Spell Book Worth

[Azazu]

Last week a problem arose in the game that I DM. I am new to the DM'ing scene and did not know the correct answer. We came to the following conclusion.

The wizard in the party had, in the course of the adventure come accross some spell books. We were no sure how to value them, in the end we did this. Valued them at the cost that it would be to scribe them.

100 gp per page. @ 2 pages per spell level.

So a book with 5 first level spells would be worth 1,000 gp.

Is this correct, or what??

 

[Caliban]

Last week a problem arose in the game that I DM. I am new to the DM'ing scene and did not know the correct answer. We came to the following conclusion.

The wizard in the party had, in the course of the adventure come accross some spell books. We were no sure how to value them, in the end we did this. Valued them at the cost that it would be to scribe them.

100 gp per page. @ 2 pages per spell level.

So a book with 5 first level spells would be worth 1,000 gp.

Is this correct, or what??

Not really, because it will cost any other wizard the same amount to scribe them into their own spellbook, and they don't need the original when they are done, except as a spare book.

(You can't prepare spells from another wizards book unless you have scribed them into your own spellbook first.)

Also, another wizard probably already has several of the spells, if they are first level, or can't use some of the spells, if he is a specialist. They may be willing to pay for the right to scribe the spells they need, but they won't want to shell out a lot of cash for a spellbook they can't use directly.

 

[Rel]

Is this correct, or what??

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go with "or what". This isn't your fault, Azazu. It is an artifact of the (IMHO) extremely screwed up situation that is "Wizard's Spellbooks" in 3E.

Imagine that you were trying to sell a car for $10,000. But the trick is that nobody can actually drive the car. All they can do is use it as a guide for how to build their own car, which would cost another $10,000. Do you think they would pay you the full amount?

A spellbook is only useful to a Wizard for access to the spells that it contains. In other words, a spellbook with 5 first level spells is worth no more than the same 5 first level spells on Scrolls (i.e. 125gp total). In fact, it could be argued that it should be worth less than that considering that you can do something with the scrolls (cast the spell directly from them) that you can't do with the spellbook.

For a quick an dirty calculation, use the cost of each spell as though it were a scroll. That formula falls apart for spells 5th level and higher though because the cost to scribe a scroll becomes higher than the cost to scribe it into a spellbook.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

i really wish WotC had included rules for this in a core book or Tome & Blood. (this has come up in my games as well)

we also figured on cost to produce = value (100 gp/page), but i think there should be some factor to increase the price for rare or higher level spells. (for example, every 1st level wizard in the world has some 1st level spells, so they're all fairly 'common'; the higher the level of spell, the more rare the spell become.)

sale value would also depend on the market, or who you could sell the book to. what would a low level non-adventuring wizard do with a book of very high level spells? (he couldn't use them.) another way to look at that is; boots of the winterlands are practically worthless in a desert, but a decanter of endless water would be priceless!

yet another way to look at this is every item's market price is twice the value of the cost to create it. so the value of a spellbook would be 2 times 100 gp/page. but you sell items for half its market price. so the true value of the book is still 100 gp/page.

 

[Azazu]

Actually the money paid for the spell books was one half te value or 100gp per spell level.

It still came out to be a lot.

He had three spell books and walked away with over 9,000 gp.

Later

 

[Skaros]

Actually the money paid for the spell books was one half te value or 100gp per spell level.

It still came out to be a lot.

He had three spell books and walked away with over 9,000 gp.

Later

Wow...so the DM actually let him sell them for half market price based on your calculations above? Outrageous.

As others pointed out above, spellbooks aren't worth much on the market...decisively less than scrolls, as they are less useful than scrolls of the same spells.

In this case market price definitely does not equal the cost of creation.

-Skaros

 

[AuraSeer]

In the base rules, a spellbook shouldn't be worth much in terms of cash. Rel's got a good point, that a spell in some strange wizard's book is less useful than the same spell on a scroll. I'd probably give a spellbook half the value of an equivalent collection of minimum-caster-level scrolls.

