Topic: Cursed Scrolls. . .self inflicted U spells?

[Marc R]

Technically, you can't cast all those lethal U spells on other people. . .like boiling their blood or such. . .but you can cast a U spell on a willing target, so you technically could U spell willing yourself.

A lot of those really nasty cursed scrolls are like:

RR or turn all bones to jelly

or

RR or blood boils.

or

RR or heart turned to stone

And it struck me, that in some ways those are a lot like self inflicted U spell fatalities. . .in a way of looking at it, the RR is how well the scroll did in tricking you into casting a fatal U style spell on yourself, but once cast, you're just doomed to a self inflicted "Willing target" U style spell death. . .

[Ynglaur]

Maybe a distinction between "willing in general" and "willing to accept a particular effect"?  Using the logic above, Evil Tim could ask Gullible Bob for permission to cast a healing spell upon him.  Gullible Bob agrees, and Evil Tim promptly melts the flesh from his skin.  Gullible Bob is now sad.

That said, the idea of cursed scrolls is a great idea.

[Marc R]

There's a bunch of them in the treasure books, but they don't really fit into the overall logic so much, though I guess you could just think of them as specific instances of the RR or die curses in Black Channels.

[rdanhenry]

Except that cursed scrolls generally are triggered and cast themselves rather than waiting until the reader actually casts the spell enruned. Nor are any of the cited effects such as one would find as Utility spells rather than Force spells in the first place.

[providence13]

Except that cursed scrolls generally are triggered and cast themselves rather than waiting until the reader actually casts the spell enruned. Nor are any of the cited effects such as one would find as Utility spells rather than Force spells in the first place.

I agree with this logic. It's as if the spell is "awaiting targeting info" which can only be provided (keyed to effect) by the reader. This a very specific case. It can't be cast on anyone else.

I guess you could reason that it's like Attunement, where you're lowering all mental defenses to alter your self/aura/being to conform to another pattern. It would be hard to resist any effect from that. Reading cursed scrolls could be similar.

[arakish]

An additional thought is how I handle "cursed" scrolls.  They are written in such a way that they will appear to be a normal scroll, but like providence said,

the spell is "awaiting targeting info"

and once completely read, the spell casts upon the reader instead of any others.

rmfr

[Marc R]

I guess, in the end "RR or die" the details beyond that don't matter much, unless for some reason you're immune to that kind of damage. "Skin flayed off? I don't have any skin!"

[yammahoper]

There are a selection of spells that could allow even a U type spell to affect an unwilling target.  Certain arcane spells can alter a spells type, even to E and all that implies.

Or make it a F spell and allow an rr.

 

[yammahoper]

I've always felt that E thing was a bit odd. . .like does that mean that if I make Teleport E, that I have to throw it at you and hit? (i.e. a directed spell: Teleportation EAR attack?)

Or even worse, its magic you cant resist, and assuming the spell caster doesnt fumble/suffer spell failure, your in deep water wearing full plate.

Targeting skill, a BAR, what ever.  I have had an Iron Heart Scroll kill a party before.  Honestly, it was a total gas.  We laughed about it for days.

[Marc R]

Especially amusing when 1000 years later, someone finds a sealed room.

"I wonder why there are 6 perfect carved iron hearts, do you think they're ritual items?"

"They do radiate a bit of residual magic."