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

x

• 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%.

Quality of Book

• 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: X
  • Precious Metal & Gem Accents: X
• Practical Additions: x
  • Sealing Cover: X
  • Key Lock: X
  • Puzzle Lock: X
• 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: X
  • Arcane Words: X
  • 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)

Adornments

• Gilding: Add +10% of the base cost to have the pages gilt in silver, or +20% of base cost to have them gilt in gold.
• Adornment: For decorative metals (

• • 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.