I've never played a wizard in my life... excluding my second time playing DnD (in person) with a DM who would tell you if you succeeded or failed an ability check before describing consequences.
I've been looking into it, and here's the main takeaway I'm getting:
Wizards are really, really, REALLY, expensive.
First of all, you need to pay 50 gp and spend 1 hour scribing a spell into your spellbook. Per level. Honestly, on adventures, a) nobody has that kind of spare time and b) nobody's got the money to build up the versatile and powerful wizard of your dreams. Your starter 6 1st level spells will probably carry you until 3rd level. But that, is where the trouble begins.
You want, let's say... acid arrow and blindness/deafness. That is already 200 gp total, and 4 hours of scribing. Um, ouch! At 3rd level, this is like throwing away your wallet, and you'll probably want some other 1st or 2nd level spells later in the campaign. Then comes 5th level, and you want fireball, counterspell, dispel magic, and bestow curse. If you want to get your delicious 3rd level spells, you'll have to pay about 600 gp and spend half a day scribing... which, of course, does not sound great. Additionally, you'll need a spell scroll or something to copy your spell from in order to scribe these spells, which is probably going to increase the money you need by a lot, because who just conveniently leaves 4 of the best 3rd level spells in 5e just lying about in a dungeon? Probably not your DM.
Finally, do you remember how all your spells are in a beautiful spellbook? Well, what do you think would happen if one day, you were knocked unconcious and your spellbook was stolen? This is why people make backup spellbooks, and that costs about 1/4 of the money used to make your original spellbook, at least, when the 100gp cost of a spellbook doesn't matter. So, assuming you had 6 first level spells, 4 second level spells, 4 third level spells, 2 fourth level spells, 3 fifth level spells, 2 sixth level spells, 1 seventh level spell, 2 eight level spells, and 2 ninth level spells, you would be paying about (400+600+400+750+600+350+800+900) times 5/4 gp, not including buying spell scrolls. If I pull up a calculator... turns out, you'd be paying more than 6000 gp over your adventuring career, plus the cost of the spell scrolls.
When you level up you can put two extra spells into your spellbook for free so you will have access to plenty of spells even without paying for more. For example at 5th level with +4 intelligence without spending anything you will have 14 spells in their spell book and be able to prepare 9 of them for comparoison a 5th level sorcerer only knows 6 spells unless they get exta from their subclass.
If as a low level character you find another wizards spell book you might have to choose which spells to copy and which to wait until you have more money but these are on top of you free spells. At higher levels in most campaigns you should have enough gold for it not to be a concern.
If the example you gave is the number of extra spells you put into your spell book over your career (either from spells you find or purchase as scrolls) I am not sure why you are multiplying by 5/4, but for a high level adventurer 5000 or 6000gp is not that much. Full plate costs 1500 gp and a heavy armor character will expect that at somewhere around level 5-7. From level 11 a cleric or druid will be casting heroes' feast before each major challenge at a cost of 1000gp and if from level 17 they need to cast true ressurrection, that spell consumes 25000gp worth of diamonds.
Play a Reborn, Order of Scribes Wizard. You have all night to scribe spells while the others are sleeping, and you don't have the cost of the ink when scribing, because your quill produces ink of sufficient quality. You can also learn Galder's Tower at L5, at which time you can use the spell slot to create the tower with a study that has all of the paper needed, so you can use that to learn the spell, at the end of which you copy it into your spellbook with the infinite ink from your quill for free, since all of the paper/books created by the spell will disappear when the spell ends. Thus, unless you're learning a spell with expensive material components, you should be able to learn it for free, and during your well-protected long rests.
Play a Reborn, Order of Scribes Wizard. You have all night to scribe spells while the others are sleeping, and you don't have the cost of the ink when scribing, because your quill produces ink of sufficient quality. You can also learn Galder's Tower at L5, at which time you can use the spell slot to create the tower with a study that has all of the paper needed, so you can use that to learn the spell, at the end of which you copy it into your spellbook with the infinite ink from your quill for free, since all of the paper/books created by the spell will disappear when the spell ends. Thus, unless you're learning a spell with expensive material components, you should be able to learn it for free, and during your well-protected long rests.
Most of this is incorrect by RAW.
