First Thoughts​

When I first opened the book, I was expecting each book blurb to be the size of like your standard Skyrim book, which I am not against reading, but I am not always in the mood for sitting down and reading a short story when I’m prepping for a game. I was pleasantly surprised that the blurbs were really short a few sentence for the description and then into any potential mechanical bonuses.

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Written Works​

There are over 50 pre-made books in this supplement spread between non-fiction and fiction and covering a variety of topics like creatures, skills, travel, religion, magic and more.

 

Non-Fiction Written Works

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Annihilating Aberrations

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This old tome has a damaged spine and is barely intact. Some pages are torn or creased. The parchment is yellowed from age.

 

Length & Reading Time. 327 pages. 17 downtime hours.

 

Completion Benefit. You deal an additional +1 damage per your character level to aberrations. The damage type is determined by whatever weapon, spell, or other source of damage that you use to deal this damage to an aberration.

 

Okay so I both like this book and have some worries about it. The title is really good, very evocative in my opinion and as far as the time required it like the rest of the books seems perfectly reasonable for the number of pages. I like that it gives a tactical advantage against aberrations, in my mind I would tell my player’s that they know the weak points of these creatures and are able to deal damaging blows.

 

Now my concern is there’s no limit to this. So let’s say a 10th level player gets this book and reads it. Every round they do damage to an aberration it’s an additional 10 points of damage, which might not seem like a lot but it stacks as we all know. I would just caution anyone that is planning on using this book – or a book like it to consider that fact when you drop it in your game. That being said I like it and will be utilizing the format at the very least in a campaign I am running right now.

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Valorous and Vanquished, the Dead Heroes of Faerûn

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 A history textbook describing the lives, adventures, and deaths of various heroes throughout the history of Faerûn.

 

Length & Reading Time. 247 pages, 13 downtime hours.

 

Completion Benefit. When you roll a death saving throw, you can choose to roll 1d8 and add the result to your death saving throw. Once you have chosen to use this ability, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.

 

So again with a really good title and a good reading length. So on the one hand I really like this ability giving a player or players a little boost with their death saving throws and since it’s only once per long rest it isn’t broke or anything. My only issue with this is I don’t know how I would explain why they get that benefit from reading a book. I don’t necessarily need to be able to explain that, but it is something that is high on my lists of things I like to be able to do.

 

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The Tale of Lolth

 

This book details Lolth, the drow goddess. It describes her portfolio, drow practices, rituals, and worship. The ink of this book is only visible in darkness. For every hour that the book spends in direct sunlight, roll a d6. On a result of 6, the book takes 1 point of damage. The book has 6 hit points for the purposes of determining whether it is destroyed by sunlight.

 

Length & Reading Time. 81 pages, 4 downtime hours.

 

Completion Benefit. You have advantage on skill checks related to recalling information about Lolth or the worship of Lolth. Additionally, you may choose Lolth as your deity (such as becoming a cleric of Lolth) or you may choose Lolth as your patron for warlock features.

 

Okay so the title isn’t bad but just isn’t a great as my other favorites, but I don’t know if I would have come up with something better so, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I’m a big proponent of there being in game reasons for player decisions. It’s one of the reasons I removed the ability score requirements for multi-classing and made there have to be an in-game reason for it happening. The Tale of Lolth would satisfy an in-game reason for an “odd” character to start following Lolth

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Magic That I Have Tasted

 

This book is a cross between a cookbook and a spellbook. It contains recipes for making all sorts of whimsical pastries with very minor magical effects.

 

Length & Reading Time. 72 pages, 4 downtime hours.

 

Completion Benefit. You have advantage on ability checks related to making the pastries listed on the chart below. You must be a spellcaster in order to create the pastries with the magical effects. If you are not a spellcaster, you can create the pastries, but they do not have any magical effects.