D&D Next Spellbooks

• Covers: For books that are bound in decorative leather (buckskin, fish scale, shark skin, deerskin, snakeskin, goat or wyvern hide), add 20 gp. For books bound in fine leather (dragonscale, behir or bullette hide, eelskin or skingray, giant snakeskin, displacer beast or unicorn hide), add 40 gp. (For octavo covers, halve this cost; for folio covers, double it.)

Learning New Spells

A mage gains access to new spells in one of two ways: he can either research them or he can study spells that he finds. Either of these approaches allow him to understand the spell in question.

Researching Spells

• As mages advance through their levels, they are assumed to constantly be researching, studying, experimenting and discovering or awakening new magical techniques and understandings. These form a body of ongoing "research".
• At each level, a mage may add 2 new spells to his spellbook.
  • These spells must come from the list of common spells, or from spells whose formulae the wizard has had a chance to read but not copy.
  • It costs 25gp per spell level to

Spellbook Types & Costs

Spellbook Costs

Spellbook Costs

These prices provide the Base Cost referred to below

• Blank Spellbook, Quarto (Standard; 12" x 9.5")
  • 100 pg: 75gp
  • 200 pg: 150 gp
  • 300 pg: 225 gp
• Blank Spellbook, Octavo (Traveling; 9" x 6")
  • 100 pg: 40gp
  • 200 pg: 80 gp
• Blank Spellbook, Folio (Sanctum; 15" x 12")
  • 100 pg: 150gp
  • 200 pg: 300 gp
  • 300 pg: 450 gp
  • 400 pg: 600 gp
  • 500 pg: 750 gp

Bindings

Costs expressed in gold piece amounts (rather than percentage amounts) should be halved for octavo-sized spellbooks, and doubled for folio-sized ones.

• Standard: None (assumed a base-line leather cover)
• Cloth Cover: Clothboard: -10% of Base Cost; Ragcloth Cover: -15% of Base Cost
• Leather Cover: Decorative Leather: +20gp; Fine Leather: +40gp
• Wood: Scrap Wood: -5% of Base Cost; Decorative Wood: +15gp; Fine Wood: +25gp
• Metals: Decorative Metal: +35gp; Fine Metal: +75gp

Adornments

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• A quarto spellbook is the standard for most wizards. They are usually 12 inches in height by 9.5 inches in width. A quarto spellbook can be purchased for 75 gp per 100 pages, with a practical maximum (in terms of binding strength) of 300 pages. The page count modifier for the quarto is 100% (i.e. unmodified).
• The so-called "traveling spellbooks" are octavo in size, measuring 9" x 6". These can be purchased for 40 gp per 100 pages, with a practical maximum of 200 pages. The page count modifier for the octavo is 200%.
• Finally, "sanctum spellbooks" are larger spellbooks - highly impractical to transport, save as cargo - are called folio sized tomes, measuring 15" x 12". These sell for 150 gp per 100 pages, and can be bound in books of up to 500 pages. The page count modifier for the folio is 50%.

Covers

Basic spellbook prices assume simple leather covers, which are rarely "hard" leather - they tend to be softer leather covers that often tie shut.

• Other Leathers: A spellbook covered in "decorative" leathers such as buckskin, fish scale, shark- or snake-skin or goat- or wyvern-hide are possible for an additional 20gp. Those covered in "fine leather" such as dragonscale, eel- or stingray-skin, behir- or bullette-hide, giant snakeskin or displacer beast- or unicorn-hide are also possible, for an additional 40gp. Most of these are hard leather covers, though a skilled craftsman can make them hard or soft as the customer desires.
• Wood Covers: A spellbook covered in "decorative" woods - such as apple, ash, ebony, hornbeam, oak or many of the more common woods - can be had for an additional 15gp. Covers of rarer woods such as chime oak, laspar, roseneed pine, shadowtop and similar specimens can be had for 25gp extra. On the other hand, books that are covered in scrap wood (often untreated and poorly constructed) reduce the base price of the spellbook by 5%.
• Metal Covers: Spellbooks covered in "decorative" metals such as brass, bronze, copper, iron, silver or steel cost an additional 35gp. Those bound in electrum, gold, mithral, platinum or a lesser metal treated with everbright or blueshine cost 75gp (and softer metals such as gold are almost always plating rather than full solid covers, for strength if not cost).

