[RPG] What are the costs of having multiple/alternate spellbooks

dnd-3.5espells

I know wizards can get a certain number of spells in their spellbook for free as they level up, but does that specifically cover having them written down in one spellbook? If you plan to maintain a second or so spellbook or record your spells by some means other than specifically a spell*book*, does that incur extra costs to record spells across multiple sources, whether as duplicates or just kept separately on different media (e.g. book, bone fragments, and/or tattoo?)

Best Answer

Spells On Levelup

You get those spells in a spellbook, by RAW:

At each new wizard level, she gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that she can cast (based on her new wizard level) for her spellbook

But, you don't have to put them all in the same book. In fact, a standard spellbook only has 100 pages, and each spell takes a page per spell level. So you'll likely run out of pages and have multiple books, or make the investment in a Blessed Book.

"For her spellbook" implies to me you only get it for free in one book, though it doesn't say so outright (it also doesn't say you get them in 17 books). If you want to make dupliate copies of a spell, there's rules for that:

A wizard can use the procedure for learning a spell to reconstruct a lost spellbook. If she already has a particular spell prepared, she can write it directly into a new book at a cost of 100 gp per page (as noted in Writing a New Spell into a Spellbook, above). The process wipes the prepared spell from her mind, just as casting it would. If she does not have the spell prepared, she can prepare it from a borrowed spellbook and then write it into a new book.

Duplicating an existing spellbook uses the same procedure as replacing it, but the task is much easier. The time requirement and cost per page are halved.

Does a spellbook have to be a book?

A spellbook is an actual item in the item list, and is mentioned numerous times specifically. You could interpret that to mean it has to be a book.

That said, Complete Arcane has rules for differing types of books. A book made of something else is still a book, and the cost of copying the spells is the same unless CArc says otherwise. For something like bone fragments, it doesn't: the extra cost is in buying a book made of that material.

So yes, in that case your free spells could go into anything that counts as a spellbook in that way. On something else, it becomes undefined and is up to your DM.

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