I play a homebrew campaign where magic is in high concentration, and as such there is a higher percentage of magic users in my world than in others. A natural, and I thought, cool world building effect would be magic schools scattered throughout the land. Many major cities have a wizard school. The player handbook outright calls these places schools, but doesnt go into much detail about where they are or how they function.
So my party has a wizard, and they visit a major city with a magic school he goes to visit. There is a school library and such, and my party wants to visit. The wizard then asks to copy every spell he can find into his spell book. He even does the math on the break to find out how long it would take, working 10 hours a day, to copy every single spell available to wizards for spell slots he has into his book, and it came down to a few weeks, to which the party was like "hey, a few weeks. Thats fine. We can stay."
For obvious reasons, I am not too keen on letting the character do this. I say "sorry, you need a library pass. You'll need to enroll as a student, which would mean staying in the city for school" thinking it could give him a chance to put the character down for school and we could keep the game moving, he could play another toon in the meantime (he actually already has a secondary character he plays whenever the Wizard has to go do stuff).
NOPE. The group druid wants to help him break in with Pass Without a Trace, what are rules?
Long story short, I allowed the Wizard two spells, because the entire intent was to make this a cool world building thing that the party could benefit from.
Flash to months later, and the party continued to do this. They have had a habit of breaking into libraries and stealing books and just reading since literally the first adventure. Normally I just give the characters brief descriptions of what they're reading about and they get adv. on those checks. "You find a book on *X county here* agriculture. You have advantage on X country* history ag checks" Trying to keep it controlled, which has largely worked.
But the wizard is now obsessed with obtaining every wizard spell in the PHB, and keeps pushing for more, and I cant come up with excuse that makes sense in the story, and "Thats too much, no you cant do that, you can have two spells because thats why this is even here" just results in the whole table arguing with me. This has occurred for several libraries now, and I keep trying to come up with different ways to present that. Made a guard find them once, and then the party just got mad at me for "clearly putting a guard there because I didnt like what they were doing." And now I am at a loss.
You know it costs money to copy spells into a spellbook right?
For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. 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. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the spell just like your other spells.
Also, breaking into a magical library seems like it would be harder than just a normal stealth mission because magical libraries are likely to be protected by magical spells and magical guardians......just saying.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I mentioned the price thing, they said that since they wanted to break in and steal all the stuffs, it shouldn't cost anything, argued to death until he paid the 100 GP for the two spells I let him have. The party has bought nearly nothing since game 1 and has hoarded coin, so when they pooled they had quite a bit. And dispel magic and counterspell are spell favorites in the party, they once counterspelled a boss mage into casting one spell in a ten round combat sequence while the melee just whacked on him. Trying to figure out how to trap around that. The party balanced pretty well, so they are prepared for spell traps and mechanical ones.
Is there anything that dispel magic can't undo? Because I need that.
NPCs are not bound by PC rules. You can just say the walls of the school are made of an extradimensional/multidimensional material that blocks divination and teleportation. You can invent an ancient, forgotten ritual performed centuries ago by the school's founders. Fantasy novels are filled to the brim with 'ancient, forgotten' plot devices magical effects that can't be reproduced in the modern era. Ooorrr ... if the PCs enter without proper authorization or giving a code word, you can bust out your new monster ... The Book Golem.
If you want something a little more 'solid', then have the school's diviners know the PCs are coming and greet them appropriately (and in absurd numbers).
Well, yes, there are lots of things Dispel Magic can't undo. Instead of normal animated guards, consider Helmed Horror with immunity to Dispel Magic and two other spells of your choosing. Also, if the party is causing a rash of spellbook thefts from local libraries, it would not be unlikely that the local government may be on the look out for them and maybe either upping security or setting ambushes at libraries in hopes of catching the thieves.
