Advanced Spellbooks
You asked for preconstructed spellbooks, and this year we’ve been giving them to you by the armful. After exploring the elements, the Cthulhu mythos, and the lower planes, we thought we’d turn our attention to the libraries of the mages often touched upon in our Advanced Arcana series. As a result, below you’ll find three new spellbooks, each written by one of the named mages from Advanced Arcana. Enjoy!
MAKING FRIENDS AND CONTROLLING ENEMIES
Clearly intended for mass production, this two-book set not only includes a wide selection of subtle spells useful in exerting mental control, they also contain hundreds of pages of essays by the famous wizard Bertram Ollander on the nature of enchantment, the way the mind defends against intrusion, and techniques for getting these mental tendencies to work for you, not against you.
Protection: The entire book is warded with a permanent illusory script (Will DC 16; on failure, the suggestion is for the reader to “Close the book and leave”).
Value 18,880 gp (26,880 gp with the preparation ritual)
SPELLS
9th—dominate monster, mass hold monster, Ollander’s mood enhancerAA3, Ollander’s strip mindAA3
8th—antipathy, demand, life of crimeUI
7th—greater hollow heroismUI, insanity, mass hold person
6th—geas/quest, phobiaHA, Ollander’s unwilling puppetAA5, triggered hallucinationUI
5th—dominate person, mass charm person, sleepwalking suggestionUI
4th—aura of the unremarkableUI, charm monster, complex hallucinationUI, Ollander’s controlled confusionAA5
3rd—detect anxietiesUI, detect desiresUI, hold person
2nd—compulsive liarUI, detect thoughts, hidden presenceUI, Ollander’s shared miseryAA6
1st—aphasiaUI, charm person, comprehend languages
PREPARATION RITUAL
Mantle of Innocence (Su): You gain a +4 bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks made to argue your innocence. Additionally, whenever you are subject to a spell intended to incriminate you (potentially including spells such as detect evil, red hand of the killerUI, or zone of truth), the spell fails to affect you unless the caster succeeds on a caster level check (DC 25).
MANUAL OF MUSCULAR MIGHT
This pocket-sized leather volume is bound in supple brown leather, and features an embossed golden image of a strongman lifting weights above his head. Penned by the famous wizard Balthavius, it contains a number of transmutation spells to create a better body, as well as hundreds of exercise and diet techniques to do the same.
Value 1,695 gp (6,695 gp with the preparation ritual)
SPELLS
4th—lesser age resistanceUM, monstrous physique II
3rd—Balthavius’s manly presenceAA2, fly, haste, monstrous physique IUM, resinous skinUC
2nd—alter self, animal aspectUC, bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, darkvision, extreme flexibilityACG,
1st—ant haulAPG, Batlhavius’s age preserverAA2, Balthavius’s physical augmenterAA2, enlarge person, expeditious retreat, long armACG, stone fistAPG, youthful appearanceUM
PREPARATION RITUAL
Mental Fitness (Su): You may choose to use your Strength modifier in place of your Intelligence modifier for the purposes of ability checks and skill checks, and vice versa.
EBON NIGHT
This three-volume set of books is bound in black leather, with silver-trimmed pages. Rumored to be a copy of selected spellbooks and journals of the infamous wizard Sorvithal, the books contain descriptions of some of his darkest and most heinous deeds, written in lurid detail.
Value 20,925 gp (40,925 gp with the preparation ritual)
SPELLS
9th—cursed earthUM, energy drain, Sorvithal’s blackest curseAA3, Sorvithal’s palace of damnationAA5, wail of the banshee
8th—clone, create greater undead, death clutchHA, horrid wilting, Sorvithal’s inevitable doomAA2, Sorvithal’s ultimate annihilationAA5
7th—control undead, finger of death, mass hunger for fleshHA
6th—circle of death, create undead, major curseUM, flesh wallHA, Sorvithal’s undead armyAA2, unwilling shieldAPG
5th—magic jar, mass repair undeadACG, Sorvithal’s withering hexAA2, suffocationAPG, torpid reanimationHA, vampiric shadow shieldACG
4th—animate dead, bestow curse, enervation, shadow projectionAPG
3rd—ray of exhaustion, vampiric touch
2nd—blindness/deafness, ghoul touch
1st—chill touch, ray of enfeeblement, repair undeadACG
PREPARATION RITUAL
Grave Magic (Su): Half of all damage you deal with spells is extremely difficult to heal. Such damage cannot be healed naturally, and can only be healed magically if the caster succeeds on a DC 30 caster level check. A creature with regeneration can regenerate damage inflicted in this way, but only at 1/5 the normal rate (i.e., each hit point of this damage counts as 5 hit points for the purposes of determining how much damage the creature’s regeneration heals). Fast healing cannot heal damage inflicted in this way.