Casting from Text
In Fifth Edition, magi cannot cast spells directly from books. Books of spells are actually laboratory texts, and contain instructions for inventing the spells, not for casting them.
The Fifth Edition supplement Covenants did add the possibility of casting spells from a Casting tablet, however. A casting tablet allows a magus to cast a spell, although not to learn or invent it.
Casting From Text in Previous Editions
In ArM3 and ArM4, covenants' spell books were called grimoires and magi could cast formulaic spells they didn't know by reading directly from a grimoire.[1] This was especially useful for high-level spells that would be difficult or prohibitive to learn using the Fourth Edition laboratory rules.
References
- ↑ Ars Magica Fourth Edition, p. 78, "Casting from a Text"
Legacy Page
The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:casting_from_text