Complete Arcane - Though Bottle abuse and Magic Item Creation

Mucknuggle

First Post
A new magic item in CA allows you to store Experience, costing 500 XP.

It might be debatable that its referring to level loss only until you hit ...

Quote:
When a user's experience has been stored within the bottle, he can subsequently access the bottle to restore his XP total to exactly what it was when it was last stored, negating any levels lost in the interim


Obviously negating levels lost in the interim but also negating XP loss in the interim.

Debatable to those who think its overpowered at 20k gp and just an oversight on the creators' part. Absolute cheese to everyone else.

WOAH! If that is the text for the item, then you can craft items and use the bottle to "load" your previous self to regain all that XP that you just lost for crafting. What a broken item.
 

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Zappo

Explorer
If that's how it works, it's clearly an oversight on the writer's part. It would still be overpowered if it didn't allow regaining XP lost to item creation, but allowed you to regain levels lost to raise dead spells. I would rule that it only restores negative levels and XP lost from negative levels.
 


Ah, it is clearly a Save Game Bottle.

Before fighting the Balor - "We use the Thought Bottle to save our XP"
After fighting the Balor - "We use the Thought Bottle to save our XP"

Before kissing the Succubus - "We use the Thought Bottle to save our XP"
After kissing the Succubus - "We use the Thought Bottle to save our XP and Liesure Suit Elf uses it to restore his lost levels."

"And then he saves his XP again."

Unless you really like hearing that phrase over and over, I suggest that you just rip that page out of the book so that you can say "No, I don't see it in the book at all. You must be wrong, there is no such item."
 


Piratecat

Sesquipedalian
Back in 2e it was cool; the thought bottle let you store unwanted secrets and thoughts in it. This definitely smacks of "lame" if it's correct, though.
 

Judas

First Post
Complete Arcana, pg. 150
Thought Bottle: A flask of thick green glass, a thought bottle can be used to store thoughts, memories, experience, or spells. A single bottle can hold five thoughts or memories at a time, or a single creature's current experience, or a single spellcaster's collection of prepared spells. Any individual that toches the bottle and speaks the command word instantly gains a general knowledge of the bottle's contents, but doesn't actually access the thoughts, memories, or spells within until she consciously decides to do so. Storing or retrieving anything from a thought bottle requires a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

Thoughts: The bottle can store specific ideas, communications, or conclusions. Once a memory is stored, it disappears from the user's mind, but she remembers the general nature of the stored thought. For example, if the user stored the name of a murderer, that name would disappear from her memory and be unrecoverable from her own mind by any means, though she would know that the thought bottle now contains the murderer's name. Similarly, secret messages and intelligence can be hidden in a thought bottle to pass them to someone else.

Memories: The user's recollection of a single day's events can be stored in the bottle. Once stored, the user remembers the general nature of the memory ("the day we performed the Ritual of Binding") but loses all details of the event itself.

Experience: A thought bottle can be used to offset level loss as a restoration spell can, but is effective against level loss that even a restoration can't undo (Inculding levels lost due to death, but not the negative levels bestowed by magic items such as a holy weapon). When a user's experience has been stored within the bottle, he can subsequently acess the bottle to restore his XP total to exactly what it was when it was last stored, negating any level loss in the interim. Storing experience in the bottle is difficult, and the user must pay 500 XP (Deducted before storing) to do so. Only the creature that stored the experience can retrive it, but if the bottle is destroyed or lost, the user suffers no ill effects.

Spells: An owner who prepares spells can store some or all of her memorized spells in a thought bottle. Any spell she puts into the thought bottle is expended as if she had cast it, but the spells in the bottle can then be retrived at any later date to be prepared as normal. Wizards often use this function of thebttole to create a kind of backup spellbook, concealing thought bottles in well hidden boltholes against the eventuality of their grimoires being stolen or destroyed. Only the character who stored the spells can retrieve them, and if the bottle is destroyed, the stored spells are lost with no effect.

Strong Enchantment; CL13th; Craft Wondrous Item; demmand, modify memory; Price 20,000gp; Weight 1lb.
The red word is what I cought as mistake. It should read thought and not memory.
 

Stormrunner

Explorer
My first reaction is to houserule that XP stored in the bottle is STORED, not copied. While in the bottle, it's protected, but the PC can't expend the stored XP on things like item creation or casting spells with an XP cost.
 

Dakkareth

First Post
I'd toss the XP-saving part out of the window and increase the thought capacity in exchange. Or maybe allow it to hold spells and a lower number of memories at the same time.
If you want a Save Game Bottle, better make it a separate item with clear rules and hope, that the DM is lenient ...
 

Greybar

No Trouble at All
So under the current wording it costs 500XP to "Save Game", basically, and one just 20,000gp item per player - start making them when your lead spellcaster hits 13th level, which is after you already have "partial save game" power through raise-dead-like stuff.

Hmm.. m-dhigh level D&D already has a pretty big "restart" power anyway, I'm not sure that this is too much worse, though I think I would make the XP cost scale up with the owner's level.

Also strike the "nothing bad happens if bottle lost/destroyed" line. The GM should be required to think of nasty plots involving what happens when the bottle is destroyed, disjoined, or even supressed. Even worse if a bad guy manages to steal it! Telling the PCs that you're striking the "nothing bad" line should be enough warning to them.

john
 

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