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selling a spellbook
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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 533682" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>No, there is not. This question gets asked a lot. And with all due respect to dimwhit, his "rule of thumb" gets posted in almost every thread where this question is asked and it is (in my opinion) NOT a good way of placing value on a spellbook. (I'm not bagging on you, dimwhit.)</p><p></p><p>The reason for this is simple: The end user of a sold book cannot get any value out of the fact that these spells were previously scribed in the book and therefore that expendature has no value to him in the transaction.</p><p></p><p><em>For a real life example of this, let's say I'm in the market for a Green Bicycle. dimwhit has a (previously Red) Bicycle that he would have sold me for $5 (the going market rate). But he just recently had it painted a nice, shiny Blue for a cost of $10. So he tells me that the bicycle will cost $15 in total to account for the paint job. But the Blue paint job has no value to me because for me to have a Green Bicycle, I'd have to spend the $10 all over again to have it repainted.</em></p><p></p><p>Under the rules as written (wherein you cannot use a spell from another Wizard's spellbook unless you have copied it into your own) the only value that a spellbook has is that it gives you <strong>access</strong> to the spells in it. That means that the cantrips are utterly worthless (because all wizards start with all cantrips in their spellbook) unless the book contains a newly researched 0-level spell. The other spells have value commensurate with how difficult it is to find them in the current market. This is completely contingent on the GM's game world setup.</p><p></p><p>However, it is noteworthy that under the PHB rules, there is no such thing as a "rare spell" that has not been specially researched. Any Wizard capable of casting a spell of a given level may select any spell of that level or lower when he advances in level.</p><p></p><p>I'm not interested in trying to derail this into a house rules discussion but I will mention that I HATE the spellbook rules presented in the PHB for precisely the reason that you bring up, kengar. I have added just a few small house rules that restore some logic to the spellbook system and I'm much happier now.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 533682, member: 99"] No, there is not. This question gets asked a lot. And with all due respect to dimwhit, his "rule of thumb" gets posted in almost every thread where this question is asked and it is (in my opinion) NOT a good way of placing value on a spellbook. (I'm not bagging on you, dimwhit.) The reason for this is simple: The end user of a sold book cannot get any value out of the fact that these spells were previously scribed in the book and therefore that expendature has no value to him in the transaction. [i]For a real life example of this, let's say I'm in the market for a Green Bicycle. dimwhit has a (previously Red) Bicycle that he would have sold me for $5 (the going market rate). But he just recently had it painted a nice, shiny Blue for a cost of $10. So he tells me that the bicycle will cost $15 in total to account for the paint job. But the Blue paint job has no value to me because for me to have a Green Bicycle, I'd have to spend the $10 all over again to have it repainted.[/i] Under the rules as written (wherein you cannot use a spell from another Wizard's spellbook unless you have copied it into your own) the only value that a spellbook has is that it gives you [b]access[/b] to the spells in it. That means that the cantrips are utterly worthless (because all wizards start with all cantrips in their spellbook) unless the book contains a newly researched 0-level spell. The other spells have value commensurate with how difficult it is to find them in the current market. This is completely contingent on the GM's game world setup. However, it is noteworthy that under the PHB rules, there is no such thing as a "rare spell" that has not been specially researched. Any Wizard capable of casting a spell of a given level may select any spell of that level or lower when he advances in level. I'm not interested in trying to derail this into a house rules discussion but I will mention that I HATE the spellbook rules presented in the PHB for precisely the reason that you bring up, kengar. I have added just a few small house rules that restore some logic to the spellbook system and I'm much happier now. [/QUOTE]
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