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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 6860491" data-attributes="member: 2629">Too many spells are ranked too highly.A wizard that spends a CONSIDERABLE percentage of his treasure adding spells to his spell book will end up with one additional spell (beyond the 2 freebies) per level.  For example, a PC should get roughly 500 GP total in non-item treasure over levels 1 to 4 if you follow the DMG guidelines.  This is not exact, obviously, but it is the average and most PCs should not be too far off - and could be below.  It costs a wizard 25 to 100 GP to copy a spell of 1st or 2nd level into their spellbook depending upon school and level.  If it is a spell they found, they don't have to buy it.  If not, they need to spend between 50 and 100 to buy a 1st level spell or 100 to 500 GP to buy a second level spell.  That means a minimum of 75 GP if they're buying the scroll to get it in their spellbook - and a maximum of 600.  Assuming DM's price scrolls on the cheap end, we're still talking about a PC using pretty much all of his resource to add 2 first and 2 second level spells to the spell book between levels 1 and 4.  In the end, PCs are going to end up with their 2 free spells per level and only a small handful of additional spells in most games that follow the DMG guidelines.  Of those spells, a quarter to a half will be rituals and non-adventuring spells (clone, simulacrum, teleport circle, etc... What constitutes an adventuring spell and a non-adventuring spell will differ from wizard to wizard).  That means that about half to three quarters will be the spells they are preparing when they adventure - and that is going to be only slightly more than the number of spells they *can* prepare.  Amongst the spells they are not preparing will be spells they learned that have been 'phased out' as they become inefficient compared to other high level spells (example: Sleep is awesome at level 1, but a slot of wizards stop preparing it around level 6 to 10... but it is still a spell you have in your spellbook).End result: You're going to average about 5 spells known per level with 2 of the 5 being rituals/non-adventuring spells.  Of the other 3, you'll be preparing 2 and the ones you select not to prepare will often be spells you've outgrown.  This leaves very little room for those dark blue spells that they might like to have, but may not prepare all the time... In other words, these types of guides need a lot less blue and gold and a lot more of the other colors.  A great spell is useless if you don't have the spellbook space to learn it - or the bandwidth to prepare it if it does go in your book.</blockquote>

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