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Play a Reborn, Order of Scribes Wizard. You have all night to scribe spells while the others are sleeping, and you don't have the cost of the ink when scribing, because your quill produces ink of sufficient quality. You can also learn Galder's Tower at L5, at which time you can use the spell slot to create the tower with a study that has all of the paper needed, so you can use that to learn the spell, at the end of which you copy it into your spellbook with the infinite ink from your quill for free, since all of the paper/books created by the spell will disappear when the spell ends. Thus, unless you're learning a spell with expensive material components, you should be able to learn it for free, and during your well-protected long rests.
Most of this is incorrect by RAW.
I don't believe so. Could you possibly try to be useful and provide an explanation of what isn't RAW?
The cost of learning spells is the paper, ink and material components, so if you have a way of getting the paper and ink for free, that would reduce the amount of money you have to spend to learn the new spell. That doesn't contradict RAW.
They never say the ink is of sufficient quality. I don't know what Galder's Tower is.
The Order of Scribes Wizard feature specifically states that the ink produced can be used to copy spells into your spellbook. The subclass is in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Please read its features.
Galder's Tower is a L3 spell that creates a two-story tower, with one room on each floor, which can be created already furnished with one from a preset group of rooms, one of which is a study with extensive paper and books. The rules for copying spells do not include any caveat that would prevent this paper created by the spell from being used to learn a new spell. The paper all disappears when the spell ends, so before it does, you have to copy it over into your spellbook, but that's the only RAW limitation. Galder's Tower comes from the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish.
The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it.
As a bonus action, you can magically create a Tiny quill in your free hand. The magic quill has the following properties:
The quill doesn’t require ink. When you write with it, it produces ink in a color of your choice on the writing surface.
The time you must spend to copy a spell into your spellbook equals 2 minutes per spell level if you use the quill for the transcription.
You can erase anything you write with the quill if you wave the feather over the text as a bonus action, provided the text is within 5 feet of you.
This quill disappears if you create another one or if you die.
Nobody said that the ink is fine. It's only colorful. Also, it takes less time. That's all.
Also, material components for experimenting. Nothing says otherwise.
Read more closely. It says the quill both doesn't require ink, and that scribing spells takes less time, which defacto means that the ink it creates can be used to scribe spells.
The "fine Inks" is part of the cost of transcribing spells, and the other components for experimentation are not specified, and reasonably would be covered by the study created by the Galder's Tower, unless the spell actually has expended material components, in which case, a portion of the cost of learning the spell would still have to be expended for those components.
"Read more closely. It says the quill both doesn't require ink, and that scribing spells takes less time, which defacto means that the ink it creates can be used to scribe spells."
Incorrect! Just because the quill doesn't require ink and that scribing spells takes less time, it doesn't mean that the quill has the fine inks. A faster scribe and free ink is not directly related to fine inks. Also, the material components are for experimentation; my take is that you will need the material components for experimentation even if they don't have a cost and are not consumed, in order to experiment with what works best.
Play a Reborn, Order of Scribes Wizard. You have all night to scribe spells while the others are sleeping, and you don't have the cost of the ink when scribing, because your quill produces ink of sufficient quality. You can also learn Galder's Tower at L5, at which time you can use the spell slot to create the tower with a study that has all of the paper needed, so you can use that to learn the spell, at the end of which you copy it into your spellbook with the infinite ink from your quill for free, since all of the paper/books created by the spell will disappear when the spell ends. Thus, unless you're learning a spell with expensive material components, you should be able to learn it for free, and during your well-protected long rests.
Most of this is incorrect by RAW.
I'll go through each thing you said:
You do not have ALL night to scribe spells while others are sleeping as you need to spend at least 4 hours in an inactive motionless state. Unless the rest of the party has similar features (e.g Elves warforged) you can still scribe spells in the remaining 4 hours and given you only need 2 minutes per spell level this should be plenty.
You can use your quill to add spells to your spell book and your quill does not require ink so I agree it makes sense that you bo not need fine inks but "The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it." There is no indication how much of the 50gp per level is spent on material components (which you still need) and how much on fine inks. You DM could decide virtually all the cost is the components (no cost discount for you), it is virtually all the fine inks (so you can copy spells for free) or anything inbetween.
