Gorion vs. Firkraag

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I never thought of it that way. I always interpreted the description to mean you specifically had written it, or if you had previously read it (for example if you had cast read magic to read a scroll and decided not to use it at that moment, you wouldn't need to cast read magic again the next day if you wanted to re-read and/or use it). The possibility of transfering this knowledge on to someone else via a key or something of the like never occured to me.

I honestly don't remember what he did in the case of specialists. As you have probably already gathered from my rant, there wasn't a huge desire to roleplay a mage from anyone in the group once we saw what the starting criteria was. Especially because you essentially turned into a sling artist or dart thrower if you decided to play a mage of any type. However, I do have one question about this. I do remember the rule that the extra spell had to be from the specialty school (despite that rule not being present in the BG series), however I do not remember that you had to always have at least one spell per level from your specialty school in your spell book. How was it determined which one you received? Further, upon reaching a new casting level, do you automatically get a new spell? For example if an invoker levels up from 2 to 3, does he automatically gain a 2nd level evocation spell if he did not already have one? Or if you already have one, do you gain an additional one?

 

That is the correct interpretation (I guess I missed a word or two to filter it, like "to them"), but your understanding of the work after writing or reading it I think might allow you to write that decryption key to allow others to understand it. Again, that's probably a DM ruling since it's not specifically forbidden or anything like that.

A bullet point excerpt from the PHB, page 46:

Using this, the answers to your questions are:
By DM or by player. Yes*. Yes. Yes.

*With the proviso that you mean casting level as in being able to cast higher level spells (the term used in the passage is spell level), rather than the typical meaning of casting level, which is what level your character casts at (used for durations, damage, etc.).

This is one of the reasons I always liked playing a Transmuter when I could. If a new DM turned out to be persnickety about learning from scrolls, you'd never have empty spell slots because you'd always have a spell at each level. It may not be something particularly useful in a lot of situations if your DM takes the pick and decides to screw you, but at least it would be there. And like Cantrip, there's a use for every spell if you're inventive enough.

 

Yeah, I said it wrong. When I said casting level, I meant being able to cast a new level spell. So, I'm interpreting that to mean you a new spell at level:

1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18 - and damn - don't get get 9th level spells at level 18? WTF? I missed one in there somewhere.

Caster Level/Spell Level:
1/1
3/2
5/3
7/4
9/5
12/6
15/7
18/8
21?!?!/9!?!?!

That doesn't look right either.

 

There's an easy way to remember it, that you get a new spell level every two levels, with the one exception of having to go to 12 instead of 11. So it'd be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, & 18. Other than that...by George, I think you've got it!

Now, let's get back to Gorion and Firkraag and anything else can be in a new topic or PM, aye? Taking a look at the game files in both games doesn't help because he's painted as a level 9 'innocent'. And his memorized spells are limited to 9 third-level mage spells: 5 Flame Arrows and 4 Lightning Bolts. (The spells he casts in cutscenes are just scripted.) On the surface that looks just silly, but if we take that as canon that he can cast 9 third-level spells a day, that puts his level at at least 35. Combined with clerical abilities, that puts him at Cleric 2/5+ -> Mage 35+ (the 5 is in the case of the Prot-Fire cast I mentioned earlier). A truly formidable opponent.