How does Spell Swap actually work?

[Kylar]

Hey guys, I was hoping to get some clarification on Spell Swap. I know the ritual has to be on a spell book, but can the ritual batch be Earth aspect on a celestial book and allow a celestial scholar spell swap his/her spells? Which brings me to another question, can a book contain both Earth and Celestial spells? And the final question is does Quicken Meditation work with Spell Swap since Spell Swap is a focus mechanic and Quicken Meditation reduces Meditation skills?

 

[Sage of Legaia]

Short answers, in order: Aspect of Ritual doesn't have to match Aspect/School of spells in the Spellbook; Aspect of Ritual does not need to match Aspect/School of swapped spells; a Spellbook can contain both Celestial and Earth spells if it has enough pages; Spell Swap does not use Meditation and therefor is unaffected by Quicken Meditation.

Longer answers:

The Aspect of a Ritual is irrelevant other than for the purposes of who can cast it and whether Biata react to it; so long as the target is valid, any Aspect Ritual can be placed on any item without issue. (At least from a pure rules perspective; putting a Necromantic Aspect Ritual on something is probably going to cause you some problems In Game if people find out. )

Spell Swap doesn't mention that it requires the Aspect of the Ritual and the Aspect/School of the swapped spells be the same, so it's fairly safe to assume they don't have to match.

A Spellbook is just a normal book, but spells are written in special ink; as long as the physrep you use has enough pages to fit all the spells from both schools, there's no reason you can't put both in one. If it's got enough pages, you can also make it an Alchemy book. Just remember that without Cosmetic Transformation, you cannot scribe spells into a Spellbook that is a Magic Item.

Spell Swap uses a Focus requirement of 60 seconds studying the Spellbook, and does not mention Meditate at all; Meditate is a specific use of the Focus mechanic, but not all things that require Focus require Meditation, and Spell Swap is one of those, which is why the Focus time is stated on the scroll, and also why Quicken Meditation has no effect on it. (You can, however, use the Exchange Spell High Magic ability with Spell Swap to reduce the time to 3 seconds; this interaction is explicitly stated in the description of Exchange Spell.)

 

[Ken]

If it's got enough pages, you can also make it an Alchemy book.

There is no requirement on number of pages. The only requirements on spellbook reps are:

Out of game, a spell book consists of a tag from Logistics that lists every spell of a specific aspect. Any spells not inscribed into that spell book will be crossed off from the tag. This card must be kept with a real spell book physical representation. Spell books must be bound; a sheet of paper is not sufficient. You must provide your own spell book phys rep. Multiple tags can be included in the same spell book physrep (such as both an Earth and a Celestial spell book, or an Alchemy recipe book as well).

As long as your book is bound and the tags physically fit in it, that's probably good enough. That said, I do recommend actually writing down the details of your spells/recipes in your book, so having sufficient pages to actually write/print all that is probably still a good plan.

 

[Kylar]

Thanks guys, I think you have all cleared up my questions.