So in Curse of Strahd,
the only shopkeeper sells everything at 10x cost.
Does this mean a wizard needs to purchase
500 gold per spell level in rare inks, etc.
to copy a spell into their spellbook? Or am I misreading something here?
Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gamemasters and players of tabletop, paper-and-pencil role-playing games. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communitySo in Curse of Strahd,
the only shopkeeper sells everything at 10x cost.
Does this mean a wizard needs to purchase
500 gold per spell level in rare inks, etc.
to copy a spell into their spellbook? Or am I misreading something here?
This is because the shopkeeper sells items at 10x increased cost, but the wizard is not explicitly buying an item. The "Your Spellbook" sidebar in the description of the wizard class (PHB, p. 114) simply states:
For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50gp.
Another way to look at it is that "fine inks" are never listed on the shopkeeper page. Remember that the cost is also for "material components". My assumption is that it is intended to be an abstraction for the value of materials the wizard has to expend, rather than an actual price they pay.
Of course, it's up to the DM as always - if they want to bump the price up, then they can.
Also remember that the cost is only for spells found in scrolls, etc. and not for the spells a wizard learns each level.