"Galdur's Tower" is a spell from an adventure module. Allowing content from adventure models can be completely broken outside of the adventure. A classic here is in one adventure the Characters are minute creatures. Onyx is a normal housecat but due to the PCs size it is huge, has a walking speed of 400ft, Any damage Onyx would take is reduced to 0, she has advantage on ability checks and saving throws and any conditions she gets from a spell automatically end at the ned of her next turn. Oynx is CR0 so is available for a druid's wild shape (if the DM says you haven't seen one then the druid would have to wait until level 7 when they can cast polymorph on an allie so they have seen one). I might be wrong but I think the only way to kill Oynx is power word kill and (possibly) a well worded wish. I am not saying Galdur's tower is broken but a DM ruling that Players can use any sourcebook but not adventures for character creation / development is common.
If allowed the study of Galdur's tower contains parchment (it doesn't say how much) but parchment is not mentioned in the cost of copying spells
Play a Reborn, Order of Scribes Wizard. You have all night to scribe spells while the others are sleeping, and you don't have the cost of the ink when scribing, because your quill produces ink of sufficient quality. You can also learn Galder's Tower at L5, at which time you can use the spell slot to create the tower with a study that has all of the paper needed, so you can use that to learn the spell, at the end of which you copy it into your spellbook with the infinite ink from your quill for free, since all of the paper/books created by the spell will disappear when the spell ends. Thus, unless you're learning a spell with expensive material components, you should be able to learn it for free, and during your well-protected long rests.
Most of this is incorrect by RAW.
I'll go through each thing you said:
You do not have ALL night to scribe spells while others are sleeping as you need to spend at least 4 hours in an inactive motionless state. Unless the rest of the party has similar features (e.g Elves warforged) you can still scribe spells in the remaining 4 hours and given you only need 2 minutes per spell level this should be plenty.
You can use your quill to add spells to your spell book and your quill does not require ink so I agree it makes sense that you bo not need fine inks but "The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it." There is no indication how much of the 50gp per level is spent on material components (which you still need) and how much on fine inks. You DM could decide virtually all the cost is the components (no cost discount for you), it is virtually all the fine inks (so you can copy spells for free) or anything inbetween.
"Galdur's Tower" is a spell from an adventure module. Allowing content from adventure models can be completely broken outside of the adventure. A classic here is in one adventure the Characters are minute creatures. Onyx is a normal housecat but due to the PCs size it is huge, has a walking speed of 400ft, Any damage Onyx would take is reduced to 0, she has advantage on ability checks and saving throws and any conditions she gets from a spell automatically end at the ned of her next turn. Oynx is CR0 so is available for a druid's wild shape (if the DM says you haven't seen one then the druid would have to wait until level 7 when they can cast polymorph on an allie so they have seen one). I might be wrong but I think the only way to kill Oynx is power word kill and (possibly) a well worded wish. I am not saying Galdur's tower is broken but a DM ruling that Players can use any sourcebook but not adventures for character creation / development is common.
If allowed the study of Galdur's tower contains parchment (it doesn't say how much) but parchment is not mentioned in the cost of copying spells
Learning a new spell costs 50gp per spell level, but copying a known spell into a new spellbook only costs 10gp per spell level
Copying a spell you already know into a new spellbook (specified in the "Replacing the Book" section of the Wizard's entry) costs 10gp per level of the spell, and since no experimentation is involved in the copying of a known spell into a new spellbook, that would mean that 10gp is the cost of the ink, which would but a lower limit on how much of the 50gp per spell level for learning a new spell is the ink. And since many spells have no expended material components, the cost of experimentation is likely the paper and inks as the wizard attempts variations of notations to produce the desired effect. At minimum, the cost of learning a new spell should be reduced by 1/5 for an Order of Scribes Wizard, and the stocked rooms that can be created by a spell like Galder's Tower or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion should be able to provide most other materials for experimentation.
The Wizards' learning & coppying of spells is very poorly fleshed out in 5e. All of this should have been explicitely spelled out in the rules.
And you are correct that Elves and Reborn have half the night for copying spells, but as Order of Scribes Wizards, it makes no difference, because they still have all the time they need. If a full night were needed, taking the Pact of the Tome as a Warlock to be able to spend the full night in non-exerting studying/experimentation would work.
I haven't seen spells from specific adventures breaking any games. Creatures are a whole different thing, and even generic creatures from the Monster Manual can break campaigns if the DM implements them poorly.
Of course, for any character option, the DM has veto power, so rather than tailoring my arguments for a specific table, I've presented options that use all of the officially published material.
