"An alchemist can study a wizard's spellbook to learn any formula that is equivalent to a spell the spellbook contains."
I understand that an alchemist can has the ability to learn from a spellbook, but what is the likelihood a wizard is going to allow this to happen? It would seem to me that wizards would guard these books with their lives and not let anyone look at, let alone meticulously go through and copy their spells.
A case in point, in my current game the alchemist was an orphan raised in Turankdok Academy under the tutelage of Ilsoari Gandethus who is a the headmaster & retired wizard. What is the likelihood that Ilsoari is going to just let the alchemist come back and have a go at his spellbook? To me it just seems off.
Many adventure paths and modules have bad-guy wizards in them, and often, killing such a wizard results in the opportunity to find his spellbook. Often hidden, often trapped, but often available to the diligent searcher and clever trapfinder. Yes, the wizard guarded it with his life and lost his life in doing so, so the book is there for the taking. And they don't always hide the book too much - after all, they need to read it daily, so entombing it in fresh concrete and retrieving it daily is a bit tedious.
Other less bad-guy-ish NPC wizards might be willing to share their spellbook for a fee. With adequate supervision, of course.
Are there any Wizards in the party?
My groups tend to share spells as they learn them. When we level, one of the first things that tends to happen in-character is that we discuss what new magics we've learned, and then share them.
There is no wizard in this party.
If they kill a wizard, I'll let them at their spellbook. I have no problem with them taking that as part of their loot, it's more of the NPC wizards in the town that they assume they can go up to and ask to borrow their spellbook and get all these spells for free.
I always have wizards selling access to learn spells from their spellbook. What do they care if you gain a spell like enlarge person? Its not cutting edge research. They charge a modest fee, you gain a spell for less than a scroll, everyone wins.
Of course they're going to be in the room with you the whole time, and make damn sure it isn't stolen or destroyed.
Non-adversarial wizards would allow you to look at their spell book for a fee. I believe you can also purchase generic spell books that have been filled with certain types of spells. And lastly, you can always grab them from a wizard's corpse.
Also see barrowing spell books on the same page. until you copy the spell into your own spell book, you have to make a spellcraft check just to prepare each spell. the book only has to be decipherd once thou.
Does an alchemist need to make the spellcraft to decipher it once it's copied in his formulae book?
Say you are a programmer. Would you let a random guy, for free, go through your code portfolio and copy your code?
Wizards make their living off their spells and their research, and the alchemist is a potential competitor for their business.
It's not quite that significant. A wizard's spells are widely available on the marketplace. Obviously they wouldn't allow a random person do so for free, but most rational ones would likely be willing to sell access to you for less than what it costs to buy a scroll for access to it, knowing that if they don't you'll just go to someone else. Basic spells are not as unique and sacred as people tend to imply.
Or at least the non-unique ones anyway, and if you find a wizard with one of those, it's probably worth the effort of trying to get access to it.
Emphasis mine.
This is particularly true, since wizards get the feat scribe scroll as a bonus feat 1st level and can permanently gain spells from those scrolls. Letting someone copy directly from the book simply saves the wizard the time and energy of making a scroll.
I am a bit fuzzy on this, but alchemists do not appear to have the ability to use scrolls in this manner, but the principle is still the same for copying from a book whether you are a wizard or alchemist.
Still, I like the idea of putting a specific price on certain spells. It lets you control your player's access to spells, which can help ease your preparations against them.