Illiteracy and Manuals/Tomes of Uber-goodness

[dontpunkme]

Ok, I'll explain the situation fairly briefly, I play the party fighter, my friend the party barbarian. As part of a treasure we found a Manual of Gainful Exercise. The player for the barbarian instantly claims the book, to which I scoff and claim my ownership to. I cite the reason being that since he is a barbarian and has never spent any skill points in literacy, he is thus unable to read the book and therefore cannot use the item (same as if he tried claiming a wand). He insists his barbarian could figure out what was going on by studying any pictures or diagrams (He does have a Wis 14 and Int 12 so he isn't a complete moron, but then again he isn't exactly Stephen Hawking, either). Our DM (who states that he has no idea how this one works) and the rest of the party don't really care one way or the other who gets the book, so long as we keep any arguments off the table. We both decided the easiest way to settle this was a quick debate from non-biased sources. Thus we leave it up to you.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I'd say it's pretty cut and dried.

The highlighted parts are important:

Manual of Gainful Exercise: This thick tome contains exercise descriptions and diet suggestions, but entwined within the words is a powerful magical effect. If anyone reads this book, which takes a total of 48 hours over a minimum of six days, she gains an inherent bonus of from +1 to +5 (depending on the type of manual) to her Strength score. Once the book is read, the magic disappears from the pages and it becomes a normal book.

Strong evocation (if miracle is used); CL 17th; Craft Wondrous Item, wish or miracle; Price 27,500 gp (+1), 55,000 gp (+2), 82,500 gp (+3), 110,000 gp (+4), 137,500 gp (+5); Cost 1,250 gp + 5,100 XP (+1), 2,500 gp + 10,200 XP (+2), 3,750 gp + 15,300 XP (+3), 5,000 gp + 20,400 XP (+4), 6,250 gp + 25,500 XP (+5); Weight 5 lb.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Patryn's got it. Though as a point of honor the barbarian and fighter characters could just arm wrestle for it.

Who knows, maybe the book is just the sort of impetus the barbarian needs in order to finally learn how to read!

 

[ThirdWizard]

I wonder what language it's in.

 

[Greylock]

Tell him that if it's only the drawings and diagrams that matter, fine. You'll read the book to him and let him look at the pretty pictures.

 

[Bad Paper]

He insists his barbarian could figure out what was going on by studying any pictures or diagrams

It was Jade Fox's inability to read that allowed her student to quickly surpass her skill. (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) Jade Fox was only able to study the diagrams.

The manual *could* go to the barbarian, but he really is going to have to burn two skill points in order to read it.

 

[Darkness]

A certain magical helm in the DMG enables you to read, I think.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Same thing happened in a game I played in. We were rollling up 20^th level characters, and while coming up with random treasure the DM rolled a Manual for the Barbarian. I believe it was the Strength-increasing book. The barbarian's player got very excited, until I said, "Too bad you can't read it."

The manual *could* go to the barbarian, but he really is going to have to burn two skill points in order to read it.

Yep, that's what our barbarian did. He thought he would have to take a level of something else, but the DM suggested he just burn two skill points to be literate.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Um, what Manual of Gainful Exercise? Ogrash, it says 'Shire Grain Reports, 1170-1172' right on the cover. Why would you want that? On the other hand I've been thinking of taking up farming...