Play a Reborn, Order of Scribes Wizard. You have all night to scribe spells while the others are sleeping, and you don't have the cost of the ink when scribing, because your quill produces ink of sufficient quality. You can also learn Galder's Tower at L5, at which time you can use the spell slot to create the tower with a study that has all of the paper needed, so you can use that to learn the spell, at the end of which you copy it into your spellbook with the infinite ink from your quill for free, since all of the paper/books created by the spell will disappear when the spell ends. Thus, unless you're learning a spell with expensive material components, you should be able to learn it for free, and during your well-protected long rests.
Most of this is incorrect by RAW.
I'll go through each thing you said:
You do not have ALL night to scribe spells while others are sleeping as you need to spend at least 4 hours in an inactive motionless state. Unless the rest of the party has similar features (e.g Elves warforged) you can still scribe spells in the remaining 4 hours and given you only need 2 minutes per spell level this should be plenty.
You can use your quill to add spells to your spell book and your quill does not require ink so I agree it makes sense that you bo not need fine inks but "The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it." There is no indication how much of the 50gp per level is spent on material components (which you still need) and how much on fine inks. You DM could decide virtually all the cost is the components (no cost discount for you), it is virtually all the fine inks (so you can copy spells for free) or anything inbetween.
"Galdur's Tower" is a spell from an adventure module. Allowing content from adventure models can be completely broken outside of the adventure. A classic here is in one adventure the Characters are minute creatures. Onyx is a normal housecat but due to the PCs size it is huge, has a walking speed of 400ft, Any damage Onyx would take is reduced to 0, she has advantage on ability checks and saving throws and any conditions she gets from a spell automatically end at the ned of her next turn. Oynx is CR0 so is available for a druid's wild shape (if the DM says you haven't seen one then the druid would have to wait until level 7 when they can cast polymorph on an allie so they have seen one). I might be wrong but I think the only way to kill Oynx is power word kill and (possibly) a well worded wish. I am not saying Galdur's tower is broken but a DM ruling that Players can use any sourcebook but not adventures for character creation / development is common.
If allowed the study of Galdur's tower contains parchment (it doesn't say how much) but parchment is not mentioned in the cost of copying spells
Learning a new spell costs 50gp per spell level, but copying a known spell into a new spellbook only costs 10gp per spell level
Copying a spell you already know into a new spellbook (specified in the "Replacing the Book" section of the Wizard's entry) costs 10gp per level of the spell, and since no experimentation is involved in the copying of a known spell into a new spellbook, that would mean that 10gp is the cost of the ink, which would but a lower limit on how much of the 50gp per spell level for learning a new spell is the ink. And since many spells have no expended material components, the cost of experimentation is likely the paper and inks as the wizard attempts variations of notations to produce the desired effect. At minimum, the cost of learning a new spell should be reduced by 1/5 for an Order of Scribes Wizard, and the stocked rooms that can be created by a spell like Galder's Tower or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion should be able to provide most other materials for experimentation.
The Wizards' learning & coppying of spells is very poorly fleshed out in 5e. All of this should have been explicitely spelled out in the rules.
And you are correct that Elves and Reborn have half the night for copying spells, but as Order of Scribes Wizards, it makes no difference, because they still have all the time they need. If a full night were needed, taking the Pact of the Tome as a Warlock to be able to spend the full night in non-exerting studying/experimentation would work.
I haven't seen spells from specific adventures breaking any games. Creatures are a whole different thing, and even generic creatures from the Monster Manual can break campaigns if the DM implements them poorly.
Of course, for any character option, the DM has veto power, so rather than tailoring my arguments for a specific table, I've presented options that use all of the officially published material.
Look, you can argue semantics and interpolations as much as you want, but at the end of the day the RAW is that it takes 50 gp per level to scribe a new spell into your spellbook. The original 8 Wizard subclasses had specific features that reduced the cost for their given school, and no other feature that I am aware of discusses interacting with that cost (notably, the UA of Scribes did have such a feature, but it was cut). Ergo, the Specific Beats General principle says that the specific designated cost of spell scribing overrides any general feature such as a quill that produces endless ink.
It really all depends on how free the DM is with scrolls and looted spellbooks, and how stingy they are with the gold. If you’re flooded with new spells to scribe but strapped for cash… it sucks. But if you have the gp for it because the DM did their job right, what else is the Wizard gonna do while the Fighter, Monk, and Warlock are taking another short rest? That’s prime scribing time if you ask me. It doesn’t state you have to scribe the whole spell in one sitting. Do some now, a little more later, finish it off at night. With 2 short rests that’s a 3rd-level spell scribed that day.
