Learning Spells from a Purchased / Looted spellbook

[j b 200]

I have a question about using a spellbook that isn't yours. For instance, you buy a spellbook from a store, like one of the pregenerated ones from UM. Or you kill a wizard and take his spellbook. I would assume that you would have to decipher the spell book first, but do I have to copy every spell from that book into my own spell book?

I guess my question is, can I just make this new spellbook "my" spellbook or do I have to copy everything into a blank spellbook that is already "mine"?

[Adamantine Dragon]

I believe you have to write all the spells into "your" spellbook. At least in the old rules it indicated that all wizards used their own arcane writing techniques. They could use "read magic" to read someone else's spellbook for the purpose of copying spells, but they had to write them in their own "lingo" in their own spellbooks to own them.

[Tinalles]

PRD's Magic Chapter wrote:

Wizard Spells and Borrowed Spellbooks

A wizard can use a borrowed spellbook to prepare a spell he already knows and has recorded in his own spellbook, but preparation success is not assured. First, the wizard must decipher the writing in the book (see Arcane Magical Writings, above). Once a spell from another spellcaster's book is deciphered, the reader must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell's level) to prepare the spell. If the check succeeds, the wizard can prepare the spell. He must repeat the check to prepare the spell again, no matter how many times he has prepared it before. If the check fails, he cannot try to prepare the spell from the same source again until the next day. However, as explained above, he does not need to repeat a check to decipher the writing.

Emphasis added. You can only prep the spell from another's spellbook if you already know it and have it written in your own spellbook.

So suppose that the spellbook of Vlog the 2nd Level Transmuter (deceased) contains Magic Missile, Shield, and Grease, but the only one from that list that you know is Magic Missile. You can prep Magic Missile from Vlog's book with a Spellcraft check, but you have to copy Shield and Grease into your own spellbook before you can prepare them.

If I were GM'ing it, I'd have no problem house ruling away the "you have to already know it" requirement. I mean, if you can learn a spell well enough from Vlog's book to copy it to your own, it doesn't make sense that you can't learn it well enough from his book to just prepare it.

[Chobemaster]

Tinalles wrote:

If I were GM'ing it, I'd have no problem house ruling away the "you have to already know it" requirement. I mean, if you can learn a spell well enough from Vlog's book to copy it to your own, it doesn't make sense that you can't learn it well enough from his book to just prepare it.

Generous. Letting the wizard prepare from an unfamiliar writing is already an accomodation, IMO. And it's a pretty big benefit. Why would a wizard EVER incur the costs clearly in RAW and RAI that he's intended by the Devs to incur in order to add to his spells known from a captured book? Just to avoid carrying 2 books?

[Tinalles]

Maybe, maybe not. I'd allow a wizard to prep spells from a foreign spellbook, sure; but I'd also let the player know that it's expected that he'll make his own copy at the first opportunity.

If he dragged his heels on that to the point that it became an issue, I'd still have options. I'd reiterate that he needs to make his own copy, and if that still didn't work, I could make him roll Spellcraft checks for every spell he prepares from the book -- no taking 10, you have to actually roll. For every slot. Even if a nat 1 is a successful check, rolling that many times every time you prep spells would quickly become annoying.

Really, though, if it got to that point there are probably bigger problems at the table. Rule 0 may say "The GM is right", but Rule 0.5 is "Neither the GM nor the Players have license to be a jerk."

[Stynkk]

There are rules for copying spells from someone else's spellbook into your own. It is covered in the magic chapter of the core rule book, it takes some time though.

There are also rules for using a spellbook that is not your own. Choose a spellbook. That one is yours, the others are not. The other speculation about houserules is unnecessary.

[Shalafi2412]

I think that the CORE book is very clear in how it explains this.