Let me know what you all think..
All magical Books, librams, tomes and manuals, except for four specific ones, appear to be 'Normal works of arcane lore', but each is indistinguishable from others of their type,by purely visual inspections.. Spells such as Identify and other low-level divinations will also not work to tell you what those books are, but using Wish, Commune or Contact other plane will.
Contact other plane and Commune, when cast on one of these pieces of written magic, can tell a mage (or priest) which class will BENEFIT mostly from said work, but it won't tell you what class is penalized (IE a manual of pussiant skill at arms, will be read as "Benefits fighters", but a COP or Commune won't tell you it "harms mages who read it".
This who it helps out beneficially, even works on telling you 'what alignment' is best suited for it, specifically for those 3 mage or 3 priest books that Are aligned.
Using a wish, will tell you exactly what that book is and what it does. This is a VERY DIRECT change from how the DMG specifies you normally would need 2 wishes to do that!
The four books that are 'specifically' not included in this, are
Manual of golems
Tome of the Familiar (A new item i recently made based off a thread we recently had),
Librams of Training (another new item of mine)
and Book of infinite spells.
If a book hits someone alignment wise, that character receives a Geas, to conceal and guard said book, TILL such a time as they have done their atoning, OR met certain requirements, such as 'confirmed their new alignment to a person of evil!'
If a book/libram etc, gives one "Sufficient XP to place you mid point in the next level", the magical work of the book, FILLS IN the need for a trainer, has NO level training costs etc, and even fills in the 'hole' for if/when someone gains a new weapon or non-weapon slot. HOWEVER IT won't grant a new spell for mages!
For magical writings that penalize one type of character, while benefiting another, WHETHER a character is both helped/hurt depends on what that character is.
If a multi-classed PC, where One class would be benefited, while the Other would be hindered, you FIRST SUFFER the penalties of said book. THEN IF you can continue reading, you then may enjoy the benefit of that book. Such as if a half elf mage/priest of neutral good read a Book of Exalted deeds, he'd first lose XP from his mage side, then after rest, he'd be able to keep reading, and his priest side would go up one level, and one point of wisdom. BUT if said mage/priest, instead read a Libram of silver magic, his pries side, would if he failed his save v going insane, be unable to Continue reading it, for helping his mage side up.
IF one class in the multi-class combo, is helped, while the other is NOT affected, such as a fighter/thief who reads a manual of pussiant skill at arms, HE just gets the benefit, as there's no penalties to worry about.
IF one class would be hindered, while the other class is not affected, they just Suffer the penalties.!
For dual class characters, this mostly depends on which class is benefited, vs which is hindered, AND 'has his new class surpassed his old class or not'.
- If his Old class would benefit, and his new class would be penalized, it depends on “Has his new class surpassed his old in level yet”.
<IF NO, then he just gains the full benefits of it, while NOT suffering any penalties, OTHER than loss of XP, for using an out of class function.
<IF his new class HAS surpassed the old, Then he only get’s the negative effects of reading the work, he does
NOT gain any benefits!
- If the work would Benefit his new class, but would also Penalize his old class, go by the following;
<IF his new class has NOT YET surpassed his old one, he FIRST suffers any penalties. Then if he can continue reading it, he Then can enjoy the benefits.
<IF his new class has surpassed his old, HE Just gains the benefit of the work. He does not suffer any negatives.
