In the game world you are in how many spells do your wizards know and how?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Another thread got me thinking. In both the game I play in and the game I DM sometimes we go sessions and almost levels w/o our Wizard getting any new spells or scrolls or ways to copy spells. I think in the game I play in the Wizard's player just did not know the material cost of learning new spells for awhile. He's a heck of a fun player but doesn't optimize between sessions or study the book.

In your worlds do the Wizards just have access to their whole books like Clerics or Paladins? Do they find scrolls in magic shops every day? Do they almost never get a new spell except on level up? Do any of you or your DM's space this out really well? Any idea how many spells the Wizard has in their book so to say?

[kazaryu]

Another thread got me thinking. In both the game I play in and the game I DM sometimes we go sessions and almost levels w/o our Wizard getting any new spells or scrolls or ways to copy spells. I think in the game I play in the Wizard's player just did not know the material cost of learning new spells for awhile. He's a heck of a fun player but doesn't optimize between sessions or study the book.

In your worlds do the Wizards just have access to their whole books like Clerics or Paladins? Do they find scrolls in magic shops every day? Do they almost never get a new spell except on level up? Do any of you or your DM's space this out really well? Any idea how many spells the Wizard has in their book so to say?

honestly it all depends on the player and campaign. my main continent that most of my games play on there are 2 regions: one is fairly high magic, where a wizard might relaibly be able to purchase scrolls, or rent a book to copy spells from. the other half is an incredibly low magic area where the only scrolls are liable to be the ones i give them in loot.


interestingly, im planning to give my current wizard player a scroll that its going to take him several levels to fully decipher, but when he does finish it (i plan on this happening around lvl 14 ish) he'll be able to add wish to his spell book. he'll also be able to cast it....albeit at great personal risk.

[Callak_Remier]

My Abjuror has consistently been adding spells about 5 have been loot drops, 8 have been part of quest rewards ( pre haggled at quest acceptance) over a dozen low level spells have been purchased.

My Dm is of the same mind set that low level scrolls are plentiful and consist of 90% of the market. So anything past lvl 4 is most likely not to be purchesable.

I have about 47 spell book at lvl 11, with another dozen or so waiting for a metric tonne of downtime to copy them.

[Sigreid]

I'd say on average a wizard can expect to find about 1 additional spell per level. There is some variation though. I mean, when the party raided the base of an ancient society of wizards, the library was a major jackpot.

[ad_hoc]

Scrolls in general aren't the most common things, and then it needs to be on the Wizard's list.

Books are very rare. There aren't a lot of NPC Wizards out there.

In our game we have 7 days of downtime between levels.

A Wizard can choose to research spells if they want.

1 day = 1st level
3 days = 2nd level
7 days = 3rd level


We start at 3rd level so no downtime at 2nd or 3rd, but if they spend 2 weeks to 4th and then to 5th they can have a well rounded book full of rituals if they want.

[ProsecutorGodot]

I'm playing two seperate Wizards. One is a 7th level Wizard (Character level 13) and one is a 3rd level Wizard. I'm not going to count cantrips for these totals.

The 13th level character has 43 spells and has found 3 spellbooks. The campaign has been on hold for a while but to my knowledge we never purchased any scrolls, all of my spells that were scribed rather than learned by level were taken from one of the 3 spellbooks. Many of the spells that were scribed have never been used.

The 3rd level Wizard knows 11 spells and has found 1 spellbook. I've only had the time and gold to copy a single spell from the spellbook but it has 6 other spells in it that I don't already know, I plan on copying just 3 more of them.

As far as I know all of these spellbooks were a part of the campaign (SKT for the first and Avernus for the second).

[nickl_2000]

In my Dragon heist adventure going on right now the wizard has all first level spells known well the potential to know them at least. He hasn’t had the downtime or cash to scribe them all yet from scroll’s. And only the class feature second level spells.

That being said, he has sunk plenty much all his money and downtime into buying scrolls and scribing into his book.

[Anderlith]

I try & treat any spell scroll or errant spellbook as a magic item, & I wish WotC would do similar. Imagine a wizard & a fighter, both adventuring, one to find a lost spellbook of Greymane the Firebeard & the other the Sword of Lots of Damage.

A fighter over time doesn’t gain much more than skill & competence in battle, & neither should the wizard gain more than skill & competence in spellcraft. If the wizard viewed spellbooks as a fighter did a +1 sword it would shift the dynamics of D&D for the better. A wizard without his spellbook should be as useful as a knight without his sword. A wizard gaining a small library of tomes which he has gathered over his adventures, delving in to dragon’s hoards & liches lairs is a lot more interesting than gaining two spells of his choice every level. Sadly this is hard to do with the current rule set of D&D, as mages are spelllists firsts, & characters second.

[stoutstien]

I'm working on a complete Homebrew system that going to look a lot like a epic 10 5e.
Always felt becoming a wizard should be a goal not a starting point outside of using the term wizard as a generic spellcaster. Same for druids, paladins, and bards.

One of the concepts I had that at level 10 they can choose to become a wizard but there is only so many wizards allowed so to actually achieve that they have two in one way or another replace 1.

[Sigreid]

One of the concepts I had that at level 10 they can choose to become a wizard but there is only so many wizards allowed so to actually achieve that they have two in one way or another replace 1.

1e did this with monks and druids. After a certain point, to advance you had to defeat the current holder of the rank.

[HappyDaze]

I'm running an Eberron game, and in it, spellbooks are relatively available. They are often expensive and you have to buy a full book (generated using a random spellbook generator I found online), not just cherry pick the spells you want and pay for them piecemeal. Yes, this means that buying the spellbook of a deceased 7th level wizard to get that 4th level spell you want means you're paying for a number of lower level spells you've probably already learned, but such is the price of collecting magical tomes (or new editions of RPGs you've played for decades).

[DeTess]

My current world is fairly high magic. Despite that, scrolls are actually quite rare because of a past calamity (in short: there was a very powerful and advanced magitech-based empire, and then it collapsed. The campaign is set a couple of centuries after that, with civilization in the process of recovering. A lot of old artifacts still survive, but more fragile objects have since decayed).

The wizard player often uses downtime to look for more spells, and I base which spells are available on a combination of common sense and dice-rolls, with some extra gold cost attached based on the spell's level and relative rarity(utility spells are generally more common than combat spells, for example).

[stoutstien]

1e did this with monks and druids. After a certain point, to advance you had to defeat the current holder of the rank.

I dislike a lot of the action resolution mechanics of the older editions but there is some solid ideas hiding in them. Why should only warlocks have good built in theatrical tie ins