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 A List of all Canon F.R. "Named" Spells ...
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Ayrik
Great Reader

Canada
7966 Posts

Posted - 15 Dec 2022 :  15:35:54  Show Profile Send Ayrik a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The spell description for Flying Fist says that it was created by the wizard Alcimer. He was quite proud of the spell, he named it Alcimer's Flying Fist, and his name was discarded by other wizards who learned and used the spell.

It is written as a commentary about non-altruism. But it makes me wonder what sort of "copyright law" might exist for magics and spells. Indeed, Arcane Ages applies the names of arcanists who "first" invented all the famous PHB spells, names which have evidently been removed or forgotten in subsequent ages. "Mystra's Curse" supposedly punishes those who falsely represent marks and sigils belonging to others, but it seems ineffective in this specific sort of magical theft.

There are numerous examples of other spells named for their creators and jealously guarded by their creators. To the extent that some will actively suppress knowledge of the spell and hunt down any who learn or duplicate it.

[/Ayrik]

Edited by - Ayrik on 15 Dec 2022 15:40:15
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bloodtide_the_red
Learned Scribe

USA
297 Posts

Posted - 16 Dec 2022 :  01:30:12  Show Profile  Visit bloodtide_the_red's Homepage Send bloodtide_the_red a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Spell copyright?

Well, Mystra wants magic shared, so that is a bit against spell ownership. Mystra is not overly concerned who gets "credit" for a spell. But it is also near impossible to peg down who created an individual spell most of the time. As has been stated by Ed and others, most spellcasters make their own version of the "common Players Handbook" spells. Gamewise they are not listed as WotC does not want to waste pages on custom spells. Even more so as most would only be minor variants.

Lots of spells have been known for 10,000 years, not just Realmswide, but planet wide, sphere wide and multiverse wide.

The Church of Azuth would be a bit more the type to write down every spell creator. And the faith of Azuth is one of the more organized ones, but still you'd have the problem that it's a big planet. Keeping track of all the spells would be a chore. And how would they enforce it?

There is not much international legal Realms setting. There is no United Realms and every town, city, country, state, nation or state agreeing on nearly anything. Even if say Waterdeep was to copywrite spells, few others would care. Spellcasters in Phlan won't listen to Waterdeep law, and you can be sure Thay or even more so Shou Lung won't care. Even something local like the Lords Alliance is unlikely to care about spell copy wrights.

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TBeholder
Great Reader

2377 Posts

Posted - 16 Dec 2022 :  22:10:51  Show Profile Send TBeholder a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by bloodtide_the_red

Well, Mystra wants magic shared,

Shared and developed further. Those are conflicting objectives.
Wizards who can just copy a spell mostly won't be willing to bother with developing their own solutions to the same problem.
Wizards who don't have much knowledge to use as a foundation for further development are very willing, but not very able.
From this point of view, the best situation is great amount of arcane lore being split. Then each wizard can get a nice pile of puzzle pieces to work with, but cannot find all desired ones easily enough to obviate most research, and often must tinker with available mostly-irrelevant lore.
Of course, scarcity/abundance are also balanced against simple survivability.
Thus, amount (and topology) of propagation is necessarily a matter of optimization, with criteria varying in response to existing circumstances.
quote:
Mystra is not overly concerned who gets "credit" for a spell.

Directly no, but this kind of glory obviously encourages some wizards. Therefore, desirable.
quote:
As has been stated by Ed and others, most spellcasters make their own version of the "common Players Handbook" spells. Gamewise they are not listed as WotC does not want to waste pages on custom spells.

Translations to a different personal script are omnipresent, but presumably changes are negligible.
For variations significant enough to alter stats, IIRC Pages from the Mages had a few examples.

People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch
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