Copying Spellbooks

[YellowJohn]

Is there a magic item or spell that would allow a spell/prayer book using class to copy spells into their spell/prayer book without having to spend the day doing it themselves?

I'm primarily asking the question for a hero who wants to copy a tome of 'off list' spells for use with the 'Anyspell' line, but anything that would allow copying spells without having to spend all day doing it myself would be of interest.

[ShurikVch]

Slate Folio (Dragon #327) able to copy a book in 1 hour (as long as it is no more than 100 pages), and can contain up to 5 books; 7,500 gp

https://image.ibb.co/n8WLNw/Slate_Folio.jpg

[RNightstalker]

There was a spell called Copycat in a previous edition, but I don't know if it was updated in a Dragon magazine or something like that as it definitely wouldn't be core.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

(Im)Proper use of the mirror of opposition (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?246396-Another-Addition-To-The-Tippyverse) could net you one, but you'd need some way to instantaneously freeze the resulting clone in time, fast enough that it's stuck without having enough subjective time to count as "defeated," hence the use of a quintessence trap.

[Maat Mons]

It might be worth asking the DM if they'll allow the Magic of Faerun version of Amanuensis in place of, or alongside, the more recent Spell Compendium version.

[Duke of Urrel]

Another possible way to save time completing any task is to do it on an alternate plane that has the Timeless trait.

For example, it might be possible to take all the time you needed to create a new spellbook somewhere on the Astral Plane, for example in the githyanki city of Tu'narath. Then, when you were finished, you could return to the Material Plane and arrive only a minute after you left.

Since the way time works on a Timeless plane is strongly milieu-dependent, since it may not be easy to travel to the Astral Plane at your character level, and since places like Tu'narath are ... not necessarily safe places to work in, this is something to talk to your dungeon master about.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Another possible way to save time completing any task is to do it on an alternate plane that has the Timeless trait.

For example, it might be possible to take all the time you needed to create a new spellbook somewhere on the Astral Plane, for example in the githyanki city of Tu'narath. Then, when you were finished, you could return to the Material Plane and arrive only a minute after you left.

Since the way time works on a Timeless plane is strongly milieu-dependent, since it may not be easy to travel to the Astral Plane at your character level, and since places like Tu'narath are ... not necessarily safe places to work in, this is something to talk to your dungeon master about."Timeless" means that time still passes, but biological processes stop (even while the creatures they belong to can still move around and do stuff), durations don't expire, and so on. You want the "Flowing Time" trait, IIRC, which is where actual time dilation occurs. Whether that's a 1:1.1 ratio or a 1:1,000,000,000, or even a 1:∞ is up to the plane in question.

[YellowJohn]

Thanks to everyone so far for your input :smallsmile:



Slate Folio (Dragon #327) able to copy a book in 1 hour
Slate Folios are good; I'll probably have a set of them somewhere as backups. But while they allow one copy, they don't allow knowledge of a spell to propagate (you can't use a Slate Folio to copy a Slate Folio).



There was a spell called Copycat in a previous edition, but I don't know if it was updated in a Dragon magazine or something like that
Sadly, it wasn't - unless it appeared in one of the 3.0 issues of Dungeon (my spell index is pretty comprehensive).



(Im)Proper use of the mirror of opposition
Sadly, those kind of shenanigans won't fly at my table.



It might be worth asking the DM if they'll allow the Magic of Faerun version of Amanuensis in place of, or alongside, the more recent Spell Compendium version.
Researching the MoF version of Amanuensis back into the game as 'Greater Amanuensis', on the other hand, is the kind of shenanigan that probably will fly.



Another possible way to save time completing any task is to do it on an alternate plane that has the Timeless trait.


"Timeless" means that time still passes, but biological processes stop (even while the creatures they belong to can still move around and do stuff), durations don't expire, and so on. You want the "Flowing Time" trait, IIRC, which is where actual time dilation occurs.
Saving the physical time of copying the spells was less important to my character than saving themself the tedium, but this is somehting to keep in mind.