I'd say it depends a lot on your free starting picks and extra two per level; my current wizard (Edward Merryspell) has only bought I think four additional spells, and that's been mainly to add damage types for the Order of the Scribes damage type switching ability. Otherwise I've been taking one regular spell and one ritual each level as much as possible, so I don't need to worry about preparing spells, and I can still have a huge range of chaotic nonsense I can do (he's very much a chaos/control/"utility" wizard).
Otherwise most of his gold has been spent on casting magic mouth strategically to spread vicious rumours (some of which are even true) about his arch-nemesis Quentillius. 😈
But yeah, more generally I think one of the traps a wizard player can fall into is becoming too obsessed with accumulating more spells; that's not necessarily a bad thing, as it can be entirely in character for a wizard, and can really work given a wizard's versatility. And there's nothing at all wrong with building the "prepare for anything" wizard who has so many spells that no matter what situation you're approaching, as long as you can prepare you can build a spell-list for exactly that situation. But time to prepare isn't always available, and (more specifically to DDB) preparing different spell-lists can be a huge pain in the ass, but you can just as easily use your free picks to build a specialist wizard that excels at one or two areas, or a generalist who has an answer to everything.
I think most people will fall into generalist or specialist builds, as when you do have time to prepare you can still tweak the list to take advantage of any knowledge you have (swap out conditions/damage type you know an enemy will be immune to etc.) but a well prepared list should be able to cope even when you have no time to prepare. For the specialist this means making sure you don't focus so much on one thing that when that one thing isn't useful neither are you, it's better to have two or three areas of specialisation, or some general party support or such to fall back on. For the generalist, being able to cope with any situation is basically their entire deal, they just might not have the best solution to a given problem. Plus part of the fun with wizard is being creative with what you have to get yourself out of situations you never expected to find yourself in.
Who says a petrified bird tied to a rope can't be used as an impromptu grappling hook when you know catapult?
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I'm playing a wizard for the first time, first level, shorter campaign, just to try to understand the class better. The rules and mechanics re: spell preparation are not what I expected. I thought playing a wizard would be some kind of an elevated experience for availability to spells with more choices and flexibility, at this moment, it doesn't feel that way. The way the spellbook works feels like an extra complication, compared to playing a Cleric or a Druid, where you can just scrap all your bad spell choices at the next long rest. I've also dabbled with a Sorcerer and with that I sort of knew to be extra careful and think fairly long term about my spell selection. It usually does take me a bit of time to adjust to a class that I've never played before and to find what it is I like about it. The way wizard's spell prep and spell book work (and the way that works with the dndbeyond character sheet) has all sort of caught me off gaurd. And to the orignal poster's point, being a wizard seems like it might be an expensive endeavor (on a few levels), i guess depending on how generous the DM is will gold and spell component and such.
It seems like thus far the only advantage to my character at this point is the ability to cast ritual spells that are in my spellbook but aren't prepared that day. I think I might have made a short sided choice taking Sleep over Identify, but then I didn't have the funds for the spell component for Identify. so I took the spell that I could afford to cast at the time, but now I regret that.
RIght now it feels like playing a wizard is going to always feel like a sitation of not having enough resources or as much flexiblity as a Druid or a Cleric (emmm maybe even a Sorcerer, if I can't replace my mistakes, when I level up).
Also, point of ettiquite, if my DM/some NPC gives me a spell scroll or some other way of copying a spell into my spell book, am I obligated to do that? Will it hurt my DM's feelings if I don't like the spell and don't choose to spend the resources to copy it into my spellbook? (maybe if it does, that the DM's problem and not mine) . . or it is like the DM will give me oppurtunities to copy more spells into my spell book than I will have resources for and part of what is fun and creative about this is deciding which ones I will put the resources into (and everybody knows and understands that situation going in)?
Please tell me that it doesn't always feel like this, playiing a wizard!
So, Wizard is less intrinsically flexible than Cleric or Druid, but they've got a much broader suite of spells overall, and learning two spells for free each level on top of any you scribe is going to fill out your options pretty well after a few levels. Plus, there's very little reason not to spend gold on scribing new spells when you get the chance; you're not going to need to invest in working your way up the armor ladder or buying magic weapons, and most magic items a Wizard wants are attuned, so you're only going to be able to use so many at a time in the first place.
