Selling a Spellbook

[Xaltar]

A question came up in my game about selling spellbooks. If the PC's find a low level Wizard's spellbook, it is assumed that book will have all of their spells.

If a 1st level Wizard knows all 0-level spells, 0-level spells take up 1 page in a spellbook, and 1 page of spells in a spellbook is worth 50 gold, then that makes every spellbook worth about 750 gold to start.

How do other people handle this? Are there any official rules on the value of cantrips in spell books?

 

[Nareau]

Selling a Spellbook
Captured spellbooks can be sold for a gp amount equal to one-half the cost of purchasing and inscribing the spells within (that is, one-half of 100 gp per page of spells). A spellbook entirely filled with spells (that is, with one hundred pages of spells inscribed in it) is worth 5,000 gp.

Heh, I love it. At the start of the campaign:
Wizard: I'm selling my spellbook.
DM: What?! Why?
Wizard: Well, it's worth 1250gp, since I've got 19 cantrips and 6 1st level spells. I'm going to write a NEW book without most of these lousy cantrips. I'll re-write 2 cantrips from memory, and 2 1st level spells. That's 400gp. Then, I'll buy 6 1st level scrolls, and write those in. That's 750gp. Now I have 2 cantrips and 8 1st level spells, not to mention 100gp in my pocket! I can take 10 on all those pesky Spellcraft checks and automatically succeed thanks to my +8 Spellcraft.

Not too shabby, but not great either. Although I could totally see a wizard at 2nd level scraping enough money together to duplicate the useful spells out of his spellbook (50gp and 12 hours/page), then sell the original with all the cantrips for a nice little profit.

Spider

 

[scrubkai]

Selling 0 level Spell books

As Spider said that's what the SRD says....

Let me suggest however that you not just handwave the selling of that book.

Role play out the selling as it should be hard to find someone who is willing to pay that much for a spellbook that has spells they already have.

I would give them a choice take 100gp from a standard merchant or if they really want to sell it for full price make them track down a low level wizard who lost his spell book (read adventure) and then have them sell it to him for the full price listed in the SRD. (Or more likely 350 gp, and a few magic potions they can use)

 

[diaglo]

yeah and per the rules on economies... you aren't gonna just pop into any old small hovel and sell it.

you need to find a place with people. enough people to have an economy. enough people to have a wizard who can use it. enough people to make it worth the amount of bling bling you're asking.

 

[cmanos]

Heh, I love it. At the start of the campaign:
Wizard: I'm selling my spellbook.
DM: What?! Why?
Wizard: Well, it's worth 1250gp, since I've got 19 cantrips and 6 1st level spells. I'm going to write a NEW book without most of these lousy cantrips. I'll re-write 2 cantrips from memory, and 2 1st level spells. That's 400gp. Then, I'll buy 6 1st level scrolls, and write those in. That's 750gp. Now I have 2 cantrips and 8 1st level spells, not to mention 100gp in my pocket! I can take 10 on all those pesky Spellcraft checks and automatically succeed thanks to my +8 Spellcraft.

Not too shabby, but not great either. Although I could totally see a wizard at 2nd level scraping enough money together to duplicate the useful spells out of his spellbook (50gp and 12 hours/page), then sell the original with all the cantrips for a nice little profit.

Spider

don't forget you'll probably be selling it for 25gp a page instead of 50...what you would pay for it....

 

[cmanos]

Oh even bbetter...economics and magic spells....

Supply and demand...

since every wizards spellbook has every cantrip in it, the demand for a spellbook with every cantrip in it would be nil. Now if one of your party decided to pick up a level in mage..his or her spellbook isn't going to magically appear before him with every cantril and 6 first level spells of his choice in it.... so there will be some demand for those who didn't start out their career as wizards. But not a lot. I'd say maybe 5-10gp per page for cantrips.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, I would go even farther and rate all 0 level spells as 0 gp, since every wizard has them, anyways.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Xaltar]

Well it costs 100 gold to scribe a page of spells, so the value would still be 50 gold by the rules. I was thinking that 0-level spells would be worth 0 gold, but I guess the best argument for them to actually be worth 50 gold is that someone looking to multiclass would be better off to purchase a slightly used book instead of scribing from scratch.

Thoughts?

 

[smootrk]

Zero Level spells would be worth 0gp. They are in the beginning wizard's spellbook only because they would represent the minor magics learned during his/her apprentiship, and thus the cost to scribe them initially is assumed to be spread out over potentially years of study and training.
Also, I would count many of the first level spells as having little value to others, as most 1st level mages would already have a few of the useful one. Just because the rulebooks say it costs 100gp to scribe a particular spell, does not mean that the market price should be anything. If you wouldn't buy it, who else would?

 

[Thondor]

Their is of course the idea that a spellbook is a very personal thing. Anyone memorizing from someone elses spell book has a chance of failure (DC15+spell level). and I would be assuming that is with another wizards help. Magic is cryptic, you have to put the perfect combination of things together, it's like a horribly complicated physics formula. In the spellbook would have the start and the answer and a few steps in between but unless you know exactly what's going on you won't know step by step. What's more you'd tend to use shorthand when writing in your book, symbols you know can be completely foreign to someone else.

In my opinion scrolls are more obvious the power is already laid out and all your really required is to complete the phrase.
In other words the value of a book would be based on whether you understand the spells. You would always have to copy those spells to your spellbook unless of course you want to have to make the DC 15+spell level spellcraft check every time you want to prepare a spell.
Why would someone pay so much for a spellbook that they a) may not understand
b) have to copy into their spellbook anyway

I can't find where it states that a wizard has every 0th level spell.
Theirs still some value in trafficking in spellbooks but only to the right person