How do you handle knowledge of a spell's existence?

[erok0809]

I'm just curious how other people handle this sort of thing. Let's say your party needs something done magically, and the party wizard doesn't have the right spell for the job in his book. A spell does already exist that does the thing they want, they just don't have it right now. Do the characters know that the spell exists? Or is that something they'd have to research first? I guess the question I'm really asking here is how much information do wizards have on spells that they don't currently have access to? For ease of gameplay, I would guess that they pretty much know about every written spell, but that just doesn't seem realistic from an in-universe perspective. How do you handle this sort of situation?

[Malroth]

Knowledge Arcana check to know if such a spell exists somewhere.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Knowledge arcana check to determine if they've ever heard of the spell or spellcraft to know that such a spell is possible without learning it by name, both at a a DC equal to the spellcraft DC to identify the spell.

[Aquillion]

It depends.

If the Wizard just wants to learn it as one of their level-up spells, they can do so automatically, no roll required. Whatever research they need to do to determine it's possible would presumably be included in the automatic research they get for free to learn spells with each level.

If the Wizard wants to hunt for the spell, a Knowledge Arcana check might make sense, but... I mean, magic can do a lot. If the player says "my character is convinced that this is possible, and is going to travel to a major metropolis and scour every scroll shop there in hopes of finding a spell that does it", demanding a Knowledge Arcana check and then telling them they're not allowed to keep searching because their character is convinced it doesn't exist seems weird.

I'd demand a Knowledge Arcana check if, say, the player wanted to know the spell's exact name or precisely how it works despite having never encountered it; if they failed, they could still scour the world looking for a spell that does what they want, they'd just be reduced to eg. asking shopkeepers or elder wizards or colleges of magic questions like "do you have a spell that does something like..." rather than saying "do you have [this exact spell]?"

[Nibbens]

I know this is a bit of a no-no, but I handle knowledge of what spells exist with Metagame knowledge.

A player's character is assumed to know of every spell in every rulebook.

Whether or not the player actually knows that a certain spell exists hinges entirely on their knowledge of the books (or site as the case may be).

Believe it or not - while it is highly discouraged from the community - I rely on this because when I pull out a spell that a player is not familiar with, it instills a sense of awe and/or wonder in the player (for just a moment) as they are utterly confused with how to deal with it until i call for an Arcana Check - which I then allow them to peruse the site/books for the info on the spell.

Unfortunately, this is the most organic way to deal with this problem that I've found. Of course, homebrew spells are always super secret and unknown until they encounter them in the field, then spend time researching/experimenting/and a level up to learn the darn thing. Again, this seems to be more organic and akin to actually learning something new that neither player nor character knew about.

[Necroticplague]

Generally, I assume that all printed spells are 'common'. These are the spells that have boiled down to the absolute most basic components, relatively standardized, and then spread. Thus, at least vague knowlege of them is relatively common. If you ask your local magic-seller for a spell that does that, it's probably within their ability to direct you to such a scroll, or at least get the name (assuming you didn't already know it). Know (arcana) would represent knowledge of more obscure spells, represented by custom spells. Spellcraft would allow you to go "I don't know if there's already a spell for it, but it seems possible to make within the realm of magic" (which, of course, is the first step towards making such a spell yourself). K(arcana) is magic history, Spellcraft is magic engineering.