Cantrips and spellbooks

[Ancalagon]

Hello

A quick question: are cantrips in spellbooks? Unlike other spells, a cantrip is an "At will" power that the user can't forget. So I'm not sure if they should be in a spellbook or not...

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[CheezyRamen]

Sure, why not? I am not at home so I cannot look up the actual rules or text along with cantrips but to my knowledge they are simple enough that after the repetition they can be cast at will without a lot of effort. If this is the case of a player wizard trying to get cantrips out of an enemy spellbook, that's for you to decide but I would generally say No unless they were willing to take a dividend of their xp to learning a cantrip, as I feel it would be unbalancing to have a wide array of cantrips at an earlier than intended level.

 

[Caliban]

Technically, No. In my home game, I sometimes include them in a spellbook and allow the wizard to swap out one of their "known" cantrips for one from the spellbook the next time they gain a level, if they so desire.

 

[jaelis]

The rules say

Spellbook
At 1st level, you have a spellbook containing six 1st-level wizard spells of your choice. Your spellbook is the repository of the wizard spells you know, except your cantrips, which are fixed in your mind.

So no, cantrips don't go in your spell book.

 

[Shiroiken]

By RAW, I don't believe they are, but may be found on scrolls.

In my game, I've set Cantrips as 1st level spells that can be easily mastered (becoming Cantrips). That way if someone wants to prepare a cantrip and is willing to spend a spell slot for it, they can do so.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

By RAW, no, but future mages are not born knowing cantrips, so they have to be learned somehow before they become permanent knowledge in a mage's brain. So the average mage probably would not have them in written form, but a mage who teaches apprentices, or a mage school, would have physical copies of the cantrips. Also, when new cantrips are introduced to the game, like in the Elemental Evil Player's Guide or SCAG etc, those cantrips are not just magically known by every existing mage, so they would need to be found or learned somehow.

 

[Kalshane]

I'm toying with the idea of doing something similar to Pathfinder and change the "Known" cantrips to the number you can prepare per day (if you're a prepared caster). In such a case, a wizard would need to record cantrips into his spellbook as he learned them. (It's definitely not RAW in 5E, though.)

 

[Satyrn]

By RAW, I don't believe they are, but may be found on scrolls.

In my game, I've set Cantrips as 1st level spells that can be easily mastered (becoming Cantrips). That way if someone wants to prepare a cantrip and is willing to spend a spell slot for it, they can do so.

I could see another alternative, too:

Let the caster prepare a cantrip, and expend a 1st level slot to gain unlimited use until the slot is regained.

 

[cbwjm]

Cantrips don't go in your spellbook, however, I am going to allow casters that prepare spells to prepare their cantrips in my next game. For wizards, this will require them to have them recorded in their spell book. I'm probably going to start them off with 6 cantrips in their spellbook in addition to their 1st level spells.

 

[BoldItalic]

PHB Errata (or recent printings of the PHB)

Spellbook (p. 114). A spellbook doesn’t contain cantrips.

So by RAW, no, but whatever makes the game more fun - do it.