Downtime Monthly (10 New Downtime Actions for 5e)
The world of spellcasting is strange and varied, and many of its more delicate principles can only be discovered in laboratory conditions. By spending time discovering new spells, you can replace a spell you know with one you don’t from your class spell list.
Discovering a spell requires a workweek of effort and 25 gp of components per level of the chosen spell, which must be of a spell level you can cast. For instance, a 3rd-level spell requires three weeks of research and 75 gp of components.
Only a character with learned spells, such as a bard, sorcerer, or wizard, can partake in this downtime activity.
At the end of your research period, the character makes an ability check using their spellcasting ability and Arcana, Nature, Performance, or Religion as appropriate, the DC of which equals 15 + the spell’s level. On a successful check, you can replace one spell you know with the discovered spell. On a failed check, you do not learn the spell and the components are wasted. However, you have learned something valuable about the spell in your research: the DC of any future attempt to discover this spell is reduced by 2.
Wizards do not have to remove a spell from their spellbook to learn a spell discovered in this way, but they must spend the additional time and cost of scribing the spell into their spellbook as normal.
Dabbling with new magic is bound to draw attention, even in a busy town or a bustling metropolis. At the end of each workweek spent researching a spell, there’s a 10 percent chance of complications occurring. Roll on the Complications table below to determine what went wrong.
| Complications | |
| d6 | Result |
| 1 | A council of peacekeepers question the nature of your research, and threaten to shut it down if it seems too dangerous. |
| 2 | An interested mage spies on you inorder to copy your work.* |
| 3 | An extraplanar entity, such as a devil or fey, notices your magic and offers a helpful (or misleading) hint. |
| 4 | A scholar steals your research and publishes it under their own name.* |
| 5 | A magical accident blows up in your face, wasting a week of research and components. |
| 6 | A powerful political figure becomes interested in your work, and offers to sponsor it in exchange for a copy of your research. |
| *might involve a rival. | |