EDIT: It should also be noted that, only constructs with the Anti-Magic Susceptibility trait like Animated Armor are affected by Dispel Magic at all. If the monsters you use to guard your library lack that trait, then the spell fails on them anyway. Also, that gold cost I listed was per spell level not per spell. A 4th level spell would cost 200g to copy into a spellbook.
If you want something a little more 'solid', then have the school's diviners know the PCs are coming and greet them appropriately (and in absurd numbers).
This is an awesome, in-narrative idea. Nice one, FoxfireInferno!
The diviner has foreseen their arrival, and the party is ambushed by the powerful mages of the school. The party are thieves, and enemies of the school and city-- Well, that's quite the blunder they've made, haven't they?
This could even be lobbed into a quest to maybe go on jobs to serve the school, in order to pay off their time/damages, which you can tie into your main quest in any way you like. Suddenly the party is beholden to service because they were greedy, and overzealous ;)
I mentioned the price thing, they said that since they wanted to break in and steal all the stuffs, it shouldn't cost anything, argued to death until he paid the 100 GP for the two spells I let him have.
Just remember it's 50 gp per level of the spell. It's not the retrieving the books that costs money, it's the magical ink/paper that the Wizard needs to use to add it to their spellbook. If he spends 10 hours per day copying for 3 weeks, that's over 10,000 gp worth of COMPONENTS.
I'd highly recommend adding some consequences for all of this breaking and entering, but if you don't want to do that, and can't get around them taking the spell books, remember that it's not just that the Wizard has to outright spend gold, they actually need 50gp (per spell level) worth of *components* (magical ink/paper). You can always make those, specifically, in limited quantities to limit the number of spells he can copy. 10,000 gp of magical ink/paper is going to be pretty much impossible to find in a short time frame in any normal setting. That much would never be sitting around.
The short answer is: You're the DM. You can simply say that they are unable to find any spells that are eligible for transcription. Tough. Say there are no spell books containing spells above (x) level available in the "public section".
The longer answer is something you've already set the groundwork for: Libraries are protected.
If magic is so prolific in your world, then it's fairly easy to assume that all these prestigious schools of magic have had to deal with crap like this over and over. The party isn't special, and they're not the first in your world to attempt what they're doing. These schools have staff that are comprised of high level casters (would they really expect otherwise?). The libraries themselves are warded left and right with permanent Abjuration spells, guarded with hidden/invisible constructs & Divination spells, and physically split into sections that contain different tiers of spell books.
Forbiddance, Guards and Wards, and Private Sanctum can all be permanent by default. Have them cast using 9th level slots. Good luck to the party on trying to actually dispel them. These have password functions that allow authorized persons to pass through. Who is authorized? Not the PCs! These will also prevent every possible form of travel into the zone except by their own two (or however many) physical feet. No teleportation or planar travel.
Double up on the protections by placing hidden constructs throughout the entrance ways & perimeter that are imbued with the ability to cast Prismatic Wall, True Seeing, and Antimagic Field on recurring intervals that lead to a continues 24/7 coverage. Antimagic Field on the outer layers prevent any use of Dispel Magic beyond them, and suppresses any magic active on creatures/objects while they are inside the field.
Layer the Prismatic Wall and True Seeing constructs behind the 1st perimeter of Antimagic Fields. Designate a trigger for the casting of Prismatic Wall for when the construct detects anyone within the 120 ft range of true sight. No spoiling the surprise for your PCs. It just happens when they try to waltz right in... 😈
Designate the persons allowed to pass this barrier as only those carrying a special artifact (which can be sensed by the construct) which is only granted to the highest tier of staff members (think like RFID badges). Being an artifact (which does not deactivate in the Antimagic Field) allows the precondition to work continuously without needing a "dead space" between the edges of Prismatic Wall and Antimagic Field, and further ensures the party will not be able to work around the defenses (like trying to create/forge their own non-artifact version of a badge). It also means they would have to successfully steal one of these badges for each individual PC that wants to infiltrate. Good luck to them.
