Spell Books:Does and Do nots.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

This thread is for ideas for how to magicly protect ur spell book. from alarm, to sphere of ultamite destruction, wat works best, wat works most destructivly, and wat requiers the lowest spell lvl.

[Yechezkiel]

I like Secret Chest, depending on the character.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

Well the thang to remember is that this is a spell book not a lichs pharlecty or watever, so simple spells are esenstail, u need to be able to protecte ur spells at the very begining

a couple duplacites are always esintail.

at high lvls the best thing i found is to put a geas curse on the book that says "find the owner of this book, return the book to him, apologize and do a favor for him." so if anybody trys to steal they are required to do the above, or the simplest is jsut hav ur book arcane mark them when they take it then ull always be able to find them.

[Fhaolan]

I don't know if this is 'legal' anymore, but several editions ago I had a high-level NPC trap his spellbook by having several pages auto-trigger certain spells. The first trap page planted a suggestion for returning the spellbook to the proper owner, the second trap page cast Guards and Wards over wherever the reader currently was, and the last summoned some form of demon.

In another spellbook, the last few pages of each high level spell were switched, in a pattern only the creator of the spellbook actually knew. If you didn't already know the spell, you ended up with Wild Magic kinds of effects when you tried to cast them.

[Yechezkiel]

Well the thang to remember is that this is a spell book not a lichs pharlecty or watever, so simple spells are esenstail, u need to be able to protecte ur spells at the very begining

a couple duplacites are always esintail.

at high lvls the best thing i found is to put a geas curse on the book that says "find the owner of this book, return the book to him, apologize and do a favor for him." so if anybody trys to steal they are required to do the above, or the simplest is jsut hav ur book arcane mark them when they take it then ull always be able to find them.

Secret Chest is a whole level lower then Gaes/Quest. Take a look.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

ah well thats not bad but letts say ur a lvl three how u gona do it then. the easyest way involes enchanment spells but my char has that school barred so i need to work around that.

i can always hire an NPC but id rather not. idont hav the time nor money. considering i can do it myself.

[Kurald Galain]

Magic mouth for the win. Only level two, great for beginning wizzies.

Also, secret page to make the entire book appear blank (plus, in 2nd ed, you got exp for every spell you cast, and you get to cast this on every single page).

For the tough wizzies among us, tattoo the spell on your chest.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

how does magic mouth work? jsut tell it to scream and shout about puttin it down and if u dont the big bad "wizzie" will come and turn u into ash.

[Mike_Lemmer]

I've found the best way to protect your spellbook is to pretend it doesn't exist. 90% of GMs won't do anything to a spellbook if you never, ever draw attention to it.

[Kurald Galain]

Basically, make a lot of noise. This won't really help if the book's owner is far away, but if some kind of thief is trying to take the book out of your pack and sneak off silently... woo!

(edit) Oh, and Sepia Snakes are always nice.

[Gralamin]

I've found the best way to protect your spellbook is to pretend it doesn't exist. 90% of GMs won't do anything to a spellbook if you never, ever draw attention to it.

This is the best way. The double bluff idea of Making the important seem unimportant. If done right, No one will notice a thing.

[MeklorIlavator]

I don't know if this is 'legal' anymore, but several editions ago I had a high-level NPC trap his spellbook by having several pages auto-trigger certain spells. The first trap page planted a suggestion for returning the spellbook to the proper owner, the second trap page cast Guards and Wards over wherever the reader currently was, and the last summoned some form of demon.

Its still legal. In fact, its suggested in The Logical Ninja's Guide to Wizards

[Sornjss Lichdom]

im not worried about my DM im worried about other mages/rogues with stiky fingers. were playing an evil campiagn

i did the following to my book.

1st.alarm, set to go off when touched and the comand word isnt said

2nd.web, covers the area around the spell book, slowing down the thief. maybe itll slow down me too but unlike the rogue i can throw a spell at him.

3rd.whispering wind, so if alarm doesnt wake me, the pre assigned voice will and it will hav a 3mile range.

wat about shrinking it down and keeping it as a realy long scroll slide it around ur waist under ur belt, make it extra strong, were two belts and sandwhich it between them.

