Hey you guys, your intake on this?
Level 6 wizard, new player character, wants to have ALL the spells in his book.
It's a (half-)elf, so age should hardly be a difference.
1° Fairly cheap, no? I reckon that for around 5000 gp he can have it
Lvl 1 : 10 gp per spell
Lvl 2: 40 gp per spell
Lvl 3: 90 gp per spell
2° Would you allow it? Or does he have to collect them in-game, not as character background?
3° Apart from buying this special 1000page book, what does he have to do when his book is full? Start a second one? And does this have any impact on his preparation?
Thanks!
Hey you guys, your intake on this?
Level 6 wizard, new player character, wants to have ALL the spells in his book.
It's a (half-)elf, so age should hardly be a difference.1° Fairly cheap, no? I reckon that for around 5000 gp he can have it
Lvl 1 : 10 gp per spell
Lvl 2: 40 gp per spell
Lvl 3: 90 gp per spell2° Would you allow it? Or does he have to collect them in-game, not as character background?
3° Apart from buying this special 1000page book, what does he have to do when his book is full? Start a second one? And does this have any impact on his preparation?
Thanks!
I say let him. There is no way he's going to use them all in the game. Frankly I find a lot of spells to be either useless or VERY case specific. Essentially it's a very expensive item with very little value.
Though his backstory should include an extremely generous archmage who let him have unprecedented access to his arcane tomes, Perhaps a father or grandfather. Since he's a half elf I would make the archmagus in question an elf. Grandad probably pitied him as most elves do half elves. "Sure go ahead and copy every spell for no reason if it makes you feel better about being less than a real elf."
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My first question would be where he is getting the 5000 gp to spend on all that. Even if he starts with that much money I would not let him blow it all on every spell.
My reasons are as follows:
1st if he has a bonded object he essentially has any spell he needs at his disposal 1/day. That may not seem like a lot but being able to call up the right spell for a special situation is a powerful thing.
1st part b
When he starts scribing scrolls of all the special circumstance spells then you will have real problems as he will be able to conserve that 1/day use of his bonded item. Even without that he could have a bunch of relatively cheap scrolls to cover any situation.
2nd Characters should not have all their money tied up in one item. In 3.5 ed they limited the maximum amount a new high level character could spend on 1 item at 20% of total wealth.
3rd It bites into the human special bonus in the APG for gaining a wizard level which is getting an extra spell per level (so 3 per level) that is lower than the highest level spell you can cast.
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1. The basic formula for the cost of scribing a spell into a spellbook is level(squared) times ten gp. Additionally, most Wizards charge a fee of half that price for the privilege of copying the spell from their spellbook. (you've got to copy it from somewhere, right?)
So the final costs would be:
Lv. 1 Spell: 15gp
Lv. 2 Spell: 60gp
Lv. 3 Spell: 135gp
2. Whether or not he can just buy spells depends on how prevalent spells are. Is there a Wizard that lives nearby that this character can buy spells from? Are Wizards common enough that you might be able to find one near population centers? Are Wizards protective of some or all of their spells, refusing to share? I Golarion, Wizards are somewhat common, and while not every hamlet will have a Wizard, most small cities will have one at least within a day's journey if not in the city itself.
3. Pretty much. when one book is full just start a new one. Just be sure you have someplace to keep all these books.
If someone wants to tie up all of his starting gold in one item, half of which he won't even use ever, why not let him?
Letting him blow all of his gold into spells might not be a good thing for him.
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If someone wants to tie up all of his starting gold in one item, half of which he won't even use ever, why not let him?
Because it will make him both more powerful and weaker. More powerful in that he will have a much much larger spell selection than a caster of that level normally would. Much weaker in that he could have used that money to buy magic items. His armor will be lower, his saves and stats lower. Those will not balance out.
It is like a fighter putting all his starting money into an amazing weapon. He might hit really hard but his AC and saves and HP will be much worse.
I once had a new player to my group (13th level) who put all his money into one armor item and one weapon. When the bebelith (city of the spider queen) destroyed his armor his entire character was nearly worthless because he had no other magic items.
Something else to consider is the world you are living in. The Faction Guide has a magic group in Golarion that has rules for TP access to any spell. If you as the DM want to incorporate the faction rules and have the mage start with an alliance or debt to that group you could figure out the gold as well as RP cost from the book and bring it into play that way... with strings attached.
A 6th level character starts with 16,000gp. A 5,000 gp spell book isn't even 1/3 of that. He could still afford a Headband of Int, a Ring of Protection, and a Cloak of Resistance. So he has to wait a little longer before he can pick up a Lesser rod of Persistent Spell, big deal.
As for losing the book, a Wizard is always screwed when that happens. This character has more like 3-4 books, so if he loses one, chances are he still has useful spells in the others.
Answering your question in order.
1. Race is not a reason to give that to any character but it's your call you want to give him all the spells, do so. also remember half-elves aren't THAT much more long-lived than Humans.
2. I give nothing in character background that's not already provided for by the rules. If he wants more spells, he'll have to acquire or pay for them somehow. At the very least I would essentially charge the minimum for a scroll of said spell plus the costs of scribing it into the book.
3. Yes, when your spellbook is full you start a new one, and it does not change the amount of time you devote for spell preparation. It does count for encumbrance load though. Remember each spell takes up one page per spell level, cantrips count as first level spells. Those 100 pages can go mighty fast.
+1, and to add if he wants a spellbook with more pages he can follow the rules and buy the blessed book(12,500 gp) like any other wizard.
If I was feeling nice I would let him roll to see if he can make the spellcraft checks per the rules for those spells in front of me.
Indeed a level 5 has 16000 gp as base starting equipment, so the 3000 gp for the spells he took now (not all of them) is not really going to hurt him.
I indeed made a big IOU on the spells he purchased, roleplaying wise, and I told him not to abuse the system, but he's cool that way.
Thanks for your input
Especially Quantum Steve ^^