Question about Wizards spells

DarkCrisis · Mar 21, 2002

One thing Ive never ben clear on is the whole process Wizards have to go through when they gain a level to access new spells... it seems that if your in the middle of an adventure and time is of the essence if the Wiz gains a level he really wont have a chance to add all of his new spells to his spellbook. It takes a number of days for him to scribe each spell into the book then he can use it... what if there is no chance for down time? The party cant spend 2 weeks for the Wiz to scribe his spells.. is he just out of luck till the adventure.. or the time restaints.. are over?

-Crisis

Phoenix8008 · Mar 21, 2002

In theory, the wizard has been working on these new spells since he last gained a level. Slowly putting together the proper equations and components to make the magic work. The only thing that happens when the new level is gained is that the Wizard has an epifany of understanding and finishes the research which he has been slowly conducting till then. At that point he/she just finishes writing in the particulars of the spell.

This does not explain the possibility of really heavy adventuring and gaining a couple levels in a couple days though, sorry.

Werdnam · Mar 21, 2002

It states pretty clearly in the PHB (see the section on adding spells to spellbooks) that wizards do not incur scribing costs (of either time or money) when adding their 2 free spells from leveling up. The rationalization is that the wizard is spending some time each day researching/cogitating/making notes in his spellbook, and that the leveling up is just the point at which he makes the final breakthrough needed to finally understand those spells.

DarkCrisis · Mar 21, 2002

Yea I got the 2 free ones but what of any others? Like say he finds another Wiz's spellbook and wants to learn from that.... so he has to find down time to scribe them? If he wants to scribe 4 spells total when he levels then he gets 2 for free due to research he has been doing but the other 2 have to wait till he finds the whatever number of days to scribe them into his book?

Bronn Spellforger · Mar 21, 2002

DarkCrisis -- Yeah, you've got it. He gets to choose any two spells which are "automatically" scribed in his book. But any other spells he finds, he'll need to take the 1) time and 2) materials cost to get any of them scribed.

I'm actually dealing with this right now. My character has been underground for months.. I've got THREE spellbooks from Wizards we've defeated, but I haven't been able to scribe a single one of these spells due to lack of materials.

Which, of course, begs the question.. if my character needs special inks/quills to scribe these spells... how is he getting them to scribe his two "free" spells when he levels?

Ridley's Cohort · Mar 21, 2002

Bronn Spellforger said:
Which, of course, begs the question.. if my character needs special inks/quills to scribe these spells... how is he getting them to scribe his two "free" spells when he levels?

It's magic!

Sorry.

The rules for acquiring spells do not particularly make sense. They are however eminently usable as is (assuming you stick the the vanilla rules for item creation and wealth level). Since that is an immense improvement over the 1e/2e rules that made more sense but were painful to employ, I am willing to cut the authors some slack.

The only thing I think they should have clarified if what the value of a "used" spellbook is. Spare spellbooks do have value, but it has to be much lower than 200gp per spell level.

Jax · Mar 21, 2002

btw, until your wizard has time to sit down and copy over spells he can still use spells out of the other books. He has to have read magic working and do spellcraft checks to memorize a spell out of anothers spellbook. At least they won't go to waste

Geoff Watson · Mar 21, 2002

Ridley's Cohort said:
The only thing I think they should have clarified if what the value of a "used" spellbook is. Spare spellbooks do have value, but it has to be much lower than 200gp per spell level.

IMC I value loot spellbooks at 25gp per spell level; more for rare or unusual spells.

Geoff.

Bronn Spellforger · Mar 22, 2002

Jax said:
btw, until your wizard has time to sit down and copy over spells he can still use spells out of the other books. He has to have read magic working and do spellcraft checks to memorize a spell out of anothers spellbook. At least they won't go to waste

Sorry, Jax .. you're wrong on this one (oh, how I wish you weren't!). You can only memorize spells that you already know from other wizard's spellbooks.

In other words, if you've lost your spellbook, you can use spellcraft checks to try and learn those spells from someone else's book. Sadly, on new spells, you've got to take the time/money to scribe them yourself.

Henrix · Mar 22, 2002

Bronn Spellforger said:
In other words, if you've lost your spellbook, you can use spellcraft checks to try and learn those spells from someone else's book. Sadly, on new spells, you've got to take the time/money to scribe them yourself.

Wasn't there some rule in the FR magic book (what's it called "Spells of Faerêun"? "I can't spell Faerûn"?) about how you could learn how to use somebody else's spell book as if it were your own?

I don't own the supplement in question, but methinks you had to spend some time with the spell book and passing a spellcraft check.