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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 981555" data-attributes="member: 99">I'll state up front that I'm an advocate of the "scribe for free" interpretation of the BBB.  I'll also admit that my view is tainted by my utter hatred of the way scribing costs were implemented in the 3.0 PHB.  Just for the record, I don't contend that there should be no costs.  I just don't like the inconsistent way it is put into effect (and I've house ruled the hell out of it in my campaigns, largely rendering the BBB issue moot).That said, I rarely see folks on the other side of the argument (which I respect if don't agree with) acknowledge that there are some opportunity costs associated with the BBB.  The necessity to acquire the Secret Page spell as well as spend the time and money to craft it, not to mention the Craft Wonderous Item feat (though I'd probably argue that the feat is its own reward) are costs that will take some time to recoup.  Alternatively, the Wizard could part with twice as much money and simply buy one, but that requires that he be in circumstances where such a thing is possible.Once he has one, will he want to re-scribe the spells in his old spellbook into it to consolidate things?  If so, that will take up some time as well as space in the BBB.  When he goes up levels and gets his "free" spells, they'll take up space in the BBB (again assuming that he wants to keep things in one book) and he isn't really getting any return on his investment for those spells because they wouldn't have cost him anything to scribe anyway.  The payoff is when he finds new scrolls that he can scribe.  But there is a cost associated with that too.  If he didn't have the BBB, it might have been cost prohibitive for him to scribe the new scroll into his spellbook, especially if it was a spell he didn't think he would cast very often.  But if he had opted not to scribe it, he would still have the scroll and would have been able to use it instead of scribe it.  Of course he can still make the same decision once he has the BBB, but then he isn't getting any return on his investment.Looking at the 3.5 version of the BBB, we can easily do the math and see that it can hold 1,000 pages and we know that scribing costs remain 100GP/Page so it has a potential for saving the Wizard 100,000 GP.  For a one time expenditure of only 12,500 GP!  An amazing value!But consider this:  What if I offered to sell you a truck, suitable for hauling loads of gravel, for $12,500.  I further inform you that people are paying $100 per load of gravel and it takes one day to haul each load.  It is expected that you will be able to haul 1,000 loads over the life of the truck.  So that's a $100,000 return on a $12,500 investment!  You'd be a fool not to buy it!But wait, it's not every day that somebody is going to want a load of gravel.  It might not be even every other day.  You have to haul at least 125 loads of gravel just to break even.  Even if you haul a load every 3 days, it will take over a year before that happens!  And for you to get the whole $100,000, it will take over 8 years at that rate.The question is:  How long will it take for the Wizard to encounter 125 levels worth of scrolls that he doesn't already have and that he would have wanted to scribe into his spellbook anyway?  Until he does that, he hasn't even broken even on the BBB yet.  There are a LOT of other magic items that he could have crafted or bought for that 12,500 GP that would have helped him out during that time.</blockquote>

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