Tomes of Wondrous Power
A tome is an ancient book that provides a power to a character who would otherwise be unable to take it. A tome allows anyone of any class to gain a power from a different class.
A tome has contained in it one Power of a Divine, Arcane, Martial or Primal Power source. If a character studies the book for 100 hours x the Power’s level, the character may, at their next level, choose to swap a power they have of the same level for the new power.
A tome costs the equivalent of a magical item of the level of the Power +2.
Sometimes, a book will contain a ritual as well. Increase the cost of the tome by the market price of the ritual.
Examples:
Dark Knowledge, by Turo Respudan
Power Source: Arcane
This ancient book is etched in golden arcane symbols and contains the 3rd level Encounter Spell “Eldritch Rain”, a Warlock Power.
Cost: 1,000 Gold
The Way of War, by Lord General Ki
Power Source: Martial
This book tells the ways of defeating your enemies through a strong offense. It contains the 10th Level Fighter utility Power “Into the Fray”.
Cost: 13,000 Gold
The Blessings of the Gods, Author Unknown
Power Source: Divine
This old tale tells of the many blessings the gods have given all the races. It contains the 16th Utility Paladin Power “Angelic Intercession”, and also the ritual “Consult Oracle”.
Cost: 104,000 gold
So what do you all think? Is it balanced enough? Does it work?
8 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 15, 2009 at 11:20 am
Wyatt
It seems balanced, but the time constraint is really annoying. 4e got rid of a lot of things that kept your character tied down in a location for extended periods of time while the rest of the party adventured (like magic item creation times). Learning a level 1 power could take close to a week, which is really annoying and doesn’t really serve as a balance factor in the item’s strength.
January 15, 2009 at 11:28 am
Micah
I agree about the time requirement. It’s not an effectively balance like cost.
January 15, 2009 at 11:55 am
The Dice Monkey
Would perhaps 10 x the power’s level make more sense?
Note that the books can be studied while on the road or during rests. This allows the character to study and not be held down to one location.
January 15, 2009 at 12:55 pm
jonathan
Almost missed the comment block until I realized I needed to scroll way down.
about the post, seems like a way to introduce Class-Free 4E to an already existing campaign. Also, it seems broke to me. Swapping powers for money basically. The existing, albeit nerfed, multiclass rules require a cost of paying feats. Basically what this item is doing is requiring the cost of gold or DM-favor (look what you found!).
Broke or not, I still like it — it reminds me of the previous edition Books of XYZ that boosted your ability stats permanently. Very rare items, that in at least one instance I know of, caused PC vs PC combat that resulted in the death of one of them as they fought over the item. Heh…
somehow your blog was dropped from my feed reader.. readded it!
January 15, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Psynister
Items that mimic feats are rarely balanced, and generally overpowered. You’re giving an item the ability to mimic a power-swap feat without the restriction of keeping all MC powers in a single class which breaks it in and of itself.
The idea is nice, but I don’t think it’s balanced due to being able to get powers from other classes. If you did restrict it to taking up your MC slot, then it would be somewhat better, but then there should also be similar level requirements placed on them as well. Having a flat rate isn’t exactly balanced either as a Daily power will clearly be more “valuable” than other powers in most cases as well.
And in support of the others, the time req is definitely not going to work. There’s nothing stopping your players from grabbing one, staying in the inn for X days, and then going out, thus essentially skipping the whole concept. If you plan on forcing the players to move, then can you realistically say that the player is spending as much time as he needs to reading if he’s constantly on the move?
In summary, I think the general basis of the idea isn’t bad, but it needs to be reworked if you don’t want it to be overpowered. Basic rule of thumb – no item should ever be able to take the place of a feat.
January 15, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Oz
Very interesting… I’m definitely considering it for my campaign. I would suggest instead of x100 hours, have it require a number of extended rests equal to the power level.
January 15, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Swordgleam
It seems like you’re trying to find a halfway point between “blow a feat every time you want to swap a power” and “who cares, guys, just take whatever powers you want.” It’s an admirable goal, but I’m not sure it’s doable.
I do like the tome idea for utility powers. It gives a bit of spice to someone’s character without really throwing things out of whack if they have utility powers from a couple different classes.
Attack powers, I’m not so sure about. I’m of the “take the base multiclass then take whatever you want” school myself, but I feel that if you’re going to require the feat, there’s no way you should let an item replace it.
January 17, 2009 at 3:37 am
Scott
I think this could lead to problems due to unforeseen synergies between powers that would normally belong to different classes.
In other words, do you really want your barbarian to rage, then Sunder Armor, then follow up with Blade Cascade on his next turn, then maybe drop an action point on, say, Storm of Blows for good measure?
The mix of Warlord or melee Cleric powers with some of the other Str-based attack powers is the first place I’d look for potential trouble. Controller powers could be an issue too, but since fewer classes use Int-based attacks, it’s less an issue. Once the PHB2 comes out, though, there will probably be Wis-based controller powers, making the Cleric even more a concern…