[Anxe]

Illusory Script is an easy one. Then it doesn't even look like a spellbook. There's no good way to protect it without harming it in the process though. You could get it made out of Red Dragon Skin and then cast Explosive Runes or Fire Trap on it, but that's rather expensive and pisses off any future dragons you may meet. The absolute best way to protect your spellbook is to not have one. Just take Spell Mastery.

[bigbaddragon]

Maybe you could try to use unseen servant (level 1 spell, hour/level) for this job, have him take possession of your spellbook while you're asleep. I don't know if the spellbook would become invisible while in his possession though.

[The Valiant Turtle]

Make use of a Rope Trick spell for sleeping whenever possible (although at low levels it doesn't quite last long enough)

[Arbitrarity]

1: Scribe some duplicates with Secret Page.
2: Use secret page on the original. Blank book.
3: Fire trap all of these, shadow conjure sepia snake sigils.
4: Stick random spells that you might like to put on, i.e. Geas, teleport, etc.
5: Sequester all your copies.
6: Stick the copies, and the original, and some random blanks, in a portable hole. Stick this in a secret pocket in your cloak. Stick everything random andmundane in there as well.
7: Make more copies. Stick some deep underground with your clone, stick some on the ethereal plane with teleport object, at random locations, including underwater, in the middle of the desert, etc.
8: Remember mind blank.
9: If possible, use genesis to hide your spellbooks as well
10: ?????
11: Profit!

[Sornjss Lichdom]

well if thoughs arent those just tons of options. i plan on using the rope trick when i get to lvl 9,(eight hrs of sleep one hr to study.) but untill then i figure ill jsut keep the reguler things on it and possibly shrink it, and tuck it in my crouch. that out to be a fun search check, for the both of us.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Wow, thats alot of valuble ink you're using to protect your spellbook.

This is, of course, why I say Sorcs are better than Wizards.

Spontaneous Casting FTW!

[Irreverent Fool]

ah well thats not bad but letts say ur a lvl three how u gona do it then. the easyest way involes enchanment spells but my char has that school barred so i need to work around that.

i can always hire an NPC but id rather not. idont hav the time nor money. considering i can do it myself.

I would very much like to read and/or take part in this discussion but I beg of you to use some grammar and punctuation 'letts say ur a lvl three how u gona do it then.' hurts me just to look at it. If you don't understand the need for such things, then please do it simply out of politeness for those of us that lack the linguistic versatility to adapt to this net-styled shorthand.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

sure thing. sorry my phone-tagging is coming out.

on a related note, what does it take to make a whole lot of copies. i.e. spells, time, materials. ect.

[The Valiant Turtle]

on a related note, what does it take to make a whole lot of copies. i.e. spells, time, materials. ect.

Players Handbook, page 179

100 gp per level of the spell being scribed, for each spell.

(aka, extremely expensive)

There is a magic item in the DMG for which this is cheaper I believe.

[Quietus]

Players Handbook, page 179

100 gp per level of the spell being scribed, for each spell.

(aka, extremely expensive)

There is a magic item in the DMG for which this is cheaper I believe.

Boccob's Blessed Book, at 12,500 gold or so I believe.

[Cruiser1]

There is a magic item in the DMG for which this is cheaper I believe.

(Boccob's) Blessed Book allows you to add spells to your spellbook for free. It's also waterproof, and 1000 pages as opposed to just 100. This should be the first magic item Wizards buy, since it makes all future spells you get cheaper. If you take the Craft Wonderous Item feat, craft one for yourself at half price the moment you attain level 7.

[Arbitrarity]

Secret page alters the contents of a page so that they appear to be something entirely different. The text of a spell can be changed to show even another spell.

