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I am glad that adding a spell to a spellbook is much cheaper in Pathfinder, but my question is.... How do we get the 'special' ink to write spells in a spellbook? More to the point I guess is this question...can a PC use the craft skill to make this "special ink"? Is it even "special ink" that we need to add these spells? It just says it costs "X" amount in materials to write the spell into a book.
Any insights?
I have just always handwaved that.
"Your wizard knows how to make the ink himself, and knows how to find just the right stuff to make it out of. Unfortunately, he only knows how to find that stuff in stores; he is nowhere near smart enough to harvest it himself while he is out on adventures - no free rides here no matter how high his Knowledge(nature) skill gets. Although he is not smart enough to harvest the stuff he needs, he is smart enough to buy the ink in advance so that he always has enough on hand - and mysteriously, the shopkeeper that sold it to him doesn't take his gold until the wizard actually uses the ink. It's just that magical."
That's quite tongue-in-cheek, but it's basically how I run it. Keeps it simple.
Besides, the alternative is something like "Well, everyone goes up a level. The fighter has new feats, the rogue has more sneak attack, the cleric has new spells, but the wizard has nothing because he hasn't gone back to town and bought more ink."
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I have just always handwaved that.
"Your wizard knows how to make the ink himself, and knows how to find just the right stuff to make it out of. Unfortunately, he only knows how to find that stuff in stores; he is nowhere near smart enough to harvest it himself while he is out on adventures - no free rides here no matter how high his Knowledge(nature) skill gets. Although he is not smart enough to harvest the stuff he needs, he is smart enough to buy the ink in advance so that he always has enough on hand - and mysteriously, the shopkeeper that sold it to him doesn't take his gold until the wizard actually uses the ink. It's just that magical."
That's quite tongue-in-cheek, but it's basically how I run it. Keeps it simple.
Besides, the alternative is something like "Well, everyone goes up a level. The fighter has new feats, the rogue has more sneak attack, the cleric has new spells, but the wizard has nothing because he hasn't gone back to town and bought more ink."
I'm not really worried about the 2 freebie spells every level as thats a given, but found scrolls that a wizard wants to add to a book. I never thought about it much as a DM, but now that I am a player for the first time in years, I just kinda wonder.
I get the concept of the wizzie goes into town between adventures and buys 500 gp worth of ink to scribe spells into his spellbook.
But what if he wanted to craft the ink himself and save some cash? What would the DC be? etc....
EDIT: The GM doesnt believe in the defacto "the wizards just knows how to make the ink" sadly :(
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Well it's one of those things that aren't really in the rules since it slows the game down to think about specifically what it is and so on and so forth. In older editions it had to be unusual and rare inks, not the type your going to be able to "craft" unless you've got some kind of squid milking factory set up.
I get the concept of the wizzie goes into town between adventures and buys 500 gp worth of ink to scribe spells into his spellbook.
But what if he wanted to craft the ink himself and save some cash? What would the DC be? etc....
EDIT: The GM doesnt believe in the defacto "the wizards just knows how to make the ink" sadly :(
Well, then he probably doesn't believe that every spell uses the same ink made from the same ingredients. For example, a first level spell costs 10gp and takes one page, but a 2nd level spell costs 40 gp and takes two pages. 2x the pages but 4x the ink, so the second level ink must be double the price.
What about Power Word Kill (for example). That's just one word. Just one word. But it still requires 810gp worth of ink. Must be a heckuva long word...
So if he doesn't believe it's all one ink, then it might be hard to just buy it in advance.
And I've got to say, I'm playing a 7th level wizard right now. He's broke. In 7 levels I have found two spellbooks and just a couple scrolls. I still cannot scribe everything into my book because I have no money to buy the ink. Yes, I did buy 8 or 9 spells from a friendly wizard who gave me 1/2 off the usual purchase price, but other than that, I've never spent any gold I have earned, exept on inn rooms and meals from time to time. All I have ever purchased are those spells and my ink.
