Spell Book Worth

[mkletch]

We use the spellbook mastery rule from Magic of Faerun, so foreign spellbooks are never useless - unless you don't have a wizard (which was the case for a long time in one of our campaigns).

Because spellbooks can be very useful, we consider their market price to be the lesser of 200gp/spell level, or the sum of the costs of the scrolls for those spells (sans material and XP premiums). See my running poll for a discussion of selling major loot items about what to do after that point.

Oh, and we did not change the scribing costs. Money has never been a restricting factor for any of our wizards.

-Fletch!

 

[Rel]

But we also dropped the scribing cost for spells to one tenth the original figure as a house rule, just because there is absolutely no reason for the high cost. Balance? Not really! A wizard will have all the really good spells with the 2 free spells per level anyways. Putting a high cost on scribing spells will just negate the wizard's versatility when it comes to spell selection and you will rarely see wizard's with less-than-optimum spells prepared. Why should I pay thousands of gold pieces for a few spells, which I know I will almost never use, when I can get decent magic items instead?

Bye
Thanee

My house rules also include the reduction of scribing costs to 10% (10gp per page). When I saw how much it cost for a Wizard to scribe spells, I realized that I would be forced to give out a given level of GP treasure or else the Wizard would be screwed. I don't like for the amount of treasure I must give out to be dictated by such an arbitrary rule, so I dropped the cost.

But I also took away the free spells that a Wizard gets for going up a level. It made no sense to me that a 5th level Wizard who has never seen a scroll of Fireball or seen it in somebody else's spellbook can suddenly (for no cost in terms of time or money) have it in his spellbook just because he gained a level.

So Wizards in my campaign must find every single spell they want to be able to cast somewhere. Of course I listen to the player's requests as to the spells they would like to have and a surprising number (but not necessarily all) of those spells can be found one way or another.

This creates a further benefit to my campaigns: There are such things as "rare" spells. See, in a normal game, if a spell is allowed as a Wizard spell, a player doesn't have to seek it out. He can just pick it at his next level. But without those free spells at each level, suddenly certain spells (and the spellbooks they are scribed in) become very valuable. If Haste is found in only a handful of spellbooks across the continent, you can bet that the PC's will pay a large chunk of change to acquire it. And if they find it, they will get a good price if they want to sell it.

Also, I never need worry that a spell the Wizard picked up for free from leveling will render part of my adventure useless. If I know that descending into a chasm and climbing the other side is going to be a big chunk of the adventure, I don't have to worry that the Wizard took Fly for free as one of his spells for gaining a level.

Please understand that I don't use this as a straitjacket for my players. I'm not saying, "You can't have the Fly spell because it would mess up my adventure." Instead, it serves as an adventure hook for the wizard. He'll say, "Look gang, we're going to have to descend into the Chasm Of Doom if we don't find some other way across. I heard of this Wizard who lives in the Black Marsh (Knowledge: Arcane Check) and people say he can fly like a bird. Let's see if we can get him to teach me that secret."

One other offsetting factor I've included to compensate for the reduced scribing costs is that I've made Scribing Ink a purchasable commodity. It is available in most towns of average size but you must have it in order to scribe spells into your spellbook or to create scrolls. You can't just say, "I've got gold in my pouch, so I think I'll scribe a scroll." This means that the Wizard must stock up on however much ink he thinks he needs (or can afford) before he leaves town and if he runs out, he runs out.

Of course, the ink can be created by using the Alchemy skill if you have the proper ingredients. And if you have a high enough Wilderness Lore skill (or know somebody who does), you can find the ingredients yourself and create your ink for free. The only problem is that this all takes a good deal of time. And time is frequently the most precious commodity of all.

Sorry for the long chunk of what is essentially house rules. But it has given me a system that fits well with the other rules in the game and has removed the internal inconsistencies that (again IMHO) plague the Wizard Spellbook rules.

 

[Zhure]

But I also took away the free spells that a Wizard gets for going up a level. It made no sense to me that a 5th level Wizard who has never seen a scroll of Fireball or seen it in somebody else's spellbook can suddenly (for no cost in terms of time or money) have it in his spellbook just because he gained a level.

So Wizards in my campaign must find every single spell they want to be able to cast somewhere. Of course I listen to the player's requests as to the spells they would like to have and a surprising number (but not necessarily all) of those spells can be found one way or another.

from the PHB, page 155:

"Spells Gained at a New Level: Wizards perform a certain amount of spell research between adventures. Each time a wizard achieves a new level, she gains two spells of her choice to add to her spellbook. These spells represent the results of her research. The two free spells must be of levels the wizard can cast. If she has chosen to specialize in a school of magic, one of the two free spells must be from the wizard’s specialty school."

Emphasis added.

With your house rule, all the better to be a sorcerer, at least one won't be screwed upon leveling up if broke.

Greg

 

[Rel]

With your house rule, all the better to be a sorcerer, at least one won't be screwed upon leveling up if broke.

Greg

I knew about the flavor text you quoted above, Zhure. I just think that it doesn't mean much because there is never any actual requirement (in terms of time or money expended) for doing that research.

With regards to being screwed upon leveling if broke, this hasn't been a problem. It is a rare thing for a Wizard to level up but not have the 10gp per page worth of Scribing Ink necessary to scribe new spells. If they don't have it, it is probably because they did not plan ahead, which, to me, is what being a Wizard is all about.

And it isn't as though they might not find more ink while they are out adventuring. It is frequently found in the lairs of spellcasters of any sort (Clerics and Druids need it too if they Scribe Scrolls) and is often found in old libraries and such.

All of that said, if you want to be able to have access to any spell without having to find it and take the time to scribe it, feel free to play a Sorcerer. So far in the various games we've played using these house rules, there have been 4 Wizards and 1 Sorcerer. So the players either don't feel like the rules are slanted against Wizards or they like a good challenge.

 

[Pax]

There can be many different spellbooks, which contain just one useful spell for wizard, but try to carry them all!

Screw the whole book. I'll (with my Craft: Bookbinder skill) excise the requisite pages, and stitch them back into ANOTHER book, after havign mastered the original spellbook.

If I only want a SINGLE spell from Book X, and that spell takes up 8 pages ... then to heck with carrying the whole 100-page monstrousity along with me, I'll just (per above) take only those 8 pages, and affix them in a new "cliff's notes" style book.

 

[Mark Withers]

The most sensible thing to do is take craft wonderous item at level 6 or 9 and learn secret page at one of your level ups.

Then, it only costs 4750gp, 380xp and 10 days to produce a boccobs blessed book, which accepts scribed spells without extra costs and takes 45 regardless of level.

Three or four of those babies (with appropriate arcane locks and explosive runes) should be enough for all your spells with some backup copies left at home.

Now all you need is a steady source of gold and experience. Off to the dungeons....

And, lets not forget we are mages here - a liberal sprinkling of charm persons and illusions should be able to help us achieve some, ahem, discounts...