With the way Vancian magic works, can anyone who is literate essentially be a lev 1 wizard?

With the way Vancian magic works, can anyone who is literate essentially be a lev 1 wizard?

If it all really just depends on being able to read a spell and memorize it after you have read it. With lev 0 spells being relatively simple and easy to cast with people not really needed to learn for the day at all, is it really just a matter of finding a book with the spell in it and then being able to read it? Can anyone who knows how to read be capable of it?

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Theoretically, yes.
In practice, no.
I mean, tell me how many people can program even so much as a FizzBuzz loop.

I always assumed they needed a natural affinity or exposure to magic

A lvl 0 spell is like the first 100 digits of pi.

>The most powerful wizard in the land is an otherwise low-functioning autistic savant who hates loud noises and bright lights

Wat Habben

the PHB states that even a level 1 adventurer is stronger than your town guard, and thus would be a local hero or an otherwise above-average individual

>With the way Vancian magic works, can anyone who is literate essentially be a lev 1 wizard?
No, you need an Intelligence score of at least 9.

Of which game, pray tell? >:^)

Is it really worth spending years of your life in training to cast a few useless level 0 spells

Oh hey look! It's another faggot that never once played the game or read the first book on it whatsoever but is going to take his generalizations over here to tell us how it works. Even if it is so fucking wrong that it is barely recognizable and whatever the fuck edition, because OP probably does not know that there are any other editions, D&D.

I can't fucking wait to see what else OP can shit out after spending half an hour on tvtropes.

It's like asking, can anyone get a STEM bachelor's degree.
Technically yeah, but most people can't or won't put the time and effort in.

>ulillillia is an unstoppable archmage

No it isn't

Lev 0 cantrips are more like can a soldier learn to use windows.

Lev 1 is maybe learning some php or CSS, etc. STEM degrees are more like the lev 4 stuff that actually requires higher intelligence than the average.

see

Maybe in Vance's books, but not in D&D.
Even in 5th edition where you can pick up basic magic as a feat, you have to give up being 10% closer to the peak of what a person is physically capable of in a specific stat, and instead, spent that much effort on learning a handful of minor tricks.

I consider ot more like learning stage magic in real life. Yea it takes a lot of practice to become really good with the cards and freaking people out on the street with them. But literally any shaved ape can learn it from reading real quick and getting to work trying.

Depends if we are going with unlimited cantrips per day or not. If it is unlimited casting having access to prestidigitation, mending, or guidance at anytime would make a marked improvement in my life as a non adventurer.

5e definitely looks this way, nearly everyone including animals can cast cantrips all day long. It seems like a skill one picks up like being able to swim.

>If it all really just depends on being able to read a spell and memorize it after you have read it

You have to not only have a baseline understanding of magical energy but also commit your brain to memorization of words/sounds spoken precisely with proper intonation and frequency but also with extremely precise hand movements if not slight body gestures moving in tandem with the vocal acoustic component. Precision down to the 256th note, something that could hardly be replicable more than once without re-evaluating the source material, also likely written in archaic arcane that would be indecipherable to the layman.

>ie produce syllable 1 of the spell at precisely X frequency adding .2 milliseconds of vibrato once your middle finger reaches a 40 degree angle with the celestial body of X (accounting of course for seasonal variations) etc etc etc.

You start to see where it becomes a mentally taxing process and is nowhere as simple as memorizing a sentence on a piece of paper. Wizards are basically audio engineers/musical virtuosos, combining precision and art into one little package.

That's my interpretation of Vance's magic anyhow. Perhaps I've read too much into it in an attempt to apply logic to it.

cantrips were a mistake

>Perhaps I've read too much into it in an attempt to apply logic to it.

No such thing; that's some of what the best of Veeky Forums is made of.

Here are some relevant bits of "The Eyes of the Overworld" by Jack Vance:

>Days went by and Iucounu's trap, if such existed, remained unsprung, and Cugel at last came to believe that none existed. During this time he applied himself to Iucounu's tomes and folios, but with disappointing results. Certain of the tomes were written in archaic tongues, indecipherable script or arcane terminology; others described phenomena beyond his comprehension; others exuded a waft of such urgent danger that Cugel instantly clamped shut the covers.

>One or two of the workbooks he found susceptible to his understanding. These he studied with great diligence, cramming syllable after wrenching syllable into his mind, where they rolled and pressed and distended his temples. Presently he was able to encompass a few of the most simple and primitive spells, certain of which he tested on Iucounu: notably Lugwiler's Dismal Itch. But by and large Cugel was disappointed by what seemed a lack of innate competence. Accomplished magicians could encompass three or even four of the most powerful effectuants; for Cugel, attaining even a single spell was a task of extraordinary difficulty. One day, while applying a spatial transposition upon a satin cushion, he inverted certain of the pervulsions and was himself hurled backward into the vestibule

>Returning to the great hall, he consumed the repast set forth by Jince and Skivvee, his two comely stewardesses, then immediately applied himself to his studies. Tonight they concerned themselves with the Spell of Forlorn Encystment, a reprisal perhaps more favored in earlier eons than the present, and the Agency of the Far Despatch, by which Iucounu had transported him to the northern wastes. Both spells were of no small power; both required a bold and absolutely precise control, which Cugel at first feared he would never be able to supply. Nevertheless he persisted, and at last felt able to encompass either the one or the other, at need.

depends on the setting

no.

