerability

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/h/hex-vulnerability
How on earth can you buy a scroll of this? By all the laws of logic such things should not exist.

Aside from the error already pointed out, this is also a shaman spell, who also do indeed have read magic on their spell list.

It actually might be simpler to have a list of casters who don't have read magic on their spell list.

• alchemist
• bloodrager
• investigator

And... that's it. Also, the alchemist and investigator aren't technically spellcasters.

Silver Crusade

My copy of Hero labs shows Read Magic on the Familiar list.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Even if witches didn't get read magic, nothing is stopping them from deciphering a scroll with a Spellcraft check.

Sovereign Court

meatrace wrote:

Oh man.

This guy sure did go through a lot of trouble writing a long post for nothing.

Let's keep commenting on it so that his shame will never die!

Just to help you out with that.


Coriat wrote:

If you use Paizo's official PRD, you'll run into issues around the fact that Paizo does not adjust that document when they release new rules.

So, Paizo's read magic doesn't say it is on the Witch spell list (even though it is) because that page dates from before the Witch was published and it has never been updated.
{. . .}

That said, this means that looking on Paizo's PRD could cause confusion (say you clicked on Read Magic in the Witch's spell list on the Witch page, you would see the Witch not listed there -- at that point you would probably remember that the Witch actually had it, but if you were then looking up a bunch of other stuff, and then came back to Read Magic to double-check something, and forgot how you originally got there, you could honestly get the Original Poster's impression. I use for most lookups of stuff, because it is a LOT easier to navigate, and then go to [url=http://www.archivesofnethys.com/]Archives of Nethys if I can't find something on there or think it has been altered, which is usually for legal reasons because d20pfsrd.com is an e-commerce portal and Archives of Nethys isn't, not because the d20pfsrd.com were trying to get fancy with "clarity" or something, and is usually applied to stuff that is specific to the Pathfinder Campaign Setting and Adventure Paths. When I don't need Archives of Nethys for the latter reason, I usually stick with d20pfsrd.com because it is easier to read (why does Archives of Nethys have to use thin grey characters on a black background? -- and a lot of other sites do similar or worse, such as dark blue on really dark blue), except when d20pfsrd.com has a table that won't scroll horizontally (some kind of bug, because most of them work right).


People actually prep Read Magic? I almost threw it in as a candidate in another thread titled "List of Useless spells."


Zenogu wrote:
People actually prep Read Magic? I almost threw it in as a candidate in another thread titled "List of Useless spells."

They do if they want to use Scrolls. Or copy spells from another spellbook.


His other points also point to a dm who doesn't accommodate his players. If I'm running a home game and have a witch player I certainly will look at ways to include witches either as enemies or possible allies not least so the pc has opportunities to learn new spells. In my reign of winter campaign this didn't even take any hand waving on my part - the who adventure path is full of enemy witches and their familiars. My party made a point to not kill the enemy familiars to give their witch time to learn spells.


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for those incompetent or lazy spellcasters you can always slam your burned out ioun stone (or ioun torch) into your Wayfinder as the resonance power is Read Magic 1/d for 10min...

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber
Zenogu wrote:
People actually prep Read Magic? I almost threw it in as a candidate in another thread titled "List of Useless spells."

It speeds up the 'what are these scrolls we found' situation.


Or at low levels, where it's totally possible to fail spellcraft checks. Even wizards and witches don't auto pass checks that start at DC 20 + spell level while they're low level goobers.


http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/readMagic.html
There it is. XD Thanks. And Paizo, an edit function... would be nice, or maybe at least the ability to 'spoiler' after the fact. Also, something is horrifyingly wrong with the fact that someone said "if you're still reading this thread." Everyone should be able to easily find every thread they have posted in on their profile page. (This is typical in most forums.)


MathNerd wrote:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/readMagic.html

There it is. XD Thanks. And Paizo, an edit function... would be nice, or maybe at least the ability to 'spoiler' after the fact. Also, something is horrifyingly wrong with the fact that someone said "if you're still reading this thread." Everyone should be able to easily find every thread they have posted in on their profile page. (This is typical in most forums.)

if i undestand your last request i think it is also possible. Just click on your name and you will go to your page, there you click threath and voila, there you are.

If i misundestood you and you ditent ask for how to see your threads. Feel free to ignore me.

Sczarni

MathNerd wrote:
Paizo, an edit function... would be nice

There is an "Edit" function. You simply have a one hour window to use it.

If you want them to change that, you can make a petition in the "Website Feedback" forum.

MathNerd wrote:
or maybe at least the ability to 'spoiler' after the fact.

That's what the "Needs Spoiler Tag" flag is for.

It may not be spoilered immediately, but it will be eventually.

MathNerd wrote:
something is horrifyingly wrong with the fact that someone said "if you're still reading this thread."

That was I.

My post was pretty far down the list, and many people had already answered your query, so there was a chance you may have had no reason to read further.

And you still didn't read my comment very thoroughly, either =P

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