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If I multiclass into Wizard, do I automatically begin with a spellbook?
I'm looking for support within the written rules. Designer intent is a consideration, but their intent should be well supported in order to be accepted. If using intent, please review the tweet's logic within the rules to support it.
Spellcasting (PHB 114):
As a student of arcane magic, you have a spellbook containing spells that show the first glimmerings of your true power.
So you have a spellbook, disregarding how you got it.
Class Features (PHB 164):
When you gain a new level in a class, you get its features for that level.
Spellcasting is a class feature that has additional rules tied to it.
Spellcasting (PHB 164):
Your capacity for spellcasting depends partly on your combined levels in all your spellcasting classes and partly on your individual levels in those classes.
As the additional rules do not state that you lose any spellbook granted, you have one.
Well, that is also a separate issue (which most GM's dutifully ignore).
Your spellbook is part of the spellcasting class feature, which is a separate instance from your starting equipment. Your starting equipment is not a class feature granted by multiclassing PHB errata V2.0 page 2
You don’t, however, receive the class’s starting equipment,
So what is your new spellbook that you get due to your spellcasting feature?
Your spellbook is a unique compilation of spells, with its own decorative flourishes and margin notes. It might be a plain, functional leather volume that you received as a gift from your master, a finely bound gilt-edged tome you found in an ancient library, or even a loose collection of notes scrounged together after you lost your previous spellbook in a mishap.
Well, it could be lots of things, Rubiksmoose phrases it nicely:
you can use almost anything as a spellbook even things like metal sheets and carved rocks in a bag.
According to Jeremy Crawford on Twitter, the spellbook is a feature of the class, and is therefore gained upon taking a level in Wizard. How you explain it in-game is between the DM and the player to work out:
The wizard's Spellcasting feature says you have a spellbook with six 1st-level wizards spells in it of your choice. That means you have a spellbook with those six spells in it. Work out with your DM how you acquired that wondrous book. #DnD