I mean you could try glancing at a player's handbook before you post this inane shit

It depends on the game/setting, but I always thought it was more complicated than simply reciting something. You need to picture everything perfectly in your mind--every facet of a complex geometric shape that twists and morphs as you incant the spell and perform the precise gestures. And not everybody is capable of that sort of complex perception. It's one thing to be able to recite the Gettysburg Address by recalling what word follows the one before it; it's quite another to be able to simultaneously picture every curl of every letter of the written address in your mind so that you could start at any point on the page and go in a straight line in any direction and know precisely when you were crossing imaginary ink.

This is what happens when you remove all player race/class restrictions and anyone can drop a level into any class they want at any point. You have assholes thinking that anyone can just decide to be a wizard one day and then be one in an instant.

Which is how it works out in game rules. They have a int of 9, they want to be a wizard, then fuck...they can.

Now arcane magic has been reduced to youtube tutorial levels of bullshit anyone can accomplish.

>Of which game, pray tell? >:^)
All of them.

Before 3rd Edition, regular NPCs were treated as 0-level characters. After 3rd Edition, regular NPCs either received a unique statblock as an NPC (4th and 5th Edition), or were treated as having special NPC levels (3rd and 3.5).

Regardless, a PC and regular NPC do not sit on a level playing field. Only notable NPCs are comparable to PCs. No matter the edition.

read magic is lvl 0 spell itself
At some point, you have to painfully learn to read magic before learning spells.

Literate and having the brain power. Cantrips require a minimum Intelligence of 10 with more powerful spells needing greater intelligence. But here is some examples of learning it.

In a clear and audible speaking voice, say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious three times in the exact same cadence over the course of six seconds while making a circle with your hand that is exactly 11 inches across three times, with the beginning of the circle starting with the first 'S' and the end of the circle occurring at the end of the last 'S'

This is the actual mechanical replication of casting a spell in 3.PF - and verbal and somatic components that takes 6 seconds to finish and can potentially be interrupted.

You must do this exactly the same each time, and you must do this ritual every time you want to cast Prestidigitation. When you can do that and do it perfectly each time, you may then start work on your SECOND cantrip.

You have to learn all the 11 cantrips, and then you may move on to 1st level spells, which will be considerably more complex. For instance, you must SAY - not recite but actually pronounce - ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ and then ZYWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA in succession without skipping any sounds or letters, while rubbing a pinch of soot and salt against the meat of your palm with your middle and ring fingers while twirling your thumb in a clockwise rotation using your right hand. If you fail to do so properly the spell will fail and you will waste those components and must start from scratch. You may expect to have salt blisters on your palm by the end of the day. This will let you cast Comprehend Languages. Mind you, you must have a full 8 hours of sleep beforehand, and you must have studied the tome that your notes are in for 20 minutes before hand. If you have failed to study properly, you must restudy before you can try again. Once you have succeeded you will need to rest for 8 hours before you may attempt to cast it again.

That is learning magic.

Source on that, since pretty consistently I've seen town guards outclass first level fighters and rogues; if they didn't they would do a shit job at guarding.

Most of the time, it's really just commoners who are inhumanly weak: even nobles by 5th ed. have at least 9 hp just for hitting double digits of age.

Only if they have an into of 11.

Even if you can read magic , a 0 level spell, you can't be a wizard until you can cast 1st level spells, aso if you do not have an 11 int, you can NEVER be a wizard.

Also, pic related as to why everyone isn't a fucking wizard.

Programming doesn't give you magical powers.

Yes i8t does user! I have the powers of a god at my fingertips!

Wizardry works off INT, and require above-average intelligence to learn even a single spell.

That puts literally 2/3 of the population out of the running, due to the law of averages.

That's not how statistics work. At all.
In 3.5, you require an Intelligence of 10+spell level to learn the spell.
If you actually looked at a 3d6 distribution, you'd realize that the percentage of people with an 11 or higher in any particular ability score is actually 49.9%. Assuming orisons (0-level spells) are allowed, that increases such a group to 62.49% of the general population, or pretty much the opposite of what you just said.
This is the same population where 16.2% of the population has an Intelligence score of 7 or less.

10 is average

Depends on the time it takes to learn a spell, if the initial training just to get those 0-level spells was at least ten years of dedicated learning then your average agrarian society is not going to be able to afford you taking night classes with the local mad wizard to earn your Cantrip Certification Certificate.

Yeah, sure, but the point is that the mental capacity of the average citizen isn't as deficient as portrayed. It's that the everything else gets in the way, and that even if you are capable of casting basic spells, you're probably not going to end up any more than a hedge mage due to the lack of time and resources you need to study.

>If you actually looked at a 3d6 distribution, you'd realize that the percentage of people with an 11 or higher in any particular ability score is actually 49.9%.
It's exactly 50%, actually.

The 50% point is 10.5 on a 3-18 scale. 11 is just a bit off, at 46.6667%

I referenced AnyDice to minimize error on my part. What are you all using?

10.5 is the mean (and median) value, but you can't roll half-numbers. 11 is as much above the midpoint as 10 is below it. So if you had a 46.67% chance to roll an 11 or over, you'd also have a 46.67% chance to roll a 10 or under, which would leave you with a 6.67% chance to somehow roll between a 10 and 11. But again, dice don't work like that.

>What are you all using?
On this? Just my noggin. If 10.5 is the midpoint, that means there are as many values above it as below it, and since it's impossible to roll 10.5 on the dot, that means 50% above it, and 50% below it.

You're certainly right, but I don't like to rely on proofs like that for stuff like this, just in case there's some sort of stupid factor I didn't think of.
I mean, obviously for something like this, it's simple enough to be on the money. But I don't like to take chances.

Depending on what I'm dealing with, I'll use anydice, a binomial distribution calculator like stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial.aspx or Excel if I don't know of an easy way to do whatever I'm trying to do using something else.