Digital Spellbooks
For some reason, when I think of technological items, I find myself compelled to think more in terms of options and variations than I do when envisioning spells and magic items. Magic is mysterious and unknowable. If a magic item requires you to hop backwards on one leg three times and sing a song, you don’t ask why, you just do it. It’s magic. But for technology, options and customization is often the name of the game. Should that datapad require a password, a thumb print, or a retinal scan? Voice commands, or a keyboard? They all have advantages and disadvantages. Should some options cost more? Can I buy a more basic model and save a little cash? Going into this level of detail could easily turn a single technological item into a virtual owner’s manual, and I think this is probably one of the biggest challenges when it comes to designing technological items, at least for me.
Today, I wanted to try writing an article where we made a basic technological item, and then provided a series of upgrades and extra features you could add to it, and what standard piece of equipment was most in need of a digital upgrade? The spellbook, of course, an item that conveniently already lends itself heavily to customization.
DIGITAL SPELLBOOK
Price 3,500 gp; Slot none; Weight 1 lb.; Capacity 20; Usage 1 charge/hour
This sleek chrome-and-glass device is small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, and is dominated by a large backlit touch screen. Equipped with mystically-aligned circuitry, a digital spellbook is able to display written spells in digital form, in much the same fashion that traditional arcane writings, such as spellbooks, do. Spells stored in the spellbook can be read in the same fashion as those stored in a traditional spellbook, except that the reader need not make a Spellcraft check in order to be able to decipher the spell.
Spells can be stored in a digital spellbook in a fashion similar to storing them in a traditional spellbook, except that there is no cost required to do so. Additionally, it is possible to transfer the data for a digital spell directly from one digital spellbook to another. Doing so requires that the two digital spellbooks be within 30 feet of each other, and both must be on and activated specifically for this purpose. It takes 5 minutes per spell level to copy a spell’s data in this fashion. The digital spellbook also contains a port into which a data chip can be inserted, allowing the data for spells to be copied to or from the digital spellbook (it takes the same amount of time to copy spells to and from a data chip as it does to copy it from one digital spellbook to another). A digital spellbook effectively has a limitless number of pages, and can store any number of spells.
A basic digital spellbook can be modified with one or more accessories, granting it additional uses and features. These accessories must be obtained separately and applied to the digital spellbook. It takes 1 minute to add or remove an accessory, and no skill check is required. The digital spellbook can have any number of accessories.
CONSTRUCTION
Craft DC 30; Cost 1,750 gp
Craft Technological Item, production lab
AUTO-PREPARER (DIGITAL SPELLBOOK ACCESSORY)
Price 8,000 gp; Slot none; Weight —; Capacity —; Usage —
Consisting of a wire that can be plugged into a digital spellbook that ends in a pair of soft pads designed to be attached to the forehead, an auto-preparer can be used, in conjunction with software typically installed on a data chip included with the accessory, to allow the user of a digital spellbook to prepare spells from that spellbook in his sleep. To do so, he must choose before going to sleep which spells he will prepare, from among those included in the spellbook, and he must sleep with the auto-preparer affixed to his forehead. It takes twice as long to prepare spells in this fashion, meaning that the digital spellbook must be on (and charges expended) for 2 hours while the user sleeps. If the user awakens during the spell preparation process, the effort is wasted, but he can still prepare spells normally (or do so with the aut0-preparer by going back to sleep).
CONSTRUCTION
Craft DC 30; Cost 4,000 gp
Craft Technological Item, production lab
SPELL ABSORPTION MATRIX (DIGITAL SPELLBOOK ACCESSORY)
Price 1,000 gp; Slot none; Weight —; Capacity —; Usage —
This small metal disc and antenna can be attached to a port on the side of a digital spellbook, allowing it to directly receive and translate arcane energy. Whenever anyone within 30 feet of the digital spellbook casts a spell, she can choose to funnel the spell’s energy directly into the digital spellbook instead, causing the spell to be recorded instantly in the spellbook, and the spell itself to have no effect.
CONSTRUCTION
Craft DC 30; Cost 500 gp
Craft Technological Item, production lab
SPELL DECONSTRUCTOR (DIGITAL SPELLBOOK ACCESSORY)
Price 5,000 gp; Slot none; Weight —; Capacity —; Usage —
This accessory is purely software-based, and is contained on a small data chip that must be inserted into the digital spellbook in order to be used. It contains sophisticated algorithms for deconstructing the basic building blocks of magic, allowing the inner workings of spells to better be analyzed. If a spell deconstructor is used and consulted when attempting to design a new spell, it provides a bonus on all checks made to design the spell. This bonus is based on the number of spells stored within the digital spellbook that have at least one of the following in common with the spell being designed: school, subschool, or descriptor. At the GM’s discretion, certain spells that do not share any of these in common with the spell being designed, but which are otherwise highly similar, may count as well. The bonus granted is equal to the square root of the number of spells that meet this criteria (rounded down, maximum +5).
CONSTRUCTION
Craft DC 30; Cost 2,500 gp
Craft Technological Item, production lab
SPELL SCANNER (DIGITAL SPELLBOOK ACCESSORY)
Price 5,000 gp; Slot none; Weight —; Capacity —; Usage —
Digital spellbooks equipped with this modification possess a sophisticated lens and scanning apparatus that allow it to detect and read arcane energy and auras. As a full-round action, the digital spellbook’s user can point it at a single magic item or active spell effect within 30 feet and attempt to use it to identify the magic. If scanning a spell effect, and the spell is one of those stored in the digital spellbook, the digital spellbook automatically identifies the spell, allowing the user to learn which spell it is, and the normal effects of that spell. If scanning a magic item, and all spells that are required to create the magic item are stored in the digital spellbook, the item’s properties are identified for the user.
CONSTRUCTION
Craft DC 30; Cost 2,500 gp
Craft Technological Item, production lab