Free spell page copies. Booyeah.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

oh and sor aren't that much better, you have to chose your path, while a wiz is the most handy/open class, you can do just about anything another class can.

i think when i get a higher level, ill just put bands of steel (SC), alarm, and teleport with out error on it, then take spell mastery and include teleport, a nice kill spell, and a few other handy spells, u know the ones that make people talk when they don't want too. like fear and whatnot.

when said thief attempts to lift said spell book, the (PHB)Alarm goes off, (SC) Bands of Steel, becoming immobilized or entangled. and just to through salt in the wound, a little (SC) Sensory Deprivation. after all this the book teleports to a safe place, like a small underground cave with no entrance or exits were you have a gensis or watever that other planar effect is. then teleport there after your done "talking" to the little thief. Then jsut sit there and study your spellbook and teleport back to were you were.

[Peregrine]

People have already mentioned Logic Ninja's Guide on this. I very much liked his ideas: (1) teleport, to teleport the book to a safe location, (2) arcane mark, to mark the would-be thief, and (3) some suitable punishment, such as a geas or a death effect.

Do note, though, that he says you don't need any feats to trap your spellbook. This isn't true; you need Craft Wondrous Item to do it. I thought at first that the details on this were only in the DMG, with this specific detail on p.67, but it's in the SRD too:

Creating a magic device trap requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat...

(A 'magic device trap' is a trap that casts a spell, like a wand or other activating item. The other sort of magic trap is a spell trap, where the spell itself has a traplike effect -- e.g. fire trap. You don't need the feat for these, of course.)

I actually went through the rules for it and came up with a table of costs, so that I could figure out an economical way to trap spellbooks.

Assuming a wizard using minimum caster level, the cost for a magic device trap that uses a spell of a given level is...

{table=head]Level|GP|XP
0|25gp|2xp
1|50gp|4xp
2|300gp|24xp
3|750gp|60xp
4|1400gp|112xp
5|2250gp|180xp
6|3300gp|264xp
7|4550gp|364xp
8|6000gp|480xp
9|7650gp|612xp[/table]

...plus any costly material components, and 5 times any XP components in gp. This is for a one-shot trap; multiply costs on the table by 10, and costs due to extra components by 100, for a resetting trap. (Using alarm for the trigger is free. I think that using alarm as the trap itself, to warn you when someone touches your book, would cost as normal for a 1st-level spell.)

And incidentally, duplicating your spellbook (when you have the original in front of you, that is) costs only half the normal spell-scribing amount:

Duplicating an existing spellbook uses the same procedure as replacing it, but the task is much easier. The time requirement and cost per page are halved.

[JackMage666]

I've never protected a spellbook. As said, by ignoring it, most others will as well. Those who don't have it out for you, and stealing your spellbook is the least of your problems. The d4 HD doesn't stand up to too much punishment, and if an "ally" gets the jump on you (a great example is when you are asleep), you stand a good chance of death.

But, if you want me to answer the question, I say, once again, don't protect it. Make the spellbook look as mundane as possible. Buy an expensive gawdy looking book and scribble in it. Cast some random spells on it (permanent duration, preferably, you want this thing to have a magic aura). Basically, make it look like a spellbook. Act dramatically when it's stolen, and cut down on spellcasting (it sucks, but it must be done) unless necessary. Buy another gawdy book. Repeat.
Just don't let anyone know the crappy torn-page faded leather journal you keep is actually you spellbook. To increase this feeling, do something like Secret Page your spells, and put something mundane in it (horticulture notes works fine.) Nystal's Magical Aura should do away with the auras (or place them on the gawdy book if you'd like). It's not like anyone's gonna spend the time to cast Identify on it.

[Sornjss Lichdom]

well then heres my expensive re-setting trap:

Alarm, trigger(comand word?!): free
Alarm, wu-wuuu: 50gp 4xp
Bands of Steel, "What the-? Oh, now Son of a B****": 300gp 24xp
Sensory Deprivation, Monkey see, hear, say, feel, taste, no anything:
1400gp 112xp
Teleport, "oops, were'd it go?": 2250gp 180xp

Total: 3950gp 356xp x 10(for resetting trap) = 39,500gp 3,560xp

Look of senseless, un-intellegable, shock and awe, on there face: priceless!

[Sornjss Lichdom]

but par the usuale ill probally go with the opps thats not my spellbook routine, because its nice and cheap.