Wizard spellbook: Is this right?

[Iceheart2112]

So I'm leveling up my wizard and I have some gold to play around with. Wanting to load up my spellbook I made a list of all the 1st level spells I wanted. It came out to be 24 spells. The cost is 10gp for writing costs and 5gp for the fee to borrow a spellbook. It takes 1 hour of study then the Spellcraft check. Assuming that I pass all the checks I spend 360gp (24gp X (10+5)) and it will take me 3 days (8 hours per day).

[sideswipe]

not even close.

assuming 3.5 and no house rules.

the copying from a spellbook charge is DM set and i have never found rules for it. so ask your DM. otherwise you buy a scroll.

the amount of special inks and such you need are priced explicitly in the PHB at 100gp per page. so level x100gp.

each scroll takes 1 whole day to understand, and then you make a spellcraft to write it in your book. if you fail then you must wait until you level up again to try and write it in again.

so assuming you find a wizard who charges copying for 5gp. you get this

5 gp for the chance. if understood its 100gp to write down. and this takes you one day.

24 of them take 105x24= 2520gp
and 24 days!

the exception to this rule is a feat which allows you to take damage to do it quicker but it costs more. i cannot find it right now.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

To be fair, that's using scrolls to copy spells. Compete Arcane has rules for copying spells out of a spell book, including the option to "master" someone else's spell book so you only have to make one check for all of the disks.

[Jeraa]

the copying from a spellbook charge is DM set and i have never found rules for it. so ask your DM. otherwise you buy a scroll.

Its in the same section that deals with adding spells to the wizards spellbook.


In most cases, wizards charge a fee for the privilege of copying spells from their spellbooks. This fee is usually equal to the spell’s level × 50 gp.

Also, this is a Pathfinder question that was answered in his other post. This particular topic was double-posted. The time and money required are correct for Pathfinder.

[sideswipe]

Its in the same section that deals with adding spells to the wizards spellbook.


must have missed that. i know my DM has never allowed it.

[ericgrau]

You do have to find a wizard willing to give access to the source of all his power to a stranger. At the very least there'd have to be a guild with decent security. So you don't necessarily assume that you can borrow a spellbook nor that you can't. Scrolls OTOH are pretty reasonable to hand off and be done with it. Especially for 1st level spells where the fee is usually 50 gp a pop while a scroll is 25 gp a pop.

So 24*125 = 3000 gp for the spells you want. 105*24=2520 gp if your DM is being crazy generous with the NPC wizards and only charging 5 gp per spell level. You may want to be more selective.

[Story]

The cheapest and most secure way to transfer spells is for Wizard A to copy the spells into a new spellbook (copying an existing spellbook costs 50gp per page) and then Wizard B makes the check to master that spellbook, learning the spells at no additional cost.

Since Wizard B learns the spells from a copy, Wizard A's spellbook is never in danger.

[Jeraa]

The cheapest and most secure way to transfer spells is for Wizard A to copy the spells into a new spellbook (copying an existing spellbook costs 50gp per page) and then Wizard B makes the check to master that spellbook, learning the spells at no additional cost.

Since Wizard B learns the spells from a copy, Wizard A's spellbook is never in danger.

First, this is a Pathfinder question, not a 3.5 question. In Pathfinder, it costs the same to copy a spell into a new book as it does to write a new spell into the book. There is no cost savings there.

Then, in both 3.5 and Pathfinder, you run into this problem:


A wizard can use a borrowed spellbook to prepare a spell she already knows and has recorded in her own spellbook, but preparation success is not assured. First, the wizard must decipher the writing in the book (see Arcane Magical Writings, above). Once a spell from another spellcaster’s book is deciphered, the reader must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell’s level) to prepare the spell. If the check succeeds, the wizard can prepare the spell. She must repeat the check to prepare the spell again, no matter how many times she has prepared it before. If the check fails, she cannot try to prepare the spell from the same source again until the next day. (However, as explained above, she does not need to repeat a check to decipher the writing.)

You have to make a Spellcraft check each time you want to prepare a spell from the borrowed book. And the spell must appear in your own spellbook. This is in addition to the Spellcraft check needed to decipher the book, to even know what spell it is (which you only need to don once).

Since you will have to pay the first caster for his book, and then copy the spells into your own book to avoid having to make a Spellcraft check each and every time you want to prepare one of them, it ends up costing your more than if you just copied the spells directly from the first wizards main spellbook.

[Story]

The rules for Mastering A Foreign Spellbook are in Complete Arcane, page 140.

Sorry for not noticing this was PF. It's a valid strategy in 3.5 though.