They will not be able to travel through the AMF without being visible, will be seen by the True Seeing construct even if the party is on the ethereal plane (which would be the normal method of bypassing extreme defenses), and will absolutely trigger Prismatic Wall with or without the artifact. You can even repeat this setup for added security layers to protect deeper sections of the library that contain higher tiers of spell books. Bonus points for requiring different artifact badges for the deeper zones.
They aren't getting in unless you want them to. Even if they miraculously make their way past the defenses, Guards and Wards will bone them... get lost in corridors, doors are all magically locked, stairs are webbed, and your choice of one other effect from a list of truly beautiful "you aren't supposed to be here" effects. My recommendation is the Magic Mouth effect. Place it on a couple of additional True Seeing constructs that trigger the effect upon detecting anyone inside the perimeter without the appropriate artifact badge. The message can repeat automatically as long as the condition remains fulfilled (which we've carefully ensured will be always)... "ALERT! INTRUDER!" over and over and over. Bonus points for setting it up as the caster whom recorded the message was screaming it while under the effects of Thaumaturgy for 3x volume.
All of this setup is legit under RAW. If your players keep pressing you on stuff like this, don't @#%! around. A serious institution like the ones in your world wouldn't!
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
also, remember that spellbooks themselves have a value, and if the PC wizard has a stack of them that hes carrying around, he could become the mobile version of the schools library (albeit less defend-able) who's to say that an unscrupulous evil mage doesn't catch wind of this mobile treasure trove and try and collect it as their own?
I'm glad I stumbled across this thread. It's giving me all sorts of fun ideas for future events.
To speak on the mechanics of copying spells, I want to echo Beowulfe - it costs quite a bit of gold to copy spells.
It needs to be understood that a Wizard isn't just copying (i.e. tracing) what's on a scroll or spellbook into their own spellbook. Spells are written in code and ciphers so others can't easily understand them. It's not like the spells are written in common, describing everything. That's not how it usually works.
Of course, your world can be different. But, this is part of the reason it takes so much time and energy.
I mean, you can let the Wizard copy them verbatim, but they're still going to have to spend the 2 hours PER LEVEL and 50 gp PER LEVEL (1/2 for spells of their school) to actually be able to use the spell. Sure, it can be in their spellbook, but they won't know how to actually cast it until the spend the appropriate amount of time and energy.
Still, I don't think you should just let them go in and copy all the spells they want.
1) I don't think that a single location would, necessarily, have all the spells in the PHB.
2) Higher level spells could, and should, be under heavier protections (see Sigred's suggestions).
Sorry if I'm parroting other people. I didn't read everything closely. ;)
Does the wizard have an Enduring Spellbook? Sure would be a shame if a regular Spellbook got soaked or burned to a crisp. Consider that a nuclear option only. In more seriousness though, I think the Party being eager and involved to be invested in securing more spells for the wizard sings high praise for the flavored world you've created. Congratulations. While it probably wasn't your intention that they'd turn into spell burglars I think it's a fun evolution. Embrace it. Start planning for more traps, librarian guards, sphinxes, coatls, etc. The players seem to be having a lot of fun which is always a good thing, and a credit to you.
Two more thought that I didn't see skimming through the earlier comments. A lot of spells that can be learned at a school will be low level minor effects that will be of use in day to day life, or other professions, but are almost useless to an adventurer, so finding even low level useful spells may be difficult among the clutter.
Also the books themselves could be rigged in any number of ways. Such as the pages containing nothing but gibberish except within the library where a magical effect makes them readable, the books may be unopenable without a specific ritual or away from the library. Some books contain trap spells, sure the heading says it is fireball, but actually when cast it causes the casters clothes to burst into flames, or the book just fights back when accessed by an unauthorised person, or teleports them to an extra planar prison to await "processing"...
I could imagine word getting around (missing supplies) and a few carefully placed cursed tombs or cursed versions of spells being seeded. The possibilities for messing with the party are endless.
