The Dnd equivalent: Todd and the Book of Pure Evil

[dansimon30]

ok so i need to create the following tome based on the awesome Canadian series - Todd And The Book Of Pure Evil:

it will only reveal itself to those characters who "Call upon it" by being in some social situation where they are the underdog and wish for something specific - like "I wish I was popular". The book would then reveal itself and open its pages to reveal a magic page seemingly meant for that person and their wish. After making their minor wish "come true" ( the character - failing their will save - is compelled to read the pages ) the caveat reveals itself.

In the example above, the newly popular person looses all of their best friends and the quality of their relationships go from great to non existent. Maybe here is the tragedy - someone kills the cursed person - or something.


The book must fly
the book must make you make a will save (?) to not read the pages and therefore inherit the curse (minor??).


Eventually, once the current person is exhausted, killed or otherwise disposed of, the book makes its way to another "worthy" soul, repeating the process.

I'm looking for a minor curse spell or something.

Can you recommend a spell or group of spells here?
Ive been looking in the DMG but creating tomes like this seems a bit obscure so any direction would be helpful.

Im a new DM and I have a ton of books - just lacking the knowledge on how to make these items make sense and balanced - any help would be appreciated.

[Angelalex242]

Well, people wouldn't wish they were popular in the D&D universe. It'd be the bard, sorc, or paladin wishing 'I wish I were more Charismatic...'

Although the book's name suggests it has an aura of evil the paladin can detect, so he's likely to sunder the book instead.

[Gildedragon]

So we start with the Artifact tag, this is a plot device
then we add the "cursed" tag and see what comes up. It seems it has an either "opposite effect" or "drawback" built into it.
None of these effects are mechanical but can help with the description
Now into the Crunch
It is an intelligent object that can "bestow curse" on its target
It is animate: the flying may be accomplished by the spellbook mod: Levitating (C. Arc, +2000 gp)
It behaves as a book of one wish (more wishes?) or has the special ability to grant wishes. It is the interpreter and will try to interpret it as detrimentally to the bearer.
It has a deceptive alignment spell (there are a ton of these so...)
it dominates its bearer through an ego check:
4 for the special purpose and dedicated power, it is an artifact so assuming a +10 as an 'enhancement bonus' is not remiss, it is probably telepathic so +1, and prolly has an intelligence and charisma of 20, so that's an extra +10, its undetectable alignment is a minor power (not one of the listed ones but close enough) +1, and it it can read stuff (written in it) an extra +2.
Lets say it has 10 ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy (2 lesser powers)
and we got an ego of 30, Bluff and Diplo of +17


So what we got in the end is a floating, animated, undetectable alignment (CE) Book of Infinite (?) Wishes
It can bestow a curse at will as a CL X wizard, has an ego of 30, which means unless the writer can succeed in a will save of 30 they accept the curses bestowed by the item, and the item twists the wish as perversely as it can.