Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Gwumph 01-14-07, 12:07 AM	quick question guys if you buy a spellbook from an AR, can you use it normally or do you have to make spellcraft checks as from the borrowed spellbook section? Also if the borrowed spellbook rules applies, then do have to pay to copy it over your spellbook (considering you already paid to buy the book?) Regards Gwumph
cycloptic_squirrel 01-14-07, 02:45 AM	Unfortunately, you can only prep a spell from another spellbook that you've already written in your own spellbook. Thus, the bought spellbook is knda useless until you put the spell into your own spellbook, which is done at standard costs. The one upside is that afterwords you can sell the book back for half price. You can also try to master a foreign spellbook, which IIRC takes 2 TUs and a spellcraft check of 25+highest level spell. It's in the FAQ of the old LGCS (p. 66). I think when you're buying a spellbook, you're actually paying for access, since standardly, wizards are very possessive about their spellbooks (fortunately, I have yet to meet a PC with this attitude). I think it's overpriced since spellbooks usually contain a dozen spells you don't want and one you do. I don't see any reason you couldn't rip out the pages you want and ditch the rest.
awroe 01-14-07, 05:04 AM	Buying a spellbook gives you access to all the spells within. If you want to cast these spells, you have two options a) Understand the spell (Read Magic or a spellcraft DC15+level check) and scribe it into your own spell book b) Master the whole spellbook (2TUs and Spellcraft DC25+highest level check) (b) appears cheaper, but if you only want one or two spells, it may actually be cheaper to copy them to your own book and then sell back the spellbook. AW.
Gwumph 01-15-07, 12:02 AM	i have seen the rule "master a spellbook" in PHII. is that rule in use in LG? Can I get a circle ruling on the use of that rule from PHII? Thanks Gwumph
_m_ 01-15-07, 12:10 AM	this may not be quite right, but my understanding is that in lgh, if you buy a spellbook with spells in it, from an ar, it behaves in all respects as if it were actually your spellbook, with no restrictions at all.
Gwumph 01-15-07, 12:30 AM	That is what my player assumes too. But there is a rule in the PH that states quite clearly that anytime you are attempting to memorize a spell that is not written in your handwriting you must make a spellcraft check (reason being every wizard write differently) to sucessfully memorize. I can't find anywhere that it states in LGS manual that the above rule is rescinded and if you buy another wizards spellbook it is like you have written it yourself. Can anyone direct me to that rule?
Howie23 01-15-07, 12:43 AM	Can anyone direct me to that rule? LGCS p.66. Left side, second question (and answer) on the left. I'm not sure that it rescinds, it provides a method for mastering the entire book. David
_m_ 01-15-07, 12:45 AM	That is what my player assumes too. But there is a rule in the PH that states quite clearly that anytime you are attempting to memorize a spell that is not written in your handwriting you must make a spellcraft check (reason being every wizard write differently) to sucessfully memorize. I can't find anywhere that it states in LGS manual that the above rule is rescinded and if you buy another wizards spellbook it is like you have written it yourself. Can anyone direct me to that rule? well, i dunno about you, but with a +25 to spellcraft, i wouldnt be too woried about making the check.
Gwumph 01-15-07, 12:53 AM	Thanks i just looked it up. I guess the borrowed spellbook rule applies since there would be no reason for the LGCS to write about mastering the spellbook otherwise. thanks folks
cycloptic_squirrel 01-15-07, 04:27 AM	Look at the PHB page 178 bottom left under Wizard Spells and Borrowed Spellbooks: A wizard can use a borrowed spellbook to prepare a spell she already knows and has recorded in her own spellbook, but success is not assured'. I thought along the same lines you did until this question came up. But I can't find anything in LG to say otherwise. The borrowed spellbook rules are for if you lose your spellbook. Thus, as I read it: if you buy a spellbook, you can't use it until you copy the spell or master the spellbook. Which doesn't seem too bad. m*, I figure I'll respond to my LGCS suggestion here since this was the post that inspired it. (That and I'd rather not earn more of Britt's ire than I have coming.**) I realize now that my reasons for wanting the rule are somewhat redundant, since looking through my AR's I can't find even one limited spell in a spellbook. They're all granted through favors. That's good. If this keeps up, I have no problems with the system. Here was my reasoning: The way it's set up now, if you do run across a book with a limited arcane spell, you have to purchase the book to get access. Not too bad, until you consider that most volumes have at least half a dozen spells. Chances are the only one you want is the limited one, since you already have the spells you want and have no inclination of acquiring the rest. If you're a sorcerer/bard, it's even more obvious. Why should you have to pay several thousand gold for one spell and either a)mastering the book and carrying around duplicates and spells you'll never use or b)scribing the spell and selling the book back, taking a bath financially, because you, the incredibly intelligent wizard had to ignore the most basic rule of a free market economy - you bought high and sold low; all simply because you couldn't simply scribe the limited spell into your book like any other spell. If no limited access is granted through spellbooks (or it's very rare) I think the system works fine as is. *I was good, even though it felt really wrong not to start a sentence with a capital letter. Please don't hunt me down and kill my characters! **I only just realized that my suggestion was redundant and unnessassary! I didn't know! Please don't hunt me down and use your mystical circle powers to voip my character! I didn't know! I didn't know! :weep: