D&D 5E What is required to copy a spell into a spellbook?

[JRedmond]

What is required to copy a spell scroll into a spell book as a Wizard. In the PHB on pg. 114 it says it takes 2 hours per spell level and 50 gold. In the DMG on pg. 200 it says you need to make an Arcana check and if it fails the scroll is destroyed. Which is correct?

 

[Sunseeker]

I don't see these as conflicting requirements.

 

[Galendril]

I would say both. Not all sources of spells are scrolls. Some are from other spell books.

 

[JRedmond]

This is what I'm leaning towards, the PHB wording was just really bad. The player reads that and thinks they only need the time and money and have no risk of losing the scroll. I know previous versions had that risk but was hoping that's how the RAW read. Thanks guys.

I would say both. Not all sources of spells are scrolls. Some are from other spell books.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I'd say that it is what's in the PHB, unless you inform the players before character creation that Bad Things might happen! (I've always hated game world rules that only the GM is privy to.)

 

[JRedmond]

I'd say that it is what's in the PHB, unless you inform the players before character creation that Bad Things might happen! (I've always hated game world rules that only the GM is privy to.)

I agree with that to, how are other folks running their 5E games with scrolls?

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

It makes sense for it to take time and money (for magical inks, mood music, etc), AND it makes sense for the Arcana check (one little squiggle gone awry could be deadly)...
BUT...
Wouldn't it make more sense for the spell book to risk damage/destruction?
Copying a spell from spell book to scroll I can see resulting in a ruined scroll - it's the page you write on that's at risk from mistranscription, whether that page is loose (scroll) or bound (book).
That may be too risky game wise - maybe the DM can grant the careful scribe Advantage on the Arcana check to avoid burning a hole in the character's precious tome?

 

[Shiroiken]

I'd say that it is what's in the PHB, unless you inform the players before character creation that Bad Things might happen! (I've always hated game world rules that only the GM is privy to.)

Heh. I'm using a ton of optional rules from the DMG without telling my players, as well as a few house-rules. I've told them everything they need to know for character creation, and standard play. They didn't know that wands were not rechargeable until they actually found one and cast Identify. They didn't know that they're was a Lingering Wounds chart (of my own devising) that's rolled on every critical hit, until it came up that a PC received internal wounds and was unable to continue in the fight until healed. There are still quite a few they've yet to uncover.

This gives the players a sense of wonder, keeping the game from being just a numbers game. Anything can happen, and they get to discover the world as the play. Many players actually like this kind of game.

 

[Colmarr]

Heh. I'm using a ton of optional rules from the DMG without telling my players, as well as a few house-rules. I've told them everything they need to know for character creation, and standard play.

More power to you, but I'd hate that approach.

If the rules of the game don't tell me that combat might cause my PC lasting injuries, IMO the DM better tell me before he imposes that as a rule.

Ditto with magic item use. I'm pretty sure wizards would have figured out in-game that wands can't be recharged and that information would have become common knowledge among trained/organised arcane casters.

 

[Tony Vargas]

a PC received internal wounds and was unable to continue in the fight until healed.

This gives the players a sense of wonder, keeping the game from being just a numbers game.

Maybe it's just me, but when I think 'sense of wonder' in the context of the fantasy genre, I'm more likely to think 'dragon flying overhead' or 'uncovering secrets of a ruined temple' than 'sucking chest wound,' but hey, it takes all kinds...

Ditto with magic item use. I'm pretty sure wizards would have figured out in-game that wands can't be recharged and that information would have become common knowledge among trained/organised arcane casters.

I could imagine a world where items were /so/ rare, and wizards followed such a secretive hermetic tradition that an apprentice wizard out on his first adventures wouldn't know exactly how a wand might be recharged until he examined one - and even then might not be confident that the next one wouldn't be different....

...but, yeah, if it's a typical D&D world where it's no harder to get apprenticed to a wizard than to get into the thieves guild or become a squire or get a scholarship to Bard U...