This is EXACTLY the right response; it sounds like this DM's players are f-ing with him and being jerks. He needs to throw down the big guns and put a stop to this. It's all fine that the players are going "off book" and breaking into libraries but it seems like they have gone way too far with this; especially when they are arguing with the DM who is not preventing them from doing this but is simply trying to keep the game moving and keep the party's actions reasonable.
OP: Your players seem to want to abuse your kindness and then argue with you; you should drop the hammer on them. Put a stop to this now or else you will loose the ability to guide the group and manage the play session because they will continue to act like that. I've even had to tell a group before if they keep arguing so much that it's taking all of my fun away and I don't want to DM for them anymore. Don't forget: the DM should be having fun too!
What makes the players think that a library would actually contain ANY spell books except perhaps for a few for the very beginners? They probably contain books on magical theory, how the weave works, a mathematical representation of magic, magic of different creatures, different magical creatures for that matter.
Each wizard has their own spell book. Spells are power. Wizards schools would teach how to harness your magic, how to research spells, how to experiment. The two spells that wizards get when they level up are ones they research and practice and figure out for themselves ... they don't copy them from somewhere. However, this likely means that any particular spell effect has a very large if not infinite number of ways of casting it. My method of casting a fireball may not be exactly the same as another wizard's. Perhaps my hand gestures, vocalization or even the exact type of material component (though the general class of component would be the same) might be different. When a wizard finds a spell scroll they have to take the information and transcribe it to the system they use to describe their spells and the specific types of words and gestures they use.
Anyway, the libraries at these "schools" are very unlikely to have a significant number of spell books. The teachers will have spell books and might use one or two of the spells they know to share with students for teaching and research. However, if the party wants to go around stealing wizard's spell books for spells ... they are very likely to become targets of the wizards guild and have a bounty placed on their heads.
Keep in mind that in game actions should have in game consequences and breaking into libraries or people's houses to steal their stuff is likely not perceived in a good light.
Anyway, every wizard is on a quest to copy every spell. It is in the nature of the wizard. It is up to you as the DM whether they get that opportunity and logically there is absolutely no reason why magic school libraries would be filled with free spell books (other than maybe 1st - 2nd level learner spells).
P.S. Finding an reading a book on a particular topic shouldn't necessarily give you advantage on some check since the key is whether you REMEMBER the material when you need it and not so much that you may or may not have encountered the knowledge previously. This is where being proficient in skills comes in. If you are proficient then you have studied and continue to study that area of knowledge. If you aren't proficient and read a book about something you don't really understand then the knowledge may not be that clear to you and you might not get any benefit later simply because you didn't really understand it. Anyway, I think the whole read a book and get advantage in an area of knowledge is taking things a bit far and kind of ignoring the skill proficiencies that each character receives which tend to define the areas they are knowledgeable about.
One thing that strikes me that hasn't been mentioned yet: when was the last time you were able to just sit down and do nothing but study 10 hours a day for WEEKS? That would be so difficult to pull off, there should be some kind of INT- based arcana check with a high DC for that, followed by a concentration check of some kind, and maybe follow that up with a freaking sanity check.
PC's aren't robots. You wouldn't let a player just say "I swim a mile" or "I run a marathon" without imposing some kind of check, so don't forget to take that into account for mental equivalents of those kind of endurance/skill based challenges.
I think my main concern with this is them wanting to work 10 hours a day? I thought 8 hours was the maximum before Con saves and exhaustion came into the picture?
And Sigred's post is spot on. No magic school would last 5 minutes if they didn't have a whole HEAP of defences and even Diviners to protect themselves and their knowledge.
I think my main concern with this is them wanting to work 10 hours a day? I thought 8 hours was the maximum before Con saves and exhaustion came into the picture?
And Sigred's post is spot on. No magic school would last 5 minutes if they didn't have a whole HEAP of defences and even Diviners to protect themselves and their knowledge.
