Necromancer's Spellbook? [PF]

[Mockingbird]

Okay, I'm gonna dip into magus, but found I didn't have a spellbook. I asked the party if we had picked one up in a session I wasn't present for, and one of the members said yes, we had one, and it was a necromancer's spellbook. I looked in the core rulebook for this, and I didn't find anything about a necromancer's spellbook.. So are there any special rules for this book?

[sirpercival]

It's likely to have a lot of Necromancy spells in it.

[Mockingbird]

It's likely to have a lot of Necromancy spells in it.

I'll ask my DM.

[Coidzor]

Well, whatever spells the necromancer used in the fight are likely in it, along with the basic cantrips'n'such. Probably the basic 1st and 2nd level general spells (like mage armor and other essential survival tools) and then an additional level the higher level the spells the necromancer was capable of casting of general stuff along with a fairly good spread of necromancer's faves, which'll likely include at least a smattering of conjuration and transmutation and possibly evocation/enchantment depending upon specifics.

[Mustard]

Well, there's a possibility that book might have a lot of spells you can't use (and that's what I'm assuming, given I'm a pessimist, and the Magus has a pretty restrictive spell list), so this might be helpful:

I don't know if this follows strict rules interpretation, but I consider "begins play" to be equivalent to "takes first level in", so if you take a level of Magus, then you should happen to have a spellbook free of charge, retroactively assumed to have been found at some point earlier (kind of like in OOTS #126 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0126.html)). The idea is that your character has been reading it for a while and all of a sudden just "gets it" now; or whatever, that's just a default rationale I'd use if it were me. Of course, your GM may disagree, so you'll need to definitely run this by them first.

But basically, it is my view that you should receive the standard spellbook granted by the Spells class feature in addition to anything else you find (or found, as it were) along the way. The class ability says nothing about spell component pouches, so you'll need to buy one somewhere, unless one was found in the loot with the necromancer's book. You should be able to get your standard issue 3 + INT mod 1st level spells and all cantrips by default. Then, if there's anything in this necromancer's spellbook that you can use, you should be able to copy them into your own spellbook. Alternatively, if you work with the GM, you can potentially take the necromancer's book, add in your starting free spells per Magus, and go from there. As long as you're not getting shortchanged on Magus spells, is the point (I really doubt you'll find much useful stuff in there, maybe a couple things, but like I say, I'm pessimistic...). I myself prefer the two-book approach: get your free Magus spellbook, copy useful things from the necromancer's book, and then sell it (or whatever you were going to do with it, like if it's a plot item, or whatever).