Illiteracy (3.5 only)

[Amphetryon]

I feel like I've probably asked something very much like this before, but the answers are lost to my memory and the mists of the back pages of GitP:

I know that the Barbarian, the Totemist, and the Savage Bard variant have Illiteracy as a Class feature; what other Classes, if any, are automatically illiterate?

Assuming one uses the Alternate Spellbook rules found on pages 186-7 of Complete Arcane, how much of a difference will it make if every Character in the campaign is presumed to have the Illiterate Class feature? Would any other compensation or adjustments be necessary, in your opinion?

(The above presumes that Illumians or other 'always literate' Races aren't a thing, and that any Class/Prestige Class centered around the written word is disallowed or refluffed considerably).

[Coidzor]

I think there's a primitive Wizard type base class in the form of Angakoks from Dragon 344(?) and Dragonlance. IIRC, one of those versions is illiterate as well.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Amphetryon
...how much of a difference will it make if every Character in the campaign is presumed to have the Illiterate Class feature?

Obviously Scribe Scroll would be right out, as well as Tattoo Magic, since that requires ranks in Calligraphy. Knowledge Devotion might or might not be crimped, depending what else you usually mix it with. (For instance, the Education feat doesn't seem feasible here.)

Is the entire setting completely devoid of writing, or is it restricted to certain social classes?


Originally Posted by Amphetryon
Would any other compensation or adjustments be necessary, in your opinion?

Would characters have the option to spend two skill points to overcome their illiteracy? If not--if they're permanently illiterate--then clearly skills like Forgery and Decipher Script wouldn't apply.

It would also depend whether the illiteracy was enforced by the ruling authority, or simply absent from the setting altogether. Not sure what exactly you had in mind here.

[Flickerdart]

(For instance, the Education feat doesn't seem feasible here.)
Because nobody ever taught anyone else without writing? Oral tradition, bro.

[Palanan]

Depends heavily on setting details, which we don't have yet.

[Amphetryon]

Obviously Scribe Scroll would be right out, as well as Tattoo Magic, since that requires ranks in Calligraphy. Knowledge Devotion might or might not be crimped, depending what else you usually mix it with. (For instance, the Education feat doesn't seem feasible here.)

Is the entire setting completely devoid of writing, or is it restricted to certain social classes?



Would characters have the option to spend two skill points to overcome their illiteracy? If not--if they're permanently illiterate--then clearly skills like Forgery and Decipher Script wouldn't apply.

It would also depend whether the illiteracy was enforced by the ruling authority, or simply absent from the setting altogether. Not sure what exactly you had in mind here.
Scribe Scroll would be replaced with the 'tokens' option in the section of Complete Arcane indicated in the 1st post, adapted to translate this system for single-use items.

Education would - as Flickerdart indicated - represent oral traditions and experiential learning, rather than classroom learning.

Tattoo Magic wouldn't necessarily be 'right out,' depending on how the tattoos are conceived. If they're entirely pictorial, for example, they arguably serve a different function than literacy-level writing.

In theory, this is a world regressed entirely to illiteracy, where the written word is the stuff of legend.

[Palanan]

Double-checking Tattoo Magic, I'd forgotten it requires calligraphy or painting, so that would work fine after all.

Sounds like you have all your bases covered already.

[NEO|Phyte]

Bit of a rules loophole, but illiterate wizards are still able to use standard spellbooks, as Read Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/readMagic.htm) explicitly allows them to understand magical inscriptions.

Of course from the sound of it any such books are gonna be hyperrare.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Bit of a rules loophole, but illiterate wizards are still able to use standard spellbooks, as Read Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/readMagic.htm) explicitly allows them to understand magical inscriptions.

Of course from the sound of it any such books are gonna be hyperrare.

Hey, a setting where literacy actually is magic sounds kinda cool. Not the kind of setting I normally go for, but still cool.

[Amphetryon]

Bit of a rules loophole, but illiterate wizards are still able to use standard spellbooks, as Read Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/readMagic.htm) explicitly allows them to understand magical inscriptions.

Of course from the sound of it any such books are gonna be hyperrare.

Any such books would be quest-worthy, I'd think.

[Ogh_the_Second]

Assuming one uses the Alternate Spellbook rules found on pages 186-7 of Complete Arcane, how much of a difference will it make if every Character in the campaign is presumed to have the Illiterate Class feature? Would any other compensation or adjustments be necessary, in your opinion?

Not too long ago I DM'd a 'barbaric' campaign, where all characters started out as illiterate, being from a race that did not have a writing tradition - although the occasional magic rune was known. No compensation seemed necessary, and it worked out fine.

I sparingly used something akin to the Frostburn skull talismans instead of scrolls, and wizard was discouraged as player class. (Although, if any of the players would have really wanted to play one, I guess I would have been able to make it work.)

Part of the fun was that any clues or messages left on stones or otherwise were pictorial - leaving the players puzzling over the exact meaning of such clues (which I did reproduce for them).

[Flickerdart]

I sparingly used something akin to the Frostburn skull talismans instead of scrolls, and wizard was discouraged as player class. (Although, if any of the players would have really wanted to play one, I guess I would have been able to make it work.)
Eidetic Spellcaster (AKA stoner wizard) is the go-to ACF for this. Complete Arcane also introduces alternate spellbooks that can work - tattoos (which can be pictorial), bones inscribed with runes (very flavorful for ye olde soothsayer, who has a ton of trinkets in their hut), and my favourite of all - architectural spellbooks. That's right, you can build a castle that's actually a spellbook due to the way the rooms are laid out, and memorize spells out of it.

[Blackhawk748]

Eidetic Spellcaster (AKA stoner wizard) is the go-to ACF for this. Complete Arcane also introduces alternate spellbooks that can work - tattoos (which can be pictorial), bones inscribed with runes (very flavorful for ye olde soothsayer, who has a ton of trinkets in their hut), and my favourite of all - architectural spellbooks. That's right, you can build a castle that's actually a spellbook due to the way the rooms are laid out, and memorize spells out of it.

Wow, thats straight out of the Sword of Truth Series, and i seriously want to use that now. Where is that from?

[Flickerdart]

Wow, thats straight out of the Sword of Truth Series, and i seriously want to use that now. Where is that from?
Complete Arcane, like I said. I don't remember the page number but the section is called something like Alternate Spellbooks.

[Blackhawk748]

Complete Arcane, like I said. I don't remember the page number but the section is called something like Alternate Spellbooks.

Guess im gonna go poke around in Complete Arcane now, and then make a Wizard Boss whose dungeon is his spell book

[Amphetryon]

Guess im gonna go poke around in Complete Arcane now, and then make a Wizard Boss whose dungeon is his spell book

Try pages 186-7, as mentioned in the first post.

[Blackhawk748]

Try pages 186-7, as mentioned in the first post.

I REALLY need to pay more attention :smalltongue:

[Flickerdart]

Try pages 186-7, as mentioned in the first post.
Who needs reading when other people can just read stuff for you and then tell you what the stuff said? :smalltongue:

[illyahr]

I heard of someone who's spellbook was their wide-brimmed hat woven from reeds. The weaving was patterned in a code so the wizard could "read" it.