Also, Sleep is a much better early pick than Identify.
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I've never played a wizard in my life... excluding my second time playing DnD (in person) with a DM who would tell you if you succeeded or failed an ability check before describing consequences.
I've been looking into it, and here's the main takeaway I'm getting:
Wizards are really, really, REALLY, expensive.
First of all, you need to pay 50 gp and spend 1 hour scribing a spell into your spellbook. Per level. Honestly, on adventures, a) nobody has that kind of spare time and b) nobody's got the money to build up the versatile and powerful wizard of your dreams. Your starter 6 1st level spells will probably carry you until 3rd level. But that, is where the trouble begins.
You want, let's say... acid arrow and blindness/deafness. That is already 200 gp total, and 4 hours of scribing. Um, ouch! At 3rd level, this is like throwing away your wallet, and you'll probably want some other 1st or 2nd level spells later in the campaign. Then comes 5th level, and you want fireball, counterspell, dispel magic, and bestow curse. If you want to get your delicious 3rd level spells, you'll have to pay about 600 gp and spend half a day scribing... which, of course, does not sound great. Additionally, you'll need a spell scroll or something to copy your spell from in order to scribe these spells, which is probably going to increase the money you need by a lot, because who just conveniently leaves 4 of the best 3rd level spells in 5e just lying about in a dungeon? Probably not your DM.
Finally, do you remember how all your spells are in a beautiful spellbook? Well, what do you think would happen if one day, you were knocked unconcious and your spellbook was stolen? This is why people make backup spellbooks, and that costs about 1/4 of the money used to make your original spellbook, at least, when the 100gp cost of a spellbook doesn't matter. So, assuming you had 6 first level spells, 4 second level spells, 4 third level spells, 2 fourth level spells, 3 fifth level spells, 2 sixth level spells, 1 seventh level spell, 2 eight level spells, and 2 ninth level spells, you would be paying about (400+600+400+750+600+350+800+900) times 5/4 gp, not including buying spell scrolls. If I pull up a calculator... turns out, you'd be paying more than 6000 gp over your adventuring career, plus the cost of the spell scrolls.
That seems really expensive.
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It's not as bad as you think.
When you level up you can put two extra spells into your spellbook for free so you will have access to plenty of spells even without paying for more. For example at 5th level with +4 intelligence without spending anything you will have 14 spells in their spell book and be able to prepare 9 of them for comparoison a 5th level sorcerer only knows 6 spells unless they get exta from their subclass.
If as a low level character you find another wizards spell book you might have to choose which spells to copy and which to wait until you have more money but these are on top of you free spells. At higher levels in most campaigns you should have enough gold for it not to be a concern.
If the example you gave is the number of extra spells you put into your spell book over your career (either from spells you find or purchase as scrolls) I am not sure why you are multiplying by 5/4, but for a high level adventurer 5000 or 6000gp is not that much. Full plate costs 1500 gp and a heavy armor character will expect that at somewhere around level 5-7. From level 11 a cleric or druid will be casting heroes' feast before each major challenge at a cost of 1000gp and if from level 17 they need to cast true ressurrection, that spell consumes 25000gp worth of diamonds.
The 5/4 is because of the approximate 1/4 cost of a backup spellbook, to clarify.
I actually didn't know about the 2 free spells part, and I suppose the whole money part does make sense. Thanks!
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
Play a Reborn, Order of Scribes Wizard. You have all night to scribe spells while the others are sleeping, and you don't have the cost of the ink when scribing, because your quill produces ink of sufficient quality. You can also learn Galder's Tower at L5, at which time you can use the spell slot to create the tower with a study that has all of the paper needed, so you can use that to learn the spell, at the end of which you copy it into your spellbook with the infinite ink from your quill for free, since all of the paper/books created by the spell will disappear when the spell ends. Thus, unless you're learning a spell with expensive material components, you should be able to learn it for free, and during your well-protected long rests.
Most of this is incorrect by RAW.
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I don't believe so. Could you possibly try to be useful and provide an explanation of what isn't RAW?
The cost of learning spells is the paper, ink and material components, so if you have a way of getting the paper and ink for free, that would reduce the amount of money you have to spend to learn the new spell. That doesn't contradict RAW.
They never say the ink is of sufficient quality. I don't know what Galder's Tower is.
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
The Order of Scribes Wizard feature specifically states that the ink produced can be used to copy spells into your spellbook. The subclass is in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Please read its features.