There is (currently) just over 1100 spell levels on the official Wizard spell list. At 50gp and 2hrs per spell level, that's about 55000gp and 220 ten-hour workdays to scribe them all.
That's apart from all the other wonderful rules-based and narrative-based barriers to the act that others have already mentioned.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I play a homebrew campaign where magic is in high concentration, and as such there is a higher percentage of magic users in my world than in others. A natural, and I thought, cool world building effect would be magic schools scattered throughout the land. Many major cities have a wizard school. The player handbook outright calls these places schools, but doesnt go into much detail about where they are or how they function.
So my party has a wizard, and they visit a major city with a magic school he goes to visit. There is a school library and such, and my party wants to visit. The wizard then asks to copy every spell he can find into his spell book. He even does the math on the break to find out how long it would take, working 10 hours a day, to copy every single spell available to wizards for spell slots he has into his book, and it came down to a few weeks, to which the party was like "hey, a few weeks. Thats fine. We can stay."
For obvious reasons, I am not too keen on letting the character do this. I say "sorry, you need a library pass. You'll need to enroll as a student, which would mean staying in the city for school" thinking it could give him a chance to put the character down for school and we could keep the game moving, he could play another toon in the meantime (he actually already has a secondary character he plays whenever the Wizard has to go do stuff).
NOPE. The group druid wants to help him break in with Pass Without a Trace, what are rules?
Long story short, I allowed the Wizard two spells, because the entire intent was to make this a cool world building thing that the party could benefit from.
Flash to months later, and the party continued to do this. They have had a habit of breaking into libraries and stealing books and just reading since literally the first adventure. Normally I just give the characters brief descriptions of what they're reading about and they get adv. on those checks. "You find a book on *X county here* agriculture. You have advantage on X country* history ag checks" Trying to keep it controlled, which has largely worked.
But the wizard is now obsessed with obtaining every wizard spell in the PHB, and keeps pushing for more, and I cant come up with excuse that makes sense in the story, and "Thats too much, no you cant do that, you can have two spells because thats why this is even here" just results in the whole table arguing with me. This has occurred for several libraries now, and I keep trying to come up with different ways to present that. Made a guard find them once, and then the party just got mad at me for "clearly putting a guard there because I didnt like what they were doing." And now I am at a loss.
You know it costs money to copy spells into a spellbook right?
Also, breaking into a magical library seems like it would be harder than just a normal stealth mission because magical libraries are likely to be protected by magical spells and magical guardians......just saying.
I mentioned the price thing, they said that since they wanted to break in and steal all the stuffs, it shouldn't cost anything, argued to death until he paid the 100 GP for the two spells I let him have. The party has bought nearly nothing since game 1 and has hoarded coin, so when they pooled they had quite a bit. And dispel magic and counterspell are spell favorites in the party, they once counterspelled a boss mage into casting one spell in a ten round combat sequence while the melee just whacked on him. Trying to figure out how to trap around that. The party balanced pretty well, so they are prepared for spell traps and mechanical ones.
Is there anything that dispel magic can't undo? Because I need that.
Do you want there to be? Then there is.
NPCs are not bound by PC rules. You can just say the walls of the school are made of an extradimensional/multidimensional material that blocks divination and teleportation. You can invent an ancient, forgotten ritual performed centuries ago by the school's founders. Fantasy novels are filled to the brim with 'ancient, forgotten'
plot devicesmagical effects that can't be reproduced in the modern era. Ooorrr ... if the PCs enter without proper authorization or giving a code word, you can bust out your new monster ... The Book Golem.If you want something a little more 'solid', then have the school's diviners know the PCs are coming and greet them appropriately (and in absurd numbers).
Well, yes, there are lots of things Dispel Magic can't undo. Instead of normal animated guards, consider Helmed Horror with immunity to Dispel Magic and two other spells of your choosing. Also, if the party is causing a rash of spellbook thefts from local libraries, it would not be unlikely that the local government may be on the look out for them and maybe either upping security or setting ambushes at libraries in hopes of catching the thieves.
