Self Taught Wizardry

[Walkwalk]

So this question technically applies more to D&D 2nd Edition than third, but it's applicable across the board really.

So one of my party members in a 2nd edition game just died. He was an Enchanter, and he got gibbed. Not a huge issue, since he just rolled up a new character (a Paladin), we met up with him and that was that. Unfortunately, this left us short a Mage, so I agreed to dual class from a Fighter to a Mage.

The only thing is, we're pretty much out in the wilderness right now, and I'm not entirely sure how to fluff this. My character's origins were a library where it's possible that he could have touched on the basics of magic before, and he did have prior contact with a fairly skilled magic user. It's just that it never came up before this point, so it feels kind of awkward bringing it up out of the blue.

On the other hand, his INT is 18 (Randomised rolling after you've already picked a class is amusing), and so it's not impossible to think of him being able to get started with just a bit of experience of watching mages work and a healthy collection of scrolls.

Any thoughts?

[Reinkai]

Any chance you have access to the gibbed mage's spell book or journal or the like?

[Walkwalk]

Any chance you have access to the gibbed mage's spell book or journal or the like?

Depends. Let's just see what that troll has to say.

....

He says no.

We do have a spare spellbook in the party bag, but it's entirely empty. That'd be what I'm going to be using.

[Segev]

As you've noted, fluff is the only obstacle, here.

If this was a 3e or PF game, I'd suggest sorcerer; it's less optimal overall, perhaps, but would easily fit a "suddenly, I have magic!" development.

But since this is 2e...

What happened to the Enchanter's gear? You can't (retroactively have) retrieve(d) his spell book when you looted his corpse and buried him with honors? If you can claim you did that, maybe your character, being the learned library-background one, has been studying the guy's notes to try to piece together what the party needs in order to keep going.

Assuming you can't, for whatever reason, claim to have it...

You need, mechanically, a source of spells. Unless you're going to claim to have so eidetic a memory that you can mentally walk the halls of the library you grew up in and study spells from there, you're going to need to find some, somewhere. Or some place/way to research them.

One alternative, and one rife with story possibilities if your DM is cool with it, is to have your character recall from his general body of knowledge some information about mystic forces and otherworldly powers with which he can bargain. Maybe he recalls the majority of the Find Familiar spell, and he uses the empty spell book to write down what he knows and take notes as he experiments, trying to remember the fine details.

Finally, he manages to cast Find Familiar, and the open pathway through which he binds with this not-natural animal lets him bargain with Something that will begin his lessons in the ways of wizardry. Discuss with your DM the nature you want or are comfortable with your supernatural tutor having; if you're okay with it being malign, that's fine, but if you're not, talk carefully with your DM. The mentor-thing can be benign or even beneficent, but it still will be a source of plot and quests and will have demands to place on you, just as would a mortal teacher. But you're unlikely to be able to pay it back with simple gold.

[hymer]

Perhaps the dead wizard's ghost settles in your head and won't leave until you become an able mage?

[Kraken]

Do a little retconning, and say that you had been secretly filling up that blank spellbook all along by combining your academic background with observation of the wizard. And now you're ready to take things out of the R&D phase, and start testing in the wild. It'll look awkward at first, but you'll get it down.

[Walkwalk]

We do have a bunch of scrolls still kicking about, some of which are first level. I was planning to use them as the source of the majority of my spells, barring the ones I get for leveling.

I do want to capture the feeling of growing into it, even though the mechanics of dual classing mean that I'll likely be a level 2 or 3 mage within a week or so, tops.

[Reinkai]

It sounds like two options are readily available:

Use the scrolls to start filling your spellbook. Say that you're curious, the mage's death left a gap in the party's expertise set, and develop from there. Mechanically not optimal, since at least in later editions you need to be a wizard already with Read Magic to do that.

Ask your DM to set up a scenario in which you come across either a spellbook or a journal of another wizard which you can begin studying, decoding, and generally do the above with.

If your DM isn't willing to work with you... I don't know.

[Walkwalk]

It sounds like two options are readily available:

Use the scrolls to start filling your spellbook. Say that you're curious, the mage's death left a gap in the party's expertise set, and develop from there. Mechanically not optimal, since at least in later editions you need to be a wizard already with Read Magic to do that.

Ask your DM to set up a scenario in which you come across either a spellbook or a journal of another wizard which you can begin studying, decoding, and generally do the above with.

If your DM isn't willing to work with you... I don't know.

The first option sounds good. As far as I know, 2nd edition doesn't require feats like that for dual classing. You just have to meet the stat requirement, which I do with room to spare. So I'll just run with and educated background + experience with wizards and magical items + a bunch of scrolls to work with as my reasoning for the dual class.

Really, it was just a fluff issue. Mechanically, a Fighter/Mage is incredibly powerful in 2nd edition.

[Segev]

Oh, if you have scrolls, then start scribing them into the spell book as you recognize that the party needs a mage and you've got the best chance of puzzling it out. Role play struggling with it. If you want to slow it down a bit, remember that 2e's dual classing rules say that you don't get exp if you use your old class's abilities before your new one overtakes it: you can have yourself struggling to stick to the "wizard" schtick, and giving in to be a fighter again when you're magic just isn't enough and it gets too frustrating. It is definitely mechanically sub-optimal, of course, to cost yourself exp that way, but it's an option.