Galder's Tower is a L3 spell that creates a two-story tower, with one room on each floor, which can be created already furnished with one from a preset group of rooms, one of which is a study with extensive paper and books. The rules for copying spells do not include any caveat that would prevent this paper created by the spell from being used to learn a new spell. The paper all disappears when the spell ends, so before it does, you have to copy it over into your spellbook, but that's the only RAW limitation. Galder's Tower comes from the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish.
The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it.
As a bonus action, you can magically create a Tiny quill in your free hand. The magic quill has the following properties:
This quill disappears if you create another one or if you die.
Nobody said that the ink is fine. It's only colorful. Also, it takes less time. That's all.
Also, material components for experimenting. Nothing says otherwise.
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
Read more closely. It says the quill both doesn't require ink, and that scribing spells takes less time, which defacto means that the ink it creates can be used to scribe spells.
The "fine Inks" is part of the cost of transcribing spells, and the other components for experimentation are not specified, and reasonably would be covered by the study created by the Galder's Tower, unless the spell actually has expended material components, in which case, a portion of the cost of learning the spell would still have to be expended for those components.
"Read more closely. It says the quill both doesn't require ink, and that scribing spells takes less time, which defacto means that the ink it creates can be used to scribe spells."
Incorrect! Just because the quill doesn't require ink and that scribing spells takes less time, it doesn't mean that the quill has the fine inks. A faster scribe and free ink is not directly related to fine inks. Also, the material components are for experimentation; my take is that you will need the material components for experimentation even if they don't have a cost and are not consumed, in order to experiment with what works best.
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
I'll go through each thing you said:
Learning a new spell costs 50gp per spell level, but copying a known spell into a new spellbook only costs 10gp per spell level
Copying a spell you already know into a new spellbook (specified in the "Replacing the Book" section of the Wizard's entry) costs 10gp per level of the spell, and since no experimentation is involved in the copying of a known spell into a new spellbook, that would mean that 10gp is the cost of the ink, which would but a lower limit on how much of the 50gp per spell level for learning a new spell is the ink. And since many spells have no expended material components, the cost of experimentation is likely the paper and inks as the wizard attempts variations of notations to produce the desired effect. At minimum, the cost of learning a new spell should be reduced by 1/5 for an Order of Scribes Wizard, and the stocked rooms that can be created by a spell like Galder's Tower or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion should be able to provide most other materials for experimentation.
The Wizards' learning & coppying of spells is very poorly fleshed out in 5e. All of this should have been explicitely spelled out in the rules.
And you are correct that Elves and Reborn have half the night for copying spells, but as Order of Scribes Wizards, it makes no difference, because they still have all the time they need. If a full night were needed, taking the Pact of the Tome as a Warlock to be able to spend the full night in non-exerting studying/experimentation would work.
I haven't seen spells from specific adventures breaking any games. Creatures are a whole different thing, and even generic creatures from the Monster Manual can break campaigns if the DM implements them poorly.
Of course, for any character option, the DM has veto power, so rather than tailoring my arguments for a specific table, I've presented options that use all of the officially published material.
Look, you can argue semantics and interpolations as much as you want, but at the end of the day the RAW is that it takes 50 gp per level to scribe a new spell into your spellbook. The original 8 Wizard subclasses had specific features that reduced the cost for their given school, and no other feature that I am aware of discusses interacting with that cost (notably, the UA of Scribes did have such a feature, but it was cut). Ergo, the Specific Beats General principle says that the specific designated cost of spell scribing overrides any general feature such as a quill that produces endless ink.
It really all depends on how free the DM is with scrolls and looted spellbooks, and how stingy they are with the gold. If you’re flooded with new spells to scribe but strapped for cash… it sucks. But if you have the gp for it because the DM did their job right, what else is the Wizard gonna do while the Fighter, Monk, and Warlock are taking another short rest? That’s prime scribing time if you ask me. It doesn’t state you have to scribe the whole spell in one sitting. Do some now, a little more later, finish it off at night. With 2 short rests that’s a 3rd-level spell scribed that day.
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I'd say it depends a lot on your free starting picks and extra two per level; my current wizard (Edward Merryspell) has only bought I think four additional spells, and that's been mainly to add damage types for the Order of the Scribes damage type switching ability. Otherwise I've been taking one regular spell and one ritual each level as much as possible, so I don't need to worry about preparing spells, and I can still have a huge range of chaotic nonsense I can do (he's very much a chaos/control/"utility" wizard).
