Magic Books
There are a lot of magic books running around, from the highly useful blessed book to the amazing tomes of various ability score enhancements. Magic books play a big role in fantasy media, whether as a source of a wizard’s power, or a source of dread information, or even as a gateway to another realm. This week, we seek to bring the magic of books to life with three new wondrous items that I’m sure you will love reading about almost as much as your characters will enjoy reading them to garner excellent powers.
BOOK OF THE STARS PRICE 50,000 gp
Slot none; CL 1st; Weight 1 lb.
Aura faint universal
This ornate leather-bound book is obviously named for the silver 5-pointed stars which adorn the cover. Upon initial examination, the many-paged book appears to be blank, though of fine quality. The books resist writing, but when viewed under starlight, the pages are filled with visible writing in a beautiful, curving script. The text itself is in elven and contains some of the finest and most inspiring poetry ever written. A creature can read from the book as a standard action in order to provide a +5 morale bonus to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, or skill and ability checks for one round. The magic of the book is such that its words only affect creatures the reader wishes to affect, though those creatures must be able to hear the words. A creature who reads the entire text gains a permanent +1 competence bonus to his choice of attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, or skill and ability checks. A creature cannot benefit from the same book of the stars in this way more than once, though by reading a second book of the stars, the creature could gain another bonus. Reading a book of the stars takes about 3 months of casual study. In order to preserve the magical nature of the book’s words, they must be read from the actual book of the stars, and copies of the text have no magical value. As a result, the book can only be used in starlight.
Construction Requirements Cost 25,000 gpCraft Wondrous Item, creator must be a bard
SAINT’S PRAYER BOOK PRICE 50,000 gp
Slot none; CL 13th; Weight 2 lbs.
Aura strong universal
These immense volumes once belonged to a saint, and no two are quite the same. All these books bear some hallmarks of the religion in which their former owner was sainted. These books contain the saint’s memoirs, as well as secret prayers and invocations known only to the very devout, which can aid in divine spellcasting. A creature can read from the book as part of casting a divine spell; if he does, that spell automatically overcomes spell resistance and its caster level is increased by 2. Additionally, each saint’s prayer book is connected to a single alignment, and any creature of a differing alignment which is affected by a spell modified in this way suffers a -2 penalty on saving throws made to resist the spell.
Construction Requirements Cost 25,000 gpCraft Wondrous Item, limited wish
LOST BOOK OF ORM KHEL PRICE 120,000 gp
Slot none; CL 9th; Weight 1 lb.Aura moderate conjuration
Each lost book of Orm Khel is bound in red leather, and each is slightly different from one another in size and shape. While it is unknown how many of these volumes exist, new ones seem to be discovered every year. A lost book of Orm Khel usually appears to have blank pages and is not meant to be read, but rather the book serves as a transportation device used to move information and bodies from one book to another. When opened, the book’s pages reflect each other open book’s surroundings. Matter can pass through the book from one to another, allowing speech and physical matter, including living creatures, to safely pass between books, regardless of distance and planar boundaries. A typical lost book of Orm Khel is large enough to accommodate a single humanoid of Medium size, though some are much larger and rumors exist of volumes large enough to accommodate sailing ships. The object to pass through a lost book of Orm Khel must be small enough to enter the one it is meant to go through, but does not need to be small enough to exit from the second book; instead, the object expands after exiting the second book. Though both books must be open to allow this transportation to occur, the actual transportation is instantaneous.
Construction Requirements Cost 60,000 gpCraft Wondrous Item, teleport