Spell book

[Shinoskay]

So, I may be playing a wizard without a spell book... painful but if thats the case then it is what it is.

so, if I have prepared spells then can I make a spell book and put those spells into it?

context, it's a survival game. I may also have to figure out how to make a spell book.

[RNightstalker]

I guess there's something to buying/crafting an "official" wizard's spellbook. Once you have one, you can copy the spells you have prepared into it, provided you have the time and money for the ink. Player's Handbook has the information you're looking for.

[Darg]

Complete arcane has rules about using structures, tattoos, and tokens. The later two seem like they would be beneficial. 2 levels of geometer, if you get to that point, lets you compact any spell level spell into the equivalent of 1 page which can be very beneficial when using alternative spellbooks. They do get limited in space after all.

[Max Caysey]

So, I may be playing a wizard without a spell book... painful but if thats the case then it is what it is.

so, if I have prepared spells then can I make a spell book and put those spells into it?

context, it's a survival game. I may also have to figure out how to make a spell book.

What about eidetic spellcaster acf?

[Shinoskay]

What about eidetic spellcaster acf?

already using immediate magic, no familiar to give up for eidetic.

[Silent Alarm]

context, it's a survival game. I may also have to figure out how to make a spell book.

Crafting a spellbook is described in Magic of Faerun. It is a DC 15 Craft (Bookbinding) check. Any Wizard worth a damn, can easily just take 10 and put 1 rank into it to make functional 100 page spellbook.


Now the question of how you're getting spells. At this point, picking up True Believer (Boccob) and picking up a Tome of Ancient Lore (MiC) and just using it as a means of scribing spells into scribing 1 spell into your spellbook a day until you have a decent spellbook to work from.

As it is a "survival game" (no idea what that is, but I presume survival might help). Consider investing in masterwork tools of:


Survival.
Spellcraft


You'll want your Survival to at least be as high as to be able to never fail a result of 10 so you can live off the land. The last thing you'll want to invest in is a Blessed Book of Boccob (DMG) to remove the cost of scribing stuff into your spellbook and a level dip in Geometer to maximize book space.

[Vaern]

so, if I have prepared spells then can I make a spell book and put those spells into it?
There's a section regarding copying or replacing spellbooks that allows you to scribe any prepared spell directly into your spellbook at the normal cost of 100 gp/page, which then wipes the spell from your mind as though it had been cast. So, assuming you are able to get yourself a spellbook: Yes, you can add prepared spells to it.
There are also various alternative options available for storing spells in things other than a book, if acquiring the book itself is an obstacle. Tattooing spells to your skin, carving them into your staff, or sewing them into your clothing are also options. The geometer prestige class is able to scribe spells of any level onto a single page, which may be a useful perk in this scenario.

[gijoemike]

If you are going to start without a spell book then you need to prepare to start the game without spell components. I know of a GM that did something similar once. He held a session 0. Everyone spent 3 hours building out characters, buying gear, making sure they could function as a party. There was a bit of meta-gaming going on to be honest.

GM starts session 1. BOOM your ship has hit a reef and sinks in a few rounds. You all are the survivors that wash up on shore. You have nothing be traveler clothes that you are wearing. No weapons, spell books, divine focus, armor, or provisions. GO!

The wizard had spells but couldn't cast them if he wanted. It was several session before he found a spell book to use.

[RNightstalker]

If you are going to start without a spell book then you need to prepare to start the game without spell components. I know of a GM that did something similar once. He held a session 0. Everyone spent 3 hours building out characters, buying gear, making sure they could function as a party. There was a bit of meta-gaming going on to be honest.

GM starts session 1. BOOM your ship has hit a reef and sinks in a few rounds. You all are the survivors that wash up on shore. You have nothing be traveler clothes that you are wearing. No weapons, spell books, divine focus, armor, or provisions. GO!

The wizard had spells but couldn't cast them if he wanted. It was several session before he found a spell book to use.

Wow...was it taken well? Save some time and say don't equip...

[aglondier]

Given you are in a survival situation, you may have to resort to found ingredients to scribe your newly made banana leaf page spellbook. Your own wizardly blood is a very expensive component. Giant squid/octopus ink, various monster ichors, rare ores ground into powder, sap of magical plants...etc. Just make sure to have a couple of points in suitable skills.

[Kelb_Panthera]

already using immediate magic, no familiar to give up for eidetic.

Feels like a situation where "able to function" is a better choice than "something nice."

Barring that, tatoos are pretty hard to remove without making it really obvious you intend to railroad pretty hard.

[Shinoskay]

Feels like a situation where "able to function" is a better choice than "something nice."

Barring that, tatoos are pretty hard to remove without making it really obvious you intend to railroad pretty hard.

Well, Thankfully tattooing magic tends to work like a magic scroll. so once it's expelled the tattoo itself is gone.

