1 or 2e Two new magical books.

[garhkal]

Over on DF we had a thread about ways to alter what familar you got, how you can better protect them etc... Someone mentioned that in one of the 1e modules, there was a book that allowed a mage to get 3 rolls, to see if he had a familiar show up, so it made it easier to NOT get a dud.. Taking that info, and making a Bridge between the two crowds when it comes to Leveling up "PING red warrior is now 3rd level", vs "must go back to town to train under a master" groups, i present the two following magical written works..

Tome of the Familiar
This magical book, unlike all other manuals/librams etc, IS easily distinguishable from all other written magical works, with an Identify spell, OR just reading inside it.

Fighters, thieves or priests who read it, get confused (as the spell) for 2d4 days, but that’s it. Mages who read it, recognize it’s benefit instantly.

When a mage reads this book, THEN casts a Find Familiar spell, he gets to make THREE Rolls (even if those rolls are ‘no familiar available in range), and gets to SELECT which of the rolled for familiars to keep.

Once read, the book vanishes.
Other than the ‘three familiar’ roll aspect, there is NO other benefit from using this book.

Libram of Training
This magical work is a very strange, but possibly life saving work. For it allows someone (NO CLASS or alignment requirements needed), to read the work, and if they have sufficient experience to 'level up', it acts as the reader's trainer, so if they are too far away from where they normally would train up, they don't need to spend time traveling..
The character, still will need to sacrifice certain amounts of money (1/3rd the cost of training under an NPC), on the pages of the Libram, and all the monies disappear, Once he has trained.

They still need to spend 2 weeks, studding the libram, to go up his level, and the libram ONLY lets you train up, THREE levels. So that means you can have 3 pc's each train up one level, or one pc train up thrice..
Upon the third level being taught is used up, the book vanishes.

Lore exists, that there are alternates of this libram, that are specific to each character class, but lets someone of that class, train up five levels worth, but no other character class can use them. Any who do so, get dinged for 4d8hp of damage, and are stunned for 24 hrs, merely by reading even just one page of the libram. Whether this sage rumor, is just that, a rumor, or whether its based on truth, is up to each DM!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Personally, I'd prefer it if the Tome of the Familiar allows the PC to pick a specific requested familiar. It is, after all, a magical tome, so it should have more power. Otherwise he may make 3 rolls of familiars that he doesn't want or need. I'm looking at it similar to a manual of golems - the manual gives you the precise type of golem.

The Libram of Training, to me, could be helpful or not. I've played games that both use and don't use training rules. So obviously without using training rules, there's no point to the book. But using training rules, that is a nice (and inexpensive!) shortcut, so that would be a cool book to find, and not an overly powerful tome - just really awesome and convenient to find!

[garhkal]

Personally, I'd prefer it if the Tome of the Familiar allows the PC to pick a specific requested familiar. It is, after all, a magical tome, so it should have more power. Otherwise he may make 3 rolls of familiars that he doesn't want or need. I'm looking at it similar to a manual of golems - the manual gives you the precise type of golem.

Over on DF, someone actually posted this manual, that was in a MODULE, so i just edited it a little... As the module was more for 1e than 2e, it had some info on "you can also ignore the 'no familiar in range' roll, so it had a bit more to it,, but it still had the 'roll three times, selecting the one you want to keep'..

The Libram of Training, to me, could be helpful or not. I've played games that both use and don't use training rules. So obviously without using training rules, there's no point to the book. But using training rules, that is a nice (and inexpensive!) shortcut, so that would be a cool book to find, and not an overly powerful tome - just really awesome and convenient to find!

Hence why i made it.. I DO USE training, but the new group of players i started gaming for 3 weeks ago, took their characters to an island, DURING LATE August/mid september time, and told their ride "COME Back and Get us in SIX MONTHS"..
Now since the ones who are primary characters, were BUILT at 10,000xp, but start ONLY with 3,000xp, and their back up characters, were built at 5,000xp, but start with 1,500xp (IIRC) to give them some levels (and thus better survivability), they may NOT actually get enough XP to level up in that time, depending on what they do.. BUT The Back ups stand a good chance of needing to level up at least once while on the Island.. SO i thought of making this item, as a possible way they could DO so, without losing too much XP if they DO cap out in a class, and have to spend a lot of time adventuring before they get a chance to level up....