WARNING: We're playing through Mines of Phandelver... this post contains obtuse spoiler references - so if you don't want to know, don't read on! You have been warned.
So my new wizard just broke down and destroyed Iarno Albrek! We chased him half-way through the dungeon, but we got him. And the Cleric cold-cocked him so we could interrogate him. My son, the new DM, said the adventure didn't say he had a spellbook. How odd. So he decided like any good wizard, he had it on his person.
So now I have his spellbook (and the glass staff!)! What? 50 gp to copy Charm Person, 100 gp to copy Hold Person, and ANOTHER 100 gp to copy Misty Step? Are you kidding me?
I'm just going to carry his book with mine and memorize the spells straight out of his book! Oops, did I just break the game (and save myself 250 gp!)??
I'm a grizzled old D&D player from 1st Ed. My son is amazed at my tactics, my trickery, and my ability to put him in difficult DM judgment situations. >:-) For example flying my familiar owl through the Cragmaw Hideout to see where all the guards were hiding really ticked him off.
P.S. (How do you create links in your post to spells and stuff in your post? Adding a URL or something else?)
You can't prepare spells from someone else's spellbook because 1) you haven't practiced the spell and 2) it's not written in a form you understand. Each wizard has their own notation for describing spells, so until you figure out what the pages in Albrek's spellbook mean, practice the spell until you get it right, and write down what you learned in your own notation, you can't prepare the spell. The material components you use up figuring out and practicing the spell factor into the cost of adding spells to your spellbook.
I always found the 5e restriction on reading another wizard's spellbook to be weird and instead follow earlier editions which allow a wizard to figure out the notations in captured spellbooks and prepare spells from them directly.
The cost is not just the ink, but the cost of basic materials to experiment and learn the spell. Just because I can read it, doesn't mean I know it. You can look at the spellbook as the same as little limericks you learn in grade school. "Please excuse my dear aunt sally" for Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction or remembering the directions on a compass as clockwise "Never eat shredded wheat" for North East South West, or a personal favorite "Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty." These are all different ways to learn universal truths. Your spell book is the "Left Loosey, Righty Tighty" of spells to help you memorize it faster. Someone else might learn "Clockwise down, Counter clockwise up" and it takes time to translate their shorthand to yours for the sake of RAPID memorization.
You cannot learn complicated formulas overnight if those formulas are not shorthanded in the way you learn spells.
Cragmaw Goblins love roasted owl. And they have passive perception it has to beat everytime it flies within earshot.. Your son is being too nice to his old man. ;P
I'm late to the party, but TBH, LMoP underpowers Glasstaff, he's a level 4 Wizard that knows 4 of 12 possible spells.
Wizards start with 3 cantrips, AND 6 1st level spells, then each time the Wizard levels up, he should also learn 2 more spells, so Glasstaff should have 12 spells in his spellbook, plus the spells from his staff and scrolls
I'm late to the party, but TBH, LMoP underpowers Glasstaff, he's a level 4 Wizard that knows 4 of 12 possible spells.
Wizards start with 3 cantrips, AND 6 1st level spells, then each time the Wizard levels up, he should also learn 2 more spells, so Glasstaff should have 12 spells in his spellbook, plus the spells from his staff and scrolls
NPCs get statblocks, not character classes. As a side note, even if you treat him as a PC wizard, that doesn't mean he needs a spellbook, he just can't change his prepared spells without one.
I'm late to the party, but TBH, LMoP underpowers Glasstaff, he's a level 4 Wizard that knows 4 of 12 possible spells.
Wizards start with 3 cantrips, AND 6 1st level spells, then each time the Wizard levels up, he should also learn 2 more spells, so Glasstaff should have 12 spells in his spellbook, plus the spells from his staff and scrolls
NPCs get statblocks, not character classes. As a side note, even if you treat him as a PC wizard, that doesn't mean he needs a spellbook, he just can't change his prepared spells without one.
