I am trying to build an interesting library for an epic campaign

[schreier]

One of the characters, an archivist, is fascinated with books and is planning on collecting as many books of power as possible. So far, the interesting ones I've found:

Standard ones:
Ability score enhancers (Tome of Clear Thought, Tome of Leadership and Influence, Tome of Understanding, Manual of Bodily Health, Manual of Gainful Exercise, Manual of Quickness of Action)
Spellcaster level increases (Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Perfect Balance)
Book of Infinite Spells
Codex of the Planes

Other books:
Draco Mystere (knowledge about dragons / sorcerer level)
Tome of the Black Heart (summon demon / make golem, make dagger that opens a portal to the Lost City of the Elders, summon spirits to answer questions)
Codex of Dead Names (book detail deaths of demons and planar binding)
The Book of True Binds (20 truenames of CR15-20 creatures)
Tome of Truenaming (really cool - tells reader his or her life story, gives them their truename)
Third Imaskarcana (history of Imasakar, SR)
Codex Hammer (works of Leonardo da Vinci - grant epic skill focus x31 if you get them all)
The First Folio (works of shakespeare - grant +30 to perform checks)
Tome of Books - holds up to 250 individual books, each in their own page
Tome of Worldly Memory - gain bonus on knowledge rolls
Tome of Ancient Lore - can show spells - relic power

Nonbooks that fit -
Nether Scrolls
Rosetta Stone

Any particularly cool or interesting books I'm missing? I remember there was a book detailing a lot of unique spellbooks - which would be interesting

[Talverin]

One thing I used to flesh out the library of a powerful spellcaster:

At that level, you're basically at Doctorate-level magic, where it's less about knowing/using spells, and more about furthering the field and discovering/creating spells. So, as the mage was a Wordcaster, he had poetry. *Thousands of books of poetry.* For some, there is magic in poetry. But is there magic in poetry? What actual power does the written word have? Does language matter? Translations of popular works into dozens of languages, primers for dead languages. It wasn't only big-name-high-power books o' the universe, it was reading the life story of an obscure mage who was once rumoured to have one time been witness to an event where there was an Arcane-powered resurrection. Was it true? Was it real? Who performed it? How did they learn it? What symbols/words/methods do they remember? So while you may have some of the 'big mighty books', those books tend to be 'end knowledge' of a thing, not research material for furthering knowledge and power. Imagine searching for an incredibly rare herb spell component by finding a mention of it in the autobiography of an itinerant alchemist, then using that story to determine what he called it, then using his own journal to find the date when he found it, then using maps and accounts from other people to determine where, globally, he was at the time... until you've narrowed down the presence of the herb to a small area, and can go and find out why it only grows there. Accumulation of finished knowledge is a Masters thing, but turning it into advancement is the Doctorate.

At least that's how I imagine epic-level spellcasting. Finding the limits of magic, and pushing them.

[Buufreak]

The demonomicon of igwylv (sp?) comes to mind.

[Calthropstu]

One thing I used to flesh out the library of a powerful spellcaster:

At that level, you're basically at Doctorate-level magic, where it's less about knowing/using spells, and more about furthering the field and discovering/creating spells. So, as the mage was a Wordcaster, he had poetry. *Thousands of books of poetry.* For some, there is magic in poetry. But is there magic in poetry? What actual power does the written word have? Does language matter? Translations of popular works into dozens of languages, primers for dead languages. It wasn't only big-name-high-power books o' the universe, it was reading the life story of an obscure mage who was once rumoured to have one time been witness to an event where there was an Arcane-powered resurrection. Was it true? Was it real? Who performed it? How did they learn it? What symbols/words/methods do they remember? So while you may have some of the 'big mighty books', those books tend to be 'end knowledge' of a thing, not research material for furthering knowledge and power. Imagine searching for an incredibly rare herb spell component by finding a mention of it in the autobiography of an itinerant alchemist, then using that story to determine what he called it, then using his own journal to find the date when he found it, then using maps and accounts from other people to determine where, globally, he was at the time... until you've narrowed down the presence of the herb to a small area, and can go and find out why it only grows there. Accumulation of finished knowledge is a Masters thing, but turning it into advancement is the Doctorate.

At least that's how I imagine epic-level spellcasting. Finding the limits of magic, and pushing them.

this was great. The problem is most players want knowledge checks to uncover any and all lnowledge.

[Bronk]

this was great. The problem is most players want knowledge checks to uncover any and all lnowledge.

The DCs listed for knowledge skills are for subjects 'within your field of study'. You could either fill this library with tomes of esoteric knowledge that don't fit into preexisting skill categories, or you could fill it with secrets that aren't available anywhere else. Basically, either normal skill checks don't apply, or you need knowledge from this library just to make the checks in the first place.

I'd also give it some sort of cool dimensional architecture (both to get there and to get around inside of it), fill it with those flying books that flap back to the correct spot on the shelves by themselves, add some nifty things you might not think of often, like a really nice public restroom, unseen servant cleaners, shimmerlings flitting around (to help you turn pages, provide lighting, and as a source of familiars to powerful mages), and the odd stone tablet of epic magic.

[schreier]

Like this?

https://thelibrarians.fandom.com/wiki/The_Library

With Excalibur, etc ...

