Whirlwind Lesson

[Deadric]

OK, maybe I'm not reading it right and am a little too hopeful.

"Whirlwind Lesson (Ex): You can quickly browse through a magical tome or manual, gaining its benefits with only a single 8-hour study session (rather than the usual 48 hours over a period of 6 days). At 7th level, you may allow another character to join in your study; both of you gain the full benefit of having read the book. At 15th level, you may share your whirlwind lesson with a number of characters equal to your oracle level. The benefits to you are permanent, whereas your students gain the tome or manual’s benefits for a number of days equal to your Charisma modifier but then forget what they have learned."

So, at level 7 the Oracle can have another character read along and "both gain the full benefit of having read the book". To me that means they both get the full benefit, a permanent increase to whatever stat they were studying. Then at level 15 the Oracle can study with x-many students, but the students only benefit from the session for x-many days.

So does the level 7 ability get scrubbed by the level 15 ability even if the Oracle only has 1 student? Or do the Oracle and student still get full benefit?

I ask because the level 15 ability uses a plural the whole time, and never the singular when referring to "student".

Anyone out there care to enlighten me?

[Are]

IMO, the last sentence applies to both the 7th-level addition and the 15th-level addition, as well as to the original ability. My reasoning is that until that sentence, you don't know if any of the benefits are permanent, including those to yourself. So, it has to apply to all uses of whirlwind lesson.

[Deadric]

Well, the level 7 ability *does* say that the Oracle and the single student "gain full benefit of having read the book". To me that means they both get the boost and they both get it permanently.

Anyone else care to throw in their two bits? Maybe someone who worked on the class?

[Bobson]

It's definitely vauge and poorly worded, but here's how I'd break it down, sentence by sentence:

"Whirlwind Lesson (Ex): You can quickly browse through a magical tome or manual, gaining its benefits with only a single 8-hour study session (rather than the usual 48 hours over a period of 6 days)."
This is straight forward - it grants you an ability called "Whirlwind lesson" which lets you read statbooks faster.

"At 7th level, you may allow another character to join in your study; both of you gain the full benefit of having read the book."
Here's where it starts getting interesting - normally only one person can read a book. This is letting you share it to a second person.

"At 15th level, you may share your whirlwind lesson with a number of characters equal to your oracle level."
This expands on the previous sentence, so that you can now share it with 15-20 people instead of just one.

"The benefits to you are permanent, whereas your students gain the tome or manual’s benefits for a number of days equal to your Charisma modifier but then forget what they have learned."
This puts some limits on the ability - you get the benefits permanently, as if you read it for the normal week, but anyone else you shared it with (your students) only have a limited benefit from it.

So I'd say that the first three sentences build on each other (so there's no reason to use a lower level version), with the fourth limiting the whole thing (regardless of what level you are).