Book of many Things

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

I am playing a 3.5 Duskblade, that specializes in using his combination of Collector of Stories (Skill Trick) and Knowledge Devotion (Feat) along with his 20 Intelligence, to gain bonuses on attack and damage against his enemies.

My DM is running this as a Creativity Recommended Campaign, allowing each character to rely more on actual thought and planning, as opposed to the roll of the dice. One of our members is playing a "Crafter" and has just begun crafting multiple different magic items for the party. Our DM is allowing him to make any magic item he can think of, combining many different spells and such, as long as he can explain how it works.

I had the concept of a floating book, with hands free page turning and writing, that would act as an Encyclopedia for my character, allowing him to quickly turn to and read the page on the monster he is studying. I just wanted something that would give him a general +2(or more) to identify monsters, just as the Collector of Stories skill trick does, without forcing him to give up one turn just to do so.

According to the "Crafter" I would need Mage hand for the book to float, mage hand again, to turn the pages and write, but my Dm said it was impossible to gain a bonus on any knowledge skill check. I was hoping someone could come up with what I would have to do to get what I want.

[Uncle Pine]

Most of the time, if you want one of your magic items (bar weapons and shields) to float around you it can just be crafted "slotless" (see no space limitation here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm)). However, provided that your Duskblade is LN, LE, LG, or N, what you really want is scrolls of uncertain provenance (8,000 gp from MIC, page 183), which give a flat +5 competence bonus to all Knowledge checks as long as they're in your possession. You can have your crafter make one of those, or you can ask your DM to use such item as a baseline for what you have in mind.

[AnimeTheCat]

I had the concept of a floating book, with hands free page turning and writing, that would act as an Encyclopedia for my character, allowing him to quickly turn to and read the page on the monster he is studying. I just wanted something that would give him a general +2(or more) to identify monsters, just as the Collector of Stories skill trick does, without forcing him to give up one turn just to do so.

The bolded part doesn't make sense to me... Is your DM requiring you to take an action to make a Knowledge check? Knowledge Checks don't require an action (or are a Free Action) and the Skill Trick says "When you attempt a trained Knowledge Check..." so, I'm not sure why you're needing to eat an action just to identify a Monster.

As for your book, see if you can't just get a Masterwork item (call it a beastiary) of all of the various knowledge skills and have your party member just enchant it like one would an animated shield. The text is not magical, but it should float and follow your command just as if you had it in your hand normally. Bonus points if it IS an animated shield and also grants you some extra AC.

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

The bolded part doesn't make sense to me... Is your DM requiring you to take an action to make a Knowledge check? Knowledge Checks don't require an action (or are a Free Action) and the Skill Trick says "When you attempt a trained Knowledge Check..." so, I'm not sure why you're needing to eat an action just to identify a Monster.

As for your book, see if you can't just get a Masterwork item (call it a beastiary) of all of the various knowledge skills and have your party member just enchant it like one would an animated shield. The text is not magical, but it should float and follow your command just as if you had it in your hand normally. Bonus points if it IS an animated shield and also grants you some extra AC.

He is claiming that for me to actually use the book to gain a bonus, I would have to us my action to turn to the specific page in the book.

Also, what do you mean by, making it a masterwork item?

[tiercel]

This is going to be tricky because you are firmly in DM-adjudication territory with custom magic or masterwork skill-boosting items; in no small part that’s because many “masterwork tools” that give +2 to a skill are just masterwork versions of tools you’d use anyway as part of the action required to perform the skill check.

The problem with Knowledge checks is that they don’t normally use tools or an action, so it’s tempting to say that adding in an item means you have to manipulate/look up information somehow.

Uncle Pine above probably has the best solution for an always-on, no-action-required, already printed item (the scrolls of uncertain provenance relic from Magic Item Compendium), as long as you have the gold, access to items from that book, a DM who doesn’t have a philosophical problem with an action-less Knowledge bonus, or wacky RP implications from, you know, toting around a sacred relic of the goddess of magic and death (though as a Duskblade, if your job is killing-things-with-your-magic, that could be seen as a type of veneration in itself, one supposes).

If your DM is likely to dig in heels on forcing you to spend an action in combat to get a bonus to Knowledge checks, the tome of worldly memory (also MIC) is cheap for its bonus for any Knowledge you have at least 5 ranks in.

[Saintheart]

If he's going to force you to spend an action on boosting your Knowledge, I'd suggest an alternative, drawn from the Forgotten Realms: a permanent rune of Lore of the Gods.

Runes are creatable magic items, using the Inscribe Rune feat, which is an item creation feat. Runes are basically touch-activated spells that anyone can use on themselves, no UMD required, no matching caster class required. If you want the full guts of it, see my Runecaster handbook in my sig, but a permanent rune of Lore of the Gods would give you -- with a single standard action -- a +5 to +10 bonus to all Knowledge checks for 10 minutes per level. Runes work by being touch-activated, and the default rule on runes is that they take a standard action to trigger and activate. And permanent runes don't mean the spell is permanent, it means unlimited castings of the spell.

