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<blockquote data-quote="GreatLemur" data-source="post: 3150919" data-attributes="member: 28553">That's an extremely and flavorful explanation for the functioning of spellbooks, and I desperately wish they'd actually described it that way in the PHB (just like I wish they'd said that Wizards pre-cast their spells in the morning and then trigger them in the field, rather than talking about memorization or vague &quot;preparation&quot;).On the subject of scrolls, I'd clarify them further by pointing out that a scroll is a magical item.&nbsp; That text written on it isn't the full instructions for a spell; it just explains what the spell is and gives some info on how to trigger the spell that's already been pre-cast into the scroll.&nbsp; So then we can argue that the time and failure chance in transferring a spell from a scroll to a spellbook doesn't just represent the rote copying of the scroll's visible text to the book's pages, but the mystical analysis of the actual, pre-cast spell that's inside the scroll, and its physical recreation as &quot;magic circuitry&quot;.Of course, all of this is just apologism, rationalizing rules that don't really explain a whole lot, and are kind of a pain in the ass in practice.Personally, I think that the expense of spellbook maintenance isn't so bad, but the time consumed and the chance of failure always seemed a bit harsh.&nbsp; Discovering a horde of magical knowledge in the field would just be a hell of a lot more fun if the Wizard could simply cross a few bottles of ink off his inventory and use the new spells the next day.&nbsp; I would advocate relaxing these restrictions . . . but also eliminating the free spells learned each level.&nbsp; There are enough ways to obtain new spells without having them appear out of nowhere.As an afterthought, I'd also say that decreasing the time sink of learning new spells opens the door for maliciously-mislabeled spells equivalent to trapped or cursed itemes.&nbsp; Maybe that lich the party just killed included a small revenge contingency in his spellbook, like a Cloudkill spell with a range of 0, or a Summon Monster IX that doesn't let you control what you call.&nbsp; Naturally, a spellcraft check against an appropriate DC would detect such flaws.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="GreatLemur, post: 3150919, member: 28553"] That's an extremely and flavorful explanation for the functioning of spellbooks, and I desperately wish they'd actually described it that way in the PHB (just like I wish they'd said that Wizards [i]pre-cast[/i] their spells in the morning and then [i]trigger[/i] them in the field, rather than talking about memorization or vague "preparation"). On the subject of scrolls, I'd clarify them further by pointing out that a scroll is a [i]magical item[/i]. That text written on it isn't the full instructions for a spell; it just explains what the spell is and gives some info on how to trigger the spell that's already been pre-cast into the scroll. So then we can argue that the time and failure chance in transferring a spell from a scroll to a spellbook doesn't just represent the rote copying of the scroll's visible text to the book's pages, but the mystical analysis of the [i]actual, pre-cast spell[/i] that's inside the scroll, and its physical recreation as "magic circuitry". Of course, all of this is just apologism, rationalizing rules that don't really explain a whole lot, and are kind of a pain in the ass in practice. Personally, I think that the expense of spellbook maintenance isn't so bad, but the time consumed and the chance of failure always seemed a bit harsh. Discovering a horde of magical knowledge in the field would just be a hell of a lot more [i]fun[/i] if the Wizard could simply cross a few bottles of ink off his inventory and use the new spells the next day. I would advocate relaxing these restrictions . . . but also eliminating the free spells learned each level. There are enough ways to obtain new spells without having them appear out of nowhere. As an afterthought, I'd also say that decreasing the time sink of learning new spells opens the door for maliciously-mislabeled spells equivalent to trapped or cursed itemes. Maybe that lich the party just killed included a small revenge contingency in his spellbook, like a Cloudkill spell with a range of 0, or a Summon Monster IX that doesn't let you control what you call. Naturally, a spellcraft check against an appropriate DC would detect such flaws. [/QUOTE]

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