Draconic language and magic?

[Eladrinblade]

In the PHB, under wizard on pg 57, there is a bolded section: "Bonus Languages: A wizard may substitute..." blah blah blah "Many ancient tomes of magic are written in Draconic, and apprentice wizards often learn it as part of their studies."

Has anyone ever had this come up in a game? Ever seen it in any published material? I think I've seen draconic mentioned as the "magic" language before in other places, but it's simply never mattered in any games that I've run, played in, or seen. Ever.

What's the deal?

[Gildedragon]

Same thing as Druidic or Sylvan
that is to say: No idea

I mean there is fluff in D&D for Dragons being the ones that taught mortals Arcane Magic. But crunchwise, yeah I haven't seen a thing.

[tyckspoon]

I think by the time you might actually have a reason to read Ancient Tomes of Magic written in Draconic, you're expected to just Comprehend Languages and/or Read Magic that crud. Also, the 'language of magic' is basically whatever your DM thinks is cool.. you could reasonably expect to have to deal with arcane writings in just about any language (all of the Outer Planes ones are somewhat popular, I think. You probably won't run into arcane Sylvan writings much.) So.. yeah. Comprehend Languages, Read Magic, maybe Tongues. Book it and don't worry about what languages you actually know, you can read whatever you want.

[Slipperychicken]

As for the "language of magic", by default, every wizard uses his own personal notation to write it down. That's why you need spellcraft (or a read magic spell) and hours of work to read magical writings, and why language isn't an obstacle.

[Crake]

maybe Tongues.

I'm pretty sure tongues doesn't help with written language, just spoken. Even then it's a fairly big misconception that it allows you to speak any language, wheras what it actually does is allow you to be understood, regardless of language.