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Market price for a spell book?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7947572" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>If you don't think 5E is a far superior system to everything that has come before, I could pontificate about why it is for hours. </p><p></p><p>Regardless, D&D is an RPG. A Role playing game. Characters play a role in a story. So do NPCs. And a sale of a spellbook in D&D is nothing more than an interaction between a PC and an NPC. Don't just reduce it to numbers - think about what NPCs might be interested in it and what they might offer.</p><p></p><p>Let's say Tim the Wizard comes back to town with a spellbook he collected on his last journey. It was in the possession of a wizard from far away. It has 32 spells in it of levels 1 through 6, with most of them being from the PHB, but a 6th, a 5th, a 4th, 2 3rd, 2 2nd, and 3 1st spells that nobody in the region has (DM created). Tim has already copied down the spells he did not know into his own spellbook and now wants to sell the spellbook he found for profit.</p><p></p><p>He goes to the local wizard's academy and is directed to Headmaster Giles. He shows Giles the book and asks for an offer. Giles notes that most of the spells in the book are already known to the academy, but the 10 new spells interest them. They'd like to borrow the book and copy the spells, and are willing to pay 300 GP per day. They plan to put wizards to work copying spells immediately and go around the clock, returning the spellbook within 3 days. If the PCs balk, he says that they'll buy it for 1000 gp. They're pretty sure that whoever buys it will agree to rent it to them, so they are not willing to budge without a great persuasion or intimidation role.</p><p></p><p>Not satisfied, Tim continues on and discovers that there is an independent wizard in town named Myztek. When he meets with Myztek, Myztek asks to thumb through the book and identifies that in addition to the 10 spells new to the region, 6 of the other PHB spells are ones he has not found yet. Again, he'd like to borrow the book to copy the spells. He offers an exchange to Tim - He whips out his spellbook and let's Tim see what is in it. There are a few unique spells that Myztek created in it, as well as a number of PHB spells Tim does not know. Myztek offers to give Tim lifetime access to his spellbooks in exchange for lifetime access to any spellbooks that comes into Tim's possession. However, if he is to copy the spells in Tim's book, he will be unable to offer any cash as he'll need that gold to buy supplies. When Tim pushes to make a sale, Myztek offers a unique magic item that he has, or to trade away a map to a damned dwarven city filled with curses - and treasure.</p><p></p><p>Tim says he'll think about it and continues on. While he is pursuing more options he is approached by a wealthy noble in town. The noble says he heard about the spellbook and wants to buy it for his son, a fledgling wizard at the academy with "real promise". Tim has a low passive insight and is not on guard, so he fails to realize that the noble is a member of the local thieves guild in disguise - but not just a rogue. He asks to see the book and then casts dimension door to travel into hiding with it. He has an amulet of proof against detection and location. Tim now has to try to track him down to recover the book or just let it go. Later on, he may encounter the spells in the hands of the guild and realize they stole it from him.</p><p></p><p>Lots of ways to go, but you need to put yourself in the position of the NPCs to figure out what they might offer.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 7947572, member: 2629"] If you don't think 5E is a far superior system to everything that has come before, I could pontificate about why it is for hours. Regardless, D&D is an RPG. A Role playing game. Characters play a role in a story. So do NPCs. And a sale of a spellbook in D&D is nothing more than an interaction between a PC and an NPC. Don't just reduce it to numbers - think about what NPCs might be interested in it and what they might offer. Let's say Tim the Wizard comes back to town with a spellbook he collected on his last journey. It was in the possession of a wizard from far away. It has 32 spells in it of levels 1 through 6, with most of them being from the PHB, but a 6th, a 5th, a 4th, 2 3rd, 2 2nd, and 3 1st spells that nobody in the region has (DM created). Tim has already copied down the spells he did not know into his own spellbook and now wants to sell the spellbook he found for profit. He goes to the local wizard's academy and is directed to Headmaster Giles. He shows Giles the book and asks for an offer. Giles notes that most of the spells in the book are already known to the academy, but the 10 new spells interest them. They'd like to borrow the book and copy the spells, and are willing to pay 300 GP per day. They plan to put wizards to work copying spells immediately and go around the clock, returning the spellbook within 3 days. If the PCs balk, he says that they'll buy it for 1000 gp. They're pretty sure that whoever buys it will agree to rent it to them, so they are not willing to budge without a great persuasion or intimidation role. Not satisfied, Tim continues on and discovers that there is an independent wizard in town named Myztek. When he meets with Myztek, Myztek asks to thumb through the book and identifies that in addition to the 10 spells new to the region, 6 of the other PHB spells are ones he has not found yet. Again, he'd like to borrow the book to copy the spells. He offers an exchange to Tim - He whips out his spellbook and let's Tim see what is in it. There are a few unique spells that Myztek created in it, as well as a number of PHB spells Tim does not know. Myztek offers to give Tim lifetime access to his spellbooks in exchange for lifetime access to any spellbooks that comes into Tim's possession. However, if he is to copy the spells in Tim's book, he will be unable to offer any cash as he'll need that gold to buy supplies. When Tim pushes to make a sale, Myztek offers a unique magic item that he has, or to trade away a map to a damned dwarven city filled with curses - and treasure. Tim says he'll think about it and continues on. While he is pursuing more options he is approached by a wealthy noble in town. The noble says he heard about the spellbook and wants to buy it for his son, a fledgling wizard at the academy with "real promise". Tim has a low passive insight and is not on guard, so he fails to realize that the noble is a member of the local thieves guild in disguise - but not just a rogue. He asks to see the book and then casts dimension door to travel into hiding with it. He has an amulet of proof against detection and location. Tim now has to try to track him down to recover the book or just let it go. Later on, he may encounter the spells in the hands of the guild and realize they stole it from him. Lots of ways to go, but you need to put yourself in the position of the NPCs to figure out what they might offer. [/QUOTE]
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