However, I dont think I am going to go for the tattoo feat.

But that does bring things into the topic of spell books and ink and such. I'd need a skill to be able to get material for a spell book (honorable mention to the banana leaf spell book someone hilariously mentioned). So skills in harvesting is going to be a must as well... and wizards dont have very many skill points per level or very many feats either.

No weapons means it's going to be rather hard to kill things, no fishing rod either... so first food source is really probably going to determine how the char will craft up to functionality.
Most skills are cross class and stealth is a must for a mage in this kind of situation.

a club is the easiest weapon to make, I dont think I'm going to want to use skills to make a weapon.

ink will be easy enough, you can use leafs and petals for ink.
but does that need a whole new skill? or could one use scribe for both book making and ink making? Kind of like how bowyer covers bows and arrows and string and all.

I opted for higher conjuror for spontaneous summoning. So if I a spell slot above 1 then I can keep preparing read magic into it and keep spont replacing it with summon monster for some kind of function. But, would that require components? if yes, would it require the read magic component or the summon component?

[Kelb_Panthera]

No no. The alternate spellbook option in CAr tattoos. They're as permanent as the ink in a regular spellbook but it costs double and your page count is limited by how much space your body has and soft limited by how much of that you can see. I almost always use it for a few staples in addition to a normal spellbook.

[Shinoskay]

No no. The alternate spellbook option in CAr tattoos. They're as permanent as the ink in a regular spellbook but it costs double and your page count is limited by how much space your body has and soft limited by how much of that you can see. I almost always use it for a few staples in addition to a normal spellbook.

OOOOH, that is really useful. This will absolutely help get a mage started off with a few life saving spells until they can get more page space. Reprioritizing my first few actions so that making a functional spell book is no longer a critical priority.

thank you.

*edit*
That same section also provides information on token spell storage.
Things like a slingstone (literally a rock) or even a club can store spells as well... at normal cost. So I can easily just make a pouch of stones for a spell book earlier on. I also thank you for this because now I have a much easier means of holding 'pages of spells' If for some reason I level up before I get a spell book. and now all my problems are solved <3

[aglondier]

I don't know what system you are using, but Pathfinder has a level 1 spell, Secluded Grimoire (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/secluded-grimoire/), that basically stores your spellbook in a tiny little extradimensional space exclusive to you...sure, it wastes a daily spell slot, but not losing your spellbook is worth it...

[Darg]

I don't know what system you are using, but Pathfinder has a level 1 spell, Secluded Grimoire (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/secluded-grimoire/), that basically stores your spellbook in a tiny little extradimensional space exclusive to you...sure, it wastes a daily spell slot, but not losing your spellbook is worth it...

If you like leaving slots open for versatility it would cost more than one slot.

[Vaern]

OOOOH, that is really useful. This will absolutely help get a mage started off with a few life saving spells until they can get more page space. Reprioritizing my first few actions so that making a functional spell book is no longer a critical priority.

thank you.

*edit*
That same section also provides information on token spell storage.
Things like a slingstone (literally a rock) or even a club can store spells as well... at normal cost. So I can easily just make a pouch of stones for a spell book earlier on. I also thank you for this because now I have a much easier means of holding 'pages of spells' If for some reason I level up before I get a spell book. and now all my problems are solved <3
Depending on what level you're starting out at or how long this game is going to be running, you might consider a 2-level dip of the geometer prestige class once it is available for their Book of Geometry class feature. Every spell they scribe into a spellbook from then on is compressed into a single page, which not only makes it much easier to carry spells around in non-standard forms of "spellbooks" (as it now only takes one slingstone to record a third-level spell instead of three) but also results in higher-level spells being much less expensive to learn since the price of scribing a spell is per page rather than per spell level.

[Maat Mons]

Eberron has a fist-sized crystal that works like a Blessed Book if you think at it real hard. Depending on what circumstances are depriving you of your spellbook, that might help. For example, paper probably wouldn't fair too well if you tried to smuggle it into prison rectally. But a crystal would be just fine.

If you're going to have a tattoo spellbook, maybe have someone else tattoo you, instead of tattooing yourself. Yeah, you'd need to make a spellcraft check to prepare spells from the tattoos, because they were created by someone else. But that's only until you succeed in mastering the spellbook that is your skin. I think it was Complete Arcane that had rules for mastering a spellbook written by someone else.

If the guy who does your tats is a Geometer with the Arcane Shorthand feat, you can have a crapton of spells, on your skin, regardless of their level. And you can have him tattoo spells that are currently too high level for you. Depending on how much your DM rules it costs to hire Geometer tattoo artist, this would be a very sensible thing for any Wizard to do.

I don't think just any old ink can be used to write in a spellbook. So I wouldn't be optimistic about makeshift inks made from berries or whatever.