However.

There's a rule someplace-- FRCS, I think-- that lets you "master" another wizard's spellbook. You need to study the book for a certain amount of time, and meet a certain Spellcraft DC. After you succeed, you can prepare spells from that spellbook as if it were your own.

This is of course an optional mechanic. Like many FRCS rules, this makes wizards even more powerful, as they can more easily "loot" spells from captured spellbooks.

If this rule is in effect, spellbooks become far more valuable on the open market, because the buyer need not pay to re-scribe the spells into his own book. That means a book is worth nearly as much as the original owner paid in scribing costs.

 

[Rel]

Here is a little rant for your consideration:

I think that the "Must scribe into your own spellbook before you can use a spell" rule is the worst rule in the game (it certainly is the one I like the least personally). It makes found spellbooks difficult to price for the GM and it can make them worthless to the players.

I've dropped the rule from my own campaign with no perceived ill effects and it has actually been rather liberating in one way in particular:

If you go by the book, by mid levels, a Wizard has got literally thousands of gold pieces tied up in his spellbook. But what happens if he loses it?

He is completely buggered, that's what. To hedge against this possibility, he would have to make an extra copy of his spellbook which, although only half as expensive as the first copy, is still very costly.

So, the DM has 2 choices: Make sure nothing bad ever happens to the Wizard's spellbook or follow whatever would logically happen and let the chips fall where they may.

If the DM takes the second option and the Wizard becomes deprived of his spellbook, consider how it impacts his ability to play the character compared to any other class. For example, say the Wizard has 8,000GP tied up in the spellbook and a fighter in the party has 8,000GP in his +2 Greatsword. The Wizard loses his spellbook and the fighter has his Greatsword sundered.

The Wizard can not prepare a single new spell unless he has a backup spellbook or has invested one or more of his precious feats in Spell Mastery. The fighter can pick up any weapon off the battlefield and use it with probably 70%-80% of his former effectiveness until he gets a chance to replace his greatsword. Even if he has a lot of feats tied up in greatsword fighting (Weapon Focus and Specialization for example), he can buy a non-magical greatsword for 50GP or a +1 Greatsword for 2,150GP. He may not be quite as effective as he was before, but he is quite close.

The Wizard by contrast, (if going by the book rules) has to spend 1,500GP just to replace the 0 level cantrips in his spellbook.

By using the house rule that lets you use a captured spellbook by just spending the time to "understand" the spells in it, you give the Wizard a chance to set up a backup spellbook. It may not have all the spells in it that he would prefer to have, but at least it is something to limp along on if something happens to his primary book. Which means I don't feel compelled to pull punches when I'm the DM.

 

[BuddyRich]

I like the Magic of Faerun rule. 1 tenday+ in time and a DC 25 spellcraft check to understand it. Besides a Mage would still have to lug around multiple spellbooks to memorize from, consolidation into a single spellbook would be nice.

As for value, I use 1/10 the cost of the scroll value for each spell in the book + the spellbook cost (especially if its dragon hide or something fancy like that). Some old and/or famous tomes might also be collector's items and will sell for more but most spellbooks are pretty much worthless unless they contain rare or unique spells.

I would like to be the magical spellbook ink seller though, they must make a killing!

 

[Dr. Zoom]

I value each spell in a spellbook at 1/4 its cost if it was a scroll at minimum caster level. So each 1st level spell in a spellbook adds 6 gp to the value of the spellbook. Each 2nd level spell adds 31 gp to its value. Cantrips are 3 gp each. The base value is 15 gp, of course.

A 1st level wizard with 16 cantrips and 5 first level spells in his spellbook has a spellbook worth 93 gp. That's 15 gp for the book itself plus 48 gp for the cantrips (16x3) plus 30 gp for the first level spells (5x6).