Arcane Language

[SpawnOfMorbo]

So in pathfinder is all arcane magical writing in its own language? I want to make sure because when using read magic I was told that the language of the writing was foreign to my character so I couldn't read the magical writing.

I don't know Pathfinder all that well and I know there is a few changes in the rules from 3.5.

Thanks!

[Kudaku]

To the best of my knowledge, scrolls and spellbooks aren't written in a specific language - Read Magic should allow you to read them indiscriminately. I could be wrong though.

[Alex12]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/read-magic
As far as I can tell, if the writing is magic, Read Magic translates it. Even if it's in, I dunno, Abyssal or something. You couldn't read non-magical writing with the spell, but the magic writing is special.
I think of it like magic having specific patterns, and the writing shapes it into the same patterns regardless of what language the writing actually is.

[Yanisa]

Arcane Magic has been written in its own "language" since at least 3.5 (although technically every arcane caster has a unique "dialect"). In fact the rules barely changed in this regard. Compare 3.5; Arcane Magical Writings (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/arcaneSpells.htm#arcaneMagicalWritings) to Pathfinder; Arcane Magical Writings (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic#TOC-Arcane-Magical-Writings).

A Read Magic should have worked, so this sounds like a DM fiat. (Edit) Or it was not arcane writing at all.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Arcane Magic has been written in its own "language" since at least 3.5 (although technically every arcane caster has a unique "dialect"). In fact the rules barely changed in this regard. Compare 3.5; Arcane Magical Writings (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/arcaneSpells.htm#arcaneMagicalWritings) to Pathfinder; Arcane Magical Writings (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic#TOC-Arcane-Magical-Writings).

A Read Magic should have worked, so this sounds like a DM fiat. (Edit) Or it was not arcane writing at all.

Well my character was a divine/arcane multiclassing and it detected as magic soooo I'm guessing wither fiat or the DM didn't know the rules.

I'll explain it to him just in case he doesn't know the rule... Though fiat does explain why his DMNPC could read it just fine.

Thanks all.

[deuxhero]

There's probobly some obscure way in 3.5 to make your spellbook unreadable, but I don't think so for PF.


One other possibility aside from GM error or red herring is that it's an alchemist's formula, but that's just stops you from using/copying it, not flat out unreadable.

[Psyren]

I think of arcane writing similarly to machine language/code. No matter what language you speak on Earth, math and binary are the same - if you write a program or set of instructions in binary, it doesn't matter if you run it on an American, Japanese, Russian or German computer*. Arcane writings are sets of instructions for reality's CPU to execute, and Spellcraft functions as a sort of "Knowledge: Binary."

Another comparison is DNA - no matter what race/culture you are, DNA works the same way, i.e. a set of instructions that reality turns into a genotype, just like a set of arcane writings on a page becomes a spell. Once cast, that spell has an effect that depends on external/environmental factors like the caster and target/area, just like a genotype exposed to external factors becomes a phenotype.



*For low-level/machine-readable languages

[deuxhero]

Programming metaphor works even better when you remember that weird rule that allows Wizards to learn Draconic as a bonus language instead of one of the normal ones for your race (how many groups actually use those restrictions on what bonus languages a character can learn from high intelligence?). Regardless of the creator's language, pretty much everything still uses (modern) Latin characters and often English words too (though there are actual reasons beyond tradition for that).

[PsyBomb]

Although every Arcane spellcaster uses the same symbols, what they mean to a given writer is different from case to case. Imagine a Triangle and a Circle as two of your symbols.

Wizard 1 Uses the Circle to denote a location and magnitude of a given force (center marking location), with the Triangle being his personal marking for the projection effect of an Abjuration force.

Wizard 2 uses the circle to denote radiating effects, but his triangle indicates location and magnitude of force (point marking location).

This is actually why the Power Word spells take up as much room in the spellbook as other spells of their level, despite being a single word of power. In order to prepare it, the Wizard has to fully understand how the arcane forces are being directed in order to generate the effect. At 7th level, that's a LOT of force, no matter how simple the Verbal component is.