What happens when a disjunction hits a blessed book?

[Hypersmurf]

Would you make the same ruling if a disjunction hit a "regular old spellbook"? As in, would the regular spellbook become blank as well?

I am not understanding why people think the blessed book is has a continuing effect on spells already writen into it. The magic seems to only effect the writing of the spell itself, not the spell once it is already written into it.

It's a good point - the item changed from 3E to 3.5.

In 3E, you could fill the Book completely with 45 1st level spells (90 pages' worth), or you could fill it completely with 45 9th level spells (810 pages' worth). Obviously, something magical was going on with the storage.

In 3.5, the Book has 1000 pages. You could fit 500 1st level spells, or 55 9th level spells plus change. No magic necessarily going on once the spells are scribed - the pages might just be Real Thin.

While I'd think a Disjunction would have a detrimental effect on the funky compression algorithms used in the 3E Book, I could see the 3.5 Book coming away as a non-magical Real Thin 1000-page spellbook that henceforth requires expenditure to scribe new spells.

-Hyp.

 

[MachinaDeus]

I agree on all counts, and yet do not understand why previously written spells would disappear from the Blessed Book but not from the regular book. The feat, the minimum caster level, the transmutation aura, the magic, all of those impact ONLY the scribing of a spell into the book and not the continuing existance of the spell already in the book. A spell already in the book functions in all ways exactly like a spell in a normal spellbook. Why would the spell be harmed by the disjunction in one kind of book but not the other?

The way I see it is that the spells that are scribed in it free of the regular scribing cost are *because* of the magical enchant set on the book. When that magical enchantment no longer exists, the spells that were scribed in it cease to exist as well.

Edit: Let me see if I can explain my point a little better. To me, the cost of scribing spells into a regular spellbook are like the "foundation" that the spell is put on(for regular books this involves the special inks, etc. but are not magical in nature). The "foundation" of the BB is in the enchantment put into the magical item. When the BB is hit by a Disjunction, that "foundation" crumbles, leaving you with a useless spellbook.(On a side note, I may even rule that instead of leaving a blank book, it would just be filled with layers and layers of compounded gibberish, depending on how full it was when it was hit.)

 

[Mistwell]

The way I see it is that the spells that are scribed in it free of the regular scribing cost are *because* of the magical enchant set on the book. When that magical enchantment no longer exists, the spells that were scribed in it cease to exist as well.

Edit: Let me see if I can explain my point a little better. To me, the cost of scribing spells into a regular spellbook are like the "foundation" that the spell is put on(for regular books this involves the special inks, etc. but are not magical in nature). The "foundation" of the BB is in the enchantment put into the magical item. When the BB is hit by a Disjunction, that "foundation" crumbles, leaving you with a useless spellbook.(On a side note, I may even rule that instead of leaving a blank book, it would just be filled with layers and layers of compounded gibberish, depending on how full it was when it was hit.)

So if I am a wizard who has a feat of craft wonderous items, and I make an item, and then I die, the item is no longer magical because the foundation on which it was created is now gone? And that is just the simpelest of examples. There are all sorts of magical things which exist at the time something is created or memorized, which could go away later, and which do not normally have an impact on the thing created or memorized but which WOULD have an effect under your interpretation.

Some magic effects memorization or creation of something and then ceases, and other magic has a continuing effect. I can understand disjunction ending a continuing effect. But I cannot understand it retroactively having an effect on something created using it's magic long ago.

 

[MachinaDeus]

So if I am a wizard who has a feat of craft wonderous items, and I make an item, and then I die, the item is no longer magical because the foundation on which it was created is now gone? And that is just the simpelest of examples. There are all sorts of magical things which exist at the time something is created or memorized, which could go away later, and which do not normally have an impact on the thing created or memorized but which WOULD have an effect under your interpretation.

No, because the "foundation" you created is now in the item itself, which remains magical until something else happens to specifically destroy the magic set into the item(ie. MDJ)

 

[Wolfwood2]

By the rules, I guess the spells are ruined.

Of course, if I was a player and this happened to my wizard PC, I'd have him committ ritual suicide while cursing the gods and then make a nice barbarian. The party needs arcane spells? Too bad, not my problem.

 

[Kwitchit]

I like the fountain-of-parchment idea. The book would end up looking like one of my school books- with loose sheets shoved in every which way...

 

[Jhulae]

I like the fountain-of-parchment idea. The book would end up looking like one of my school books- with loose sheets shoved in every which way...

Well, I can agree with that. The 'fountain of parchment' is 1) funny to see as pages spew forth like a geyser and 2) lets the wizard recover all his spells (eventually).

Of course, I personally hate the idea of 'spellbooks', and Fire-N-Forget magic anyway. It's one of the worst holdovers from earlier editions of DnD. (Arcana Evolved's casting system is just so much better for a 'slot based' system.)

 

[ExMachina]

Lose all
For that matter, what happens when a disjunction hits a portable hole or a bag of holding?

SO what happens to a magic item inside the bag or portable hole?

 

[Mistwell]

By the rules, I guess the spells are ruined.

By the rules, we are debating what happens. We have no clear answer one way or the other. Given the book has 1000 normal pages, and a normal spellbook is not a magic item, and the 1000 pages have spells written on them, it's unclear if the magic that allowed those spells to be initially scribed is itself bound by the magic of the book on a continual basis, or just that the book on a continual basis allows new spells to be scribed into it and once it is scribed into it there is no continuing magical effect for that spell.

 

[ExMachina]

from SRD: A wizard can fill the 1,000 pages of a blessed book with spells without paying the 100 gp per page material cost. This book is never found as randomly generated treasure with spells already inscribed in it.


That would seem to me that it has 1000 actual pages. Think OC bible in Dune, with super thin pages, but in this case it is the magic that makes them 'strong'. I would argue that the book becomes unable to be scribed in any longer, and exceptionally delicate. But a player could still access the spells enough to re-scribe them or re-enchant the book.