how many spells should a 9th level wizard have in spellbook?

[00durrin]

how many spells would a ninth level wizard have in his spellbook? i'm starting a 9th level wizard who has a very high intelligence. how many spells should he have in his book(s)? my DM and I are at a loss. he's old and has been around

1st?
2nd?
3rd?
4th?
5th?

how do you guys handle it in your campaigns? my dm suggested 3*# of spells per level per day...i.e. 12 for 0 level if you didn't already have all of them because of what the phb says (3*4 because level 9 wiz gets 4 0 level spells per day)

 

[boothbey]

There is a rule in the player's handbook under wizard that at each level you gain two spells of any level that you can cast at the new level. And at first level you start with three spells per point of inteligence bonus, plus one extra spell.

So for levels two through nine you get...16 free spells. Don't know what your int bonus is.

As you are starting at 9th, I would limit you to 2 fifth level spells. Those are the free ones you got for achieving 9th.

Then you would have the remaining 14 spells to distribute fairly evenly among levels 1-4.

As a bonus to account for the usual slaying of enemy wizards and taking their spell books I would award

1st Level Spells = Int Bonus x 4 in spells
2nd Level Spells = Int Bonus x 3
3rd Level Spells = Int Bonus x2
4th Level Spells = Int Bonus

This of course gives a ton of lower level spells which I think is reasonable.

Oh..ph also says you start with all 0 level spells at first level.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

hey 00durrin!

i've never had to handle something like this, games i've run and played in always start at first level. i think this sounds like a fair idea. if i understand your system, it would work like this (for a 9th level wizard):

0 (all)
1st - 12
2nd - 12
3rd - 9
4th - 6
5th - 3

if this is the system you decide to use, you could always ask your DM if you can use some of your starting funds to aquire, learn and scribe more spells. i might even allow the PC to have learned these extra spells directly from another caster, to lower the cost to the base price of scribing a spell in a spellbook (100 gp/page). (as opposed to having to buy a spell on a scroll and then scribe it.)

if you do use this system, i would definately be a specialist!

0 (all - except banned school spells)
1st - 12+3=15
2nd - 12+3=15
3rd - 9+3=12
4th - 6+3=9
5th - 3+3=6

 

[hong]

I say, toss wizards and play sorcerers instead. Makes life _so_ much easier all round.

 

[Destil]

All cantrips
5 + int bonus 1st level spells
4 2nd level or lower spells
4 3rd level or lower spells
4 4th level or lower spells
2 5th level or lower spells

Thoes are the spells you get for free from gaining levels and as a 1st level wizard (the Int bonus would be whatever your int was at 1st level, if you want to worry about that).

Aside from that, you can buy scrolls & scribe them normaly with the GP you get. A 9th level PC starts with 36000GP. A scroll costs 37.5 GP / spell level. Scribing costs 200 GP per spell level (and you can fit 50 spell levels into a spellbook. Cantrips count as level 1/2, of coruse).

Note that your DM may require you to make spellcraft checks to scribe these spells. The DC is 15+spell level. Being completly accurate with this is a major pain, because you need to determin what level you were when you aquired each scroll, and the roll once for each time you gain a level, using the increasing spellcraft bonus. A fast, easy way, is to just roll as if you had whatever your 9th level spellcraft bonus was once per spell. Not perfect, but it takes into account the fact that you had more chances to learn easier spells by simply giving you a higher bonus to your one chance. And any scrolls you buy but fail the spell-craft roll for you'll still have as scrolls, and won't cost anything to scribe.


EDIT: Note: when I say buy and scribe, I mean assume this had happened as you leveled up, not once the game had started. Simply count the spells you want against your starting GP, and roll to see if you were able to learn them as normal.

 

[Thanee]

Starting spells + free level up spells + as many spells as he would like and can afford with the money you get for resources!

Bye
Thanee

 

[warpmind]

There's a T&B Enhancement at WOTC webpage where you can find examples of the spellbooks of wizards of 1st to 20th level. It might be useful for you.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

as has been pointed out you should have 36,000GP scroll cost 25xspell levelx caster level(buy at abse caster elvel), scribing cost is 200gp a spell level. You get 2 free spells every level you advance, and at 1st elvel you get spell equal to your int bonus.

figure out your free spells, then figure out how much GP you want to drop into other spells and how much you want to drop into equipment for survival like bracers of amor.

One thing Baccobs Blessed Book allows you to scribe scrolls into it for free. Only cost will be the scroll costs. It costs 9,000gp on the amrket 4,500 gp to make. At 9,000gp it isn't that great of a bargain. at 4,500 gp it saves you a lot as long as you put higher level spells into it. If you take craft wondeorus items and what wizard doesn't, see if your DM will let you make items before the adventure so you can get the reduced cost to make it instead of the market price. If not I'd buy the scrolls, save 5,000gp and then as soon as the adventure starts say, Hey guys give me 5 days I need to make an item that wil vastly increase my versatility and usefullness to the group ok.

Heck even with an EXP cost that might drop you to 8th level, depending on where you start at 9th making items for 1/2 price before the game starts is well worth it.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

that's a good idea, Shard!

00durrin, do you know how many experience points you'll start out with? if it's 36,000 (just enough to be 9th level), you would have to drop to 8th level, if your DM allows it.

if you have 40,500 exp (mid-way between 9th and 10th level), you've got plenty to use on creating items

(just don't forget to take Secret Page as one of your 3rd level spells, to create a Boccob's Book)

 

[dcollins]

The result of a calculation I did a while back would be that the 9th-level wizard in question needs more than a single spellbook.

A spellbook has 100 pages (3 lbs.); each spell takes levelx2 pages, 1 page for cantrips (PHB155).

On average, a single spellbook will be filled when a wizard is about 8th level (with 16 cantrips & 18 spells of level 1-4 [~4 each]).

I included this in my "Thumbnail Rules" document (p. 2), here: www.superdan.net/dnd3.html