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Teatime42 wrote:

I'm gonna try and keep this short.

Wizard says he can use his spellbook as scrolls, GM wasn't sure, but the player insists, and the GM has allowed it till now. It's getting to be an issue, because the wizard acquired the spellbooks of a level 20+ wizard, and our wizard is running around with 30+ Int, and is claiming he can cast everything from the spellbook.

The GM finally asked me to look it up for him, because I have a tendency to track down weird things easily. The GM is pretty sure it's shenanigans, but doesn't want to confront them until he's had independent confirmation, and he knows I post our shenanigans here on Paizo. :)

According to what I've found, it's a popular Homebrew rule from 2nd edition. Since our Wizard started playing in 2nd edition, and there's no references in 3.5/Pathfinder, I'm thinking it's old training/knowledge.

I'm now asking for any comments you guys have on this in regards to rules, I will likely end up posting about this in Advice later too, because:

The wizard used this as part of a loophole that ended up with him getting near infinite Wish usages, and a crap ton of money/valuable items (I have no idea how it works, cept for "Pretty well actually"). This is part of the reason why he is has 30 int, he should have around 22 or so otherwise. The GM managed to incorporate this into the campaign (And that level 20+ Wizard is coming to get his stuff back :P), he did not raise many objections at the time, the Wizard being a good friend, the person who is GMing the other Pathfinder game we're in, and is supposed to be the second most experienced player in our group.

The Wizard is casting higher level spells (Those he has no slot for (Max of level 3 spells, spell is level 4), but could eventually cast when he levels), and saying it's fine because it's in the spellbook, he "Knows" it as a result. He does have the stat for it as a result.

My character took a dip into wizard, and I went to him to try and trade spells, he's advised me to not scribe scroll, just make a...

I just want to address this in a big way years down the road. Very few of you where there in the 70's and 80's regarding the question of spellbooks. Yes back in the day of the real game dungeons and dragons. First you had to cast read magic then you had to roll to know. Because there was a limit to the number of spells you could know and use you had to be very careful before using any spell as those known spells could be wasted. If you could not know you could not use the spell, ever. Then after successfully rolling to comprehend a spell you could then copy the spell into your own spellbook. As for casting a spell out of a spellbook there is something the current entitled player base of pathfinder would not understand. Back then you could not easily get spells. The Dungeon Masters guide specifically states spells should be the rarest thing in the universe. Sure you could cast a spell out of "other" wizards spellbooks as if it was a scroll but that would be incredibly stupid and any DM worth their salt would not give the wizard another chance to EVER see that spell again. Thus learning a valuable lesson about the rarity of spells. The spell cast from a spellbook or scroll would disappear forever. As for the scroll having power and the spellbook not, back in the day a spell copied from a scroll was transferred to a spellbook. Power transfers. If a DM was wanting to make a particular point the roll to know a spell was also rolled into the spell failure chance. Remember, casting spells from scrolls was not a 100% chance of success. In fact it was about 20% chance of failure. So casting a spell from a spellbook could mean even if you did find the spell again you may never be able to comprehend it because of your flippant lack of respect of spells.

I just had to say something about this even years later.