It's formally two days per spell- not a day per spell level. That's a lot better, of course.

There is also a spellcraft check involved- DC 15+ spell level, so 19 for 4th level spells. Since my spellcraft is 10 ranks plus 7 for Int plus 3 for skill focus: Spellcraft, I can take 0 and still make it.

So the first day, you study the spell and make the spellcraft check. If you succeed, you can then, on the second day, spend 24 hours copying it.

The wording sort of implies that maybe they meant 24 hours per spell total, but that's not what the text actually says.

The cost of 100 gp per page of magical "stuff" (inks, etc) remains constant. The part about borrowing another wizard's spellbook has a DC set to be able to learn from their spellbook, but it stipulates that you have to have written it into your spellbook. There doesn't *seem* to be a way to steal an evil wizard's spellbook and prepare from it- unless you want to spend 100 gp per page after learning the book, then maybe his counts as "borrowed" so you have two copies basically.

However, there is a set of optional rules in the Complete Something Magically that lets you "master" a spellbook, and it refers to the original set of rules as if it's in addition to- so those guys probably didn't know you are supposed to always have to pay the gold.

I'm kinda figuring, based on the description of magic as a universal language, and based on how this shit is supposed to work in the fiction that it's based on, that it's possible to memorize out of another wizards spellbook. If it's not possible, then a spellbook isn't actually anything cool: it's just a piece of luggage you have that makes your wizard vulnerable, because his actual list of "spells known" is maintained, in secret, as a list of spells he has at some point paid 100 gp / spell level for by copying them into a spell book at said point in time. In other words, he actually "knows" those spells, which is contrary to the Vancian system, but he still has to prepare them from a book.

Either way you go is fine with me of course.

Let's assume you make your spellcraft check to see if you can figure it out in about an hour. Then in most places (a quiet inn, a room in the castle, etc) it takes 2 hours per spell level to copy. Let's also assume that in Candlekeep or any other world-famous library or place of learning with people helping you, it takes half that time. If you're camping out in a safe place by the road, it takes double that time. If you're hiding in a rope trick with people piled around you, assume it would take 4 times that long.

A day per spell level is absurd... particularly given that these spells are apparently cast in under 6 seconds.

It's not perfect. I can see a 1st level wizard taking a day to write his first spell. But I can't see a 20th level wizard taking a day to write down a 1st level spell.

As for other spellbooks... I'm torn. On one hand, it seems to make sense that you can nab someone's spellbook and memorize a spell from it. On the other hand, it means you can walk into this library and walk out with any spell you want. I'm going to say you have to pay to copy it. Think of it like a crib sheet. The act of making the crib sheet was the best way to study.

One "right" way is probably to use the spellcraft check like you use the jump check: consult a table, and it takes you this long for this level spell. That would make the 20th level wizard be able to record the 1st level spell much faster than the 1st level wizard.



This is going to work just fine, and is a positive change- and it reduces downtime greatly. Now, could I copy spells in a rope trick faster if I took the feat Comfortable With My Sexuality?



Technically, what you do when you memorize is cast the spell except for one little trigger. Granted, this takes 15 minutes to 1 hour for ALL of your daily spells, which is still really fast.

And as I said, it's not a day per spell level- it's two days per, by the book, with the intent that it be one day per. Well, 24 hours they say, which we are using "day" for.

Either way it's moderately silly.




Is that even out of line? It's a fully equipped and famous library that lets people study books worth 10,000 gold each (cost of a standard 100 page spellbook with writing on each page), and they have MANY of them. If we were at a world famous armory that was willing to lend out 100,000 gp worth of items to each fighter, I'd expect that they would punch shit pretty hard!

The book method works fine too, of course, and it's not like wizards need buffs or anything. It just means that I have another layer of spell list, those spells which I have at some point written down with expensive inks.