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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 536011" data-attributes="member: 99">Re: Re: Re: selling a spellbookYou certainly may.  I've posted them before in other threads on this topic and had various people tell me that they were too easy or too tough on Wizards.  So far I haven't had any problems with them.The house rules I use are as follows:1)  Wizards do not gain two "free spells" every level when they advance in level.  Every spell they add to their spellbook must be found as either a scroll or in another spellbook.2)  Scribing costs are dropped to 10gp per page (10% of normal cost).  However, "Wizard's Ink" is a comodity that must be purchased and tracked.  You can find it in most towns of at least medium size and it is possible to create it using Alchemy, if you have the right ingredients.3)  You may learn to use spells from another Wizard's spellbook without scribing them into your own.  For each spell this takes 1 day per spell level and requires a Spellcraft Check of DC 15+Spell Level.4)  Although it has nothing to do with Wizards per se, I also allow "Sorcerer Specialization".  Instead of giving one extra spell slot per day as Wizard specialization does, it gives one extra known spell from the chosen school at each level.  Personally, I think that Sorcerers are a bit under powered compared to Wizards (with or without my other house rules) and this gives them a bit of a boost.  It also gives a slight bonus to the "Themed Sorcerer" concept.The recognizable effects of these rules are as follows:1)  The DM is now in complete control of what spells the Wizard will have access to.  If he thinks that a particular spell is unbalanced, he can choose for it not to appear in the game.  However, neither I nor any of the other DM's in our group have really abused this and if a player makes it clear that he would like to get his hands on Invisibility or Fireball, you can be reasonably sure that a copy will turn up in the not-so-distant future.  BUT, this does assure that such things as "Rare Spells" occur in the campaign.  Maybe Haste is a secret closely guarded by the Quickling Mages of the Black Mountains.  This generates adventure hooks as both PC Wizards might wish to go questing for such spells and NPC Wizards might send the party on such a quest.2)  The DM no longer needs to hand out such a high level of coinage in treasure to assure that the Wizard is able to use his primary class ability (spell selection).  By the same token, the Wizard needs to be mindful of how much Wizard's Ink he has on hand and make sure that he stocks up on it when he is in a town large enough to sell it.  Alternatively, he can try to locate the proper ingredients and create his own using Alchemy.  Such Ink also provides me a new form of treasure to hand out.  (Note that this ink can also be used to scribe scrolls and I have similar comodities for all the item creation feats that I use as treasure: "Your succesful Alchemy check indicates that the cluster of mushrooms growing at the base of the Standing Stone would be worth 50gp as Potion ingredients.")3)  Found spellbooks now have value to almost any Wizard.  The spells inside can be learned by another Wizard with a good Spellcraft.  It is easier (although still not simple) to assign a value to a given spellbook based on what spells it contains.  Even a book with the most common spells has a certain value as a backup spellbook while a book containing rare, hard to find, spells may be nearly priceless.  Finding such a book is now a "Wow!" event for the party instead of being nearly meaningless as it is under the core rules.4)  Wizards need even more downtime than they used to.  To me, this is a good thing because I like to have lengthy interludes between adventures while the group can take care of other business besides adventuring.  It also means that "Spellbook Scribing" and "Scroll Scribing and other Item Creation" are competing for the Wizard's time.  Hard choices are always interesting.5)  Because a Wizard can use an alternate spellbook or create a backup spellbook for a much lower cost than under the core rules, I don't feel like a complete bastard if something bad happens to his primary spellbook.  Under the core rules, the Wizard must spend a TON of money just to keep his primary spellbook up to snuff.  Creating a backup is often cost prohibitive.  Under such circumstances, the DM must either pull punches to keep the spellbook from being destroyed or be willing to destroy it anyway, rendering the character nearly useless until he finds/creates a backup that will cost him another TON of money.This post is long enough without me going into every minute way in which I think this improves the game for both the DM and the Wizard players.  I prefer these rules because they maintain consistency and they give spellbooks a place in the economy of the world.  If there are any other questions about these rules, I'd be happy to answer them.  If you would rather not delve any further into my house rules here on the Rules forum, feel free to e-mail me.</blockquote>

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