Casting spells right out of your spellbook

[mattcolville]

I thought you could, once upon a time, use a spell in your spellbook like a scroll. Read it out of there, and it's gone from your spellbook.

Is this no longer true? Is there a rule for this anywhere?

 

[Falling Icicle]

I thought you could, once upon a time, use a spell in your spellbook like a scroll. Read it out of there, and it's gone from your spellbook.

Is this no longer true? Is there a rule for this anywhere?

I have never heard of this before. I can't imagine any situation where I would ever want to use it though, even if it did exist.

I have experimented with a house rule that is somewhat similar to this though. Basically Wizards are able to cast any spell they know (as in spent the time and spellcraft roll to learn) freely, like a Sorcerer. However, if need arises they can cast spells they haven't mastered from a spellbook. They have to have their spellbook out, and the casting time is increased to a full round if it was a standard or free action, or adds 1 round to the casting time otherwise. They also have to make a Spellcraft roll (DC 15 + Spell level) to get it right. Failing this roll by 5 or more causes a mishap much like screwing up a scroll.

[EDIT] I believe I know what you are thinking of. Basically a Wizard can leave spell slots empty, so that he can prepare spells later in the day. It takes, I believe, 1 minute per level of the spell to prepare it. I'm not sure if this is an official rule, but it's one we allow in our game.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I thought you could, once upon a time, use a spell in your spellbook like a scroll. Read it out of there, and it's gone from your spellbook.

Is this no longer true? Is there a rule for this anywhere?

In prior editions, this was a house rule.

A really poorly-thought-out house rule, because it basically meant that any 1st level wizard could cheaply run off as many scrolls as he wanted to.

Under 3rd and 3.5 ed, it'd be just as bad, because a scroll costs more to write than a page in a spellbook. Well, it does for any spell above 1st level (unless you use the price structure under boccob's blessed book for scribing spells).

 

[WCrawford]

Actually it was an optional rule from the Complete Book of Wizards (2nd Edition). The spell in the spellbook would be read as a scroll and then be removed from the book. There was also a fairly likely posibility that the spell preceding or following the spell used would be 'consumed' in the process, and even a chance that bothe the spell before and after would be gone.

 

[Spatula]

EDIT: Nevermind, I'm no longer certain of anything. The item creation costs in the SRD look very strange to me.

 

[CalrinAlshaw]

I'm almost CERTAIN that you have that scroll formula wrong...I'm absolutely sure the MARKET price is 25*spell level*caster level. Then creation is half that and XP cost is 1/25 of the market price.

(Thus a first level, first caster level spell to scribe on a scroll costs 12.5gp and 1XP)

Calrin Alshaw

 

[Spatula]

That's what I thought too, but the SRD says 12.5 * spell level * caster level. And it lists potions as 25 * spell level * caster level, when I thought it was 50 (with the cost to create for both being half that value).

 

[Wolffenjugend]

This is a house rule we still use and, although it's seldom used, it has proven to be a life-saver. The latest incident was when the P wizard managed to escape from a sealed chamber (containing a stone golem) with a stone shape spell cast out of his spellbook. It was life or death so it wasn't really a question of "was it worth it?"

 

[dcollins]

I thought you could, once upon a time, use a spell in your spellbook like a scroll. Read it out of there, and it's gone from your spellbook.

Originally in AD&D 1st Ed., Unearthed Arcana, p. 80. (This could be considered an optional rule, even though UA at that time was core.)

 

[Li Shenron]

That's what I thought too, but the SRD says 12.5 * spell level * caster level. And it lists potions as 25 * spell level * caster level, when I thought it was 50 (with the cost to create for both being half that value).

...what kind of SRD are you looking at?

Both in the Item Creation feats descriptions and the magic item tables the SRD gives the base price for scrolls as 25gp * SL * CL and for potions as 50gp * SL * CL. Market price is base price + additional material cost (or equivalent for Xp cost). As normal for all crafted items, the cost-to-create is half that base price, plus the additional material cost. You might have been confused between base price and cost-to-create.