Magic Item Help: A Book of Infinite Pages

[Levism84]

This is a pretty simple concept, but I need some help working out the mechanics and seeing if they appear balanced. I used some of the fluff from 3.5's Boccob's Blessed Book, since it was the closest to matching the concept, but I wanted a tome that could theoretically contain an infinite number of pages, used for writing, drawing, or recording spells or rituals (paying the normal cost for doing so). For rarity, I used the decanter of endless water (an uncommon magical item) as a basis, since the book of infinite pages creates an unlimited supply of vellum pages. While vellum isn't as useful as water for staying alive, creative players could find uses for it outside of writing stuff down. I also gave it some minor fluff abilities, such as being able to use an action to find specific content or have the book naturally organize itself (for the people who like to have all their pages organized in a particular fashion).

Spoiler: Book of Infinite Pages

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Book of Infinite Pages
Wondrous item, uncommon
This well-made tome is always of small size, typically no more than 12 inches tall, 8 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. All such books are durable, waterproof, bound with iron overlaid with silver, and locked. While locked, the book appears to be bound with slightly more pages than the book's spine should be able to contain. A command word unlocks the book, causing it to "pop" open a bit, as if making room for the excess pages.

The pages of this book are made from fine vellum, perfect for keeping a journal, writing down notes, drawing pictures, or inscribing magical spells or rituals. You must still provide the materials to write, draw, or inscribe spells and rituals, as normal. While the book only appears to contain a little over 100 pages, when the last page is turned, a new blank page appears behind it. This book can produce an infinite number of new pages in this way.

Someone who is familiar with the contents of the book can use an action to concentrate on a specific page or piece of desired information, opening the book or flipping a page unerringly to the page of the desired content. If a page is physically removed from the book, the detached page becomes a nonmagical piece of vellum, and the information on that page cannot be accessed by the book. If a removed page is placed within a book of infinite pages, either the same book or a different one, the page attaches itself to the book's binding, adding its information to that book. If a removed page remains removed for more than an hour, it quickly begins to decay into nothingness, the information stored on the page lost forever. Most users find that after awhile, the contents of the book naturally begin to organize themselves, either chronologically, by subject matter, or by degree of power in the case of spells or rituals.

Please, let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions for how I could improve its description.

[KoyukiTei13]

Perhaps some origin story, and some description of the cover art? I am a very visual DM and player so I like seeing what my characters are holding, especially so I can better draw them and their appropriate gear. :)

This seems like a fairly neat idea though, especially the reorganization of the pages. Perhaps it would be better suited as a rare item however. I doubt there are too many of these floating around the world of D&D.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Seconding the 'rare' assessment. Water may seem more useful, but water is everywhere. High quality paper isn't exactly common in default D&D settings, as evidenced by the extreme cost in the PHB. Ordinary paper is 2sp per sheet (about the equivalent of a day's wages for an unskilled worker, so that's maybe £70 to £80 in modern money. For one sheet of ordinary paper. Quality vellum is surely worth more than that.

With that in mind, I'd prevent players from just spending all day ripping sheets out and selling them for profit. Perhaps they disintegrate an hour after being removed, or it will only allow you to remove 5 per day.

Other than that, I like this item! It's a cool tool that rewards creative players and fits nicely into the setting.

Perhaps some origin story, and some description of the cover art?

I would actually school against this. The 5e style for magic items is to assume that there is no standard design, and the book could take on any number of appearances. It doesn't need an origin story if it's not an artifact.

Edit: wait, I just noticed that this thread is 5 months old... How did this not attract any comments in the first place?

[DeadpanSal]

Now I need to make an origami mage.

[ThePurple]

For rarity, I used the decanter of endless water (an uncommon magical item) as a basis, since the book of infinite pages creates an unlimited supply of vellum pages.

I actually think that a more appropriate equivalent would be a Bag of Holding. Both a Bag of Holding and a Book of Infinite Pages are both used for storage; the only difference is that a Bag of Holding stores physical objects whereas a BoIP stores information.

As long as you prevent the BoIP from becoming a money-maker (a la Ninja_Prawn's recommendation that pages removed from the book disintegrate after a short while), a BoIP just becomes a super-efficient method of storing and accessing information, just like a BoH is a super-efficient method of storing physical objects. The only real difference is that a BoIP has functionally infinite storage space, but, then again, information is *really* compact so, if you devote an entire BoH to storing information (even if it's just by storing individual pieces of paper, scrolls, and/or books), you're going to be storing a metric ****ton of information. A BoH has the advantage of being able to store more than just information so I'd say it's a reasonable trade off.

[Levism84]

I thought it would be better to have pages removed decay after an hour to prevent PCs from turning the book into a money maker. Also, allowing characters to remove pages and add them back or even add them to other books of infinite pages seemed like a worthwhile mechanic.

[KoyukiTei13]

I thought it would be better to have pages removed decay after an hour to prevent PCs from turning the book into a money maker. Also, allowing characters to remove pages and add them back or even add them to other books of infinite pages seemed like a worthwhile mechanic.

Perhaps the pages are allowed to exist outside of the binding of the book so long as the pages stay within 10 feet of it? That would allow sorting and sharing between party members with a bit of caution, but wouldn't completely dissuade the tearing out of pages.