Do Wizards Pay Money To Learn New Spells?

Shaira · 12-21-2021, 12:14 AM

Hi everyone,

A bit of a loaded question, I know. :) So when you're a Wizard and you've got XP to spend on a new spell, I was wondering about the financial cost of actually finding and learning one.

- ITL p144 indicates that to learn a new spell, you have "access to books and can teach himself". It's not clear if there's a rules requirement to teach yourself a new spell from a book, or whether you just spend the XP and learn the spell from a book with no further cost.
- You pay 1% of your income as dues to the Wizards' Guild. There's a possible range of membership benefits, which *could* include being taught new spells by guild wizards, or simply getting free (ie you don't have to pay) access to the guild chapter's library of spell books, assuming such a thing is available.
- ITL p144 also says the GM may require Wizards to find a teacher for a new spell. You may well have to pay the teacher in some way - money, quests, objects, etc.
- ITL p144 also says it's assumed the Wizard has been practicing the new spells "as he goes along". How has he been doing this, if not under the tutelage of a teacher Wizard? Has he been popping round the local guild chapter and consulting the spell books?
- Maybe you could pay to have a spell book made for the spells you want to learn? ITLp141 gives a price for a spell book of $20 per page, with a spell requiring a number of pages equal to its IQ requirement. So an IQ 10 spell written in a book has a base cost of $200, plus a possible additional $1 to $10 per page depending on your reaction roll with the person owning the book you're copying. That would be a minimum cost, presumably.

Unless I'm reading the RAW incorrectly, the intention is that learning spells is a case-by-case thing, with as much or as little complexity / detail as you want. There isn't a blanket rule that simply says that if you're a Wizards' Guild member, you can learn spells for no monetary cost, or for a set monetary cost, just by going to the guild house and learning the spell while paying the XP cost. And it's not clear exactly *which* spells would be available at a given chapter house - some would have larger libraries than others.

My game play preference is to have a compelling reason for Wizards to be spending time seeking out spell books (on adventures, for example), deciphering texts, researching how to learn existing spells (ie not just inventing new ones), etc. That would presuppose a fairly hefty financial and social cost to learning spells from teachers and even Guilds. My gut feeling is that to learn a spell from the Guild, you'd have to be a member in "good standing". Maybe you could then get access to the library for free, with an additional cost if you needed a teacher (ie if the library didn't have the spell in its books).

Any thoughts? Am I missing something in the rules-as-written about the financial (etc) cost of learning spells? What are you all doing in your own games?

Cheers,

Sarah

12-21-2021, 12:14 AM	#1
Shaira Join Date: Apr 2019	Do Wizards Pay Money To Learn New Spells? Hi everyone, A bit of a loaded question, I know. :) So when you're a Wizard and you've got XP to spend on a new spell, I was wondering about the financial cost of actually finding and learning one. - ITL p144 indicates that to learn a new spell, you have "access to books and can teach himself". It's not clear if there's a rules requirement to teach yourself a new spell from a book, or whether you just spend the XP and learn the spell from a book with no further cost. - You pay 1% of your income as dues to the Wizards' Guild. There's a possible range of membership benefits, which could include being taught new spells by guild wizards, or simply getting free (ie you don't have to pay) access to the guild chapter's library of spell books, assuming such a thing is available. - ITL p144 also says the GM may require Wizards to find a teacher for a new spell. You may well have to pay the teacher in some way - money, quests, objects, etc. - ITL p144 also says it's assumed the Wizard has been practicing the new spells "as he goes along". How has he been doing this, if not under the tutelage of a teacher Wizard? Has he been popping round the local guild chapter and consulting the spell books? - Maybe you could pay to have a spell book made for the spells you want to learn? ITLp141 gives a price for a spell book of $20 per page, with a spell requiring a number of pages equal to its IQ requirement. So an IQ 10 spell written in a book has a base cost of $200, plus a possible additional $1 to $10 per page depending on your reaction roll with the person owning the book you're copying. That would be a minimum cost, presumably. Unless I'm reading the RAW incorrectly, the intention is that learning spells is a case-by-case thing, with as much or as little complexity / detail as you want. There isn't a blanket rule that simply says that if you're a Wizards' Guild member, you can learn spells for no monetary cost, or for a set monetary cost, just by going to the guild house and learning the spell while paying the XP cost. And it's not clear exactly which spells would be available at a given chapter house - some would have larger libraries than others. My game play preference is to have a compelling reason for Wizards to be spending time seeking out spell books (on adventures, for example), deciphering texts, researching how to learn existing spells (ie not just inventing new ones), etc. That would presuppose a fairly hefty financial and social cost to learning spells from teachers and even Guilds. My gut feeling is that to learn a spell from the Guild, you'd have to be a member in "good standing". Maybe you could then get access to the library for free, with an additional cost if you needed a teacher (ie if the library didn't have the spell in its books). Any thoughts? Am I missing something in the rules-as-written about the financial (etc) cost of learning spells? What are you all doing in your own games? Cheers, Sarah