Talk:Magic marker

Elbereth

shouldn't there be a note here about the ability of the magic marker to inscribe elbereth?

There is, in the introduction. Maybe it shouldn't be in the introduction, but I'm not sure where to move it. It hardly seems worth its own section, EkiM 11:45, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

FOOBIE BLETCH?

Does one write the name of the spell or the name of the scroll with the magic marker? I.e., 'identify' versus 'FOOBIE BLETCH' in any given game. 71.255.29.120 20:46, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Either works, but you must have seen one of the 'FOOBIE BLETCH' type before writing it, whereas you may attempt to write an 'identify' with some chance of success, even if you have not seen/id'd it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.88.232.180 (talk • contribs) 25 July 2007

This is interesting - it brings up another question I had: If one has encountered a type of scroll and used it, without it being formally identified, does one then have a 100 percent chance of writing it? For example, if I use a scroll of remove curse it doesn't auto-identify. Will I still suffer a writing penalty? This could actually make writing a scroll by it's un-id'd name advantageous, assuming the un-id'd penalty still exists - if you know FOOBIE BLETCH is remove curse, then you could attempt at a no failure rate. Floatingeye 03:05, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Best time to charge?

Is there a general idea on what the best time to recharge a Magic Marker is? It seems like if someone were to take a risk in the 30 range, the potential for a larger rounding bonus would improve. Additionally, if one aims for zero, there is always the pain of having <7 charges, which can risk being completely wasted, and also leaves fewer writing options. Floatingeye 03:20, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

• Assuming blessed recharging, of course, it seems like if you're aiming to charge up to 75 you'd get the best average payoff by charging at around 30 or 35. If you do get up to 75 you've gained 30-35 charges. However, if you get all the way to 0 and then charge you're bumped all the way up to 50, for a gain of 50. In the worst case of wasting your last several charges, you still gain, at worst, 43 charges total. Even though it's a little counter-intuitive, it seems that running your marker down to 0 before charging is the optimal strategy. I'll change the article to reflect this. --Andronikus 21:52, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

B/U/C

what differance does B/U/C status make? 60.242.66.41 09:25, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

I'll just quote from Magic marker#BUC: "When you write a scroll or spellbook, the BUC of the resulting item is the sum of the BUCs of the marker and the blank scroll/spellbook. A blessed marker will uncurse cursed scrolls, and bless uncursed ones. A cursed marker will unbless blessed scrolls, and curse uncursed ones. This means that uncursed markers are the most useful, because they can be used to write both cursed and blessed scrolls, depending on the paper used." —Shijun 18:55, 12 February 2009 (UTC)