Look at the rogue. Look at the tome martial classes. They can play with the big kids in combat. What they can't do, is go on the adventure on their own. But giving them access to spells out of combat lets them do that and makes a non-caster party possible. Of course, they won't be able to advance past a certain level (mostly depending on the campaign style, probably when wizards start casting 6th level spells), but until level 11 I could see a tome-based non-caster party able to go on the big adventures with this tweak in use....You Lost Me wrote:I don't see the benefit that this provides. If you're worried about classes not getting nice things (and thus needing casting to cover their problems), then you should actually worry about giving those classes nice things. If you just want everybody to be able to be able to dabble in magic, then write a cantrip-like mechanic where everyone has access to magic. Don't give characters the ability to dumpster-dive for spells off any spell list with a skill check.
For the most part K's The Five Cornerstones to Adventuring thread inspired me. It was an attempt to fix the problem I brought up at the end of the thread's first page, namely that a character also needs to be able to go on the adventure at all. But it's also partly due to suspension of disbelief. It just doesn't work for me that anybody can just take a level in wizard and tada! start casting spells, while you can't just do that with knowledge (arcana) and a blueprint (i.e. spellbook).
(I'd also make every spell an arcane spell. Divine magic is only divine because clerics and druids pray or make a ritual to be granted their spells. They don't need a blueprint. That's why they don't need the somatic components. What they are essentially doing is imitating jesus by granting miracles. These miracles just happen to duplicate magic. Thus, there is no such thing as a divine scroll or wand with a divine spell. In fact, I'd remove the terms arcane and divine magic entirely and there's only magic (arcane) and miracles (divine). But that's another issue, so I'll stop there.)