Rules for figuring out partial spells?

[WarKitty]

I was wondering if there were any rules for deciphering partial spells. Say a wizard finds a half-burnt scroll of a powerful spell, or a description in an old bardic legend passed down through the centuries. Would there be any rules for how hard it would be to decipher and recreate the spell?

[TuggyNE]

I was wondering if there were any rules for deciphering partial spells. Say a wizard finds a half-burnt scroll of a powerful spell, or a description in an old bardic legend passed down through the centuries. Would there be any rules for how hard it would be to decipher and recreate the spell?

I've never heard of any such specific rules, but you could adapt the spell research guidelines for the purpose.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You're deep into houserule territory there.

I could see something involving decipher script and spellcraft.

[Coidzor]

Not as far as I know. I could see them being able to use spellcraft/read magic to be able to glean what the spell on the scroll was certainly, but recreating it for purposes of transcription into their spellbooks would probably be more akin to spell research as was mentioned. Certainly I'd allow it to give them a leg up on it, since they already had something to go on...

[WarKitty]

Interesting ideas. I feel like this would be a good thing to add to a campaign where high-level casters are extremely rare. I can think of a couple of different sources they might get.

- damaged records. Scrolls and spellbooks could be found in partial form, damaged by time and the elements.

- Lore. A desert tribe's prayer might actually contain the rituals for a Control Weather spell. A bard's song might memorialize the casting of a time stop spell with a detailed description.

- foreign/coded records. These might be in strange languages, perhaps even individual ones known only to the caster, or the languages of forgotten races.

Each of these would probably provide different bonuses and be easier or harder to learn spells from.