how do you figure out how many spells an NPC wizard has in their spellbook?

[Olive]

I'm pretty sure there are no rules for this, so how do you do it? just give them what you think they should have? or give them spells known per level, then take any extras out of the NPC cash they have?

or what?

i'm a relatively new DM, and this will probably be important soon, so any help would be lovely...

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm pretty stingy, and give npc wizards the standard 2 spells per level in their spell book, with the possibility of 1-3 special researched spells if I want to introduce them to the campaign.

Cheers

 

[dren]

As a DM I usually follow the same rules for a PC. On pg 54 of the PHB, a 1st level wizard receives all zero level, 3 1st level plus another per point of intelligence bonus. Each time the wizard gains a new level, they also gain two new spells of any level they can cast.

They may also add a new spell to their spellbook by making a spellcraft check, the DC is 15 + level of the spell, found on pg 155 of the PHB.

Use this as a guide for the minimum number. If you figure the NPC is wealthy, add a few more.

 

[Black Omega]

I often just use Jamis's NPC generator as a start and then make a few adjustments from there. It's much faster than selecting it all on my own.

 

[Wicht]

I generally take the minimum and add a few spells to it, more so for the lower level spells and only 1 or 2 extra for the wizards top ranked spell level

 

[laiyna]

I got a few standard lists of spells for a specialist wizard (eg every specialist wizard gets the same spells from its specialist side). The other spells I roll from a "standard" table with common spells and reroll on the uncommen spell list table if they already know the spell.

Every wizard gets its spells in his spellbook equal to his bonus spells each level plus the level 1 spells. Then I roll a d10 for each 5 levels the caster got for number of "bonus" spells from the common table.

Thats about it,

Laiyna

 

[Blacksad]

The author of Tome&Blood assumed that wizards spent a bit of money to get new spell otherwise, if you only use the 2 additional spell per level, they would have less know spell than a sorcerer, which is silly.

The result is 20 spellbook, one for each level in this web enhancement:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/TB_Enh.zip

 

[Pielorinho]

I recently had this come up in my game for the first time -- the PCs have never managed to capture a wizard's spellbook before. I was pretty generous with the spells, given the difficulty IMC of finding new ones. If the party wizard wants to plunk down her share of the treasure on transcribing a spellbook, more power to her.

Daniel

 

[Olive]

thanks for the link Blacksad, i'll check it out...

and thanks for the advice from others. hey Pielorinho, do you use the spellcraft/foriegn spellbooks rules from magic of faerun? they allow you to take spells directly from a foriegn spellbook by 'mastering' it...

 

[Grraf]

Wizards aren't sorcerors.

Even in a low magic game it doesnt make a whole lot of sense to have wizards running around with -no- spells (having a handful of spells per level, as some people have suggested) is a bit strange to me. I've never benifted as a player or a DM from having a class whose specialty is being able to produce a variety of magical effects with proper preparation not function.

NPCs get spells that it seems like they'd have. I prefer casters who have their own style and interests. While your average player can skim through a few paragraphs and decide what they think of a spell I imagine that an arcane caster has to slowly work through a spells permutations over and over again before they can properly apply the spell. I often have weird spells (it helps that my players only own the PH and T&B) in my games and dole out information slowly.
Therefore wizards will tend to pick up spells that they find interesting. I also strongly recommend using spells as a roleplaying point. Force PCs to barter with odious people to get spells, maybe a traveling wizard feels them out about a spell or a sorcerer approaches them offering a rare scroll he has in exchange for a scribing a number of common useful spells the sorc can't cast.
I run a Scarred Lands game so it may have that influence but there's no such in as a "magic shop" where you just turn spells into scrolls. Magic is power and people who have power want to trade or exchange in a such a way that they can aquire more.

Bear in mind that between skill checks and it taking -1- day to copy a spell to a spell book most players take a long time to get most of the spells you give them into action. (My games almost always have a strong traveling/quest aspect so YMMV).

So long as the spells themselves are well balanced (be pariticularly careful of certain publishers and, unfortunately, MC's magic splat books) its hard to go wrong.