Value of a spellbook

[Olive]

The rules as writen are clear.

However, the rules as writen are a bit dumb.

Are all spells equally common in your game? They're not in mine. What f the book contains a number of spells that are original, lost, or of highly dubious morality? A spell like call dretch horde might be worth a lot to someone who wants it, but nothing to someone who finds it abhorant. Or it might be worth soemthing to them as well, just so they can destroy a copy of it, in their quest to rid the world of that knowledge. Not every spell can be bought on a scroll IMC, and not every village has a scroll seller.

On the other hand, a book with fabricate, mending and other common garden utility spells would be worth less than the cost of the scrolls, as those spells are held by every wizard.

I use the Magic of Faerun rules for spell books, which makes it all more interesting. These allow a magicuser to master a spell book so he doesn't have to make spellcraft rolls each time he wants to use a foreign book.

Spell books should be exciting things, trapped and enchanted. If you can use the books of Zarbo the Great, some of Zarbo's mistique should rub off on you.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The rules as writen are clear.

However, the rules as writen are a bit dumb.

Are all spells equally common in your game? They're not in mine. What f the book contains a number of spells that are original, lost, or of highly dubious morality? A spell like call dretch horde might be worth a lot to someone who wants it, but nothing to someone who finds it abhorant. Or it might be worth soemthing to them as well, just so they can destroy a copy of it, in their quest to rid the world of that knowledge. Not every spell can be bought on a scroll IMC, and not every village has a scroll seller.

On the other hand, a book with fabricate, mending and other common garden utility spells would be worth less than the cost of the scrolls, as those spells are held by every wizard.

50 gp per spell level per spell IS less than the cost of the scrolls.

Personally I think it's a bit undervalued - the cost to copy from an NPC's spellbook is 50gp per spell per level, and you then have to add 100gp per level of the spell, so 50gp per spell per spell level is only a third of the price of the item, and less than you would get if you merely let people copy the thing (since you could sell each spell many times over).

As for using a spellbook like scrolls.

9th level spell scroll:
Cost to create: 9*17*25 plus 9*17*5 xp = 1912.5 gold and 153 experience. The cost to buy is 3825gp

9th level spell page in a spellbook
Cost to create: 9*200 = 1800 gold.

See a problem? Every wizard would be churning out 4-9th level spell pages and selling them as scrolls, or using them.

 

[Olive]

50 gp per spell level per spell IS less than the cost of the scrolls.

<snip>

See a problem? Every wizard would be churning out 4-9th level spell pages and selling them as scrolls, or using them.

This assumes a whole lot of things that aren't neccesarily true. IMC, wizards don't share spells unless there's something in it for them, there are very few wizards capable of casting 4th lvl and above spells, and those that are that level or above have better things to do than to massoriduce spellbooks.

Regardless, the real issue isn't the gold. It's the XP. If you allow wizards to cast spells from their books like scrolls, then you are letting them save heaps of XP. If you have a situation where a wizard can write out a millon spellbooks and let people copy them, it's also saving on xp.

 

[Thotas]

So far as I know, there is one source that allows casting spells from spellbooks at the price of erasing it. What I can't remember is whether it was the original Unearthed Arcana (1st edition) or Tome of Magic (2nd edition).

 

[Innocent Bystander]

So, if it's a non-magical item, and a wizard fails their save vs a fireball, does it go up in smoke?

My DM currently allows wizards to cast right out of their spell book if they're in dire straights, but the spell is erased from the book. I think it's a pretty good way of doing it.

 

[Whisper72]

Thotas: In the first edition rules there was rules about 'standard' and 'travelling' spellbooks (UA1). Values were at 1000gp per spell level.

Direct casting was indeed possible in emergencies at the cost of the destruction of the spell with an additiona 1% chance per level of the spell cast that preceding and following pages were destroyed as well, and a 1% chance on top of that that the entire book was destroyed...

Personally I kinda liked these rules, made spellbooks special and rare.

(plus it was a magical item in a sense that you even got 500Xp per spell level contained in the book, and it had saving throws comparable to magical items)

 

[Pyrex]

Personally I think it's a bit undervalued - the cost to copy from an NPC's spellbook is 50gp per spell per level, and you then have to add 100gp per level of the spell, so 50gp per spell per spell level is only a third of the price of the item, and less than you would get if you merely let people copy the thing (since you could sell each spell many times over).

You're forgetting the gap between total value and resale value.

The total value of a spellbook is 150gp x Total Spell Levels contained therein.

When you go to sell the book, the PHB states you should get 1/3 of that (by default, items sell for half-value, given that someone buying a spellbook probably already has several of the spells in it they reduced the resale value of a captured spellbook from 1/2 value to 1/3 value).

 

[Orius]

50 gp per spell level per spell IS less than the cost of the scrolls.

Personally I think it's a bit undervalued - the cost to copy from an NPC's spellbook is 50gp per spell per level, and you then have to add 100gp per level of the spell, so 50gp per spell per spell level is only a third of the price of the item, and less than you would get if you merely let people copy the thing (since you could sell each spell many times over).

That price also seems a little low to me as well.

I remember the Encyclopedia Magica had spellbooks priced at 1000 gp per spell per spell level. Very extensive spellbooks of high-level wizards were very expensive.

Even if you don't put the costs that high, there's something else to consider. The value of the spells isn't just in the scribing cost, that really should be considered to be next to nothing. The real cost comes from the percieved power of the spells, and the magical knoweldge that can be gained from the spells in the book.