EDIT: It should also be noted that, only constructs with the Anti-Magic Susceptibility trait like Animated Armor are affected by Dispel Magic at all. If the monsters you use to guard your library lack that trait, then the spell fails on them anyway. Also, that gold cost I listed was per spell level not per spell. A 4th level spell would cost 200g to copy into a spellbook.
This is an awesome, in-narrative idea. Nice one, FoxfireInferno!
The diviner has foreseen their arrival, and the party is ambushed by the powerful mages of the school. The party are thieves, and enemies of the school and city-- Well, that's quite the blunder they've made, haven't they?
This could even be lobbed into a quest to maybe go on jobs to serve the school, in order to pay off their time/damages, which you can tie into your main quest in any way you like. Suddenly the party is beholden to service because they were greedy, and overzealous ;)
Just remember it's 50 gp per level of the spell. It's not the retrieving the books that costs money, it's the magical ink/paper that the Wizard needs to use to add it to their spellbook. If he spends 10 hours per day copying for 3 weeks, that's over 10,000 gp worth of COMPONENTS.
I'd highly recommend adding some consequences for all of this breaking and entering, but if you don't want to do that, and can't get around them taking the spell books, remember that it's not just that the Wizard has to outright spend gold, they actually need 50gp (per spell level) worth of *components* (magical ink/paper). You can always make those, specifically, in limited quantities to limit the number of spells he can copy. 10,000 gp of magical ink/paper is going to be pretty much impossible to find in a short time frame in any normal setting. That much would never be sitting around.
The short answer is: You're the DM. You can simply say that they are unable to find any spells that are eligible for transcription. Tough. Say there are no spell books containing spells above (x) level available in the "public section".
The longer answer is something you've already set the groundwork for: Libraries are protected.
If magic is so prolific in your world, then it's fairly easy to assume that all these prestigious schools of magic have had to deal with crap like this over and over. The party isn't special, and they're not the first in your world to attempt what they're doing. These schools have staff that are comprised of high level casters (would they really expect otherwise?). The libraries themselves are warded left and right with permanent Abjuration spells, guarded with hidden/invisible constructs & Divination spells, and physically split into sections that contain different tiers of spell books.
Throw down your big guns on it: Prismatic Wall, Antimagic Field, Forbiddance, Globe of Invulnerability, Guards and Wards, and Private Sanctum.
Forbiddance, Guards and Wards, and Private Sanctum can all be permanent by default. Have them cast using 9th level slots. Good luck to the party on trying to actually dispel them. These have password functions that allow authorized persons to pass through. Who is authorized? Not the PCs! These will also prevent every possible form of travel into the zone except by their own two (or however many) physical feet. No teleportation or planar travel.
Double up on the protections by placing hidden constructs throughout the entrance ways & perimeter that are imbued with the ability to cast Prismatic Wall, True Seeing, and Antimagic Field on recurring intervals that lead to a continues 24/7 coverage. Antimagic Field on the outer layers prevent any use of Dispel Magic beyond them, and suppresses any magic active on creatures/objects while they are inside the field.
Layer the Prismatic Wall and True Seeing constructs behind the 1st perimeter of Antimagic Fields. Designate a trigger for the casting of Prismatic Wall for when the construct detects anyone within the 120 ft range of true sight. No spoiling the surprise for your PCs. It just happens when they try to waltz right in... 😈
Designate the persons allowed to pass this barrier as only those carrying a special artifact (which can be sensed by the construct) which is only granted to the highest tier of staff members (think like RFID badges). Being an artifact (which does not deactivate in the Antimagic Field) allows the precondition to work continuously without needing a "dead space" between the edges of Prismatic Wall and Antimagic Field, and further ensures the party will not be able to work around the defenses (like trying to create/forge their own non-artifact version of a badge). It also means they would have to successfully steal one of these badges for each individual PC that wants to infiltrate. Good luck to them.
