Spellbooks

House Rule: Wizard's Spellbooks

A spellbook holds the written knowledge necessary to learn and prepare various spells, a necessity for wizards. Spellbooks are designed to grow and change with their wizard. An apprentice's spellbook starts as a collection of the cantrips and spells the wizard has learned. As wizards learn new spells, they adds pages to their spellbooks. A spell takes up one page per spell level (cantrips also take one page). The cost of adding pages into the spellbook is included in the cost for scribing new spells. Spell pages can be inserted into a spellbook in any order. Orderly wizards will often organize their spells alphabetically by level. The spines of spellbooks are designed to expand as the collection of spells increases. Some say minor magic is involved, for the spellbook always looks designed for that exact number of pages, never under- or over-filled.
A spellbook with less than 50 pages is often referred to as a primer or chapbook, and it's considered to have a light Bulk. A spellbook with over 100 pages is often called a Tome. For ease of use, most wizards will create a new spellbook if they need more than 200 pages, but spellbooks with more than 200 pages are generally called Grimoires. Spellbooks weigh 1 Bulk per 100 pages (rounded, so a spellbook of between 150 and 240 pages has 1 Bulk).

Spellbook Actions

LEARN A SPELL (Trained)

CONCENTRATE EXPLORATION
Requirements You have a spellcasting class feature, and the spell you want to learn is on your magical tradition’s spell list.
You can gain access to a new spell of your tradition from someone who knows that spell or from magical writing like a spellbook or scroll. If you can cast spells of multiple traditions, you can Learn a Spell of any of those traditions, but you must use the corresponding skill to do so. For example, if you were a cleric with the bard multiclass archetype, you couldn’t use Religion to add an occult spell to your bardic spell repertoire.
To learn the spell, you must do the following:

• Spend 1 hour per level of the spell, during which you must remain in conversation with a person who knows the spell or have the magical writing in your possession.

• Have materials with the Price indicated in Table 4–3.

• Attempt a skill check for the skill corresponding to your tradition (DC determined by the GM, often close to the DC on Table 4–3). Uncommon or rare spells have higher DCs; full guidelines for the GM appear on page 503.

If you have a spellbook, Learning a Spell lets you add the spell to your spellbook; if you prepare spells from a list, it’s added to your list; if you have a spell repertoire, you can select it when you add or swap spells.

• Critical Success You expend half the materials and learn the spell.

• Success You expend the materials and learn the spell.

• Failure You fail to learn the spell but can try again after you gain a level. The materials aren’t expended.

• Critical Failure As failure, plus you expend half the materials.

BORROW AN ARCANE SPELL (Trained)

CONCENTRATE EXPLORATION
If you’re an arcane spellcaster who prepares from a spellbook, you can attempt to prepare a spell from someone else’s spellbook. The GM sets the DC for the check based on the spell’s level and rarity; it’s typically a bit easier than Learning the Spell.

• Success You prepare the borrowed spell as part of your normal spell preparation.

• Failure You fail to prepare the spell, but the spell slot remains available for you to prepare a different spell. You can’t try to prepare this spell until the next time you prepare spells.

TABLE 4–3: LEARNING A SPELL

Spell Level (Price -Typical DC)
1st or cantrip (2 gp - 15)
2nd (6 gp - 18)
3rd (16 gp - 20)
4th (36 gp - 23)
5th (70 gp - 26)
6th (140 gp - 28)
7th (300 gp - 31)
8th (650 gp - 34)
9th (1,500 gp - 36)
10th (7,000 gp - 41)