Tome of Dissolution vs. Blessed Book

[Crai]

We all know how amazing & necessary the Blessed Book is for mid-to-high level wizards. For those of you that want the benefits of the Blessed Book but don't want to deal with the 12,000 gp cost ... check out the Tome of Dissolution from the Book of Shadows. It's only 2,000 gp and has nearly all of the same characteristics of the Blessed Book. With a catch. You have to view it in darkness. Which for a mid-to-high level wizard ... is not a problem at all.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/tome- of-dissolution/

[andreww]

Except that it lacks the most important part of Blessed Book, the free scribing.

[Karcinal Eschatar]

The tome of dissolution seems like the perfect spellbook for a shadowcaster to have thematically, except you can't prepare your shadow spells in darkness. It's annoying to need an extra traveling spellbook for up to 9 other spells when the point of the tome of dissolution is to not haul a library around with you.

As far as pragmatism goes, the tome makes more sense (there is no way the GM is going to give you so many spells by level 12 that you need to spend more than 10000 gp to transcribe them). And if you're a shadowcaster, maybe your GM will let you commission a bookmark of deception to disguise the tome as a cheaper spellbook so your shadow can prepare spells from it as well.

[deuxhero]

The compactness of the tome is useful, though not nearly as much as a Blessed Book which actually gives you money. A nifty item for a lower level wizard though. I'd note getting around the darkness requirement isn't that hard for a commoner: Stick a blanket over it and your head.

[blahpers]

Quote:

(there is no way the GM is going to give you so many spells by level 12 that you need to spend more than 10000 gp to transcribe them)

Bwahahahahahaaaaaaa!

[Eschatar, Karcinal]

deuxhero wrote:

The compactness of the tome is useful, though not nearly as much as a Blessed Book which actually gives you money. A nifty item for a lower level wizard though. I'd note getting around the darkness requirement isn't that hard for a commoner: Stick a blanket over it and your head.

Hah! That's always an option. But for some reason I can't imagine cabals of Nidalese shadowcasters mentioning that in their curriculum of becoming a dark and brooding edgelord.