Brainstorming: Magic system based on consumable spellbooks (d20)

[TuggyNE]

Anachronauts is cool stuff, if you haven't seen it, but one of the things I thought was most interesting was the idea of casting spells from a spellbook, where every casting burned up the page it was on, so you had to recopy spells a lot (and, while this was tedious and required precision, it was not inherently expensive, nor did it take all day).

So how would you balance this, and what spell list might you use? I'm thinking that, to capture the feel of the story, there would probably be no automatic spells known gained per level.

Spoiler for a few chapters in:

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Extra credit: how would you "balance" the casting-from-brain stuff? It seems like Wis damage or even drain, but very very slow, and care would need to be taken to avoid making the penalty just a speed bump. Maybe just borrow the UA Sanity rules?

[Cheiromancer]

Spoiler warning - unmarked spoilers for the Anachronaut series.

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Whatever system of insanity used, it should result in the character becoming evil and (likely) an NPC. I wonder if tainted sorcerer would work? Not much physical corruption (although tics and blemishes are mentioned), but they do become depraved. However it works the "tainted witch" would never reach level 20; long before that the effect of losing brain cells would kill them or render them drooling wrecks.

The easiest way to model the spellcasting that Emily does is to say that written materials are a focus.

For more fidelity to the system described... Well, spells should either be weak enough that they could be at will (like PF cantrips), require concentration, or be so situational that it is pointless to spam them (like [escape]). The recopying of spells is mostly fluff, and seems equivalent to the study that wizards need to do to prepare their spells. It would also serve as an in game justification to prevent spamming.

It seems that a witch like Emily can concentrate on several spells at a time, as in the volleyball match with Scout. There should be penalties on the Concentration check for maintaining multiple spells - she had to drop the others in order to play her A-game.

edit: Also there needs to be some kind of hero point mechanic to allow someone to use a non-offensive spell to lethal effect. What she did at the solstice party is a once in a campaign kind of trick.