Would detect magic work on a wizards spellbook? Is the spellbook actually magical and if so what does this entail?
Asked
Active
Viewed 3,500 times
2 Answers
11
Even filled with spells, a typical spellbook is nonmagical. Magic item creation typically mandates the creator possess an item creation feat, make a Spellcraft skill check to assure the magic item's completed properly, and meet several other prerequisites, usually the triggering of one or more spells during the magic item's manufacture. Making a blank spellbook into a wizard's spellbook mandates only copying a spell (using special inks) into that previously blank spellbook. This means, for instance, the spell detect magic won't pick out a typical spellbook from among other books on a shelf.
However, creatures often protect their spellbooks with magic (e.g. sepia snake sigil) to prevent unwanted prying or thievery. These magical effects show up upon a detect magic spell being used on a spellbook so protected, and, also, actual magical spellbooks are a thing (e.g. a blessed book).
Hey I Can Chan
- 191,258
- 18
- 357
- 866
-
Isn't the writing magical, kinda like a scroll but not precisely like one? – Simon Feb 10 '18 at 10:00
-
There's no relationship between a magic scroll and the spells written in a spellbook. In earlier editions, a spellbook was almost like a scroll—for example, in an extreme emergency, a wizard could cast a spell directly from his spellbook and that would cause the spell to vanish from his spellbook—, but those rules were removed in 3e in favor of a spellbook being not a magical but a mechanical storage device for a wizard's spells. – Hey I Can Chan Feb 10 '18 at 15:24
3
To be picked by Detect Magic, a target needs to be a magic item with caster level, or to have an active spell on it (in either case, the caster level determines the aura strength). There is no mention that spellbooks have a caster level, so they are not detected.
Bielna
- 1,415
- 1
- 9
- 17