D&D 5E Determining a spellbook value

C

cthulhu42

Explorer
One of my players, a 13th level wizard, has just had his spellbook stolen. It's a long story and I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say, the thief has more use for gold than the book, and is willing to ransom it back to the wizard. I'm wondering how much he should ask for.

I don't know exactly how many spells he's got in the book, but at least 28 (4 at 1st level and 2 for the next 12 levels), plus probably 8 or 10 more that he's picked up along the way.

Obviously, to the wizard, it's invaluable (and I'm betting it'll teach this player to keep back ups from here on), but I'm not sure how to calculate a relative value that the thief should ask for.

Thanks for any advice.
 

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delericho

delericho

Legend
The value of a spellbook is tricky - it's worth considerably more to the Wizard it belongs to than to any other.

I don't have the PHB to hand, but I'd suggest going for 75% of the cost of re-writing the thing from scratch (assuming the Wizard already had another book/scrolls to copy from). That's a substantial chunk of money without being crippling.

However... does the book have any unusual or custom spells in it? If so, you should charge a premium for the book, as suddenly it's worth more to others.

(Oh, yes, and if your Wizard has a rival, don't forget that he may well enter a bidding war just to inconvenience his rival...)
 

akr71

akr71

Hero
Well the higher level spells are probably harder to replace and therefore more costly. You could go with just the cost of the copying the spells into the book, but that is probably too cheap and you would need to know the exact number and what level. I suspect the ransom would also depend on the caliber of the thief, but they pulled it off, so a decent thief at least.

Rather than settling on a number, how about the wizard's weight in gold. Or the thief's - whoever is heavier ;)
If my math is right, 100 pounds is equivalent to 5000GP, so it could be in the neighborhood of 7000-8000GP, if the thief and/or wizard are humans
 

K

Krachek

Hero
You can evaluate the price of recopying each spell in a new book + any additional fees.
Also is the Wizard in a hurry to recover its spell book?
The rogue want money, now and easy? Usually. But maybe not.
It is a nice negotiation process.
Also consider that the party may try to recover the book without paying, or kill the rogue without recovering the book!
 

C

cthulhu42

Explorer
delericho said:
The value of a spellbook is tricky - it's worth considerably more to the Wizard it belongs to than to any other.

I don't have the PHB to hand, but I'd suggest going for 75% of the cost of re-writing the thing from scratch (assuming the Wizard already had another book/scrolls to copy from). That's a substantial chunk of money without being crippling.

However... does the book have any unusual or custom spells in it? If so, you should charge a premium for the book, as suddenly it's worth more to others.

(Oh, yes, and if your Wizard has a rival, don't forget that he may well enter a bidding war just to inconvenience his rival...)
Click to expand...
The book does have some unusual and unique spells in it. However, the thief hasn't opened it, and probably won't for fear of magical traps and such. All he really knows is that it belonged to a reasonably powerful wizard. The thief is an Oni, if that helps, so he's got some inate spellcasting ability and a reasonable grasp of magic and how valuable the book is, but he's got no real use for it and he thinks he has a pretty good chance of turning it into a payday.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using EN World mobile app
 

aco175

aco175

Legend
I would say the total worth is 100% of the spells copied. You could take a little off for common spells not wanted as much as others, so maybe 80%. That's worth, not what you can sell it for. Assuming not many casters in your world means that there is less people offering anything for it. Now the thief may want to get rid of it quickly so he could sell it for 10-50% total value just to be rid of it.

The next point to consider is the mage going after the thief since it cannot be known that mages do not punish those that steal from them. Also other mages may not want to buy the book without checking if it is for sale since this leads to problems with the more honest mages.
 


C

cthulhu42

Explorer
Krachek said:
You can evaluate the price of recopying each spell in a new book + any additional fees.
Also is the Wizard in a hurry to recover its spell book?
The rogue want money, now and easy? Usually. But maybe not.
It is a nice negotiation process.
Also consider that the party may try to recover the book without paying, or kill the rogue without recovering the book!
Click to expand...
Lol! Yes, you might say the wizard is in a hurry to get his only spellbook back! Close to absolute panic!

And oh yes, you'd better believe the PCs will try to kill this guy rather than pay if they can. But this Oni is pretty slippery, so he might just get away with it.

For now.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using EN World mobile app
 


C

cthulhu42

Explorer
A little more info: the Oni knows that the party has just taken a small dragon horde, which the Oni saw and can reasonably guess contained at least 10,000 gp (more like 12000, but he has to estimate). Would demanding 10,000 be fair?

Sent from my SGH-M919 using EN World mobile app
 

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