Yes, I could sell a couple magic items I own, but I don't see the fighter selling his magic sword so he can pay to learn a feat, and the rogue isn't selling his magic bow to learn his new rogue talent. I'm the only one who has to choose between keeping my magic items or using my primary class features. I'm the only one who cannot afford to do both.
If I had to buy 500gp worth of ink for each level in advance, I wouldn't ever have any ink. Besides, with that trivial amount, I could only scribe three 4th level spells. That's not much. I might have to get more of the more expensive inks.
I'm with you that I like the idea, but it's really just a tax. Paying to scribe those spells is basically saying "The other 10 classes get all of their class abilities for free, but wizards must pay just to use their primary class feature, and they will go broke doing it."
Hardly seems fair to me (and yes, my Paladin in our other campaign has given the wizard in that campaign charity gold to help him afford his ink).
As unfair as it is, I wouldn't dream of punishing the wizard's player further by creating situations where he cannot just scribe a spell that he wants to for the simple mechanic of deducting the gold and we'll all just assume he planned ahead and pre-spent that gold.
why is ink so expensive for a wizard. Can the letters not be formed with normal ink? Or are all books that expensive?
why is ink so expensive for a wizard. Can the letters not be formed with normal ink? Or are all books that expensive?
There is a chart for what a wizard must pay for each spell he scribes into his spellbook:
Spell Level Writing Cost
0 5 gp
1 10 gp
2 40 gp
3 90 gp
4 160 gp
5 250 gp
6 360 gp
7 490 gp
8 640 gp
9 810 gp
Furthermore, he cannot prepare spells from stolen/looted spellbooks until after he scribes those spells into his own book, so every spell he ever prepares must be scribed first, at the above costs (he gets a handful of free spells at level 1 and two free spells each level after, but must pay to scribe all the rest).
Given that in most games (all the games I've played in), most of the loot a group finds is magic items, that means that at any given time, the wizard has only a small amount of cash on hand to scribe the spells (small being relative to his total wealth including magic items), unless he sells his magic items for cash, in which case he can afford all his ink but he has fewer magic items than the other PCs.
I recommend picking up the Craft Wondrous Item feat and crafting yourself a blessed book. It will cost you 6,250gp, but it will save you a ton of money in the long run as it has a thousand pages and you can put spells into it for free.
If you make two of them, you have enough space for every core spell in the game.
But what if he wanted to craft the ink himself and save some cash? What would the DC be? etc....EDIT: The GM doesnt believe in the defacto "the wizards just knows how to make the ink" sadly :(
D&D (and Pathfinder) don't really cover harvesting. There are skills for converting raw materials into finished products, but not for getting the stuff. You might ask you GM to add ink to the loot for his campaign. At the very least, next time you kill an evil wizard and are looting his tower, ask if there is any ink around.
See if you can go on adventures to get the parts you need. Ask the shopkeep who you are buying the ink from if he needs bits, then go kill kracken, harvest berries from skull mountain, etc...
Will your GM let you buy ranks in craft:magic ink? You would then be selling your skill points and time for a discount on scribing.
I think there were rules for mastering spellbooks in the complete arcane. If your GM is allowing 3.5 stuff, they will let you use captured spellbooks as your own by spending some time and making a difficult spellcraft check. This will save you from having to rescibe everything. If not, be sure to sell the old book once you are done scribing what you want, this will help pay for ink.
On the subject of DC for crafting, I'd put it at 10+spell level to craft ink for a particular spell, as higher level spells require higher quality inks. YMMV, but that's my take.
Blessed books are a large upfront cost for a lifetime of savings. Worth investing in. and once you copy everything over, you can sell your old books to recoup some of the cost.
Scribing costs are one of the balancing factors of wizards. you can -potentially- cast every spell in the known multiverse, but if you want more then your free 2/level, you need to pay for the luxury. Balancing the desire for a full spellbook and the need to acquire other gear is part of playing a wizard.