Random Spellbook Generation for the Time Crunched but Effective DM
Generating spellbooks for DMs is useful to provide treaure or outfit powerful enemies.
I built 5e Spellbook Builder for players first. Well, players like me first, who wanted a complete set of spellcards they could manage off their phone.
That didn't prove to be super popular, and most of you asked for a print option for spellbooks. So I made the cards printable.
Well that didn't prove to be super popular either, so I added a page layout for spellbooks so complete descriptions could be printed.
But along the way in building a digital tool where you can share spellbooks with URLs, I started to think about how powerful that feature was. And how I'll be back to DMing soon enough and need to make my life easier.
And thinking about that, one of my biggest struggles as a DM is coming up with on the fly characters and treasures and having it sound thoughtful and add to the rich lore of the world I've created for players. A typical scene:
"Two guards approach you, swords drawn, demanding you surrender!"
"I pull out my staff and demand they lower their swords and state their name and rank!"
"Roll an intimidation check"
"Uh... let's see... That's a twenty-two, no... sorry, twenty-three."
And just like that I'm in a situation I wasn't ready for. I have to produce a name.
"The guards lower their swords. 'Sorry we didn't recognize you, I'm... Fred. And this is... Bob.'"
Well I completely broke the world I was creating but at least I get a laugh out of the table.
Fortunately there's great tools for generating random D&D content like names and loot.
I've also seen spell list generators as well for making a spellbook for an NPC, so I brought that random generation in to 5e Spellbook Builder. This way you can generate a spellbook and send over a link to your players as they pick it up.
Try random spellbook generation for yourself
It's not going to help you with names — but you'll know when your players fight ... Jeff ... he'll have Minor Illusion, Toll the Dead, False Life, Ray of Sickness, Death Armor, Gentle Repose, Summon Undead and Blight!