Can A Wizard copy a cantrip? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Can A Wizard copy a cantrip?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Athinar1
Oct 08, 2014 17:23:44
Can a Wizard copy a cantrip into the spell book? can teh wizard use the cantrip if he uses a first level slot for the cantrip?

#2
Novacat
Oct 08, 2014 17:27:24
No, cantrips cannot be copied into a spell book.

#3
paulstrait
Oct 08, 2014 17:37:53
Not by the RAW ("When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a level for which you have spell.") But then again, by the RAW there wouldn't be a situation in which you would 'find' a cantrip to copy into your spellbook, I don't think. So if for some reason the DM allowed the wizard to find a scroll or spellbook with a wizard cantrip included, and this is what a wizard wanted to do, this sounds like a fine way to do it. But it would all be firmly in the DM/houserule realm.

EDIT: Actually apparently you could find a scroll of a cantrip, I was mistaken. So in that situation, all you can do according to the standard rules is cast it, though it seems reasonable to me for a DM to houserule that a player could treat it like a level 1 spell if he or she wanted to. Incidentally, the rules on scrolls seem very unfinished -- for example, it is not clear that a scroll is consumed by successfully casting the spell from the scroll, although I suspect that that is the intent).

#4
Thank_Dog
Oct 08, 2014 17:47:09
I'd allow a cantrip to be copied however to use it would require a 1st-level spell slot. A cantrip is a spell that you have practiced the casting of so much that you can cast it without preperation. So under that logic, a spell copied into a spellbook, even if only at the level of power of a cantrip, doesn't mean you can cast it at will.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Athinar1 Oct 08, 2014 17:23:44	Can a Wizard copy a cantrip into the spell book? can teh wizard use the cantrip if he uses a first level slot for the cantrip?
#2 Novacat Oct 08, 2014 17:27:24	No, cantrips cannot be copied into a spell book.
#3 paulstrait Oct 08, 2014 17:37:53	Not by the RAW ("When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a level for which you have spell.") But then again, by the RAW there wouldn't be a situation in which you would 'find' a cantrip to copy into your spellbook, I don't think. So if for some reason the DM allowed the wizard to find a scroll or spellbook with a wizard cantrip included, and this is what a wizard wanted to do, this sounds like a fine way to do it. But it would all be firmly in the DM/houserule realm. EDIT: Actually apparently you could find a scroll of a cantrip, I was mistaken. So in that situation, all you can do according to the standard rules is cast it, though it seems reasonable to me for a DM to houserule that a player could treat it like a level 1 spell if he or she wanted to. Incidentally, the rules on scrolls seem very unfinished -- for example, it is not clear that a scroll is consumed by successfully casting the spell from the scroll, although I suspect that that is the intent).
#4 Thank_Dog Oct 08, 2014 17:47:09	I'd allow a cantrip to be copied however to use it would require a 1st-level spell slot. A cantrip is a spell that you have practiced the casting of so much that you can cast it without preperation. So under that logic, a spell copied into a spellbook, even if only at the level of power of a cantrip, doesn't mean you can cast it at will.