Do wizards add three free spells to their spellbook at third level when they choose their subclass, or only two?

Question

All of the wizard subclasses in the 2024 PHB have an feature called "[Spell School] Savant" which gives them two free spells in their spellbook from the school they chose to focus on, represented by their subclass. In addition, the features say

whenever you gain access to a new level of spell slots in this class, you can add one Wizard spell from the [Spell School] school to your spellbook for free.

At third level, when wizards gain this Savant feature, they gain access to 2nd level spell slots, a new level of spells. So I think a RAW interpretation of this feature is that wizards get to add three spells to their spellbook for free at third level.

However, since the feature already gives you two free spells at third level, I'm unsure if that's the correct interpretation of this feature. The feature already gives you two free spells at third level, and there's no clarifying text to say how the two parts of the feature interact.

Is my RAW interpretation, that wizards get three free spells (of the correct school) at third level, correct?

Answer 1

Only two

At level 3, you add four spells to your spellbook, two of them thanks to the Savant feature.

Every Wizard gains two spells at each level. From the Spellcasting feature (emphasis mine):

Spellbook. [...]

The book contains the level 1+ spells you know. It starts with six level 1 Wizard spells of your choice. [...]

Whenever you gain a Wizard level after 1, add two Wizard spells of your choice to your spellbook. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots [...]

Additionally, your Savant feature grants you two more spells at level 3. For example, the Evoker:

Level 3: Evocation Savant

Choose two Wizard spells from the Evocation school, each of which must be no higher than level 2, and add them to your spellbook for free. [...]

From then on, thanks to the Savant feature, Wizards can add a spell from their chosen school to their spellbook whenever they unlock a new spell slot level in the Wizard class:

In addition, whenever you gain access to a new level of spell slots in this class, you can add one Wizard spell from the Evocation school to your spellbook for free. The chosen spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Resources explaining the intent

The intent can also be found in the following resources:

• Interview with Jeremy Crawford, Lead Designer of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, before the release of the new 2024 PHB: New Wizard | 2024 Player's Handbook (starting at 08:53)
• The pre-release article 2024 Wizard vs. 2014 Wizard: What’s New:

Wizards now pick their subclass at level 3. But, an extra level of study has paid off! Their Savant features now allow them access to two free level 1 or level 2 spells of their associated school rather than a reduction of cost and time when copying new spells. Additionally, thanks to the new Savant feature, they get to add a spell from their chosen school to their spellbook each time they unlock a new level of spell slot in the Wizard class.

Answer 2

They only get 2 free spells

When a 2024 Wizard reaches level three and chooses one of the subclasses in the new PHB, they get the 2 free spells as described in the first paragraph of the savant feature you quoted. The second paragraph, talking about gaining a new free spell at a new spell slot level, says it's "in addition" to those 2 spells. That is supposed to mean that this is an extra effect of this feature. Once you reach level three you gain the ability to get that extra spell for all later levels (that give a new spell slot), but not for level three, as you hadn't had this specific ability it when you reached this level.

There are 2 further clues, hinting that this is the supposed interpretation:

1. Other features explicitly state when they apply at the current level up. The 2024 rules are designed to be clear, easy to understand and consistent. So taking a look at similar rules can help us understand how they are meant to be understood. The Bard's level 10 Magical Secrets Features says:

Whenever you reach a Bard level (including this level)

So for this ability, where the effect is already activated at the level it is gained at, the book explicitly states so, while it doesn't for the Wizard's Savant Subclass feature. So we can assume it is not meant to work like that. Note that this Bard feature only has this one paragraph, that would be useless at level 10 if it didn't activate at that level up already. While that Wizard feature explicitly has that first paragraph explaining what happens at this level and the second for future levels.

2. This interpretation grants one free spell per spell level. If you gain only 2 free spells at level 3 this can be understood as those being the 2 free spells, that this feature, or more precisely the second paragraph of it, would have granted had you been able to apply it to levels 1-3. Or in other words: Those 2 free spells are the free Spells for character level 1 and 3, one each, two in total (though as opposed to later free spells, they give you the freedom to have both be from spell level 2). Giving you a total of 9 free spells, one per spell level that exists, if you play your wizards up to level 17.