D&D 5E Wizard Spells

Valric · Jan 11, 2018

I am a fairly new DM. One of my players is a Wizard. I've never played as one so I have no idea what to think of this. He wanted to know if he could go to the Mage College in the game and request to take a look at another wizards spellbook and copy their spells. I told him he can try. He hasn't gone there yet but I think he will Saturday.

My questions are should I allow this? If I do allow it how should I handle it?

Thank you in advance!

cbwjm · Jan 11, 2018

I'd allow it, but not for free. First, he'd still need to pay to copy a spell as per the side bar in the Players handbook under the wizard entry. He'd also need to pay an extra fee on top of that for the privilege of being allowed to copy a spell. The cost would be up to you but I think it should be high enough that he may only be able to afford one or two spells. Some spells, particularly higher level ones may not even be available.

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Al2O3 · Jan 11, 2018

A side quest to either be admitted or given by a former teacher or similar could also be a good idea. That depends on the group or campaign.

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Horwath · Jan 11, 2018

Depends on the wizard he is copying from.

He might give it for free

He might charge a fee depending on level of the spell.

He might just refuse to allow you to copy the spell under any circumstance and smack you with fireball just for asking.

He might just give you spell if he could copy something from you.

CapnZapp · Jan 11, 2018

Valric said:
I am a fairly new DM. One of my players is a Wizard. I've never played as one so I have no idea what to think of this. He wanted to know if he could go to the Mage College in the game and request to take a look at another wizards spellbook and copy their spells. I told him he can try. He hasn't gone there yet but I think he will Saturday.

My questions are should I allow this? If I do allow it how should I handle it?

Thank you in advance!

First off, you should know that it is not easy to come to grips with the spells of D&D.

If you trust this player to work with you and the campaign, fine. But if the player might be inclined to try to take advantage of your inexperience, I really think it's best to save the Wizard class for a later campaign. Ask the player to switch to an "easier" class.

Then there's something else. Don't let yourself be talked into adding lots of spellbooks to the campaign, including this mage college of yours.

Out of game, the wizard class is perfectly balanced even if it only gets its two automatic spells per level.

In game, you should feel perfectly free to say that every Wizard guards his Spellbook jealously, and that no copying can take place.

If this annoys the player, you should probably take that as an indication he belongs to the second category above, somebody trying to take advantage of your gullibility. He is welcome to create a fighter, barbarian or ranger if he doesn't like your decision.

Above everything else, don't let yourself be talked into allowing more magic than the basic rules give the players just because "it makes sense".

"No, it makes no sense to upset the game balance," you can tell them

Good luck!

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Leatherhead · Jan 11, 2018

This is the perfect opportunity for side-questing!
Get involved with all kinds of arcane experimentation: Gathering dangerous to acquire reagents, traveling to different planes of existence, suffering the effects of various spells and afflictions to record them for posterity!

After all, what good is money to a bunch of Wizards?

Swarmkeeper · Jan 11, 2018

When the party in our game found the spellbook of a dead wizard, I did allow the two wizards in the group to copy it using the standard costs and timeline outlined in the PHB (p 114) with an accompanying INT check per the scroll copying guidelines in the DMG (p 200). However, I also ruled that once a spell was copied, the spell disappeared from the original book, much like as if it were copied from a scroll forcing the two wizards to negotiate on how they would split up the spell bounty. As DM, I made sure the spellbook had several spells the two PC wizards already had and many others that were more utility-type spells so I wasn’t just a fireball/lightning bolt bonanza.

Using such a strategy would certainly cause the wizards at the guild in your scenario to deny the request - and allow you to maintain some semblance of balance in the party. Only the most powerful guild wizards would be able to overcome this limitation (read: Wish) but would only flex those muscles under rare circumstances. And most wizards would believe there are no shortcuts and the only true path to spell mastery is through patient study. At least, that’s one way you could rule it.

Warmaster Horus · Jan 11, 2018

A mage college might offer a few basic 1st level spells to new practitioners for a small fee. But wizards have never been ones to freely share knowledge - they know the value of the knowledge they hold and exchange it for new knowledge of commensurate worth.

steeldragons · Jan 11, 2018

And make sure, if you are going to allow it (with or without fees, and I definitely am in the "with" camp, even if that fee is trading a spell out of his own book, or doing a quest for the wizard with the spell they want -to be copied after completion!! -or what have you) that it is a spell the Player's Character can cast! A first level wizard can't be copying fireballs and teleports and disintegrates.

If the spell he's looking for isn't a spell level they can cast, then it's a no go...make him pay whatever fees, and then let them know the attempt to copy it failed. Maaaaybe I'd allow the next level up from where they are, e.g. if the character is 2nd level they can only cast 1st level spells...and they want a 2nd level spell, which they won't be able to cast until they get to 3rd level of experience. I would probably allow that...still with some kind of price/service rendered, even though they can't use it til leveling up.

aco175 · Jan 11, 2018

I always like looking for side quest ideas and this is one like what others have said. There is a lot of good information here from what others said. Another point to think about is where does the mage get his 2 spells per level. This background stuff when leveling takes place somewhere. While I think it is a little harsh to not reward player thinking, you can simply say you get the 2 spells per level from the college and it happens in the background between adventures.

You should also look for opportunities to tie future ideas to this as well. A NPC contact who trades spells or runs the school can have future need for a group of adventurers, or one of the students falls into a gang of bandits that attack the PCs later. My favorite is in the next campaign you have one of the students become a PC who tells stories about the last mage so overblown that all the players remember how far fetched it is.