The price of a permanent rune is spell level x caster level x 2000 = 2 x 2 x 2,000 = 8,000 gp. Generally magic items are priced in accordance with the absolute minimum level needed to cast the spell, but it's specific in this case because Ur-Priests can become Runecasters. Ur-Priests access Lore of the Gods at level 2, ergo an Ur-Priest creating a permanent rune need only be level 2 ... which brings the price down considerably.

So: 8,000 gp for a magic scribble on the hilt of your sword or something that, when you draw it, gives you a +5 to all Knowledge checks for 20 minutes at least. And you can renew the spell again just by touching the rune once more. Knowledge all day long, and if the fights are close enough together, you don't even have to spend an action calling up the knowledge, because the spell is still in effect. Indeed you could fluff the rune as you running your finger over the pages of a book ahead of combat or something, which triggers the spell and then gives you the bonus for a period of time.


P.S. And I would humbly suggest that given your setup this is a superior option to Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance. Lore of the Gods imparts an insight bonus to Knowledge checks, not a competence bonus. Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance won't add anything to your Knowledge rolls because Collector of Stories also imparts a competence bonus, i.e. they don't stack.

EDIT: This same trick works for Guidance of the Avatar, though the semi-cheese of that spell might get it thumped by the DM's banstick. It also theoretically works for Divine Insight, but it's not worth it because when you make the rune you have to make all the choices you would otherwise make when casting the spell, which arguably includes the skill that you want to apply the bonus to. Not to mention that it'll be a damn expensive rock since the rune's price is tied to caster level ... which needs to be pretty high in order to use Divine Insight's full effect.

[tiercel]

P.S. And I would humbly suggest that given your setup this is a superior option to Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance. Lore of the Gods imparts an insight bonus to Knowledge checks, not a competence bonus. Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance won't add anything to your Knowledge rolls because Collector of Stories also imparts a competence bonus, i.e. they don't stack.

Ugh, I always forget the bonus types on skill tricks; this blows up using a tome of worldly memory too (except for out-of-combat uses that Collector of Stories wouldn’t cover).

Perhaps if your DM wants an action to be spent on boosting Knowledge checks, you could get your crafter buddy to make you up a custom intelligent magic item? Then the item could blow its actions granting you bonuses and you wouldn’t have to do so yourself. (Just check to see if your DM is planning to “helpfully” RP the item as an insufferable “do I really want the bonus this bad” item...)

[AnimeTheCat]

P.S. And I would humbly suggest that given your setup this is a superior option to Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance. Lore of the Gods imparts an insight bonus to Knowledge checks, not a competence bonus. Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance won't add anything to your Knowledge rolls because Collector of Stories also imparts a competence bonus, i.e. they don't stack.


Ugh, I always forget the bonus types on skill tricks; this blows up using a tome of worldly memory too (except for out-of-combat uses that Collector of Stories wouldn’t cover).

Well, without further investment skill tricks are only usable once per encounter, so if there are multiple enemies then you will only be able to get the bonus once. With a tool or other competence bonus granting item, you'll get it always, making the scrolls distinctly better than the skill trick.

[Bronk]

I agree with the others... it sounds like your DM just doesn't want you to be able to do this.

But if you do get him to come around...

Masterwork items are used in the same action to grant you a +2 bonus on your skill check.

You can get much better masterwork items up to a +10 bonus in the book 'War of the Lance'.

There's a kind of book called a 'Floating Book' in Dragon 341 that can follow you around, and you can modify any masterwork book with that property for 500 gold.

You might want to try some other kind of tool though, something your DM won't get as hung up about flipping pages. Maybe information in code on the cover of your floating book, with the interior just being your journal, or an intricate carving, or whatnot. Maybe you can ask your DM what they think and they can come up with it. You'd probably need a different one for each skill at that point, which now that I think about it might be what they were getting at with the page flipping business.

[Saintheart]

One thought to avoid books: maybe the device sort-of functions by summoning a little angel/outsider who perches on your shoulder and murmurs Knowledge into your ear before disappearing in a puff of smoke at the end of the round.

Or an ioun stone that writes sentences in the air as it circles around your head.

[Bohandas]

According to the "Crafter" I would need Mage hand for the book to float, mage hand again, to turn the pages and write, but my Dm said it was impossible to gain a bonus on any knowledge skill check. I was hoping someone could come up with what I would have to do to get what I want.

What about Legend Lore?

[Bronk]

One thought to avoid books: maybe the device sort-of functions by summoning a little angel/outsider who perches on your shoulder and murmurs Knowledge into your ear before disappearing in a puff of smoke at the end of the round.

That might be a good idea in general... they can use 'aid another' for an additional bonus.