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DarkEternal
2011-02-05, 09:20 AM
I don't quite understand how these items work. Our party's cleric bought a few of these (level 5 and level 6) and I don't quite understand how these things get their spells. The DM guide says:

"Once per day on command, a pearl of power enables the possessor to recall any one spell that she had prepared
and then cast. The spell is then prepared
again, just as if it had not been cast. The spell
must be of a particular level, depending on
the pearl."

Does the person cast a spell into a pearl to have it stored here? Basically, let's say a cleric casts revivify into the pearl. He loses revivify he remember, and it is now in the pearl, and can be spent each day once from the pearl? Or can he cast revivify on a dead person, bring him back to life, and say "alright, I also want revivify to be in my pearl."?

Also, when casting the pearl's ability, does he need to have it in his hand, similar how you need to have a wand in your hand to cast from it, or can it be in the backpack or something? The writing is very iffy, at least to me, so I didn't really know how to rule this one.

Yora
2011-02-05, 09:28 AM
You prepare spells and cast them normaly. And at any time during the day, you take the pearl and say that you want one of the spells you've already cast is now memorized again, which allows you to cast the spell a second time without resting and preparing spells.

DarkEternal
2011-02-05, 09:33 AM
So, to use an example.

You can cast Heal at some point and the day and then hours later say that you want to have Heal back in the pearl, or do you have to designate it the moment that you cast Heal that you want another Heal in the pearl? Also, it is not that you sacrifice the spell to have one in the Pearl for further use, but rather you get two Heals instantly? Also, other stuff, do you cast from the pearl, or is that just some sort of a container? Do you still pay money for spells cast out of the Pearl that have a monetary cost to them? When you cast the spell out of the Pearl, is it empty then and refilled with the same spell the next day, or do you change it at your convenience?

gbprime
2011-02-05, 09:36 AM
No, it's more simple than that. You cast a spell, any spell. Later you determine you want a spell back. Doesn't matter which one.

Example... during the day you cast Heal and you sack a Mass Bear's Endurance to spontaneously cast Mass Cure Moderate Wounds. Later on, you figure you need that Mass Bear's Endurance back, so you whip out the pearl, concentrate for a few seconds, and poof it's back in your head.

kamikasei
2011-02-05, 09:38 AM
The pearl doesn't contain a spell. Rather, the pearl acts on your own spells prepared/cast list, letting you take an entry on the list marked "already cast" and change that attribute back to "still available". Does that make more sense?

DarkEternal
2011-02-05, 09:40 AM
That's pretty powerful stuff if I got it right. So yeah, it's basically an item that adds one more spell of the level the pearl is for each day, granting you an extra slot, and you can dedicate whichever spell, cast at any point of the day can be placed inside of it?I can cast Heal in the morning and during the day the party got mauled and I'm out of heals, so in the evening I decide that the pearl needs one more Heal inside of it, and I get it, despite the fact that I used Heal in the morning for instance? It's a recall no matter at what part of the day it was used?

Also, the second question, do you need to have it in your hands or is it good in your backpack since it's just a container for spells?

Yora
2011-02-05, 09:44 AM
Still wrong. There are no spells in the pearl.

In the evening you decide you need one more heal, but you already cast all of your heal spell. You use the pearl and now one of your empty slots that had a Heal spell in the morning now has a prepared Heal spell in it again.

It's basically 1 additional spell slot per day, but with the limitation that it has to be a spell that you had already cast that day, but the benefit that you can chose which of those spells it will be when you need it without having to chose the spell at morning.

DarkEternal
2011-02-05, 09:46 AM
That's what I said....just didn't get if the pearl is the carrier of said spell, or not. Basically, at any point of the day you can designate the spell you want retrieved if it fits the level that the pearl can handle.

faceroll
2011-02-05, 09:51 AM
That's what I said....just didn't get if the pearl is the carrier of said spell, or not. Basically, at any point of the day you can designate the spell you want retrieved if it fits the level that the pearl can handle.

That is the most appropriate internalization of how the item works, yes.

Yora
2011-02-05, 09:51 AM
Exactly. Just as it says here:

"Once per day on command, a pearl of power enables the possessor to recall any one spell that she had prepared and then cast."

Coy
2011-02-05, 10:26 AM
Just consider the pearl as a battery of magical energy. You get back one of your spells that you have cast already. Thats all it can do.

As an item it is considered great at low levels, but quickly becomes less helpful when they become exponentially expensive and when you want more options than simple recasts at higher levels.