Once the book is read, the magic disappears from the pages and it becomes a normal book. So, for example, a (+2) is 55,000 gp.
After reading the book it's pretty much useless, so the question is if the book is discarded does the player still have to account for the bonus (gold wise)? I'm just curious because it seems really expensive vs the headbands.
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The bonus is permanent, it's like memorizing the contents and getting a bonus for having it in your head. The headband is less because it can easily be stolen, dispelled and/or destroyed.
Not to mention the two stack, so you work your way up to your +6 stat item and then dish out the dough for those wonderfully expensive books at those golden aged high levels.
The stacking part is cool. The bigger question is do you still have to account for the gold even when you toss the book?
What do you mean account for the book as in wealth per level yeah that is part of you wealth.
The stacking part is cool. The bigger question is do you still have to account for the gold even when you toss the book?
Consumables count toward Wealth by Level. Technically, when people make level 8 characters and give them full WbL, they're probably doing it wrong unless they're saying that during those first 7 levels they never ever used a potion, scroll, healer's kit, rations, or whatever (or bought a spell from an NPC). I don't know how PFS handles it.
Consumable do not permanently reduce wealth-by-level, Blahpers. But certain effects (such as manuals, tomes, wishes, and spells that have been made permanent) DO count against your WBL, even after the items is used or the spell is cast. Why? Because they bestow a constant and continual bonus on your person. Innate bonuses confered by manuals, tomes, and wishes cannot be removed by any means; they are not suppressed in an anti-magic field and cannot be dispelled or disjoined. However, spells made permanent by use of the permanency spell can be dispelled, disjoined, or otherwise removed. BUT, until that happens, you have to account for the coin you spent on that effect.
At least in my reading.
Master Arminas
Table: Character Wealth by Level lists the amount of treasure each PC is expected to have at a specific level. Note that this table assumes a standard fantasy game. Low-fantasy games might award only half this value, while high-fantasy games might double the value. It is assumed that some of this treasure is consumed in the course of an adventure (such as potions and scrolls), and that some of the less useful items are sold for half value so more useful gear can be purchased.
If a GM ignores used potions, scrolls, and the like, then effectively the PCs are getting those items for free, as once they're used up, total wealth goes down, and the GM would be encouraged to make up the difference in treasure until they were at Wealth by Level again.
Note that this is just by the guidelines for GMs. There is no rule stating that a GM can't ignore consumed items, and such a GM could always apply common sense if the PCs catch on and abuse it by blowing all of their funds on powerful wands and scrolls. Wealth by Level isn't a hard and fast rule, and I tend to ignore it for the most part. Strangely, the party seems to end up near there anyway, despite missing some of the treasure in a session/module.
Edit: Emphasis mine.
The Tomes are more like slotless magic items than consumables: a potion doesn't have infinite duration.
A potion does have infinite duration, in a sense. The PC used the potion to keep themselves alive to their current level. Not accounting for that would encourage PCs to spend all of their unspent funds on powerful consumable items because they know the GM will just give them their money back to bring them back up to Wealth by Level.
I'm not trying to get into if consumables count against Wealth by Level.
I'm saying it doesn't matter if they do or not, because a tome/manual is a lot more like a slotless item (like an ioun stone) than a consumable (like a wand of fireball).
Exactly, Ross. Thank you for stating my own position more . . . elegantly.
Master Arminas
Table: Character Wealth by Level lists the amount of treasure each PC is expected to have at a specific level. Note that this table assumes a standard fantasy game. Low-fantasy games might award only half this value, while high-fantasy games might double the value. It is assumed that some of this treasure is consumed in the course of an adventure (such as potions and scrolls), and that some of the less useful items are sold for half value so more useful gear can be purchased.If a GM ignores used potions, scrolls, and the like, then effectively the PCs are getting those items for free, as once they're used up, total wealth goes down, and the GM would be encouraged to make up the difference in treasure until they were at Wealth by Level again.
Note that this is just by the guidelines for GMs. There is no rule stating that a GM can't ignore consumed items, and such a GM could always apply common sense if the PCs catch on and abuse it by blowing all of their funds on powerful wands and scrolls. Wealth by Level isn't a hard and fast rule, and I tend to ignore it for the most part. Strangely, the party seems to end up near there anyway, despite missing some of the treasure in a session/module.
Edit: Emphasis mine.
I have always read the part you bolded as an explanation as to why wealth by level is less then how much gold value you should have if you accounted for average encounters and treasure to get to that level some of the treasure is used up for consumables, bribes, etc. In other words if you give average treasure some of it will end up as potions, or scrolls or wands and be consumed and some gear will get sold but at the end of the day you will end up with about the WBL amount.
You could look at it that way, though "this treasure" seems to imply that the WBL value is what is consumed, so at the end of the day you will end up with less than WBL.
Then again, maybe module designers agree with you. They do seem to hand out more treasure than the tables recommend.