Spellbooks and YOU

[garhkal]

Over on DF in the first ed forums, we're having a discussion on how spellbooks SHOULD be, RE the rules.. IN first ed, it Does seem that a mage needs ONE BOOK PER spell level he can cast. Where as in 2e, it's not really mentioned if he HAS to do it that way or not.


So how do YOU Handle it?
Are mages required to have one book per level? OR can they mix and match all spells they can cram into a book, at will?

How cheap is it to replace a lost (or destroyed) book?

How many pages does a spell take up IN a spell book??

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Great question and I've done it various ways. There have been many "rules" for the books, from the 1E DMG to the 2E DMG to the 2E Book of Artifacts (I think) and elsewhere. I think Tome of Magic had advice too!

One book per spell level, to me, is ridiculous! The poor wizard would be encumbered! Remember that spell books aren't paperbacks. They're usually thick, heavy tomes with hard covers. Imagine an 18th level wizard lugging around 9 massive volumes - almost like the Encyclopedia Britannica!

I think the way we did it, pulled from various sources, was to assign each spell takes one page per spell level. I forget where, but it lists spells as taking one page per spell level. So we went with that.

So a 1st level spell occupies a full page (one side of the page) whereas a 9th level spell occupies 9 pages (4 pages both sides plus the front of the 5th sheet).

With that method, the 18th level wizards needs a 139 page spellbook to contain all his spells - a book not much bigger than a 1E Player's Handbook. However, he better create a back-up spell book, because if he only has one and it's destroyed, he's fucked. Gotta go find all those spells again. The formula is in the book, not memorized. It's not like the wizard can scribe the spell from memory. Some of the wiser players I've had eventually had 3 copies of their spell books - one to leave back home as an insurance policy, and two to take adventuring. One was used, the other was carefully wrapped and protected as well as possible to avoid destruction.

[garhkal]

Well lets count it out.

Assuming a mage has a 18 int (so can hit 9th level spells), and has
13 first level spells = 13 pages
12 second level spells = 24 pages
11 third level spells = 33 pages
10 fourth level spells = 40 pages
9 fifth level spells = 45 pages
8 sixth level spells = 48 pages
5 seventh level spells = 35 pages
3 eight level spells = 24 pages
and only one spell of 9th level, that adds up to a whapping 271 pages.
Now if he had a few more seventh through 9th level spells, that's going to go up Big...

So that on its own, would take 3 full spell books, or six traveling ones!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ah, I was wondering why my count didn't seem high enough! Yes, I forgot, I went by spells memorized, not how many he can know. I'm glad you caught that! Still, 217 pages isn't much bigger than a 1E DMG, so still a manageable tome.

[garhkal]

Maybe. BUT our paper is much thinner these days, than the tech they had back in medieval times..

ADD to that, to me a spell wrote in a book is NOT just words. BUT it also has diagrams (for the somantic components), drawings (for how to use the material components), notes, equasions etc... So they should take MORE than just 1 page per spell per level of the spell.. That's why i like doing it 1d4 +1 per level OVER FIRST the spell is.. So a 4th level spell takes up anywhere from 4 to 7 pages!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Paper is thinner now, sure, but I don't see that adding more than the equivalent of a few dozen extra pages at most. I agree, the spell would consist of words, diagrams, symbols, etc. But I think it would be a disservice to wizards to require 1,000 page spell books or 9 different spell books for his spells. That's just adding another horrible restriction to a class that already has tons of restrictions and inconveniences (especially if you use material components).

[garhkal]

Even adding the # of page increase i do, i've yet to see a mage have to cart more than 4 spellbooks around...