Adornments

Decorations and other pieces of art may improve the quality of the final book's cost.

• Gilding: Silver gilding costs an additional +10% of the Base Cost, while gold gilding on the pages costs an additional +20% of the base cost.
• Precious Metal & Gem Accents: This costs the cost of the materials used (precious metals and gems), plus an additional 10gp for the design work and incorporation (5gp for octavos, 20 gp for folios).
• Carvings, Tooling and Other Artwork: This can cost anywhere between 5gp for a simple tooling into leather, carving/burning into wood or etching into metal, all the way to several hundred gold pieces for full cover pieces lovingly wrought by a skilled craftsman.

Practical Additions

• Sealing Cover: Only available on wood or metal covered books, the covers are designed so that when the book is closed, portions extend over the pages and fit together, closing like the lid on a box. The fastener easily closes it well, giving it additional resistance to wear and tear. It is also very easy to fit a lock into the cover. This costs an additional 20gp for octavo, 30gp for quarto and 50gp for folio spellbooks.
• Key Lock: A lock is set into the cover. If the book does not have the sealing cover addition (above), the other end of the locking mechanism is in a strap of leather which extends from the back cover. When locked in place, it is sealed (the leather is quite difficult to cut without damaging the book). The key lock's price includes the small lock and a pair of keys that unlock it. These locks are priced according to how difficult they are to pick: 25gp for DC 15, 50gp for DC 20, 100gp for DC 25.
• Puzzle Lock: Like the key lock, except in order to unseal it, the lock requires the solving of a strange puzzle made up of grooves and sliding mechanisms that not only require brain power to solve, but make them nigh unpickable (Lock Picking DC is 5 higher than the DC to solve them). Anyone who is taught the trick for them gains a +5 to their Intelligence checks to open it. Each attempt to open the lock takes 30 minutes (or 5 minutes for those who've been taught the lock solution). These locks are priced according to how difficult they are to solve: 35gp for DC 15, 70gp for DC 20, 150gp for DC 25.

Enchantments

Certain priesthoods or wizards can enact these enchantments.

• • Minor Properties: A spellbook imbued with a Minor Property such as beacon, compass, conscientious, delver, gleaming, guardian, harmonious, hidden message, illusion, key, language, luminous, sentinel, songcraft, strange material, temperate, unbreakable, war leader, waterborne or wicked. This costs an additional 250gp.
  • Arcane Locking: With a command word, the book seals as though by an arcane lock spell. The same word unseals it. (Unless a book has a lock or sealable cover built into it, it cannot normally be affected by arcane lock.)
  • Arcane Words: When the book is opened, words speak aloud, emanating from the book. This can happen everytime, or only if a command word is either spoken or not spoken. The words and volume (from a whisper audible only to the one who opens it to the loudness of a large-lunged man shouting) are chosen when it is enchanted.
  • Immunity: The book is immune to damage of one type entirely. (100 gp)
  • Illusory Appearance: With a command word, the book can be made to look like another book entirely. The cheapest such enchantments make it look like a single alternate appearance, but more expensive ones can cause it to look like any other sort of book the one who speaks the word imagines, or even any inanimate object of roughly similar size. (Single Appearance 100gp, Variable Appearance 200gp, Mutable Appearance 400gp)

• • Any decorations, gilting or other adornments it might have are above and beyond this basic price. Some examples are giant snake hide cover (25 gp) or dragonhide cover (150 gp), gilt pages (1gp for silver, 10 gp for gold) and any assortment of gemstones.
• A traveling spellbook costs 100 gp and has 100 pages, although each page holds less due to its reduced size, of course.
  • When rolling to see how many pages a newly researched spell takes up in a traveling spellbook, simply increase the page count by half-again (round up). So, a spell that would take up 6 pages in a standard spellbook would take up 9 in a traveling spellbook.