Tradescrolls, what?

[Swift]

So...until we get the system in, is there any DM approved way that Wizards can get new spells into their spellbook outside of having to level?

That was my main thrust. I know there is lots to do, and this might not be high on the list, so i was hoping for a "In the meantime, this should be alright" sorta thing.

[AcadiusLost]

Got the NWN1 code adapted to work with the NWN2 ACRl 25 gp/spell level (paid by the caster). Trade scrolls cannot be used to cast the spell, and the tradescroll is not consumed in discovering this. The name and description of the tradescroll are altered to match the spell, and the item flagged as "plot" so it cannot be sold to static merchants.

Should be ready to go into the module by the weekend.

[Brokenbone]

Neat!

While these are created IG, do you think there's also a way to tool these in such a way as to have them available on the pallette, for, say, inclusion at a merchant's? Even if it was on the basis of doctoring tags in some way to make these non castable or something... don't think I ever saw this in NWN1 at a shop, but somehow or other once found a trade scroll as loot, was sort of baffled by it.

Just thinking that while Merchants may be willing to sell a full, working, castable or scribeable scroll, creating those costs more gold and XP than "letting someone copy something out of your spellbook", which is what our tradescrolls represent (i.e., copying spellbooks in PnP is a very expensive process, spellbook itself when full tends to be worth 5000gp).

Also thinking if these things are in any sense associated with item properties (which may NOT be the case), it opens up the possibility of captured enemy NPC spellbooks. Book with an instance of say, twenty spells, could be represented by a loot bag marked "I AM A SPELLBOOK" with 20 tradescrolls in it (PCs tearing out pages, this one's for me, this one you can have, then we can copy from each other if we pay $$$ for special inks and whatnot), or perhaps by a book item with 20 item properties (like "Scribe (Flare)", "Scribe (Light)", "Scribe (Fireball)", etc.) Possibly wouldn't be too workable for PC spellbooks, though having a fat one full of rare and expensive spells would be reason enough for CvC, if you knew it'd be all yours if you killed its holder.

[AcadiusLost]

System went into the haks (and into service on TSM) last night.

It works by adding itemproperties for single-use CastSpell effects to the tradescroll item, which can then be scribed just like a normal scroll. Effectively, the tradescroll /is/ a normal scroll, except that the server's spellhook script intervenes when/if it's used to try to cast the spell contained there; a determination it's able to make based on the resref of the generic (blank) tradescroll item. (The blueprint for which is stashed in the hak itself, so it won't be variant or missing from any server that has updated haks). The tradescroll script also sets the Plot flag on the item when it adds the ItemProperty, meaning it doesn't factor into total wealth like a real scroll, nor will it be sellable to NPC merchants.

We'll need to make updates to one of the OC crafting 2das as we add additional spells later down the line to keep the system compatible (it uses those 2das to map the nSpellID to the appropriate ItemProperty row), but that shouldn't be too hard.

Regarding selling these at shops, nothing to stop it from being done theoretically, though would need to be careful about the blueprints involved to make sure they didn't get reverted to "useable" scrolls. I tend to prefer the idea of leaving this as RP material for player-player interactions though, rather than adding a class-specific (Wizards-only) discount merchant type for the purpose.

[Zelknolf]

// edit - I posted too late.

[Brokenbone]

Still wondering if these can, in any sense, wind up in a pallette...again, if not for a shop or "wizardly NPC mentor rewarding student", for dead wizards. Here's his lab, found his spellbook, it has 50 pages in it, represented by "this stack of tradescrolls."

Rare cases of doing this in NWN1, DMs could achieve this by casting spells on their own spellbook item (and having tons of gold on their avatars) and thereby creating tradescrolls to stash on the future corpse of an antagonist, or in a chest, pChest, or whatever. Maybe it's simply that NWN2 DMs would use that same method if they really wished someone to be able to find "notes" on a spell as part of raiding an evil (or good) wizard's lab. Cheaper loot than a "cast it or scribe it" scroll, but worth something to the right wizard nonetheless.

[AcadiusLost]

Should have mentioned; DMs can generate as many tradescrolls as they like (free of charge) by casting spells at a spellbook. Much easier than making 600+ blueprints for this.

[Brokenbone]

Cool, if DMs can create on the fly, means friendlies and unfriendlies may distribute or drop when a DM plot dictates.... good place to put such are in pouches on DM avatars, in DM personal pchests, in pchests temp assigned to naughty n' nice wizard NPCs, etc.