Rolling Up Spell Books

[Ariosto]

I have made up a table for generating spell books for NPC magic-users (or for PCs starting above 1st level).

The factors -- availability of scrolls and books, frequency of copying rather than using scrolls, and sharing or trading of spells -- obviously can vary greatly from campaign to campaign. This table is based on guesswork.

The best guide would be PC grimoires, but I do not have many of those as examples. If you would like to share some from your campaigns, it is probably not a big difference to be using other rules sets than 1st ed. AD&D.

I'll give the table first, then instructions for its use.

 

[Ariosto]

01: 04+00
02: 05+01
03: 05+03/01+01
04: 05+04/02+03
05: 05+06/02+04/01+01
06: 05+07/02+06/02+03
07: 05+09/02+07/02+04/01+01
08: 05+10/02+09/02+06/02+03
09: 05+12/02+10/02+07/02+04/01+01
10: 05+13/02+12/02+09/02+06/02+02
11: 05+15/02+13/02+10/02+07/02+03
12: 05+16/02+15/02+12/02+09/02+04/01+01
13: 05+18/02+16/02+13/02+10/02+05/02+02
14: 05+19/02+18/02+15/02+12/02+06/02+03/01+01
15: 05+21/02+19/02+16/02+13/02+07/02+04/02+01/
16: 05+23/02+21/02+18/02+15/02+08/02+05/02+02/01+01
17: 05+24/02+23/02+19/02+16/02+09/02+06/02+02/02+01
18: 05+27/02+24/02+21/02+18/02+10/02+07/02+03/02+02/01+01


That's enough for now. Time is short, and the pattern for 7th-9th gets irregular after this (as I use "freebie" spells to fill out 7th and 8th rather than applying them all to 9th).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The AD&D rules worked pretty good, IMHO- why not use them?

 

[Ariosto]

USING THE TABLE

The figures are for start of level. One can interpolate a chance of a more experienced character having more spells.

The first 4 spells are Read Magic plus 3 others per DMG p. 39. Add a fifth spell if you use that option.

The number before the "+" indicates freebies for level advancement, which the NPC is guaranteed. For these, I often pick an attractive spell and check the % to learn. If that fails, I assign a random different spell.

The number after the "+" indicates opportunities to copy spells (the initial +1 for a new spell level assuming a saved scroll). If a multi-classed character has attained an MU level above 1st, use the number for the next higher level (considering only castable spell levels).

For each opportunity, randomize a spell of that level. For any spell that is not a duplicate of one already learned or unlearnable, check the chance to learn. If you don't care about unlearnable spells, just multiply by the % (but duplicates are still dropped).

Remember the maximum/level for intelligence.

If the character has the Write spell, estimate the level at which it was gained. For each level from that one prior to the current level, make two 1d8 rolls. On 7 or 8, 1/6 chance it's really 9. If above current castable level, there's a chance of adding it with Write.

 

[Ariosto]

The AD&D rules worked pretty good, IMHO- why not use them?

Where are they?

 

[Ariosto]

One can extrapolate a table for illusionists, but + figures should 1/10. Thus, +12 would be +1.2 (20% chance of 2 spells).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

They were in the PHB... but they only cover starting spellbooks, which is what I thought you wanted.