How do Wizards in your game make backup spell books (also p.114) with this houserule in place?
D&D 5E Wizard Spells
Depending on the campaign i do handle this differently.
In my current campaign a wizard can get a scroll of every known spell at the mage guild, but the Price for this is according to (spell Level)^2 * 100 . I have a homemade economy though, imho the Prices for Equipment and other things in the PHB are utter BS.
As others stated, it should not come free it, might be restricted, or not possible at all. Everything is fair game. In my opinion the same rule as for Magic weapons not necessary if you do not want them in your campaign (I would not do this though, even in a low Magic Setting there should be some, but they would be rather +1 ordinary weapons than those super artifact ones) should apply to Magic spells (and all other cleric / warlock / bard etc. spells). If you feel unsure about the Impact a certain Magic might have on your campaign, simply houserule it to be not available.
Especially if you are an unexperienced DM or not that good at winging it if the Party does something totally unexpected.
In my current campaign a wizard can get a scroll of every known spell at the mage guild, but the Price for this is according to (spell Level)^2 * 100 . I have a homemade economy though, imho the Prices for Equipment and other things in the PHB are utter BS.
As others stated, it should not come free it, might be restricted, or not possible at all. Everything is fair game. In my opinion the same rule as for Magic weapons not necessary if you do not want them in your campaign (I would not do this though, even in a low Magic Setting there should be some, but they would be rather +1 ordinary weapons than those super artifact ones) should apply to Magic spells (and all other cleric / warlock / bard etc. spells). If you feel unsure about the Impact a certain Magic might have on your campaign, simply houserule it to be not available.
Especially if you are an unexperienced DM or not that good at winging it if the Party does something totally unexpected.
Irda Ranger
First Post
Lots of good advice above. I agree with it. Side quests are fun too.
But I also want to say "Don't worry TOO much about it either." The wizard class is balanced based on the number of spells they can prepare each morning. The spells in the spellbook allow a wizard to tailor their prepared spells to fit a given type of adventure better, and this is not a bad thing, but you shouldn't worry too much about allowing the PC to know the spells in the PHB. You could let the Wizard know every spell in the game and you won't break the game this way as long as you stick to the official Wizard spell list. He'd still be capped at being able to prepare Level+INT spells, and by spell slots.
If you're a new DM I strongly advise against making up new spells or magic items. It's easy to make something that's too good when you don't know the system well, and this will unbalance your game. But as long as you stick to the spells and items in the books you should be fine.
The decision as to whether to allow your player to copy spells at a Mage College should be made based on the kind of campaign world you want to have. Are wizards collegial and generous their knowledge, like a modern college campus? Or are they guarded, untrusting, and stingy, like the Guilds of the middle ages? There's no wrong answer here; it's just a question of tone.
But I also want to say "Don't worry TOO much about it either." The wizard class is balanced based on the number of spells they can prepare each morning. The spells in the spellbook allow a wizard to tailor their prepared spells to fit a given type of adventure better, and this is not a bad thing, but you shouldn't worry too much about allowing the PC to know the spells in the PHB. You could let the Wizard know every spell in the game and you won't break the game this way as long as you stick to the official Wizard spell list. He'd still be capped at being able to prepare Level+INT spells, and by spell slots.
If you're a new DM I strongly advise against making up new spells or magic items. It's easy to make something that's too good when you don't know the system well, and this will unbalance your game. But as long as you stick to the spells and items in the books you should be fine.
The decision as to whether to allow your player to copy spells at a Mage College should be made based on the kind of campaign world you want to have. Are wizards collegial and generous their knowledge, like a modern college campus? Or are they guarded, untrusting, and stingy, like the Guilds of the middle ages? There's no wrong answer here; it's just a question of tone.
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Guest 6801328
Guest
He might turn you into a newt for your impertinence.
Imagine a total stranger knocked on your door and said, "Hey, you don't know me, but I'm also studying trigonometry (or whatever) at some other school. Can I borrow your notebook to copy your notes?"
What would you say?
Also, the frequency and obviousness of "mage colleges" is up to the DM. What makes him so sure it's that easy to find such a thing? Or get in the door if he does find it?
Swarmkeeper
Hero
I would rule that a wizard’s arcane “fingerprint” is on their own spellbook and so making a copy for backup purposes would not trigger the disappearance of the spells from the original.
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Guest 6801328
Guest
It also raises the question of how spells are ever "copied" into new spellbooks. How does a new mage acquire spells?
Couldn't there be an Arcana check to be able to work through the unique fingerprint of the other Wizard's spellbook so that each spell wouldn't be destroyed by copying it?
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Guest 6801328
Guest
In a way this conundrum makes me think of "Bind on Pickup" in MMOs, which is needed to prevent the game economy from being overwhelmed by discarded items. If magic spells can be freely copied then the market value of a spell is worth exactly time and materials.
The "arcane fingerprint" addresses this, but it feels like Bind on Pickup to me: an awkward kludge to restrict supply. An interesting project would be to come up with a general solution to this.
Swarmkeeper
Hero
Great question - I'm sure we could brainstorm something that makes sense:
1. through study, collection of proper inks, and arcane inspiration, the wizard is able to channel the spell from the weave onto the pages of their spellbook
OR
2. Wizard schools allow access to training books, supervised by high level wizards, with strict rules that allow newly leveled wizards to copy exactly two new spells. These special training books are "immune" to spell text disappearance.
OR
3. Insert your idea here...
OR
4. etc...
Sure, I'd probably allow that in my game if the player really wanted to try it. Might require some knowledge of the particular wizard and the DC might be pretty high and scale with spell level, but it wouldn't be something I'd outright say "No" to...
Agreed - it really was something the players and I came up with mid-game that sounded interesting - but we really didn't give it too much thought and we moved on. Would be nice to create something more formal and robust. Or maybe as @Irda Ranger said above - we don't really need to worry about it too much as the number of spells prepared for a wizard is the true limiting factor in the game.
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Guest 6801328
Guest
Yes, the rules seem to restrict supply and therefore we can conclude that there is a mechanism for doing so, so strictly we don't need to explain it. But that leaves us with the potential problem(s) in this thread:
- Can two PC wizards copy all the spells in a looted spell book? And then sell it?
-Is there any reason a friendly wizard wouldn't say, "Sure! Copy all my spells!"
I don't love the idea of allowing those things, but I would want a sound basis for denying them.
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