The Ritual Caster feat and the cost of spell access

[Coidzor]

How much do your NPCs typically charge to allow to scribe from a scroll or a page from a spellbook or ritual book? Do you vary it depending upon the class spell list they're using?

Also, do you have copying spells into a ritual book destroy spell scrolls just like copying a spell into a Wizard's spellbook?

I've been doing a little digging after finally getting to take Ritual Caster on a character in a setting where I could realistically at least attempt to engage in commerce or do favors to get access to magical libraries, wizard spellbooks, and the like... And all I can find is a lot of back and forth about whether you should even allow PCs to pay for access to spell scrolls or other magical writings, and even then it's largely been about Wizards, not PCs with the Ritual Caster feat.

Thankfully in my particular case, the DM has already given approval of being able to buy spell access, but hasn't determined a cost for it. I need to hit them up again, but it kinda sounded like they believed there was a suggested cost somewhere in the rules when as far as I can tell there is not. So I want to be prepared to potentially have to hash something out with them with something a bit more substantial than just arguments about whether it should even be allowed because Wizards are already OP, when my character isn't even a Wizard, they're a Ranger who took Ritual Caster.

So, what do you do in your games and why?

Do you have any suggestions for points of discussion to have with a DM about all of this?

Do you treat things differently depending upon the spell list taken for Ritual Caster?

[Zhorn]

the DM has already given approval of being able to buy spell access, but hasn't determined a cost for it. I need to hit them up again, but it kinda sounded like they believed there was a suggested cost somewhere in the rules when as far as I can tell there is not.

Try XGtE p174, gives a price list for spell scrolls. As good a starting point as any.

[solidork]

And for non-wizard Ritual Casters, I think if you have access to some kind of organization (like a temple library) I think it can make sense for there to be Ritual Books from previous users of the feat - a PC Cleric would never take Ritual Caster: Cleric, but its something an NPC might do so that there could be the resource to teach others down the line.

[Tanarii]

Try XGtE p174, gives a price list for spell scrolls. As good a starting point as any.
That's my recommendation too, if a DM is going to allow it.

[Chronos]

It should be exactly as easy for a character with Ritual Caster: Wizard to get access to wizard rituals as it is for an actual wizard, because they're doing the exact same thing. And that should be significantly cheaper than buying scrolls, because there's no magic item involved in a spellbook.

For what it's worth, the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist module includes a shop that sells access to a limited list of wizard spells. They charge 25 GP for access to a 1st-level spell, 75 for a 2nd, 150 for a 3rd, 300 for a 4th, and 750 for a 5th, or twice that for a scroll. Of course, it's also possible to loot spellbooks, or to be granted access to them as a reward for some favor or service, or to trade spells with another wizard (possibly 1:1, possibly skewed in either direction).

For ritual casters from other spell lists, it's a bit trickier, because non-wizards don't typically keep their spells in written form (though there might still be a few here and there from previous ritual casters, and scrolls are still an option). My inclination would be that it'd be harder to find them in the first place, but that if you do find them, it'd cost about the same amount to get access to them.

And then there are some spells that are on multiple lists. I don't think that the Ritual Caster feat cares where the spell actually comes from, so long as it's on the list you chose. So if you pick Ritual Caster: Cleric, and then find a wizard spellbook containing a ritual that's on both the wizard and cleric lists, you can copy that over, too.