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Wizarding Rituals Are Weird (Especially When Multiclassing)

Even with my early printing of the PHB, I read the multiclassing rules as stating that a wizard 1/bard 4 could only add 1st level wizard spells to their spellbook. However, it isn't really broken if they do, just consider it a as the wizard having a bonus ritual casting feat and add the rituals based on their total character level.
 

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I know the errata has cleared this up but I never read the multiclassing rules that way in the first place.


In the Wizard section, it says, "Your spellbook is the repository of the wizard spells you know, except your cantrips, which are fixed in your mind."

In the multiclassing section, it says, "You determine what spells you know and can prepare for each class individually, as if you were a single-classed member of that class. "

If you are a Wizard 1 / Bard 5 then your spellbook, which contains all the spells you know, can only contain spells that a Wizard 1 knows. A Wizard 1 can't know any level 3 spells therefore they can't put any level 3 spells in their spellbook. At least, that's the way I always read it.

Right a 1st level wizard cannot know 3rd level spells.

"All the bits about spell slots etc ignored the spellbook know linkage.
 
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Wizards have spellbooks, they can put a spell in their book if it meets the requirement. That requirement changed, but before it did there was nothing stopping it.

Sure there was- the multiclassing rules specify that you can learn and prepare spells as if a single classed member of that class.
 

Wizards have spellbooks, they can put a spell in their book if it meets the requirement. That requirement changed, but before it did there was nothing stopping it.

And yes, I quoted the dndbeyond text without realising that it had been erratad to read differently from my phb that i'd been reading a few hours before.
There is something stopping it. You can only write spells into your spellbook that you can cast as a WIZARD. The spells you know as a bard cannot be written into your spellbook nor can you understand a spell that is beyond your limit as a wizard, even if you have the same spell as a bard. The rules are completely clear on this. Unless you take the ritual feat for your bard levels, you will not be able to learn rituals beyond 1st level until you level up your wizard levels, and even if you take the feat, you can only learn rituals that on in the bard's spellcasting list.
 

It seems that, RAW, a wizard1/bard5, can add wizard spells up to level 3 with the ritual tag to their spellbook, and while they cannot prepare them, they can cast them as rituals.

Look at the Ritual Caster feat. If the spellcaster can't cast the spell, the ritual has to be added to a ritual book. Note that the spellcaster can still cast the spell as a ritual and not as a spell slot if the ritual has a level less than half the caster's character level.
 

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