Arcane Spellcasting

Through dedicated study and practice, you can harness
arcane power to cast spells. You can cast arcane spells
using the Cast a Spell activity, and you can supply
material, somatic, and verbal components when casting
spells (see Casting Spells on page 302).

At 1st level, you can prepare up to two 1st-level spells
and five cantrips each morning from the spells in your
spellbook (see below), plus one extra cantrip and spell of
your chosen school of each level you can cast if you are
a specialist wizard. Prepared spells remain available to
you until you cast them or until you prepare your spells
again. The number of spells you can prepare is called
your spell slots.

As you increase in level as a wizard, your number of
spell slots and the highest level of spells you can cast from
spell slots increase, shown in Table 3–19: Wizard Spells
per Day on page 205.

Some of your spells require you to attempt a spell attack
roll to see how effective they are, or have your enemies roll
against your spell DC (typically by attempting a saving
throw). Since your key ability is Intelligence, your spell
attack rolls and spell DCs use your Intelligence modifier.
Details on calculating these statistics appear on page 447.

Heightening Spells

When you get spell slots of 2nd level and higher, you can
fill those slots with stronger versions of lower-level spells.
This increases the spell’s level, heightening it to match the
spell slot. Many spells have specific improvements when
they are heightened to certain levels.

Cantrips

A cantrip is a special type of spell that doesn’t use spell
slots. You can cast a cantrip at will, any number of times
per day. A cantrip is always automatically heightened to
half your level rounded up—this is usually equal to the
highest level of spell you can cast as a wizard. For example,
as a 1st-level wizard, your cantrips are 1st-level spells, and
as a 5th-level wizard, your cantrips are 3rd-level spells.

Spellbook

Every arcane spell has a written version, usually recorded
in a spellbook. You start with a spellbook worth 10 sp
or less (as detailed on page 291), which you receive for
free and must study to prepare your spells each day. The
spellbook contains your choice of 10 arcane cantrips and
five 1st-level arcane spells. You choose these from the
common spells on the arcane spell list from this book
(page 307) or from other arcane spells you gain access to.

Your spellbook’s form and name are up to you. It might
be a musty, leather-bound tome or an assortment of thin
metal disks connected to a brass ring; its name might be
esoteric, like The Crimson Libram, or something more
academic, like A Field Study in Practical Transmutation.
Each time you gain a level, you add two more arcane
spells to your spellbook, of any level of spell you can cast.
You can also use the Arcana skill to add other spells that
you find in your adventures, as described on page 241.