Study A Spell (Pathfinder 2e Downtime Action)
by The Masked Ferret 2023-07-23 · Front Page / Pathfinder 2e
Requirements You have a spellcasting class feature, and the spell you want to learn is on your magical tradition’s spell list. Rather than taking a shortcut to save time, you invest time to study and learn the spell.
You can gain access to a new spell of your tradition from someone who knows that spell or from magical writing like a spellbook or scroll. If you can cast spells of multiple traditions, you can Study a Spell of any of those traditions, but you must use the corresponding skill to do so. For example, if you were a cleric with the bard multiclass archetype, you couldn’t use Religion to add an occult spell to your bardic spell repertoire.
To learn the spell, you must do the following:
- Spend 1 downtime day per level of the spell, during which you must remain in conversation with a person who knows the spell for at least 1 hour or have the magical writing in your possession. The rest of that time is spent Studying the spell.
- You have an appropriate set of tools and, in many cases, a workshop.
- You must supply tradition-appropriate materials worth at least half the Price indicated in Table 4–3. You always expend at least that amount of tradition-appropriate materials when you Study successfully.
- Attempt a skill check for the skill corresponding to your tradition (DC determined by the GM, often close to the DC on Table 4–3). Uncommon or rare spells have higher DCs.
If you have a spellbook, Studying a Spell lets you add the spell to your spellbook; if you prepare spells from a list, it’s added to your list; if you have a spell repertoire, you can select it when you add or swap spells.
If your attempt to Study The Spell is successful, you expend the raw materials you supplied. You can pay the remaining portion of the spell’s Price in materials to finish studying the spell immediately, or you can spend additional downtime days working on it. For each additional day you spend, reduce the value of the materials you need to expend to Study The Spell. This amount is determined using Table 4–2: Income Earned, based on your proficiency rank in the skill corresponding to your tradition and using your own level instead of a task level. After any of these downtime days, you can finish studying the spell by spending the remaining portion of its Price in materials. If the downtime days you spend are interrupted, you can return to finish studying the spell later, continuing where you left off.
Critical Success You expend half the materials and learn the spell.
Success You expend the materials and learn the spell.
Failure You fail to learn the spell but can try again after you gain a level. Half the materials are expended.
Critical Failure As failure, plus you expend all the materials.
Table 4-3: Learning a Spell
| Spell Level | Price | Typical DC |
| 1st or cantrip | 2 gp | 15 |
| 2nd | 6 gp | 18 |
| 3rd | 16 gp | 20 |
| 4th | 36 gp | 23 |
| 5th | 70 gp | 26 |
| 6th | 140 gp | 28 |
| 7th | 300 gp | 31 |
| 8th | 650 gp | 34 |
| 9th | 1,500 gp | 36 |
| 10th | 7,000 gp | 41 |
Table 4-2: Income Earned
| Task Level | DC | Failed | Trained | Expert | Master | Legendary |
| 0 | 14 | 1 cp | 5 cp | 5 cp | 5 cp | 5 cp |
| 1 | 15 | 2 cp | 2 sp | 2 sp | 2 sp | 2 sp |
| 2 | 16 | 4 cp | 3 sp | 3 sp | 3 sp | 3 sp |
| 3 | 18 | 8 cp | 5 sp | 5 sp | 5 sp | 5 sp |
| 4 | 19 | 1 sp | 7 sp | 8 sp | 8 sp | 8 sp |
| 5 | 20 | 2 sp | 9 sp | 1 gp | 1 gp | 1 gp |
| 6 | 22 | 3 sp | 1 gp, 5 sp | 2 gp | 2 gp | 2 gp |
| 7 | 23 | 4 sp | 2 gp | 2 gp, 5 sp | 2 gp, 5 sp | 2 gp, 5 sp |
| 8 | 24 | 5 sp | 2 gp, 5 sp | 3 gp | 3 gp | 3 gp |
| 9 | 26 | 6 sp | 3 gp | 4 gp | 4 gp | 4 gp |
| 10 | 27 | 7 sp | 4 gp | 5 gp | 6 gp | 6 gp |
| 11 | 28 | 8 sp | 5 gp | 6 gp | 8 gp | 8 gp |
| 12 | 30 | 9 sp | 6 gp | 8 gp | 10 gp | 10 gp |
| 13 | 31 | 1 gp | 7 gp | 10 gp | 15 gp | 15 gp |
| 14 | 32 | 1 gp, 5 sp | 8 gp | 15 gp | 20 gp | 20 gp |
| 15 | 34 | 2 gp | 10 gp | 20 gp | 28 gp | 28 gp |
| 16 | 35 | 2 gp, 5 sp | 13 gp | 25 gp | 36 gp | 40 gp |
| 17 | 36 | 3 gp | 15 gp | 30 gp | 45 gp | 55 gp |
| 18 | 38 | 4 gp | 20 gp | 45 gp | 70 gp | 90 gp |
| 19 | 39 | 6 gp | 30 gp | 60 gp | 100 gp | 130 gp |
| 20 | 40 | 8 gp | 40 gp | 75 gp | 150 gp | 200 gp |
| 20 (critical success) | — | — | 50 gp | 90 gp | 175 gp | 300 gp |
This downtime action was based on a player requesting a way to reduce the cost of scribing spells. I know that the cost of scribing spells is low compared to buying new weapon runes, but I think that much as crafters can reduce the cost of the items that they craft by spending more time crafting spellcasters should be able to reduce the cost to study spells by spending time instead. I also made the failure and critical failure costs greater that crafters because of how I feel research like this would work. I am a computer programmer at times, and often after an extended period of time, even with a solid example, I find that all the work that I put in to trying to replicate another program ended up producing garbage, and all of my time and effort and often money is wasted.
As was pointed out in my Reddit Thread about this page, there is a feat called “Magical Shorthand” that reduces the time cost a great deal and the monetary costs by a very small amount. I think it would actually complement this downtime action, as it changes the minimum timeframe if you fail to learn the spell to 1 week or after you gain a level instead of just after you gain a level.
Also relevant, the OGL for this article is here.