Otherwise most of his gold has been spent on casting magic mouth strategically to spread vicious rumours (some of which are even true) about his arch-nemesis Quentillius. 😈
But yeah, more generally I think one of the traps a wizard player can fall into is becoming too obsessed with accumulating more spells; that's not necessarily a bad thing, as it can be entirely in character for a wizard, and can really work given a wizard's versatility. And there's nothing at all wrong with building the "prepare for anything" wizard who has so many spells that no matter what situation you're approaching, as long as you can prepare you can build a spell-list for exactly that situation. But time to prepare isn't always available, and (more specifically to DDB) preparing different spell-lists can be a huge pain in the ass, but you can just as easily use your free picks to build a specialist wizard that excels at one or two areas, or a generalist who has an answer to everything.
I think most people will fall into generalist or specialist builds, as when you do have time to prepare you can still tweak the list to take advantage of any knowledge you have (swap out conditions/damage type you know an enemy will be immune to etc.) but a well prepared list should be able to cope even when you have no time to prepare. For the specialist this means making sure you don't focus so much on one thing that when that one thing isn't useful neither are you, it's better to have two or three areas of specialisation, or some general party support or such to fall back on. For the generalist, being able to cope with any situation is basically their entire deal, they just might not have the best solution to a given problem. Plus part of the fun with wizard is being creative with what you have to get yourself out of situations you never expected to find yourself in.
Who says a petrified bird tied to a rope can't be used as an impromptu grappling hook when you know catapult?
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OH MY GOSH I'M TOTALLY GONNA USE THIS
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Wizards effectiveness is pretty much guaranteed if you get the right spells at the proper level. Sleep, Web, Hypnotic Pattern and Polymorph.
All the rest should focus on increase your survivability and versatility (through rituals). Maybe one or two blasting spell.
I'm playing a wizard for the first time, first level, shorter campaign, just to try to understand the class better. The rules and mechanics re: spell preparation are not what I expected. I thought playing a wizard would be some kind of an elevated experience for availability to spells with more choices and flexibility, at this moment, it doesn't feel that way. The way the spellbook works feels like an extra complication, compared to playing a Cleric or a Druid, where you can just scrap all your bad spell choices at the next long rest. I've also dabbled with a Sorcerer and with that I sort of knew to be extra careful and think fairly long term about my spell selection. It usually does take me a bit of time to adjust to a class that I've never played before and to find what it is I like about it. The way wizard's spell prep and spell book work (and the way that works with the dndbeyond character sheet) has all sort of caught me off gaurd. And to the orignal poster's point, being a wizard seems like it might be an expensive endeavor (on a few levels), i guess depending on how generous the DM is will gold and spell component and such.
It seems like thus far the only advantage to my character at this point is the ability to cast ritual spells that are in my spellbook but aren't prepared that day. I think I might have made a short sided choice taking Sleep over Identify, but then I didn't have the funds for the spell component for Identify. so I took the spell that I could afford to cast at the time, but now I regret that.
RIght now it feels like playing a wizard is going to always feel like a sitation of not having enough resources or as much flexiblity as a Druid or a Cleric (emmm maybe even a Sorcerer, if I can't replace my mistakes, when I level up).
Also, point of ettiquite, if my DM/some NPC gives me a spell scroll or some other way of copying a spell into my spell book, am I obligated to do that? Will it hurt my DM's feelings if I don't like the spell and don't choose to spend the resources to copy it into my spellbook? (maybe if it does, that the DM's problem and not mine) . . or it is like the DM will give me oppurtunities to copy more spells into my spell book than I will have resources for and part of what is fun and creative about this is deciding which ones I will put the resources into (and everybody knows and understands that situation going in)?
Please tell me that it doesn't always feel like this, playiing a wizard!
So, Wizard is less intrinsically flexible than Cleric or Druid, but they've got a much broader suite of spells overall, and learning two spells for free each level on top of any you scribe is going to fill out your options pretty well after a few levels. Plus, there's very little reason not to spend gold on scribing new spells when you get the chance; you're not going to need to invest in working your way up the armor ladder or buying magic weapons, and most magic items a Wizard wants are attuned, so you're only going to be able to use so many at a time in the first place.
Also, Sleep is a much better early pick than Identify.