You're quite right, but I personally think that as a DM you're shooting yourself in the foot if you give magic using NPC's access to less choice than a PC of the same level/class, and you're punishing your Wizards if you don't give them the chance to find spellbooks containing a relevant amount of spells, if the party beats a wizard The redbrands 'know' that Glasstaff is a Human Wizard, but the statblock is just Evil Mage (it didn't even consider the fact the Glasstaff has Find Familiar among his Spells)
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WARNING: We're playing through Mines of Phandelver... this post contains obtuse spoiler references - so if you don't want to know, don't read on! You have been warned.
So my new wizard just broke down and destroyed Iarno Albrek! We chased him half-way through the dungeon, but we got him. And the Cleric cold-cocked him so we could interrogate him. My son, the new DM, said the adventure didn't say he had a spellbook. How odd. So he decided like any good wizard, he had it on his person.
So now I have his spellbook (and the glass staff!)! What? 50 gp to copy Charm Person, 100 gp to copy Hold Person, and ANOTHER 100 gp to copy Misty Step? Are you kidding me?
I'm just going to carry his book with mine and memorize the spells straight out of his book! Oops, did I just break the game (and save myself 250 gp!)??
I'm a grizzled old D&D player from 1st Ed. My son is amazed at my tactics, my trickery, and my ability to put him in difficult DM judgment situations. >:-) For example flying my familiar owl through the Cragmaw Hideout to see where all the guards were hiding really ticked him off.
P.S. (How do you create links in your post to spells and stuff in your post? Adding a URL or something else?)
You can't prepare spells from someone else's spellbook because 1) you haven't practiced the spell and 2) it's not written in a form you understand. Each wizard has their own notation for describing spells, so until you figure out what the pages in Albrek's spellbook mean, practice the spell until you get it right, and write down what you learned in your own notation, you can't prepare the spell. The material components you use up figuring out and practicing the spell factor into the cost of adding spells to your spellbook.
Oh, bother. :-(
I always found the 5e restriction on reading another wizard's spellbook to be weird and instead follow earlier editions which allow a wizard to figure out the notations in captured spellbooks and prepare spells from them directly.
The cost is not just the ink, but the cost of basic materials to experiment and learn the spell. Just because I can read it, doesn't mean I know it. You can look at the spellbook as the same as little limericks you learn in grade school. "Please excuse my dear aunt sally" for Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction or remembering the directions on a compass as clockwise "Never eat shredded wheat" for North East South West, or a personal favorite "Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty." These are all different ways to learn universal truths. Your spell book is the "Left Loosey, Righty Tighty" of spells to help you memorize it faster. Someone else might learn "Clockwise down, Counter clockwise up" and it takes time to translate their shorthand to yours for the sake of RAPID memorization.
You cannot learn complicated formulas overnight if those formulas are not shorthanded in the way you learn spells.
Cragmaw Goblins love roasted owl. And they have passive perception it has to beat everytime it flies within earshot.. Your son is being too nice to his old man. ;P
I'm late to the party, but TBH, LMoP underpowers Glasstaff, he's a level 4 Wizard that knows 4 of 12 possible spells.
Wizards start with 3 cantrips, AND 6 1st level spells, then each time the Wizard levels up, he should also learn 2 more spells, so Glasstaff should have 12 spells in his spellbook, plus the spells from his staff and scrolls
NPCs get statblocks, not character classes. As a side note, even if you treat him as a PC wizard, that doesn't mean he needs a spellbook, he just can't change his prepared spells without one.
You're quite right, but I personally think that as a DM you're shooting yourself in the foot if you give magic using NPC's access to less choice than a PC of the same level/class, and you're punishing your Wizards if you don't give them the chance to find spellbooks containing a relevant amount of spells, if the party beats a wizard
The redbrands 'know' that Glasstaff is a Human Wizard, but the statblock is just Evil Mage (it didn't even consider the fact the Glasstaff has Find Familiar among his Spells)