Nonmagical equipment (such as arms, armor, and other gear) can be sold for half its cost to add to the total gp value. Arms and armor taken from defeated monsters is worthless and cannot be sold unless speci ed in the adventure (the party can use the items during the session in which they are found, though).
Bold emphasis is mine.
Spellbooks are mundane items, and I assert that they count as 'other gear'.
Agreed. The rule in the ALPG says they *can* be sold. I suspect most DMs don't do the work to figure out the value of the spellbook, since the adventures don't specify a GP value, and many tables include a caster who can make use of the spellbook and thus claims it as treasure. As such, those DMs take the shortcut of 'if nobody wants it, it just disappears' as happens with magic items that are left on the table.
My point is simply that this behavior does not mean that spellbooks have no GP value. I believe the DM should determine a value for a 'sold' spellbook, though I understand that many DMs may be reluctant to do so without an explicit directive from the campaign to do so, since 'adding treasure to the campaign' is considered (rightly) a Bad Thing.
Edit 2: I can also see where explicitly defining the GP value of all spellbooks would have repercussions -- for instance, if a wizard claims a spellbook with a 'value' of 375gp, does that mean she gives up that amount of gold from the party treasure to do so? What if, as will almost always be the case in low-tier adventures, this amount is greater than the wizard's share of treasure? Does she forfeit all her gold? How then does she copy the spells, since she needs to spend gold to do so? In that sense, I'd be OK with a DM only calculating the GP value of a spellbook when that spellbook is going to be sold to add to the party's total treasure for the adventure; if it is claimed as treasure, it's just like a suit of plate mail or other mundane item identified by the module as treasure and claimed by a character -- it could have been sold, but wasn't, and thus doesn't count against the party's treasure total.
If Jeremy Crawfords tweets dont count as rulings, then there is no actual rule allowing people to keep spellbooks.
First, you seem to believe that Crawford answers questions regarding the Adventurers League -- he doesn't, he answers general questions regarding the D&D rules.
Second, you seem to be completely ignoring the
Adventurers League FAQ, which says:
"Yes, characters
can copy spells from found spellbooks or other characters’ spell books. If the DM allows in game copying go by the rules in the Player’s Handbook. If it’s out of game, copying can be done with downtime at a rate of one downtime day for up to 8 hours of copying." (emphasis mine)
This has been in the FAQ for nearly a year (it was added March 20, 2015).
Edit: I believe Kalani quoted a more comprehensive set of rulings regarding spellbooks earlier in this thread -- it is simply not true that there are no rules regarding spellbooks in AL.
Also, Sage Advice rulings ARE Legal rulings in AL. DMs are just allowed to specifically ignore them if they feel like it.
Sage Advice is not official for AL and not required to play. DMs are welcome and encouraged to use Sage Advice to help them make rulings, but are not bound by those rulings when running AL games.
My favorite retort when a player tells me that "Jeremy Crawford said this online" is simply, "Jeremy Crawford isn't running this game."
--
Pauper
