@samwise (Sam Weiss) on the CF Discord has been posting some details of times and books worth reposting here. Much of it based on references in lore but with his own TNC heresy added.
The Magical Properties of Gemstones by Tenser
150 gp
3 days
Aerdian (Common)
Arcana
+1 Arcana involving gems.
The Magical Properties of Herbs and Flowers by Tenser
150 gp
3 days
Aerdian (Common)
Craft (alchemy)
+1 Craft (alchemy) involving herbs and flowers.
The Metaphysics of Mathematics by Nystul
150 gp
3 days
Aerdian (Common)
Arcana, Spellcraft
+1 Arcana and Spellcraft identifying and learning spells.
Book of Erotic Poetry
10 gp
2 days
Keoish
Bluff, Diplomacy
Nothing.
Local Naval Almanac
10 gp
2 days
Keoish
Survival, Profession (sailor)
+1 Survival and Profession (sailor) for navigating within 100 miles of Saltmarsh.
Principles of Navigation by Da Korma
10 gp (100 gp)
2 days
Keoish
Survival, Profession (sailor)
(+1 Survival and Profession (sailor) for navigating.)
Legal Distinctions in Letters of Marque by Tazaar
10 gp (50 gp)
2 days
Keoish
Diplomacy
(+1 Diplomacy to acquire a letter of marque and avoid hanging for piracy.)
Book of Mesmerism
10 gp (100 gp)
3 days
Old Oeridian
Autohypnosis (Diplomacy)
+1 Autohypnosis to memorize.
(You may use the Hypnotism skill unlock from PF Occult Adventures.)
Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone
500 gp
10 days
Old Oeridian (80%), Ancient Suloise (20%)
Craft (alchemy), Arcana (alchemy & artifice)
+2 Craft (alchemy) and Arcana involving alchemy.
Power Politics by Abel Mackie
The Politics of Power by Lorenzo Domici
The Triumph of Diplomacy by Tyrons Scroot
5 gp, 5 gp, 5 gp (50/50/50 gp)
2/2/2 days
Keoish
Diplomacy, Sense Motive
+1 Diplomacy and Sense Motive when dealing with politics.
The Occult Properties of Gemstones
150 gp
3 days
Aerdian (Common)
Arcana
+1 Arcana when dealing with gems.
A Lizard Language and Common Grammar
10 gp (100 gp)
180 days
Keoish
Decipher Script
Gain Draconic as a bonus language.
The Nature of the Sahuagin by Professor Gax
15 gp
3 days
Keoish
Arcana, Naturas
+2 to identify the abilities of sahuagin.
A Rigorous and Complete Treatise on the Theoretical Applications of De-salinated Waters in the Production of Potions
600 gp
14 days
Old Oeridian
Alchemy, Arcana
+2 Alchemy and Arcana in producing potions.
Curative Magic by Otto
200 gp
3 days plus 1 day per spell
Aerdian (Common)
Arcana, Spellcraft
+1 Arcana and Spellcraft to learn or identify healing spells. Contains 3-5 arcane (most likely bard) healing spells.
The Beasts of Humanity by Balar
100 gp
5 days
Old Oeridian
Arcana, Societas (history)
+1 Societas to identify humans warped by curses and noble families.
The Book of Stone
50 gp
1 day
Aerdian (Common)
Societas (history)
+1 Societas to identify tombs in the Kron Hills.
Specifically includes the internment of Halmadar the Cruel.
The Chronicle of Secret Times by Uhas of Neheli
5,000 gp (50,000 gp or more in the Sheldomar where it is illegal)
14 days
Suloise
Arcana, Societas
+4 on Societas checks regarding Keoland before 300 CY. Contains the story of the destruction of Fleeth, the Malhel and Valadis, and information on the Hand and Eye of Vecna.
The book is banned by the Silent Ones of Keoland who will take extreme measures to destroy it. The copy in the library of the Wizard’s Guild of Greyhawk is possibly the only publicly known copy.
The Dragon-Scale Tome by Timonas of Jalpa
1,000 gp
4 days
Old Oeridian
Arcana, Mysteria, Societas
+4 on Arcana and Mysteria to identify artifacts.
Specifically includes information on the Hand and Eye describing the Insurrection of the Yaheetes, Vecna the Second of Tyrus, the Gnomelord of Blemu, the Paladin-King of Miro, and Halmadar the Cruel. Nineteen other artifacts are covered.
These are "conversions" of books mentioned in published adventures. The adventures are:
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
Danger at Dunwater
Vecna Lives!
The format I am using is similar to that used in Call of Cthulu, though heavily modified to fit my 3.5/PF1 house rules. Conversion to standard anything post-3 should be fairly easy.
The extended background for these is that while running some PF AP adventures that used the Research "mini-game" rules that PF developed, I found the system too much effort for the return, so I fiddled with several options before settling on this.
I also wanted to make the books more flavorful and relevant rather than the majority of them being little more than titles and gp values to dump for extra loot.
The bonuses I assigned are based on equivalents in the 3E rules. A masterwork tool is generally 50 gp and gives a +2 equipment bonus. The libraries in the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook give a +2 circumstance bonus on every use of a skill for 1,000 gp, going up to +6 for 20K gp of books. A competence bonus magic item has a cost of 100 gp x the square of the bonus. (Thus, +5 costs 2,500 gp, +1 would cost 100 gp.) Obviously, a lot of tweaking of that is possible, though I tried to stick with the listed prices.
For the layout and how it works:
Name of Book
Price of Book
Time to Read
Language Written In (If a PC does not read and write the language, magic or decipher script or equivalent be used but should extend the time to read the books.)
Skills to Read the Book (Each skill a PC has the equivalent of 5 ranks in reduces the time to read by 1 day.)
Bonuses (These are circumstance bonuses gained after reading the book. These should be capped at +6. If desired, reference time should be imposed, generally 1d4+1 rounds/hours/days depending on the difficulty of the related skill check.)
Extra Bonuses (Books can give additional bonuses such as the optional bonus of the book on mesmerism or the language learned by the lizardman grammar.)
Fluff (Additional information on the contents of the books. The books in VL! have a lot of additional descriptive information that I did not include.)
I have done a bunch of books from APs that I have not posted and might do some more old Greyhawk adventures in the future.
Has anyone developed more about Thalac Jiwo, for example? Or Professor Gax, who authored The Nature of the Sahuaghin.
IMC, Tragedy of the Suloise Imperium, or A True History of the Ancient Suel Empire and of its Destruction by the Vile Bakluni Mage-Priests and their Rain of Colorless Fire, is an epic poem, in two parts, that the Scarlet Brotherhood caused to be published as propaganda to stimulate romanticism and valorization of the ancient Suel Imperium.
I've yet to create / fix an author for it but think that it was first introduced in Gradsul and Greyhawk City around 573 CY and quickly became quite popular among the literate classes. (IMC, there are no printing presses, but temples of Delleb and Lydia use the 1e copy spell so that a larger number of books exist than might otherwise.)
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