They will not be able to travel through the AMF without being visible, will be seen by the True Seeing construct even if the party is on the ethereal plane (which would be the normal method of bypassing extreme defenses), and will absolutely trigger Prismatic Wall with or without the artifact. You can even repeat this setup for added security layers to protect deeper sections of the library that contain higher tiers of spell books. Bonus points for requiring different artifact badges for the deeper zones.
They aren't getting in unless you want them to. Even if they miraculously make their way past the defenses, Guards and Wards will bone them... get lost in corridors, doors are all magically locked, stairs are webbed, and your choice of one other effect from a list of truly beautiful "you aren't supposed to be here" effects. My recommendation is the Magic Mouth effect. Place it on a couple of additional True Seeing constructs that trigger the effect upon detecting anyone inside the perimeter without the appropriate artifact badge. The message can repeat automatically as long as the condition remains fulfilled (which we've carefully ensured will be always)... "ALERT! INTRUDER!" over and over and over. Bonus points for setting it up as the caster whom recorded the message was screaming it while under the effects of Thaumaturgy for 3x volume.
All of this setup is legit under RAW. If your players keep pressing you on stuff like this, don't @#%! around. A serious institution like the ones in your world wouldn't!
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
also, remember that spellbooks themselves have a value, and if the PC wizard has a stack of them that hes carrying around, he could become the mobile version of the schools library (albeit less defend-able) who's to say that an unscrupulous evil mage doesn't catch wind of this mobile treasure trove and try and collect it as their own?
I'm glad I stumbled across this thread. It's giving me all sorts of fun ideas for future events.
To speak on the mechanics of copying spells, I want to echo Beowulfe - it costs quite a bit of gold to copy spells.
It needs to be understood that a Wizard isn't just copying (i.e. tracing) what's on a scroll or spellbook into their own spellbook. Spells are written in code and ciphers so others can't easily understand them. It's not like the spells are written in common, describing everything. That's not how it usually works.
Of course, your world can be different. But, this is part of the reason it takes so much time and energy.
I mean, you can let the Wizard copy them verbatim, but they're still going to have to spend the 2 hours PER LEVEL and 50 gp PER LEVEL (1/2 for spells of their school) to actually be able to use the spell. Sure, it can be in their spellbook, but they won't know how to actually cast it until the spend the appropriate amount of time and energy.
Still, I don't think you should just let them go in and copy all the spells they want.
1) I don't think that a single location would, necessarily, have all the spells in the PHB.
2) Higher level spells could, and should, be under heavier protections (see Sigred's suggestions).
Sorry if I'm parroting other people. I didn't read everything closely. ;)
Does the wizard have an Enduring Spellbook? Sure would be a shame if a regular Spellbook got soaked or burned to a crisp. Consider that a nuclear option only. In more seriousness though, I think the Party being eager and involved to be invested in securing more spells for the wizard sings high praise for the flavored world you've created. Congratulations. While it probably wasn't your intention that they'd turn into spell burglars I think it's a fun evolution. Embrace it. Start planning for more traps, librarian guards, sphinxes, coatls, etc. The players seem to be having a lot of fun which is always a good thing, and a credit to you.
Boldly go
Two more thought that I didn't see skimming through the earlier comments. A lot of spells that can be learned at a school will be low level minor effects that will be of use in day to day life, or other professions, but are almost useless to an adventurer, so finding even low level useful spells may be difficult among the clutter.
Also the books themselves could be rigged in any number of ways. Such as the pages containing nothing but gibberish except within the library where a magical effect makes them readable, the books may be unopenable without a specific ritual or away from the library. Some books contain trap spells, sure the heading says it is fireball, but actually when cast it causes the casters clothes to burst into flames, or the book just fights back when accessed by an unauthorised person, or teleports them to an extra planar prison to await "processing"...
I could imagine word getting around (missing supplies) and a few carefully placed cursed tombs or cursed versions of spells being seeded. The possibilities for messing with the party are endless.
