Wizard spellbook, (blank)

[jgbrowning]

anyone else notice that i get a book filled with 100 pages of parchment for only 15gp.

but to buy 100 pages of parchment would cost 20gp?


hrm...


joe b.

 

[Xarlen]

Inflation.

 

[jgbrowning]

bookbinders

i guess, you have to pay 5gp every time you bind a book in DnD... must be pretty fierce competition....

joe b.

 

[AuraSeer]

Well, the book probably contains 50 double-sized sheets, folded in half at the binding. If you buy individual pages, they're all individually cut.

From this we can deduce that it's the cutting operation that adds the most cost to paper production. That makes sense if you think about it, because what are you going to cut it with? All the sharp objects are being carried by adventurers.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

Of course your making the common mistake of forgetting that you get some um nice? wrapping paper and a bow? Plus isn't the fun you have of opening up said gift worth 5 gp?

 

[drnuncheon]

anyone else notice that i get a book filled with 100 pages of parchment for only 15gp.

but to buy 100 pages of parchment would cost 20gp?


hrm...

Here at Crazy Eddie's Spellbook Warehouse, we buy parchment in BULK and pass the SAVINGS on to YOU!

J

 

[Rel]

There is a difference between a "page" and a "sheet".

The book has 100 pages consisting of 50 sheets of parchment which can be written on both front and back.

So it appears that the binding and cover cost 5gp assuming no quantity discount on the parchment.

 

[Henrix]

Traditionally, when binding a book, you get eight pages out of one sheet.

And parchment is usually one-sided, the back is to coarse to write on.

 

[0-hr]

Traditionally, when binding a book, you get eight pages out of one sheet.

And parchment is usually one-sided, the back is to coarse to write on.

So a spellbook is really 12.5 sheets, but these are double-sided sheets. If they thus cost double what a normal sheet should cost, we end up with:

A spell book = 6sp per sheet of parchment.

While Ye Olde Trading Poste sells it for 2sp a sheet.

Or, to put it another way, the book binding and cover costs 10gp. Seems a bit steep.

 

[Pax]

For additional stuff WRT spellbooks, Magic of Faerun has an IMO great section on spellbooks OTHER than the standard, soft-leather-bound parchment-page variety.

So you TOO can have a (say) Black-dragonskin bound spellbooks whose pages are hammered-ultra-thin plates of silver, contained in a silver-and-onyx ornamented, black-dragonhide slipcase, the whole benefitting from a Protection from Elements enchantment good for all five enchantments, and waterproofed to boot.

Just as one example. On top of it all, the more you spend, the harder the book is to damage.

One spellbook I put together with those rules was made of Living Metal (chose the Hard Metal cover and pages, with slipcase, then paid the per-pound rate for "other items" in the Living MEtal entry (also in Magic of Faerun), with all the defensive and utility enchantments / enhancements a wizard could desire. Each one cost just over 25,000gp ... but was nearly impossible to damage w/o having long before obliterated the fellow carrying it, AND, was self-repairing (the self-regenerative feature of Living Metal), so if even 1hp remained ... give it a couple days, it'll be good as new.

The variations possible are great; you can use cheaper, magically-concealed books for your "home copies", and strong, tough, protected-from-most-forms-of-damage books for travel copies, if you want. A book warded against wet and rot, and concealed right, coudl even be hidden in an exterior wall around a cow psture somewhere, to give your wizard an emergency backup copy.

If, of course, your wizard has the kind of money it would take to do that sort of thing ... heh.