Overlap with SCS & aTweaks spell components

[subtledoctor]

Maybe I just have a very particular (2E) idea of how magic works. It seems like magic is governed by an inscrutable, universal syntax. String together several parts of this language in the right combination, and you get a magical effect. Verbal, somatic and material spell components are parts of the syntax, but there could be many other, different parts, not reroducible by man. Particular energies, concepts, images, whatever. So only gods have a full grasp of it.

 

So if you are a bear, with no hands and no voice, how can you cast spells?

 

Incidentally (as we are in the SR forum) the game doesn't really encompass spell components... but it could, partially. And SR could implement it. Basically, some spells could be deemed to have no verbal component, by ticking the "castable when silenced" flag.

 

Coming full circle, a reasonable compromise might then be to apply Silence to shapeshift forms. So you could initiate some magic spells, but only those without verbal components.

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

1e was the same way. The tone and inflections of the spoken component mattered, as did the gestures. The easiest way to excuse the disparity between the human and shapeshifted versions would be that the druid would simply know what adjustments to make to replicate the spell, in essence learning two slightly different spells. However, it could be argued that the difference would be no worse than what occurs among the many variations of humanoid creatures the spells already work for (presumedly) without this alteration. (Personally I disallow spellcasting while shifted.)