Number of Wizard spells

[gothtaku]

Alright, after pouring over the books (and probably over-examining), I find myself a tad confused about bonus spells and the like. I had always assumed that the draw of wizards was they had access to all spells in the PHB from their training, just that they had a limited number they could cast per day.

To be honest, I usually play fighter-types to avoid this headache. So what i've got is:

3rd Level Wizard
16 intelligence
School Specalization: Evocation (Barred transmutation/illusion)

How many spells do I have?

 

[Li Shenron]

The spells a Wizard have available for preparing each day are usually those scribed in her Spellbook (tho there are some extra rules about preparing spells from other spellbooks, but let's forget about them for now). These are commonly referred as the spells "known" by the Wizard, although without her spellbook she can normally prepare only Read Magic.

When you start at 1st level, you "know" all 0th-level spells (except those from a barred school if you're a specialist) and 3+Int 1st-level spells of your choice.

Every time you level up, you "learn" (meaning you add them to your spellbook) 2 more spells of your choice, usually chosen of the highest level you can cast.

Your Wizard could have:

@lv1
- all 0th-lv spells (except illusions & transmutations)
- six 1st-lv spells (3 as a basis, plus 3 from Int bonus)

@lv2
- all 0th-lv spells (except illusions & transmutations)
- eight 1st-lv spells

@lv3
- all 0th-lv spells (except illusions & transmutations)
- eight 1st-lv spells
- two 2nd-lv spells

However a common way to "learn" more spells is to copy them from a scroll or a another spellbook into yours. There is no limit to how many spells you can copy this way, but there are gp to pay for each spell.

 

[gothtaku]

Thanks for clearing that up. ^_^

 

[Milkman Dan]

School Specalization: Evocation (Barred transmutation/illusion)

Yikes. That might be rough. No haste, fly, polymorph and its variations, and no stat-boosting spells such as bull's strength for that matter... right up to permanency, shapechange and timestop.

 

[Festivus]

Yikes. That might be rough. No haste, fly, polymorph and its variations, and no stat-boosting spells such as bull's strength for that matter... right up to permanency, shapechange and timestop.

No need to fly when you blow them to bits with evocation spells.

I have abjuration as one of my prohibitied schools, which means no dispelling or flexible counterspelling. For me however, it was a in character choice I made, and thus far hasn't proved to be a huge problem. I will admit however that Transmutation is one of the more useful schools to have.

 

[Hellefire]

Hm, my PHB lists Permanency as a Universal spell. Is there some errata or SRD I should check?

Aaron

 

[kenobi65]

Hm, my PHB lists Permanency as a Universal spell. Is there some errata or SRD I should check?

Still listed as Universal in the current WotC SRD.

 

[Old Drew Id]

For spells that you want to learn beyond your automatic spells, just figure out the cost for a scroll of that spell plus the cost to scribe that spell into your book. I would probably look to spend 1/4 of the wizard's starting cash on this, but no more than 1/3 of your cash.

Also, if you have Libris Mortis, there is a feat there to grant you additional known spells if you are a wizard:
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Mother Cyst [General]
(from Libris Mortis p28)

Requires: Caster level 1st, Know (religion): 2 ranks

Effects: You grow an internal cyst of Undead flesh which adds the following spells to your *known* list:
1st – Necrotic Awareness
2nd – Necrotic Cyst
3rd – Necrotic Bloat
4th – Necrotic Domination
5th – Necrotic Burst
6th – Necrotic Eruption
7th – Necrotic Tumor
8th – Necrotic Empowerment
9th – Necrotic Termination

If you are a caster who prepares spells, you can prepare all necrotic spells without your spellbook.
----------

Of course, if you really want a huge list of *known* spells, then what you want to play is a cleric. Clerics have any cleric spell on their known list instantly. The trade-off is that wizard spells are generally more powerful than cleric spells of the same level.