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/thelibrarians/images/a/a6/Flynn_greeting_the_Lits_in_the_Library.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20150407101806

[WhamBamSam]

In my settings I make up a bunch of books of obscure (at least as divine spells or at lower spell levels) spells that Archivists and Chameleons have compiled and duplicated over the millennia across the planes. I'm fond of Draconic texts from Archivist dragons in the Divine Conversion PrCs from Draconomicon who spend centuries training Favored Souls of Bahamut and Tiamat (Dragon Magic ACF) to create scrolls of specific Sorc spells, but you can also mix in things ranging from songbooks of Divine Bards, to ethnographies/shamanic religious texts of Giants/Goblins/whatever (Disciple of Thrymm, Hexer, etc.), or indeed anything else that you can think of.

[Thurbane]

This list I made a little while back may be useful?


Here's a quick list of book/tome related artifacts/relics - hopefully it might be one of these?

Black Scrolls of Ahm (FC1 p.100)
Book of Exalted Deeds (DMG p.277)
Book of Infinite Spells (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/magicItems.htm)
Book of Perfect Balance (Und p.75)
Book of Vile Darkness (DMG p.277)
Codex of the Infinite Planes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/artifacts.htm#codexoftheInfinitePlanes)
Libram of Gainful Conjuration (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/artifacts.htm#libramofGainfulConjuration)
Libram of Ineffable Damnation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/artifacts.htm#libramofIneffableDamnation)
Libram of Silver Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/artifacts.htm#libramofSilverMagic)
Manual of Puissant Skill at Arms (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/artifacts.htm#manualofPuissantSkillatArms)
Manual of Stealthy Pilfering (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/artifacts.htm#manualofStealthyPilfering)
Sutra of Tranquil Thought (EPH p.178)
Tome of Ancient Lore [Boccob] (MIC p.189)
Tome of Books (Und p76)
Tome of Slaughtergarde (SGoS p.60)
Tome of the Stilled Tongue [Vecna] (MIC p.189)

...from 2E, there's these:

Book with No End
Kuroth's Quill
Seal of Jafar al-Samal

For mudane books, this is a nifty generator: http://www.jenniferbrussow.com/dd-library-generator/

[Uncle Pine]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483064-What-s-on-the-Shelf-1001-Essays-Treatises-and-Books-on-Magic) thread and the one that follows it don't have statted books, but might be arguably more interesting and helpful than officially statted ones.

The map of unseend lands (MIC 164) and scrolls of uncertain provenance (MIC 183) are both missing from your list.

Stronghold Builder's Guide has a section for libraries in your stronghold on page 25, along with more general rules regarding wondrous architecture (i.e. specific rooms in your library that provide one or more spell effects as if they were static magic items).

Encyclopaedia Arcane: Tomes and Libraries is a 3rd party book, well, tomes and libraries. Just in case you're looking for some inspirational reading peppered with a couple of homebrewed systems.

[Rebel7284]

Codex Anathema from Lords of Madness

[Efrate]

A book(s) with the seals of various vestiges including the epic ones and their lore and special requirements.

A copy of the pact primeval, at least part of it.

Martial scripts from ToB.

Some nice fluffy bits if you are interested.

http://mimir.net/musee/index.html

[Mr Adventurer]

The Black Scrolls of Ahm are little-known demonological texts in Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss. Better make sure the library is proof against all forms of demonic incursion, though.

EDIT: swordsaged by Thurbane

[EndlessKng]

I don't have many things from D&D with stats beyond what you've posted, but I have a few other ideas from other sources:
-The New Book of Truth from "The Alchemist Code" - a book that supposedly led a villain to discover another dimension and sever his fear from him)
-Battlefield Drama (from the mobile game Shinobi Nightmare, but also in a collab with TAC, and now the only place to find it because SN got pulled). Another magic book, it seems capable of summoning a demonic eye to blast enemies, but only works for women.
-The Broken-Winged Crane (from Exalted) - a book akin to the Book of Vile Darkness in D&D canon, the BWC has existed in different forms, but always incomplete. Rumor has it that the true book radiated back into the past and has not been written yet. Even so, each of the copies can provide very dangerous "enlightenment."
-The Cyrinishad and the True Life of Cyric: from Prince of Lies in the Avatar cycle in the Forgotten Realms. Cyric had the former written early in his life, killing each author for failing to scribe it perfectly and adding their skin to the future versions until a perfect copy was made. Once complete, it basically rewrote the listener's understanding of history, making them believe Cyric's lies and that he was the only god worth worshiping. Unfortunately, he read it himself and fell victim to it, and had to read Ogham's counterpart, the True Life of Cyric.

[Bronk]

You could include a number of lost spell books as well... that can increase your player's magical power, as well as opening up epic adventures with 'The Order of the Book' sending agents looking for the library the players found.

Perhaps they've had this library on their radar for some time due to one way portals (or mirrors of mental prowess?) away from it that lead to well known planar libraries, and if the PCs let rumors of their discovery get out, an epic team of spell hunters could come to get all up in their business. Or, you know, they could use them to get into the Order if they wanted.

Edit: Also the Twilight Codex from Dragon 340.