Draft Magic Item: Guardian Grimoire

[QuietBrowser]

Inspired by a blend of Caliban's Greedy Grimoire and many other "too full of magic to mess with" spell-books from my childhood, this is a magic item that's been haunting me recently. Problem is, I've never made a magic item for, well, any edition before, so I could really use help on how to balance it or make it a reality.

A Guardian Grimoire is a rare "compilation" spellbook, created to be something of an artificial familiar and readily accessible library to wizards. Capable of assimilating literary knowledge into itself, the primary draw of this sentient spellbook is its ability to defend itself against thieves.

To expand the Guardian Grimoire's knowledge, you have several options. You can place scrolls within the book and they will immediately become new pages. If you are attuned to the book, you can prepare spells from the scrolls without using up the scroll. You can also cast any scroll-spell from the book, erasing them from the scroll as you do so. By having the Grimoire to hand as you study a particular text (scroll, book, tablet, whatever), you can make the Grimoire copy down the information you read, which increases the time required to study it by +25%. You can also physically feed such materials to the Grimoire to instantly assimilate it, at the cost of destroying whatever it ate - if fed another wizard's spellbook, then it retains only those spells not previously held within it.

In addition to serving as a spellbook, a Guardian Grimoire can provide Advantage on Arcana, History, Nature or Religion checks, providing it contains relevant information within it. A Guardian Grimoire that had assimilated the journal of a Ranger might grant advantage on Nature checks, or local History checks, but not on Arcana checks, for example.

The Guardian Grimoire is mobile, capable of moving at a speed of 10 feet on its own (land and spider-climbing), though some versions levitate instead.

Finally, its greatest power is its ability to both regenerate damage by consuming spell-scribing ink and paper and to defend its contents. A Guardian Grimoire's driving purpose is to protect its master's secrets, which it defines as its own contents, and to this end it has several potent abilities. Firstly, it can seal itself shut as per the Arcane Lock spell. Secondly, a Guardian Grimoire can use the spells it contains to defend itself; it has as many Spell Slots as its master and can cast spells equivalent to the highest level of spells that its master can cast. Finally, if all else fails, it can produce its own weaponry, in the form of transmuting its interior into a hollow ringed by myriad blade-like fangs, and biting for 1d6 slashing damage per attack.

 

[Redthistle]

First, I really like your ideas here.

However, it might be a good idea to build some limitations into the Guardian Grimoire.

Given the number of pages required per spell by respective spell level, the size of such a spell-book might become prohibitive, especially with the addition of all the information needed to support Advantage on those Int-based skill checks.

Perhaps by making them into separate volumes organized by school of magic? This might also inspire a wizard or bard or some other collector to go adventuring to find the Guardian Grimoire for a particular arcane tradition, or even to gain a full set of volumes for study and bragging rights?

That possibility would also give any particular Guardian Grimoire plenty of opportunity to practice those defensive tactics.

With Valentine's Day nigh, I can picture a wizard even attempting to woo a rival spell-slinger's Guardian Grimoire away with gifts and promises of more spells to come.

Like a professional athlete, perhaps a Guardian Grimoire might decide to bargain for contractual obligations on the part of its current possessor, with the understanding that failure to deliver will give it the right to move on to a higher bidder.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Firstly, hasn't "spells take up pages equal to their spell level" been abandoned as a thing for wizards to put up with since, like, 3rd edition? Because I just went over my 5e PHB and I see no mention of anything like that. Secondly, doesn't a living spellbook having infinite page capacity seem kind of fitting?

But, maybe you have a point. The basic idea I had for the Guardian Grimoire is that it's a sapient pseudo-familiar spellbook, which allows it to not only try to escape from thieves, but to punish those who'd try and use it themselves. This is the spellbook that is impossibly heavy when you try to open the covers, that zaps you for trying to force it open, or which simply attempts to bite your face off for not being its master.

So, in light of that, I may have made it too powerful...

 

[CapnZapp]

The secret is that savings on transcribing spells isn't really a limit on Wizard power.

So, if this were an item only available to Wizards that first bit I would chalk up to atmosphere but no real power.

The advantage on skill checks is nice, but nothing massive.

Then we come to the elephant in the room: independent spell casting. You say curiously little about how this feature is supposed to work, exactly.

Let me be clear about one thing: having a way to cast two spells each round is hugely massively overpowered and unbalanced. The other benefits you mention in the same sentence, Arcane Lock and "myriad blade-like fangs" are nothing compared to this.

But even before we start on this ability, is your intention perhaps to allow any spellcaster to attune to this item?

Because while its initial abilities is nothing spectacular to a Wizard, the ability to prepare spells would be huge for somebody like a Sorcerer, whose main drawback is not enough known spells.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Firstly, yeah, the idea is that this is limited to wizards only, as they're the only class who actually makes use of spell-books so far.

Secondly, the book isn't supposed to let the player cast a bonus spell. The book can cast its own spells, but that's intended to be a way it can defend itself if attacked without the player around to look after it. Like, if somebody tries to steal it from you, then it can electrocute them with Shocking Grasps, but in the middle of a fray, it can't cast its own Cone of Cold whilst you worry about throwing a Fireball, you follow me?

But, yeah, I can see how that's both confusing and easily exploited to be more powerful than I intended. Back to the drawing board on that...