Spell Research, House Rule

For every table around the world, there is probably a unique way of handling spells. I do my best to keep things as core as possible, I like to control what the players know, but we do work together so that the player is happy.

Typically, I give spells to the players through treasure that they find by using scrolls. This lets the player decide if they want to use the scroll, or try and learn the spell. If they try to learn it I stick to the rules in the PHB, but what if a wizard has access to a lab, and he just wants a specific spell? Well, he should be allowed to learn that spell. Spell research in this instance is horribly vague in 2^nd Edition rules, so house rule it is!

The wizard must have access to a lab, and be able to cast spells from that spell level, and the school of magic. Depending how much gold he has to spend on equipment and components, increases the chances of learning that spell.

Below I’ve listed the cost as per 10%, the second number is how much you would need to get a 100% chance to successfully research the spell. The time that this takes is 1 week per spell level.

1^st Level Spell: 1,000gp – 10,000gp

2^nd Level Spell: 2,000gp – 20,000gp

3^rd Level Spell: 4,000gp – 40,000gp

4^th Level Spell: 8,000gp – 80,000gp

5^th Level Spell: 16,000gp – 160,000gp

6^th Level Spell: 32,000gp – 320,000gp

7^th Level Spell: 64,000gp – 640,000gp

8^th Level Spell: 128,000gp – 1,280,000gp

9^th Level Spell: 256,000gp – 2,560,000gp

I know that you folks love examples, so here you go!

Say the wizard Boaldordask really wants to learn the 6^th level spell Globe of Invulnerability, but I won’t give it to him because I’m mean. He is willing to spend 200,000 hard earned gold pieces, and invest in 6 weeks in the lab. 200,000 divided by 32,000 equals 6.25, so he will have a 63% chance to learn the spell because I rounded up.