Valuation of the Blessed Book

[Kaodi]

Do you ever get the feeling that this thing is just too good for for an item that costs only 6250 gp to make? I mean, if you filled all 1000 pages of a Blessed Book that you had made yourself with the highest level spells possible (going by the list of spells on the d20psrd website), you would save over 75000 gp. That is a not insubstantial amount even to the richest characters. It practically undermines the point of having scribing costs to have an item that costs so little and gives so much.

I was just thinking about this because I was wondering whether the Blessed Book would work as a baseline to compare magical texts for mundane writings, but with such a valuation I think it is practically useless for comparitive purposes.

 

[frankthedm]

But the real question to ask is "How intrinsically is game balance tied to spellbook scribing costs?"

Are the costs such that they are an important check and balance on the availability of captured spells? Or are they a nominal fee to add flavor, barring the tragedy of a lost or destroyed spellbook?

That said, If you don't like the cost, just don't allow the item. Hell I'd remove it from any game I ran since Pathfinder nerfed the blessed books real balancing factor, the risk of losing the whole damn thing to a single Disjunction.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Do you ever get the feeling that this thing is just too good for for an item that costs only 6250 gp to make?

No.

Clerics and Druids get infinite "Blessed Books" for free from level 1. If you think prepared full casters are overpowered, find other ways to nerf them, the expensive spell learning thing always just annoyed the crap out of me.

 

[Crothian]

The expensive spell learning is one of the things I am surprised is still in the game. They got rid of training times and paying for training and it seems to be in the same vein.

 

[frankthedm]

The expensive spell learning is one of the things I am surprised is still in the game. They got rid of training times and paying for training and it seems to be in the same vein.

Well, a wizard doesn't pay for the spells gained from leveling up, just the extra spells added to the spell book from scrolls and captured spellbooks. So this is a wee bit closer to a fighter buying extra weapons to cover long range, thrown, one handed and two handed weapons, which can be a significant expense. You don't have to, but versatility will suffer.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Well, a wizard doesn't pay for the spells gained from leveling up, just the extra spells added to the spell book from scrolls and captured spellbooks. So this is a wee bit closer to a fighter buying extra weapons to cover long range, thrown, one handed and two handed weapons, which can be a significant expense. You don't have to, but versatility will suffer.

I think that's an understatement... For most spell levels, you'd end up with less spells known than the sorcerer if you only relied on the level up spells. Without all the versatility to cast on the fly. It'd be more like if one Fighter got his feats as normal and the other guy had to expend wealth to gain his...

Not trying to say wizards need help or are disadvataged. I just...have always hated this form of "balancing" them and it's a big reason why I avoid playing a wizard whenever I can do my concept without being one, just ot avoid the annoyance.