Scrolls&Wands, Simple question Options

[Salk]

Hello!

I am at the moment unable to verify directly but I wonder if I remember well.

Is it true that both in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 a magic user (both divine and arcane) can use wands or read scrolls with spells that are of much higher level than he/she could actually master ?

In short, is it true that I can, example, read and start the effects of a Lightning Bolt scroll having a second level Mage read it ?

If this is true, I think it would be definitely something that I'd like to see corrected. I don't know what the AD&D 2ed. says about this but I'd think it shouldn't be at all allowed.

If instead I am just misremembering then sorry for the stupid question!

[Rabain]

This is what I never agree with: dogmatically accepting something because 'rules say so'. A scroll is magical only if a spell is written on it? Why is it magical? Is it enchanted? Then why isn't it a wand with charges? Why does it disappear if someone reads it? Someone familiar with AD&D will probably explain this, I'd be interested in a logical explanation of these 'magic-container scrolls'. In classic forms of mythology and tales, spells are written into scrolls and anyone who can read the letters can cast a spell -- a scroll is a piece of paper with text on it and nothing more. Easy and logical.

Nobody said they were accepting anything because 'rules say so', i am accepting this because this is the way magic has been portrayed in numerous fantasy settings, not just D&D.

I would argue with your statement that classic forms of mythology and tales have spells as something anyone can read. In most fantasy settings magic is spoken (invoked) in some arcane, little known 'magical' language. The words themselves and their pronunciation have a magical effect. A mage of power can bind these words to a scroll, only another mage can read them, because only another mage has the knowledge and understanding to release the magic in the words. Once spoken the spell disappears as the magic is used up. What is so hard about this concept to understand? Most of the myths/stories that involve some non-mage reading a spell relate to spell scrolls that are cursed or spelled to be auto-read by whoever tries to read them or we later find out that the said non-mage just happens to be the son of some long lost powerful arch-mage.

If a scroll with a spell on it was just some paper with words on it then any person (nobleman, commoner, cleric or whatever) could learn the words and call themselves a mage. This is never the case in any fantasy setting, even D&D.

Why do scrolls exist? Well in most fantasy settings mages have limits, in order to stop them being the most powerful creatures around. Each casting of a spell takes something away from a mage, in D&D this has led to the 'per day' limit of each spell level. Scrolls circumvent this because the mage has 'poured' some power into the creation of the scroll and need not draw on his own power again to cast it later. However the creation of the scroll is not as simple as "text on paper" otherwise anyone finding a spell scroll could simply copy it a hundred times and live happily ever after on the sale of the copies.

In fact I would say that it is much harder to justify the position of 'a scroll is a piece of paper with text on it and nothing more.' Just what do you need mage for then, once a spell is written on paper it becomes available to everyone if this were the case.