D&D 5E Know what spell I hate?

[fromthe1980s]

The one I can't cast. Here is my attempt to somewhat ease my pain and somewhat skirt the Vancian system. A homebrew Wizard school.

Please critique.

School of Scholarship
Wizards of the school of Scholarship spend their spare time studying books of magical lore. Through their studies of spells of all character classes they discover diverse magical secrets and can interact with written spells more readily than other wizards.

Scholarship Savant
Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the gold and time you must spend to copy a spell into your spellbook is halved.

Additional Cantrips
At 2nd level, you learn two cantrips in addition to the number granted by the wizard table. Because you learn the cantrips by teasing out the magical movements and magical words from reading detailed descriptions of the spells and their casting methods from any number of appropriate books, your cantrips can be from the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard list. The cantrips count as wizard cantrips for you. You gain an additional cantrip from this ability at 6th level and again at 10th level.

Quick Reading
Starting at 2nd level, you can cast a spell by reading directly from your spellbook. You don’t need to have the spell prepared. You must hold your spellbook with one hand. Spells that normally take a bonus action or a reaction take one action to cast. You can use this ability twice per short or long rest.

Improvised Casting
Starting at 6th level, you can attempt to cast any Wizard spell of a level you can normally cast., whether in your spellbook or not. Your study of spellcraft has empowered you with the general knowledge to manipulate the Weave as needed. You must have the appropriate material components, if any, for the spell you choose. To determine whether you successfully cast the spell, make an INT check with a DC equal to 12+ the spell’s level (cantrips count as zero level spells). You can use this ability twice per short or long rest.

Enhanced Scroll Casting
Beginning at 10th level, you can cast a spell from a spell scroll no matter the class of the spell. The spell must be of a level you can normally cast as a Wizard.. The spell counts as a wizard spell for you. To determine if you cast it successfully, make an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10+ the spell’s level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect. Once the spell is case, the words on the scroll fade, and the scroll itself crumbles to dust.

Instead of casting the spell, you can attempt to copy it into your spellbook. If the spell is a wizard spell, you follow the normal rules for copying spells. If the spell is not a wizard spell, you must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 20 + the spell’s level. If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. The spell counts as a wizard spell for you and can be prepared and cast as any other spell of its level. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.

Improved Ritual Caster
Starting at 14th level, you can cast a ritual from your spellbook with the normal casting time and without adding 10 minutes to the casting time. You can use this ability twice per short or long rest.

 

[Tormyr]

Don't have permission to view it. Please just copy and paste to your opening post.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Druids and sorcerers don't learn their spells from books. Clerics and warlocks receive their spells from a higher power, and you can't learn how to cast their spells by just reading about them. Bards may keep their spells in books, but they're written in musical notation, which wizards can't necessarily read.

The ability to learn spells from other classes isn't only a mechanical or balance issue. In most cases, it just doesn't make sense.

If you can get past that, then the school seems fine. It's possibly a little underpowered, since you don't have anything that actually improves the spells you cast, but that's close enough to balanced by the ability to always have the right spell at hand (if you have access to it).

 

[Gonat]

I like the general idea, but maybe a limit in the level of the non-wizard spells you can cast/put in the book will not be a bad idea. Even if just to put out 9th or 8th level spells.

 

[Satyrn]

I like the general idea, but maybe a limit in the level of the non-wizard spells you can cast/put in the book will not be a bad idea. Even if just to put out 9th or 8th level spells.

Building on that, I'd limit it to non-wizard spells of levels 1-5, as that's sort of a 5e standard, when handing out bonus spells to subclasses, and the like. It just feels right to me. Although I don't like that second paragraph of Enhanced Scroll Casting; it feels a step too far, but whatever. You might as well try it, see how it works.

As for Improved Ritual Caster, It feels especially weak and pointless. It's just 2 more uses of Quick Reading, but only for rituals. Meh. I'd rather just have one more use of Quick Reading. You could probably even easily give 2 more uses of Quick Reading.

 

[Phazonfish]

I positively love your Enhanced Scroll Casting feature. I would be a little afraid to play this class though because I would call it "fragile" design in that it depends on your DM handing you scrolls. That said, its probably fine, because if your DM is denying you access to things really important to your character even if you take effort to search them out then you have a bigger problem then your choice of subclass. Also, WotC seems really hesitant to make anything like this given the caveat they put on the Theurgist's spellbook. In any case, I may save this to my list of options to present to my players, so thanks.