Practical IC applications for books? [3.P]

[SilverLeaf167]

One of the PCs in a campaign I'm running is characterized as a bit of a bookworm, yet as a Magus the only Knowledges he has ranks in are Arcana, Dungeoneering and the Planes. Though we're both pretty happy to just roleplay it, they're likely to have quite a bit of downtime in this campaign and I wouldn't mind giving small mechanical incentives for it.

So, two separate but related questions:
What books already exist as practical items, magical or otherwise? I can quickly find the ones in the DMG, the Tome of Ancient Lore (MIC) and the Tome of Worldly Memory (MIC).
What kind of bonuses would be reasonable for spending a lot of time reading books and/or carrying them with you? One thing I'm thinking of is that an applicable book allows you to make untrained Knowledge checks by leafing through it, with bonuses based on how long you spend, but that'd just encourage them to have an impromptu book club meeting whenever they find something weird.
One answer of course would be to simply give them whatever information those books contain, with no rolling required. :smalltongue:

[Troacctid]

Books can provide a +2 circumstance bonus on Knowledge checks related to their contents. So let's say your character has a copy of Magic of Incarnum. That would be worth a +2 bonus on any Knowledge checks related to incarnum.

[SilverLeaf167]

Books can provide a +2 circumstance bonus on Knowledge checks related to their contents. So let's say your character has a copy of Magic of Incarnum. That would be worth a +2 bonus on any Knowledge checks related to incarnum.

But do they allow untrained checks? If not, it's not very useful for this character. Maybe their crunch just doesn't fit the fluff? :smallamused: The bookworm part kinda developed after character creation was already done.
Of course, if nothing else I'm just hoping to find some precedent for whatever houserule I might end up making.

[Doctor Despair]

You could, uh, grant them a lesser form of bardic knowledge as a class feature? Roll a d20 + int if they have a relevant book on them, with circumstance modifiers depending on if they closely related or just tangentially related (+2 through -10 or something like that).

[LastOblivion]

My knowledge is mostly 3.5 but most of that should be applicable here.

Ranks in knowledge show what a character has learned before the adventure and what they learn passively as they level. Even without any ranks in knowledge religion players can still learn about the strengths and weakness of a vampire. But do do so they would need to learn by experience (fighting vampires), from and individual who already knows about vampires, or from books detailing vampires.

There are a number of rare books already listen in various sources books that are said to give information on monsters. Having one Ahm's Black Scrolls would give the party a comprehensive knowledge of all things abyss and demons. But from there you could have a required, knowledge Planes, gather information check, or intelligence check in order to understand the complex script and find the information that you are looking for. (Don't actually give you players a Black Scroll though, as it results in all the demon princes hunting them down for it.)

What I like to do is give books three uses.

First is when the party knows they are dealing with a pit fiend and happen to have a book that details pit fiends. So the wizard spends an hour reading through the book in his study before the battle, giving him all the information the books holds for the battle ahead. (information granted depends on the quality of book)

Second is that the party is surprised by a pit fiend and the wizard fails his knowledge planes check, he can take a standard action to quickly skim his book to learn about the pit fiend, this would be a knowledge check with a bonus depending on the quality of the book. The wizard cannot learn and information from this check that the book itself does not contain.

Books are valuable things in dnd when your party doesn't have a dedicated walking encyclopedia for its wizard.

For instance, having a book like "Monsters of the North, Volume 7: The Thrym Hound" would allow an un-optimized party without knowledge Arcana a chance to avoid a total wipe.

But a book like, "Cooking with the Archmage, Volume 3: Manticore Stew", won't really help you in a fight.

[Flickerdart]

Books are an excellent way for a Small character to see over a chest-high wall.

[Xethik]

Have you seen the research rules in... Ultimate Intrigue? I think.

They have some pretty neat bonuses that you could incorporate even if you don't want to use the full research rules.