Don't Wizards have Leomund's Secret Chest as an option, once they're powerful enough and rich enough? I imagine they'd stash their BIG spellbook with ALL their spells in that, and the one they carry around has their most commonly used spells. Which could be a reason why a spellbook you find generally has just the ones prepared according to their statblock? Though a fair DM really should include a few additional spells that suit the character, especially ritual spells that they *can* cast directly from the book without it being prepared.
So maybe the world isn't drowning in spellbooks for every wizard that ever existed, because they're almost all on the Ethereal Plane, and most of those irretrievably lost? Per the final paragraph of the spell:
After 60 days, there is a cumulative 5 percent chance per day that the spell’s effect ends. This effect ends if you cast this spell again, if the smaller replica chest is destroyed, or if you choose to end the spell as an action. If the spell ends and the larger chest is on the Ethereal Plane, it is irretrievably lost.
Heck, if you've got a Wizard in the party that can prepare the spell, maybe you could allow them to get the enemy wizard's Secret Chest, if they're able to find the replica? That'd be quite a story-hook mine, there! Though a wizard close to defeat or death could just use an action to end the spell, if there's something in the chest that they *really* don't want found...
Edit: it seems likely that the original caster is the only one who can recover the chest, from looking at the details. Still a fair explanation for the world's lack of findable spellbooks, though.
And sure, there's nothing stopping an NPC Wizard from having their spellbook be in the form of a spell scroll for each spell, which they can look over to prepare in their mind, or cast if they're in a pinch. Though I imagine they'd want the ritual spells to *not* be in spell-scroll form, since they can be cast from the book as a ritual anyway and might prefer they not go "poof"? But if it makes sense for the character, anything goes.
A couple of other factors come not play. I’m going to use Faerun as an example but it would be pretty much the same on other worlds as well. 1) how long do books actually last? The oldest existing “books” are the Dead Sea scrolls at about 2000 years old. They, like the few others almost as old survived because they were stored away in sealed dry containers or places. In more humid climates ( like midieval Europe/Faerun) they rot away in a few hundred years so bless special care is taken/happens by luck most of those spellbooks are long gone rotted to useless scraps. In Faerun the oldest written objects I know of are the Nether scrolls, magically engraved on gold sheets and enchanted with special preservative and renewal magic (even if melted down they reform eventually) that are roughly 30,000 years old. So where are the much smaller number that got luckily preserved (rather than rotting away in a few hundred years) since there should still be lots of them right? A) dragon hoards - especially blue, bronze, red and gold as well as silver and white possibly and all old or ancient in age. Why are they there? Think about how many adventurers died trying to defeat ancient red dragon - all their stuff is still in the hoard. Also the goods from any wizard’s towers that they sacked and looted. I wouldn’t even be surprised if many of the dragons hired scribes to copy them periodically to preserve them. B) magic libraries - CANDLEKEEP, Blackstaff tower and many others old and ancient. They have collected spellbooks and would preserve and copy them to maintain the knowledge. C) Archmage’s towers/lairs - like libraries and dragon hoards archmages search out old spellbooks and collect them for their own use. D) Lich’s lairs- like archmages towers but generally older and more hidden the worst of course is Larloch’s lair with the tens to hundreds of lichs under his control.
where can a mage get access to spellbooks to learn new spells safely? Mostly B somewhat C. Sometimes the libraries are fairly small, there is a small library of about 5 spellbooks that are available to copy from for a cost in Waterdeep’s north ward.
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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Don't Wizards have Leomund's Secret Chest as an option, once they're powerful enough and rich enough? I imagine they'd stash their BIG spellbook with ALL their spells in that, and the one they carry around has their most commonly used spells. Which could be a reason why a spellbook you find generally has just the ones prepared according to their statblock? Though a fair DM really should include a few additional spells that suit the character, especially ritual spells that they *can* cast directly from the book without it being prepared.
So maybe the world isn't drowning in spellbooks for every wizard that ever existed, because they're almost all on the Ethereal Plane, and most of those irretrievably lost? Per the final paragraph of the spell:
After 60 days, there is a cumulative 5 percent chance per day that the spell’s effect ends. This effect ends if you cast this spell again, if the smaller replica chest is destroyed, or if you choose to end the spell as an action. If the spell ends and the larger chest is on the Ethereal Plane, it is irretrievably lost.
Heck, if you've got a Wizard in the party that can prepare the spell, maybe you could allow them to get the enemy wizard's Secret Chest, if they're able to find the replica? That'd be quite a story-hook mine, there! Though a wizard close to defeat or death could just use an action to end the spell, if there's something in the chest that they *really* don't want found...
Edit: it seems likely that the original caster is the only one who can recover the chest, from looking at the details. Still a fair explanation for the world's lack of findable spellbooks, though.
And sure, there's nothing stopping an NPC Wizard from having their spellbook be in the form of a spell scroll for each spell, which they can look over to prepare in their mind, or cast if they're in a pinch. Though I imagine they'd want the ritual spells to *not* be in spell-scroll form, since they can be cast from the book as a ritual anyway and might prefer they not go "poof"? But if it makes sense for the character, anything goes.
A couple of other factors come not play. I’m going to use Faerun as an example but it would be pretty much the same on other worlds as well.
1) how long do books actually last? The oldest existing “books” are the Dead Sea scrolls at about 2000 years old. They, like the few others almost as old survived because they were stored away in sealed dry containers or places. In more humid climates ( like midieval Europe/Faerun) they rot away in a few hundred years so bless special care is taken/happens by luck most of those spellbooks are long gone rotted to useless scraps. In Faerun the oldest written objects I know of are the Nether scrolls, magically engraved on gold sheets and enchanted with special preservative and renewal magic (even if melted down they reform eventually) that are roughly 30,000 years old.
So where are the much smaller number that got luckily preserved (rather than rotting away in a few hundred years) since there should still be lots of them right?
A) dragon hoards - especially blue, bronze, red and gold as well as silver and white possibly and all old or ancient in age. Why are they there? Think about how many adventurers died trying to defeat ancient red dragon - all their stuff is still in the hoard. Also the goods from any wizard’s towers that they sacked and looted. I wouldn’t even be surprised if many of the dragons hired scribes to copy them periodically to preserve them.
B) magic libraries - CANDLEKEEP, Blackstaff tower and many others old and ancient. They have collected spellbooks and would preserve and copy them to maintain the knowledge.
C) Archmage’s towers/lairs - like libraries and dragon hoards archmages search out old spellbooks and collect them for their own use.
D) Lich’s lairs- like archmages towers but generally older and more hidden the worst of course is Larloch’s lair with the tens to hundreds of lichs under his control.
where can a mage get access to spellbooks to learn new spells safely? Mostly B somewhat C. Sometimes the libraries are fairly small, there is a small library of about 5 spellbooks that are available to copy from for a cost in Waterdeep’s north ward.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.