This is EXACTLY the right response; it sounds like this DM's players are f-ing with him and being jerks. He needs to throw down the big guns and put a stop to this. It's all fine that the players are going "off book" and breaking into libraries but it seems like they have gone way too far with this; especially when they are arguing with the DM who is not preventing them from doing this but is simply trying to keep the game moving and keep the party's actions reasonable.
OP: Your players seem to want to abuse your kindness and then argue with you; you should drop the hammer on them. Put a stop to this now or else you will loose the ability to guide the group and manage the play session because they will continue to act like that. I've even had to tell a group before if they keep arguing so much that it's taking all of my fun away and I don't want to DM for them anymore. Don't forget: the DM should be having fun too!
What makes the players think that a library would actually contain ANY spell books except perhaps for a few for the very beginners? They probably contain books on magical theory, how the weave works, a mathematical representation of magic, magic of different creatures, different magical creatures for that matter.
Each wizard has their own spell book. Spells are power. Wizards schools would teach how to harness your magic, how to research spells, how to experiment. The two spells that wizards get when they level up are ones they research and practice and figure out for themselves ... they don't copy them from somewhere. However, this likely means that any particular spell effect has a very large if not infinite number of ways of casting it. My method of casting a fireball may not be exactly the same as another wizard's. Perhaps my hand gestures, vocalization or even the exact type of material component (though the general class of component would be the same) might be different. When a wizard finds a spell scroll they have to take the information and transcribe it to the system they use to describe their spells and the specific types of words and gestures they use.
Anyway, the libraries at these "schools" are very unlikely to have a significant number of spell books. The teachers will have spell books and might use one or two of the spells they know to share with students for teaching and research. However, if the party wants to go around stealing wizard's spell books for spells ... they are very likely to become targets of the wizards guild and have a bounty placed on their heads.
Keep in mind that in game actions should have in game consequences and breaking into libraries or people's houses to steal their stuff is likely not perceived in a good light.
Anyway, every wizard is on a quest to copy every spell. It is in the nature of the wizard. It is up to you as the DM whether they get that opportunity and logically there is absolutely no reason why magic school libraries would be filled with free spell books (other than maybe 1st - 2nd level learner spells).
P.S. Finding an reading a book on a particular topic shouldn't necessarily give you advantage on some check since the key is whether you REMEMBER the material when you need it and not so much that you may or may not have encountered the knowledge previously. This is where being proficient in skills comes in. If you are proficient then you have studied and continue to study that area of knowledge. If you aren't proficient and read a book about something you don't really understand then the knowledge may not be that clear to you and you might not get any benefit later simply because you didn't really understand it. Anyway, I think the whole read a book and get advantage in an area of knowledge is taking things a bit far and kind of ignoring the skill proficiencies that each character receives which tend to define the areas they are knowledgeable about.
One thing that strikes me that hasn't been mentioned yet: when was the last time you were able to just sit down and do nothing but study 10 hours a day for WEEKS? That would be so difficult to pull off, there should be some kind of INT- based arcana check with a high DC for that, followed by a concentration check of some kind, and maybe follow that up with a freaking sanity check.
PC's aren't robots. You wouldn't let a player just say "I swim a mile" or "I run a marathon" without imposing some kind of check, so don't forget to take that into account for mental equivalents of those kind of endurance/skill based challenges.
I think my main concern with this is them wanting to work 10 hours a day? I thought 8 hours was the maximum before Con saves and exhaustion came into the picture?
And Sigred's post is spot on. No magic school would last 5 minutes if they didn't have a whole HEAP of defences and even Diviners to protect themselves and their knowledge.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
Exactly!
There is (currently) just over 1100 spell levels on the official Wizard spell list. At 50gp and 2hrs per spell level, that's about 55000gp and 220 ten-hour workdays to scribe them all.
That's apart from all the other wonderful rules-based and narrative-based barriers to the act that others have already mentioned.