Hi all, So in an ongoing game one of my players is running the Order of Scribes Wizard, and we have recently come into an interesting question of spell copying and spellbooks. As per the "Awakened Spellbook" feature, "...you can replace the book over the course of a short rest by using your Wizardly Quill to write arcane sigils in a blank book or a magic spellbook to which you're attuned. At the end of the rest, your spellbook's consciousness is summoned into the new book, which the consciousness transforms into your spellbook, along with all its spells". A couple of questions arise from this: 1) If they found say, an Enduring Spellbook, or a Spellshard, that already contained spells from a previous wizard/spellcaster, and they wanted to transfer their Awakened Spirit into the item, would that transfer essentially erase all the old spells from the item because it is neither blank nor an attuned item, meaning if the Wizard wanted those spells, they would need to copy them as normal first? 2) For attuned magic spellbooks, my understanding is that they give access to the abilities and spells in them as per normal, with the addition of the Awakened Spirit then adding the contents of the Wizards spellbook, but what if they later transferred the spirit to another attuned magic spellbook, would the spells within the first magic spellbook that they didn't possess originally also transfer, or would they lose those specific spells because they technically never scribed them? And could they scribe them, as they aren't technically formulas in a normal spellbook I don't think?
Any additional clarification on the matter would be rather helpful :)
For your first question: under Rules As Written, you can't use that feature at all with an Enduring Spellbook (or similar non-attuned item) that has other spells in it already. You would have to erase it first. In practice, if I were DMing, I'd probably let you do it at the cost of however much gold it would normally cost to copy the existing spells from that book into your spellbook.
For your second question, I think what we're talking about here is largely the various spellbook items that were introduced in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. These items all say things like "When found, the book contains the following spells..." but it doesn't say that there's anything special about them. I'm inclined to think that if you take one of these things and make it your spellbook by transferring your Awakened Spirit into it, it is now your spellbook; rules and features that reference "your spellbook" now apply to it in its entirety. It doesn't matter that some of the spells in it were already there when you got it. Once a spell is in your spellbook, it works the same as all the others in there, regardless of where you got it.
How would you be able to erase an Enduring Spellbook, or Spellshard, out of curiosity?
I do think ruling they could still use the non-attuned ones by spending the gold cost is a good ruling. I see your point on the attuned spellbooks, automatically adding them to the wizards collection makes sense based on the wording, they would only be losing out on whatever special features the attuned book provides if they decide to transfer the Awakened Spirit into another one.
How would you be able to erase an Enduring Spellbook, or Spellshard, out of curiosity?
The rules don't provide any mechanic for doing this, but they also don't say it's impossible, so I think that's up to the DM to decide whether it's possible and how it would work. Perhaps just casting Dispel Magic on it, or maybe you need some special solvent whose cost scales with the spell levels, etc.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
pronouns: he/she/they
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi all,
So in an ongoing game one of my players is running the Order of Scribes Wizard, and we have recently come into an interesting question of spell copying and spellbooks.
As per the "Awakened Spellbook" feature, "...you can replace the book over the course of a short rest by using your Wizardly Quill to write arcane sigils in a blank book or a magic spellbook to which you're attuned. At the end of the rest, your spellbook's consciousness is summoned into the new book, which the consciousness transforms into your spellbook, along with all its spells". A couple of questions arise from this:
1) If they found say, an Enduring Spellbook, or a Spellshard, that already contained spells from a previous wizard/spellcaster, and they wanted to transfer their Awakened Spirit into the item, would that transfer essentially erase all the old spells from the item because it is neither blank nor an attuned item, meaning if the Wizard wanted those spells, they would need to copy them as normal first?
2) For attuned magic spellbooks, my understanding is that they give access to the abilities and spells in them as per normal, with the addition of the Awakened Spirit then adding the contents of the Wizards spellbook, but what if they later transferred the spirit to another attuned magic spellbook, would the spells within the first magic spellbook that they didn't possess originally also transfer, or would they lose those specific spells because they technically never scribed them? And could they scribe them, as they aren't technically formulas in a normal spellbook I don't think?
Any additional clarification on the matter would be rather helpful :)
For your first question: under Rules As Written, you can't use that feature at all with an Enduring Spellbook (or similar non-attuned item) that has other spells in it already. You would have to erase it first. In practice, if I were DMing, I'd probably let you do it at the cost of however much gold it would normally cost to copy the existing spells from that book into your spellbook.
For your second question, I think what we're talking about here is largely the various spellbook items that were introduced in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. These items all say things like "When found, the book contains the following spells..." but it doesn't say that there's anything special about them. I'm inclined to think that if you take one of these things and make it your spellbook by transferring your Awakened Spirit into it, it is now your spellbook; rules and features that reference "your spellbook" now apply to it in its entirety. It doesn't matter that some of the spells in it were already there when you got it. Once a spell is in your spellbook, it works the same as all the others in there, regardless of where you got it.
pronouns: he/she/they
How would you be able to erase an Enduring Spellbook, or Spellshard, out of curiosity?
I do think ruling they could still use the non-attuned ones by spending the gold cost is a good ruling. I see your point on the attuned spellbooks, automatically adding them to the wizards collection makes sense based on the wording, they would only be losing out on whatever special features the attuned book provides if they decide to transfer the Awakened Spirit into another one.
The rules don't provide any mechanic for doing this, but they also don't say it's impossible, so I think that's up to the DM to decide whether it's possible and how it would work. Perhaps just casting Dispel Magic on it, or maybe you need some special solvent whose cost scales with the spell levels, etc.
pronouns: he/she/they