Braille spellbook: does it work?

[Pinkie Pyro]

A little argument came up at my table: the wizard was blinded, but he was fine with that, saying he "wrote" his spellbook in braille. DM and player argued and rule-checked, but couldn't find anything stating that spells in a spellbook must be written in a language the wizard understands, or that a wizard can't study his spellbook while blind.

Another player pointed out that read magic nullifies this anyway, because it "...can decipher magical inscriptions on objects—books, scrolls, weapons, and the like—that would otherwise be unintelligible." It would allow you to "decipher" your own spellbook when it's unintelligible due to blindness.

Anyone else got something on this?

[Cruiser1]

saying he "wrote" his spellbook in braille.
This is ok if the Wizard told the DM he wrote his spellbook in braille, BEFORE he became blinded. It's not ok to get blinded and only then try to say that you wrote your spellbook in braille, as an on-the-fly attempt to avoid the blindness penalty. Note that spells are added to a spellbook using special ink costing 100 gp per page, so that suggests that a spellbook can't be in braille in the first place (or that if it is, the raised bumps are in addition to the spellbook also being readable through just vision).

[Pinkie Pyro]

This is ok if the Wizard told the DM he wrote his spellbook in braille, BEFORE he became blinded. It's not ok to get blinded and only then try to say that you wrote your spellbook in braille, as an on-the-fly attempt to avoid the blindness penalty. Note that spells are added to a spellbook using special ink costing 100 gp per page, so that suggests that a spellbook can't be in braille in the first place (or that if it is, the raised bumps are in addition to the spellbook also being readable through just vision).

DM has back-ups of all our charecters at each level in case of level loss, he has had it in braille since charecter creation.

maybe the ink is so expensive because it magically forms braille bumps?

[Bullet06320]

If he had it stated on his sheet from the beginning, good for him, nice and creative, but I would require him to have braille take up a language slot, either as one of his starting languages or spending a skill point for it
I haven't seen any specific rules on braille and the only reference I know of is in a Forgotten Realms novel, The Mage in the Iron Mask. I recall a blind castor that used braille.

[Crake]

I believe complete arcane has stuff about spellbooks that are useable while blind/in the dark. It's not actually written in braile, like how normal arcane writings arent written in any actual language, but yeah, you can prepare spells while unable to see with that.

[DeadMech]

It's pretty gamey all around but if someone set this up before getting blinded... I'd be tempted to allow it depending on my mood.

[Jeff the Green]

Given that you can be illiterate and still prepare spells from a spellbook, I see no problem with a Wizard using Braille in his spellbook even if he can't read normal text in Braille.

[facelessminion]

If he's had it written that way since the beginning of the game, then the whole thing is rather simple. Check and mate go to the player.

[Somensjev]

that's amazing, it's almost like he planned on becoming blind :smallbiggrin:

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj312/latino14/Just-as-planned.jpg

and if he wrote down that his spellbook was written in braille from the very beginning, then i'm afraid there's not much the DM can do about it, i can't find any rules against it

[BWR]

If the player has had the spellbook written in 'Braille' from the beginning, good job. I would totally allow it. There were Dragon articles about alternative forms of writing for spellbooks. Read Magic isn't necessary just because the magical symbols are magic, it can just as easily be because you can't understand the language form used, like Braille, or quipu or different alphabets or tattoos or intricately woven patters on your cloak or whatever.

[DigoDragon]

If the wizard prepped his spellbook in braille at character creation, sure I'd allow the blinded wizard to still be able to read it.
I will invoke all the blindness penalties for aiming his spells however. :smallbiggrin:


Wizard: "Okay, step one, I cast Protection from Fire on myself. Step two, I drop a fireball!"
Cleric: "Step three, you drop alignment, you jerk."
Barbarian: "Not if I drop him first."
Wizard: "Who said that?"