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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lordxaviar" data-source="post: 5403508" data-attributes="member: 56673">[FONT=&quot]DR#62, June 1982 and the complete arcane:  USING SPELLBOOKSEvery wizard possesses a personal set of notations, formulas, scripts, and ciphers for recording the workings of a spell. While the underlying language and concepts are the same, no wizard can simply pick up another’s spellbook and instantly prepare spells from the foreign tome. Whenever an attempt is made to understand another wizard’s spellbook (including forgotten tomes discovered in ruined towers or traveling workbooks seized from the hoards of enemies), the reader must employ read magic or succeed on a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + spell level) to identify a particular spell (and itsgeneral purpose, if the spell is one not known to the reader). Until a wizard deciphers a spell in a foreign book, its magic is useless.Wizards can prepare spells from a foreign spellbook or copy spells from a foreign spellbook into their own as described in Arcane Magical Writings, page 178 of the Player’s Handbook. Two special circumstances, discussed below, are worth noting.Masters and Apprentices: Wizards who take on apprentices usually teach them many of the same notations and codes they themselves have perfected. A wizard attempting to decipher, prepare, or copy a spell from the spellbook of a master (or apprentice) gains a +2 circumstance bonus on the Spellcraft check. Mastering a Foreign Spellbook: Instead of laboriouslycopying each spell of interest from a found spellbook into his own, a wizard might instead make a dedicated effort to master the spellbook’s particular ciphers and notations. This procedure is sometimes referred to as becoming attuned to the spellbook (although it’s a matter of time and study, not a mystical process). Mastering a spellbook requires a successful Spellcraft check (DC 25 + the level of the highest-level spell in the book) and takes one week plus one day per spell contained within. If the wizard succeeds, he can use the foreign spellbook as his own, requiring no further Spellcraft checks to prepare or copy spells from it. If he fails, he cannot attempt to master that spellbook again until he gains at least 1 more rank in Spellcraft.SPELLBOOK CONSTRUCTION                     Aside from ornamentation and spurious false writings, all spellbooks require one page per spell level (minimum one page) to record any particular spell. The pages of most spellbooks have been treated for durability and protection against fi re, mold, water, parasites, staining, and other hazards. These procedures make even a blank spellbook relativelyexpensive. The base cost of 15 gp buys a well-bound leather volume of 100 parchment pages, a style also typically used for other high-quality books such as the genealogies of noble familiesor the master copies of sages’ published writings. Exotic materials increase the cost and weight of a spellbook accordingly, and these materials are usually reserved for grimoires, not arcanabula.Table 5–1: Spellbooks Cover Weight Hardness Hit Points Cost Leather 1 lb. 2 +0 5 gp Wood, thin 1 lb. 3 +1 20 gp Metal, soft 5 lb. 5 +4 100 gp Metal, hard 5 lb. 7 +5 200 gp Dragonhide 2 lb. 4 +2 200 gpSlipcase +1 lb. +1 +1 +20 gp Pages (100) Weight Hardness Hit Points Cost Parchment 2 lb. +0 1 10 gp Paper, linen 2 lb. +0 2 20 gp Vellum 2 lb. +0 3 50 gp Bone or ivory 4 lb. +0 4 100 gpMetal foil 20 lb. +1 8 500 gp The weight, hardness, hit points, and cost of a spellbook of unusual construction is the sum of its cover and page construction. For example, a book made with a steel plate cover (hard metal) and copper foil pages weighs 25 pounds, has hardness 8, 13 hit points, and costs 700 gold pieces. All fi ne books can be purchased with a waterproof doubleslipcase of chased and tooled leather, strong enough to protect against driving rain or burial in snow but not against prolonged immersion. Special physical treatments (such as baths in secret herbal tinctures and alchemical solutions designed to retard fi re and mold damage) are included in the above costs. PROTECTING SPELLBOOKSAny wizard with the means to do so will carefully safeguard her spellbooks against accident, battle damage, or theft. Most arcanabula feature cheap and inexpensive protections (often a simple explosive runes or fi re trap), but for most wizards, the risk of losing a workbook isn’t enough to justify the expense of high-level protection. Grimoires, on the other hand, are generally stored in themost secret hiding places (sometimes even on other planes) and equipped with mechanical traps, loyal guardians, and deadly spells of defense. The protections applied to a greatbook can take virtually any form, from magically sustained poisonous spiders or snakes, to bladders of paralyzing or sleep-inducing gases, to scything blades or poisoned needles concealed in the locks, lids, or frames of the coffers and cabinets the books are hidden in. These traps are never of a design or nature that might endanger the book, but otherwise are almost limitless in the kinds of damage they can infl ict on the uninvited. Magical protections can add thousands of gold pieces to the cost of even the simplest tome. Some of the most common spellbook defenses include the following.Resistant to Energy (Minor): The book has resistance 5 against acid, cold, electricity, fi re, and sonic attacks  Moderate abjuration; CL 6th; Craft Wondrous Item, resistenergy; Price +1,000 gp. Resistant to Energy (Major): The book has resistance 12 against acid, cold, electricity, fi re, and sonic attacks. Moderate abjuration; CL 10th; Craft Wondrous Item,protection from energy; Price +3,000 gp. Glamered: The book looks and feels like something else of similar size (no more than 25% larger or smaller in any dimension) and weight (between half as heavy and twice as heavy as the original). Upon command, the book switches between its normal and its glamered appearance, but anyone who touches the book in glamered form can make a DC 14Will save to disbelieve the illusion. Moderate illusion; CL 6th; Craft Wondrous Item, major image; Price +2,000 gp. Pungent: The book is infused with an acrid essence that repels damaging pests. Anycreature that touches the book without fi rst speaking a command word must make a DC 14 Fortitude save or become nauseated for 1d4+1 rounds.Moderate conjuration; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, stinking cloud; Price +2,000 gp. Levitating: The book hovers in the air at whatever point it is placed, much like an immovable rod (though thebook can support only its own weight). Moderate transmutation; CL 6th; Craft Wondrous Item, levitate; Price +2,000 gp. Waterproof: The book is impervious to damage caused by immersionin or exposure to water. Faint abjuration; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, endure elements; Price +1,000 gp. Spelltrapped: A magic trap has been incorporated into the book (for example, a burning hands spell that strikes anyone handling the book except its owner). The trap can be set to operate when the book is touched, when it is opened, or when a particular page is read.Any spell appropriate for a trap may be used (see Sample Traps, page 70 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, for suggestions and pricing).  [/FONT]</blockquote>

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