D&D (2024) Spell books

[UngeheuerLich]

I want arcane tricksters and eldritch knights to have a spellbook.

I would not mind bards having a spellbook too.

I love spell books. It was always a cool thing to find spellbooks back in 2nd edition. I want them back.

 

[Minigiant]

Arcane tricksters and eldritch knights, yes. I've already converted both in my game to prepared spellbook casters.

Bard. Nooooooooo. Bard's gimmick is they have access to all types of magic and spellbooks would betoo much.

Sorcerer? Yes. Sorcerer needs an Arcane or Noble Blookdline Origin to mimic the Harry Potter/Dresden style caster where you are an academically trained sorcerer of a magic bloodline. Spellbooks, bonus megamagic, and magic wands flicking.

 

[niklinna]

Sorcerer? Yes. Sorcerer needs an Arcane or Noble Blookdline Origin to mimic the Harry Potter/Dresden style caster where you are an academically trained sorcerer of a magic bloodline. Spellbooks, bonus megamagic, and magic wands flicking.

I thought sorcerer's whole schtick was that their magic was innate and made all the poor book-bound casters jealous.

I love spell books. It was always a cool thing to find spellbooks back in 2nd edition. I want them back.

Bring back rolling to learn a spell, too! Nothing like murdering wizards left and right until you finally find one with fireball in their spell book, and then you fail the roll.

 

[Minigiant]

I thought sorcerer's whole schtick was that their magic was innate and made all the poor book-bound casters jealous.

That's what makes it better as you can roleplay the rich snob academic sorcerers of a magic dynasty who have innate magic and spellbooks and look down on the brutish peasent sorcerers and commoner wizards.

 

[R_J_K75]

Bring back rolling to learn a spell, too! Nothing like murdering wizards left and right until you finally find one with fireball in their spell book, and then you fail the roll.

And bring back limited number of spells known per you primary casting ability score. Make the players really consider what spells they learn. I hate that spells can be swapped when they level up too.

 

[Wyckedemus]

I've been thinking of ways to encourage and reward spellbook use and spell acquisition.

1. Make it a mini-game/collection-achievement. Scribing more spells unlocks benefits. Scribing spells is a money sink, so it pays into your character's personal enhancement/development. This also makes spellbooks as a treasure more valuable/sought after.​

1. Perhaps telling other Wizards how many spells you've collected is a bit of a brag. "I am Wyckedemus, the Arcanawrath, Explorer of the Ninth Circle of Magic, Master of 667 Spell Levels. Are you looking for something rare to scribe? I have have an eclectic collection, including Animate Objects and Disintegration. Have anything I might find interesting?"
2. Maybe every 5 spell levels you scribe gives you a free spell level on your next spell scribed.
3. Maybe every 100 spell levels that you learn (and scribe) into your collection lets you learn a new cantrip on top of what normally get, or gives you some other benefit or increases your mastery of magic in some way.

2. I like the idea of specializing in or personalizing spells. Let's say you can spend downtime (1 day per spell-level) and magical reagents (50g per spell-level) to engage in arcane spell scribing research for a spell you already own. This research lets you attempt to decipher hidden underpinnings of the spell in order to figure out how to tweak and specialize in/personalize it for you. At the end of the research you can roll an (Intelligence[Arcana] check vs. DC 15+spell level. If you fail, you can spend more time and money to try again If you succeed, you scribe a spell that has a permanent modification that works only for you. Perhaps pick one:​

1. Lets you spend inspiration to cast it as a bonus action. (I like the new use of inspiration to be honest).
2. Lets you spend inspiration to raise the Save DC by 1.
3. Enhance the range by 5 or 10 ft.
4. A ranged spell can be cast as a touch spell.
5. Change the energy type.
6. Turn a burst into a cone.
7. Add an energy type and split the damage types.
8. Talk to your DM ahead of time to see if they have any cool ideas
9. Offer your own cool idea, but respect the DMs final decision on what is allowable.

I think it would be cool if Wizards could craft metamagic-like enhancements to their spells as they are scribed rather than casting them on the fly like Sorcerer.

 

[tetrasodium]

I thought sorcerer's whole schtick was that their magic was innate and made all the poor book-bound casters jealous.


Bring back rolling to learn a spell, too! Nothing like murdering wizards left and right until you finally find one with fireball in their spell book, and then you fail the roll.

It may have been their schtick back in the day when there were significant differences between sorc/wiz and a much lower encounter expectation but not in 5e. Going from prepared vancian casting to 5e's repeated spell slot progression slowdown & prepared spells with quantum slots dramatically reduces the breadth and depth of what a wizard could prepare. Shifting from int mod skill points to choose two from this much collapsed list to be proficient with entirely removed the wizard's ability to uniquely know things. The shift from balanced spells to "deliberately overtuned" "iconic" spells largely removed the sorcerer's opportunity cost in knowing fewer spells than a Wizard's spellbook because they would both generally use much the same iconic spells. The multiplication of expected encounters combined with sorcerer's flexible casting spell slot conversion even gives sorcerers the option to enjoy the Wizard's former high number of spell casts benefit without much cost thanks to how 5e handles "iconic" spells while the wizard gains very little by having a bunch of "unusable till tomorrow" spells in their spell book. The shift to magic items more powerful & optional with no good ways of making wands/scrolls/etc as before simply removes a thing that wizard once excelled at where they once gained quite a bit.

The already mentioned skill simplification was done in a way that dramatically overvalues dex/cha making sorcerer a full on wizard with a better casting stat as their schtick

 

[Horwath]

As for spellbooks;

either all spellcaster should have very small amount of spells known(sorcerer amount+sublclass spells), or all casters should have spellbooks(wizard styles+subclass spells).

I would personally go for sorcerer level of spells known for all. +2 spells from levels 0-5 depending on sub-class.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

As for spellbooks;

either all spellcaster should have very small amount of spells known(sorcerer amount+sublclass spells), or all casters should have spellbooks(wizard styles+subclass spells).

I would personally go for sorcerer level of spells known for all. +2 spells from levels 0-5 depending on sub-class.

I would rather have spellbooks for everyone.
I'd even give battlemasters "spellbooks", which in their case would be paying other battlemasters to train them in maneuvers.

It is a money sink and something you can invest your hard earned money on.

And the best thing about this: it does not raise your power level per se, but increases versatility (which is a different kind of power).
I would vastly prefer this over buyable magic items (which usually result in a straight increase in power).

 

[Horwath]

I would rather have spellbooks for everyone.
I'd even give battlemasters "spellbooks", which in their case would be paying other battlemasters to train them in maneuvers.

It is a money sink and something you can invest your hard earned money on.

And the best thing about this: it does not raise your power level per se, but increases versatility (which is a different kind of power).
I would vastly prefer this over buyable magic items (which usually result in a straight increase in power).

versatility of spells is kind of a problem.

10th level cleric or wildfire druid can have 25 spells prepared of that 15 are variable from day to day.
aberrant mind has 21 spell, of that 0 is variable from day to day.