Part 37: "Any Ring Spell Except Wishes"

Part 37 of a comparison of Holmes' manuscript with the published Basic Set rulebook. Turn to pages 36-37 of your 'Blue Book' and follow along... (pages 35-36 for the 1st edition)

Scrolls

Unlike the other magic item tables, this one has an introductory sentence, "Scrolls may contain any of the spells previously described, under Spells or described here as potions, rings, wands, etc". This sentence is included unchanged in the published rulebook. The reference to "any of the spells previously described" seems to indicate the scrolls can contain magic-user or clerical spells. However, in the section describing Scrolls, Holmes further writes, "The spells written on the scrolls can be read only by magic-users, except for the protection spells", which seems to indicate that scrolls with cleric spells are limited to magic-users. For a more detailed look at this, see my earlier post, No Spell Scrolls for Clerics. Gygax didn't see this way, even for Holmes Basic: the clerics in the original B2 module (written for Holmes) have standard clerical spell scrolls.

Holmes follows with a table listing ten scrolls, sourced in part from OD&D. The only OD&D Scroll table is found in Vol 2, page 24, and has 9 types of scrolls; unlike the other types of magic items, Greyhawk doesn't include an updated Scroll table. In the manuscript, Holmes uses 7 of the 9 original entries, dropping only the scroll of 7 spells (perhaps because it is too powerful for Basic?), and Protection from Elementals, a monster not covered in Basic. 

To bring the list up to ten entries, like the other tables, he comes up with something interesting: scrolls that duplicate the effects of potion, ring or wand spells. This neat 'Holmesian' twist greatly increases the variety of available scrolls without adding a lot of extra rules or verbage to the rulebook. It also provides the DM for a way to give Basic level characters some one-shot disposable items with powers normally reserved for permanent (such as a Scroll of Animal Control) or multi-charged (such as a Scroll of Cold) items. The published rulebook keeps these non-standard scrolls, only limiting them slightly by further excluding delusion from the potion spells, and regeneration from the wand spells. Unfortunately, this great idea was dropped from B/X, where Moldvay shortens the list to 8 scrolls, cutting Protection from Magic and the Potion/Ring/Wand Spells, and adding Treasure Maps. AD&D also dropped this idea. So it remains a Holmesian feature, perhaps his most significant addition to the range of D&D magic items. 

Dragon #50 contains a module written for Holmes Basic called The Chapel of Silence, by Mollie Plants. It won the Basic Division of a Dragon magazine contest. The module contains a Scroll of Healing, which appears to be a scroll containing a Potion of Healing spell.

Another implication of these scrolls is that effects like Healing and Fire Resistance, which mimic clerical spells, could be researched as magic-user spells.

The section describing Scrolls appears in the manuscript in identical form as published. For this section, Holmes draws on two parts of OD&D Vol 2: the material on Cursed Scrolls at the top of page 25, and the section describing Scrolls on page 32. He reduces the short table of curses to two examples he describes in the text. Holmes omits the info that spells are cast at the 6th level, probably because such levels are not covered in Basic. Holmes also simplifies the Protection Scrolls by giving them all a standard radius and duration.

Continue on to Part 38: "Rings Can Be Used by Anyone"
Or Go Back to Part 36: "They May Dare a Tiny Sip"
Or Go Back to Start: The Holmes Manuscript (index of posts)