I read the free-rules section on wizard and noticed that
Spellbook. Your wizardly apprenticeship culminated in the creation of a unique book: your spellbook. It is a Tiny object that weighs 3 pounds, contains 100 pages, and can be read only by you or someone casting Identify. You determine the book’s appearance and materials, such as a gilt-edged tome or a collection of vellum bound with twine.
Changing Your Prepared Spells. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can change your list of prepared spells, replacing any of the spells there with spells from your spellbook.
Level 1: Ritual Adept. You can cast any spell as a Ritual if that spell has the Ritual tag and the spell is in your spellbook. You needn’t have the spell prepared, but you must read from the book to cast a spell in this way.
"Changing Your Prepared Spells" seems to imply that wizards do not necessarily need to have their spellbooks within reach, at least not to the extent that "Ritual Adept" does.
Similarly, "Copying the Book" does not mention that the spellbook must be in a place where it can be read.
Copying the Book. You can copy a spell from your spellbook into another book. This is like copying a new spell into your spellbook but faster, since you already know how to cast the spell. You need spend only 1 hour and 10 GP for each level of the copied spell.
As a non-native English speaker, is this a correct interpretation of the text, or have I misunderstood something?
If wizards do not need to have their spellbooks at hand while changing prepared spells or copying spells into another book, does that mean that once a spell is added to a spellbook, a wizard does not have to ensure they have the physical book with them at all times, and can simply copy the spell into a physical book with 1 hour and 10 GP for each level ?
It very much seems like the intent of this is that the spellbook needs to be present for all of these things. You can't copy a book into another book unless you have both books; that just seems like common sense.
While I very much wish they’d just spelled it out (he he he), the repeated use of the phrase “from your spellbook” in the discussions of preparation and copying absolutely implies an access requirement.
It very much seems like the intent of this is that the spellbook needs to be present for all of these things. You can't copy a book into another book unless you have both books; that just seems like common sense.
There is one significant asterisk which has not been addressed by the replies so far: "Copying the Book" only requires the original book for spells which are not currently prepared:
If you lose your spellbook, you can use the same procedure to transcribe the Wizard spells that you have prepared into a new spellbook. Filling out the remainder of the new book requires you to find new spells to do so. For this reason, many wizards keep a backup spellbook.
This additional paragraph under "Copying the Book" is intended for replacing a lost spellbook but has the side effect of explaining that your original book is not required for copying out prepared spells. Given enough time and money, you could write out any number of your prepared spells regardless of access to the original book. Outside of replacing a lost book, I don't expect this to come into play very often, but in the interest of a complete answer, it is necessary to add.
This. Also, adding to this, the beginning Out of The Abyss confirms this to DMs in case any players choose to play as Wizards. Just in case players escape the first chapter without being able to recover their belongings, the module is filled with other wizard's spell books for players to take a put their prepared spells into.
One reason I understand it this way is that, in the dnd-5e-2014 of the Wizard, a Wizard could cast a ritual without holding a spellbook.
basic-rules-2014
Ritual Casting
You can cast a wizard spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and you have the spell in your spellbook. You don’t need to have the spell prepared.
SA
For a wizard to cast a ritual spell contained in their spellbook, do they need to read from the book or use it as part of the ritual?
No. As written, the rule doesn’t require you to read from the book. The narrative intent, however, is that the wizard is reading from their book, but the only mechanical requirement is that the wizard has the spell in their spellbook.
Of course, the dnd-5e-2014 version is outdated, and I think that, according to the understanding of "Ritual Casting" in the dnd-5e-2014 of the SA, the dnd-5e-2024 of the "Changing Your Prepared Spells" and the "Copying the Book" also do not have a mechanic that limits wizards execute them without reading its spellbook.
I imagine the spellbook as a list in the cloud that is unique and corresponds to several physical books. After a wizard completes a spell in their local physical spellbook, they submit the spell to the cloud with 2 hour and 50 GP for each level , and the wizard can download the spell from the cloud to their local physical book at any time with 1 hour and 10 GP for each level . Then, some of the Wizard class features require support from a physical spellbook, while others can access the cloud list directly.
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I read the free-rules section on wizard and noticed that
"Changing Your Prepared Spells" seems to imply that wizards do not necessarily need to have their spellbooks within reach, at least not to the extent that "Ritual Adept" does.
Similarly, "Copying the Book" does not mention that the spellbook must be in a place where it can be read.
As a non-native English speaker, is this a correct interpretation of the text, or have I misunderstood something?
If wizards do not need to have their spellbooks at hand while changing prepared spells or copying spells into another book, does that mean that once a spell is added to a spellbook, a wizard does not have to ensure they have the physical book with them at all times, and can simply copy the spell into a physical book with 1 hour and 10 GP for each level ?
It very much seems like the intent of this is that the spellbook needs to be present for all of these things. You can't copy a book into another book unless you have both books; that just seems like common sense.
pronouns: he/she/they
While I very much wish they’d just spelled it out (he he he), the repeated use of the phrase “from your spellbook” in the discussions of preparation and copying absolutely implies an access requirement.
Yeah, totally agree.
There is one significant asterisk which has not been addressed by the replies so far: "Copying the Book" only requires the original book for spells which are not currently prepared:
This additional paragraph under "Copying the Book" is intended for replacing a lost spellbook but has the side effect of explaining that your original book is not required for copying out prepared spells. Given enough time and money, you could write out any number of your prepared spells regardless of access to the original book. Outside of replacing a lost book, I don't expect this to come into play very often, but in the interest of a complete answer, it is necessary to add.
This. Also, adding to this, the beginning Out of The Abyss confirms this to DMs in case any players choose to play as Wizards. Just in case players escape the first chapter without being able to recover their belongings, the module is filled with other wizard's spell books for players to take a put their prepared spells into.
One reason I understand it this way is that, in the dnd-5e-2014 of the Wizard, a Wizard could cast a ritual without holding a spellbook.
basic-rules-2014
SA
Of course, the dnd-5e-2014 version is outdated, and I think that, according to the understanding of "Ritual Casting" in the dnd-5e-2014 of the SA, the dnd-5e-2024 of the "Changing Your Prepared Spells" and the "Copying the Book" also do not have a mechanic that limits wizards execute them without reading its spellbook.
I imagine the spellbook as a list in the cloud that is unique and corresponds to several physical books.
After a wizard completes a spell in their local physical spellbook, they submit the spell to the cloud with 2 hour and 50 GP for each level ,
and the wizard can download the spell from the cloud to their local physical book at any time with 1 hour and 10 GP for each level .
Then, some of the Wizard class features require support from a physical spellbook, while others can access the cloud list directly.