Not sure if you noticed, but the fee isn't to actually look at the spell book (comparisson: try armour out in the shop), but to copy propriety knowledge. Knowledge for wizards is a premium resource.
Ok. If I hand over the weapon I made to you, created with all my special forging techniques and my own metal alloy blend, that's some premium technology right there. What if you use that piece to make copies of my work and put me out of business? I should probably charge a fee on top of the item expense and put in a "class action lawsuit" rainy day fund, just in case.
It's silly that there's a fee to share spell knowledge. Obviously it shouldn't be "free," but this seems more of an RP thing to me. Someone wants to learn fireball? Big deal, not like me saying no will prevent him from learning it. He wants to learn a spell I researched myself? Umm...not so sure, there. And if the wizard is someone I know and trust, why do I need to charge him? What if we trade a few spells known each? A hard fee should be the last resort if nothing else makes sense. Not the standard.
Nothing prevents the wizard from purchasing more spells. So this comparison is completely irrelevant.
It just takes some time, & effort to learn and write the mystical knowledge. I don't have a problem with this. A fighter has to spend a feat to learn exotic weapons. So the 5th level fighter goes to fighter academy, trains for 6 years, and still fails to master the Qualzerk Flamberge. But, woe, alas & alack, the rules allow the poor wizard to spend some cash and a little time to learn his tools.
Actually, your comparison is irrelevant. The wizard could buy some scrolls and add them in over time, sure. But if the Fighter wants to get a shield, sword, AND hemp rope all in one day (the nerve! /sarcasm), does he have to wait for three days to pass before he can use them all? Seems kind of dumb to me. And for the last time, WIZARD IS OVERPOWERED. I don't argue that. I'm not saying they need a helping hand. The system for adding spells that is in place now, in terms of limiting power, is just a minor inconvenience in any campaign, unless you're playing in a game where every second counts, action is nonstop, and you're lucky to have time to sleep let alone get "down time." I suppose then the rules for adding spells would actually limit power, but in a game like that most people would avoid playing a wizard anyway.
Que?!? Fighter has to purchase every single piece of weaponry and armour he owns. Even "merely" increasing the sword's +4 bonus to +5. Not exactly sure what point you are trying to make here...
And the wizard has to pay for every spell he adds. But that's not enough. He needs "special" ink to actually add it to his book. Does the Fighter need to buy something in order to equip the gear he just bought? That was the comparison I was making.
But multiple spellbooks are hardly comparitive to body slots, surely? In what way is this a fair comparison?!? The fighter has to pay for reserve weapons, in case his primary weapon gets sundered, lost, stolen, disintegrated, rusted, disarmed. But ultimately, it is a player choice.
And the wizard needs to learn extra spells beyond the 2/level he gets for free to cover all the utility stuff the party expects out of him. In this case, the Fighter just buys different weapons for different DR, back up equipment, etc... and that's the end. The wizard not just buys the spells, but has a premium amount of spell book space to store it till he pays for a blessed book. So, to compare body slots and extra stuff to prepared spells and extra ones not in use, the Fighter's only really limited to how many rings, amulets, bracers, etc... he wants to carry by weight. The wizard has to fit all his extra stuff in his book(s). And there is no ability I've seen short of Mordenkainen's Disjunction (aka, "the nuclear option") that destroys or takes away as many pieces of gear from the fighter as can be done to the wizard's available spells just by burning or stealing a single book in one single action.
Your questions aren't really serious, are they? Or not really thought all the way through.
I think it's kind of silly to compare Fighter gear to wizard spells. I'm only half-serious, but you decided to make the comparison, so I figured I'd use it to argue against you. I probably could have saved myself all the typing by just telling you from the start that your argument wasn't really thought all the way through instead of entertaining it and making my case, but that seemed like it'd be rude and not particularly helpful. What do you think?
Different strokes for different folks. Some people find resource management very interesting and fun challenge: Managing what spells to memorise, what spells to learn, how much money and time to spend on obtaining new knowledge, versus producing new items. Others don't.
And you can do this without all that stupidity with any prepared caster other than wizard/wu jen/anything else I'm forgetting with a spellbook. Except for the balancing time between making items and learning part, although if you enjoy researching new spells you can even get that experience with other classes. I don't mind balancing resources and time. I do mind the unfathomable circus you go through as part of that, though.
Those that don't, should really stick to the spontaneous spellcasters, IMO. There are a large number of very flavourable ones available.
There are. But you shouldn't need to play a spontaneous arcanist to avoid the headaches you never deal with when playing a divine prepared caster. Like I argued by taking the theory to its logical extreme: making a class just plain annoying to play as is NOT a good way to balance its powers.
