Need advice on a suitable Weapon of Legacy for my Archivist

[AugustusGloop]

I'm trying to get into a campaign. The places are limited, and likely the best thought out characters (fluff and mechanics) will be accepted, and the rest turned away. At some point during the first few chapters, a single signature item will become a Weapon (Item) of Legacy. I'm having trouble coming up with something.

The campaign is going to be a survival story, and it's conceivable that we will spend the entire story away from civilization as we know it. There will be travel between planes, and it has a very British age of exploration feel.

My character, a level 5 Archivist, would go along as the personal chronicler of the expedition leader (an NPC that I expect will be taken out almost instantly, leaving all of us middling adventurers all by our lonesome), and is there as a sort of early empirical scientist.

I have 9,000 gp to equip myself. I'm allowed anything I can carry personally, no bags of holding or the like. I need to set aside some serious cash for the spells that will supplement my prayerbook.

As an Archivist, I am very knowledge oriented, and have a lot of discovery/exploration/scholar back story. Think Darwin around the time he was writing Origin of the Species.

Anyone have any ideas for magic items that would be a natural Legacy item, that would fit in my budget, and have enough fluff potential to cushion my easy slide into the campaign?

[Eldariel]

Staff that gives you some nice free metamagic and maybe some Knowledge skill boosts? Particularly to ones you've got as your Dark Knowledge?

[Eldan]

Does it have to be a weapon? I once gave one of my players what was, basically, a legacy spellbook.

[Mr. Mud]

Staff that gives you some nice free metamagic and maybe some Knowledge skill boosts? Particularly to ones you've got as your Dark Knowledge?

Seconded. Alternatively, for the fluff-i-ness, maybe your Weapon of Legacy is a spellbook or something similar? A big, big scroll? .

EDIT: Bah... Ninjas...

[AugustusGloop]

Does it have to be a weapon? I once gave one of my players what was, basically, a legacy spellbook.

It does not have to be a weapon, and frankly, my archivist would barely know what to do with one.

I was thinking it should be a prayerbook, or a pair of glasses, or a greatcoat or something flavorful. A greatcoat (robe) of elemental adaptation, or wilderness survival or something. A clear Ion stone set into a propeller beanie?

I'm not concerned with what it does as a legendary item, that will come later. I'm concerned in picking up a perfectly normal magic item that would be signature, and max out the return for my precious, precious gold, that otherwise would be spent on scrolls.

[PinkysBrain]

Nycoptic Manuscripts from Libris mortis as a base item for the Item of Legacy? Gives a bonus to a knowledge check and has creepy potential.

[Magnor Criol]

Do you have access to the Magic Item Compendium? There's some nice, reasonably priced items in there that fit your flavor and could easily be adapted to start expanding their abilities once they become signature items.

A Tome of Worldly Memory grants you +5 to a knowledge check three times per day (a standard action provided you have 5 or more ranks in the skill you're trying to use - which you should, as an artificer), and the Artificer's Monocle lets you cast detect magic and study an item to learn about it as if you'd cast identify. Both are only 1500 gold.

There's also the Lore Gem, which grants a constant +2 bonus to knowledge checks and can act as a spellbook (you'd have to get your DM to rule that it could work as a prayerbook, too); but it costs 7500, more than you probably want to spend of your gold.

[Indon]

Lens of Detection feels like it would be in-character for a natural philosopher setting out on an investigative journey. +5 to Search and +5 to tracking.

Price, 3500 GP.

[AugustusGloop]

These are excellent! Thanks a bunch. If anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[Magnor Criol]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of the Tome of Worldly Memory. Refluff it a bit and see if your DM will let you have it double as your prayerbook; you could easily have it be your "personal tome". There's pages at the front that have a lot of general worldly knowledge for your character to use as a reference (the actual magic item part), and then blank pages at the end for you to record the information you write down over your travels (your spells). The legacy powers it gains could be things along the lines of greater knowledge checks, extra spells, and information-based powers like Identify and divination spells. There's lots of room for expansion there.

[Myrmex]

The Monocle of Perusal, from MiC, costs 6.5k, grants a +5 competence bonus to appraise checks and lets you cast identify 3/day.

Little steep, though.