Boccob's Blessed Book

[Bastoche]

On another topic, someone came up with the fact that scribing spelle in a spellbook is very expensive and someone else pointed out that book.

For your eyes only, there is 308 spells on the wizard.s list without 0th level spells (since you get them all at first level). If you have 16 in int at lvl 1, you will get for "free" 46 spells in your career, leaving only 262 to get in your spell book.

One BBB can contain 45 spells of any level. It cost 9500 gp on the "open" market and cost 4250 to create (at 7th level at least). And you have enough money to build one only at 9th level. So assuming you never scribe any spell before 9th level and that you take the craft wondrous item feat, it would cost (262/45 + 1)*4250gp to have all the spells on the wizard spell list. Which is 25 500 gp. A specialist wizard may need one less BBB.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

well you still need the spells so either a lot of captured spellbooks or a lot of scrolls, or a combinaiton of the two is needed, and that would liekly cost some cash as well.

 

[Bastoche]

Of course... But I'm comparing scribing cost. Even without BBB you'd have to acquire the spells, but scribing would be much much much higher!

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Just consider it a clarificaiton then. Yes BBB saves you tons in scribing costs, heck 3 9th level spells cost 5400 to scribe normally, and that would only be 3 of the 45 pages in a BBB. heck you even save about 100 gp a spell on 1st level spells if you made it yourself. The savings is just insane.

If the scibing costs are suppsoed to be a ballanicng factor to the wizard then this item is broken. It is too ig of a dodge around the costs. Now if the scribing costs are the things that are broken this could be seen as a fix.

 

[IceBear]

The likely hood that WotC said "Crap, we broke the scribing costs, let's fix it with a magic item rather than errata" is slim

I suspect that BBB was moved over from past editions where magic item creation wasn't as prolific as it is in 3E. Thus, I make sure that BBB is QUITE rare.

IceBear

 

[Shard O'Glase]

The likely hood that WotC said "Crap, we broke the scribing costs, let's fix it with a magic item rather than errata" is slim

I suspect that BBB was moved over from past editions where magic item creation wasn't as prolific as it is in 3E. Thus, I make sure that BBB is QUITE rare.

IceBear

As a general rule I agree with you, and i know FR isn't the best place to make examples reguarding magic. But teh capture spellbook rules seem to me to be a fix to the scribing costs. Whether that's because they felt it was a screw up, or because FR is high magic will remain to be seen in 3.5.

Thing is I guess even without BBB I never had problems, "dodging" the costs. It isn't as nice of a dodge but item creation lets you make cash beyond your normal level amount, by just selling your services to your fellow PCs at below market cost, yet above the cost to create.(heck if team spirit means less to you than it does to me you could sell it to them at market cost, or even try to snow them by selling it at above market cost)

So I guess I don't really even see the need for BBB to be a dodge. i think the size facot and extra durability are worth the 9000 in itself. I've kept it in my games since I do think the scribing costs are too high and i'm too lazy to come up with what I consider the right cost.

 

[Bastoche]

My only point was that there is 308 spells and that it only require 6 BBB. Take the rest as you will.

In our campaigns, there's no such things as a magic shop, so you couldn't buy it. You'd have to find it or make it. I think our DM would allow a PC to build more than one, but I don't know what would happen with the cost. IMO, it would be better is the cost was the same but the scribing time reduced with BBB. It would be like buying free time

 

[RyanL]

How prohibitive are the scribing costs, really? I mean, given the amount of gold a character is supposed to have at a certain level, will a wizard end up spending too much money scribing spells?

As a newbie wizard-player, I don't know the figures, but this concerns me.

-Ryan

 

[IceBear]

I/m too lazy to come up with the numbers right now , but it's my understanding that if your DM is giving out the appropriate amout of gold you will have a hard time coming up with the money needed to scribe spells and buy equipment/make items.

IceBear

 

[Bastoche]

100gp/(level+1) (or was it per level ?)

there's approximatetly 1 500+ levels in the wizard's spelll list. thats 1 500 000 gp in scribing cost, roughly. Of course, a wizard is not expected to get all the spells, but he will get more than the sorceror. And it would take him more than 1 500 days to scribe them all.

Supposedly, WotC balanced all the classes, so it shouldn't be a real problem. It's just that thinking about all the "wasted" money makes one wizard sad. Remember that knowledge is priceless Especially for a wizard.