Obtaining a new spellbook in PFS

[Jaquilin Leroung]

As the titles suggests, this character recently gained a spellbook and origonally I was debating on either buying the book with all the spells (some spells I own already) or scribing them all, until I found that I ran out of pages when attempting to add them all on Herolab.

I'm curious if, by buying the book I have instant access to all the spells or I'll have to do a spellcraft roll, similar to scribing them into my own book for each and every spell?

From my research I've found what the cost for the book should be, showing my working below:

Spoiler:

5th -
Acidic Spray - 250gp
Possession - 250gp
Wall of Stone - 250gp
Dismissal - 250gp
Waves of Fatigue - 250gp

Total: 1250gp

4th -
Black Tendrils - 160gp
Dimension Door - 160gp
False Life, Greater - 160gp
Stone Skin - 160gp
Fear - 160gp
Globe in Invulnerability, Lesser - 160gp

Total: 960gp
3rd -
Dispel Magic - 90gp
Fly (owned) - 90gp
Slow - 90gp
Stinking Cloud - 90gp
Vampiric Touch - 90gp
Daylight - 90gp
Lightning Bolt - 90gp
Wind Wall (owned) - 90gp

Total: 720gp
2nd -
Acid Arrow - 40gp
Bears Endurance - 40gp
Pyrotechnics - 40gp
Web - 40gp
Resist Energy - 40gp
See invisibility - 40gp
Spider Climb - 40gp

Total: 280gp
1st -
Grease - 10gp
Obscuring Mist - 10gp
Alarm - 10gp
Expeditious Retreat - 10gp
Mount - 10gp
Unseen Servant - 10gp
Shield (owned) - 10gp
Magic Missile (owned) - 10gp
Mage Armour (owned) - 10gp

Total: 90gp

Total: 3300gp (Spells) + 15gp (book cost) = 3315gp (Sub Total) / 2 = 1657gp, 5sp

(I don't have the list of Orisons as the GM and I felt I wouldn't need them, but looking up the cost of the books I may need them, especially as this is PFS.

If I need them I'll contact the GM.

So after having the book can I use the spells instantly or will spellcraft be required for each book? I'll most likely buy the book due to how cheap it is and that I'm going to run out of pages otherwise.

[GM Lamplighter]

I'm not sure how you would buy a custom spellbook... you have to pay for access to the spells and scribe them yourself, using the rules in the CRB and listed in the FAQ.

[Nefreet]

You just buy a second book for 15gp and scribe your new spells into it as normal.

Some Chronicles grant access to custom spellbooks, but in general they're not legal.

[Jaquilin Leroung]

Nefreet wrote:

You just buy a second book for 15gp and scribe your new spells into it as normal.

Some Chronicles grant access to custom spellbooks, but in general they're not legal.

Well this was the spellbook of a NPC we managed to kill so I wanted to know if say I can buy the book and then use the spells or if that's not the case?

[Da Wander]

Jaquilin Leroung wrote:

Nefreet wrote:

You just buy a second book for 15gp and scribe your new spells into it as normal.

Some Chronicles grant access to custom spellbooks, but in general they're not legal.

Well this was the spellbook of a NPC we managed to kill so I wanted to know if say I can buy the book and then use the spells or if that's not the case?

In PFS, you are (currently) only able to buy the Spellbook if it appears on the Chronicle - and as no Spellbooks actually (currently) appear on chronicles...

so you actually can't buy the captured Spellbook - it goes to the Lodge Archive to be filed I guess...

[CraziFuzzy]

As a general rule, nothing 'found' during a scenario is there after the scenario ends, unless it is on the chronicle sheet and your purchase it from there.

[andreww]

Da Wander wrote:

and as no Spellbooks actually (currently) appear on chronicles...

This is not true, various spellbooks appear on a range of different chronicles although the number is quite small.

People are quite right to say that you cannot buy the book unless it appears on the chronicle. What you can do however is copy the spells from the captured book into your own during the session. You need to do this making the usual spellcraft checks and paying the scribing cost but the DCs tend to be low enough that they can easily be met taking 10. You can also do this with scrolls you find but it expends them.

There should normally not be any reason why you cannot declare that you are doing this at the end of the scenario if you don't have tome during the mission.

[Nefreet]

I suppose you could buy a blank spellbook after the scenario, pay the cost of scribing all the NPC's spells into that book (even duplicates that already exist in your first book), and go about the rest of your days RPing that the second book was looted from said NPC.

[Jaquilin Leroung]

Nefreet wrote:

I suppose you could buy a blank spellbook after the scenario, pay the cost of scribing all the NPC's spells into that book (even duplicates that already exist in your first book), and go about the rest of your days RPing that the second book was looted from said NPC.

for rping, I like what an earlier commenter said about that the book would be taken to the lodge, which works quite well.

I guess that means I'll have to choose the "Scribed from a free source" in regards to scribing them. Still paying the scribing costs, of course and as I just found out I could've taken 10 on my spellcraft, I now have Acid spray...though I'm only 7th level so I've got a long way to wait before I can use it.

Eitherway, Thank you everyone for all your help!

[CraziFuzzy]

Relevant FAQ entry on the subject: http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fq#v5748eaic9q7s

Based on it stating that you CAN scribe from another PC's spellbook during the scenario, AND you can scribe from a found scroll during the scenario, I guess it makes sense that you can also scribe from a found spellbook during the scenario. (Don't forget the time it takes to scribe the spells as well, 1 hour to study the spell with DC-15+SL Spellcraft, 1 hour/level to write it down plus writing cost).