Looks like something that should have a X/day limit but someone forgot to add that part.
intelligent items are all stupid in some way or one other. Nearly everyone here just dropped them and forgot they exist. You should do the same.
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"Haha! I just blasted an enemy with a fireball! Let's see what I get next! Resistance? That's...disappointing. OK, I'll spend my action to get rid of it and get a new spell. Clairaudience/Clairvoyance? Man, that's a 10 minute cast! Oh well, I'll read this evening and hope for something better."
From what I can tell, yeah, you were missing the "randomly" part.
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I think one issue here is what is meant by "spell you know." That's 100% clear for a spontaneous caster, but what about a Wizard? Does that mean spells you've prepared for the day or spells in spell book? If it goes by spell book what is the limitation of how the shield can draw from it; ie I lost my spell book will it still keep making spells from it? If the spellbook needs to be present, what if I have specialized spell books called "Blasting," "Save or Suck," and "Battlefield Control" and then choose to "lose" all but Save or Suck for the day after prepping spells by giving them to someone else to throw in the bag of holding?
Perhaps I'm over-thinking this, but I have no idea how it is supposed to work for prepared casters.
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"Haha! I just blasted an enemy with a fireball! Let's see what I get next! Resistance? That's...disappointing. OK, I'll spend my action to get rid of it and get a new spell. Clairaudience/Clairvoyance? Man, that's a 10 minute cast! Oh well, I'll read this evening and hope for something better."Never said anything about using them in-combat. The sheer utility of infinite spells, even if they are only out of combat, is insane.
Don't forget you're talking about a specific, named, intelligent item. This isn't something every caster is going to have. It's a unique item and not something the GM should introduce unless s/he thinks the campaign can handle it.
But it's not really that insane. Most of the spells that come up aren't going to be immediately helpful. If I'm a 12th level wizard, what's easier? Casting every spell that comes up until I finally get guards and wards or just memorizing guards and wards when I need it?
If I'm a sorcerer, the spell choices are much more limited but if I'm so out of spell slots that I'm relying on the shield to come up with a useful spell (instead of a 0 level) then I probably need to be encouraging the party to call it a day anyway.
(If I get to be a 17th level wizard I *might* decide to keep on casting until wish shows up. But again the GM should consider this effect before introducing the item. Like limiting it to 3rd level spells and below. Or making sure you follow the letter of the spells on the scroll. "You got banishment? OK, it's a targeted spell so you can't cast it until there is at least one extraplanar creature in range. Flesh to stone? Too bad the only creatures nearby are your allies...")
In case Jadeite stopped following this thread as some point in the last three years:
The Caster's Shield says:
This +1 light wooden shield has a leather strip on the back on which a spellcaster can scribe a single spell as on a scroll. A spell so scribed requires half the normal cost in raw materials. The strip cannot accommodate spells of higher than 3rd level.
The Shield of the Mage says:
This caster's shield always has one arcane scroll and knows the same arcane spells as the wielder. When the spell on the scroll is cast, another scroll of a spell the wielder knows randomly manifests to replace it.
If a Caster's Shield can't contain spells above 3rd level, and the Shield of the Mage is a Caster's Shield, then it has the same restriction unless stated otherwise.
So you'd choose randomly from the level 0 to level 3 spells the caster knows.
Even distribution, presumably. Count the number of spells you know in that level range. Let's say it's 37 - you'd roll a 37-sided dice. If you don't have one, you can generate any number range using the %-dice technique and rerolling bad numbers. (Eg, 1d4 to generate a number from 0, 10, 20 or 30, then a d10 for the second digit, rerolling if you get 38-40.)
Is it possible to forget spells? I'm trying to imagine a character who only knows one spell, and it's level 3, but they can cast it every round.
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The person that should use this is an alchemist with the discovery Spell Knowledge. When you only have a single spell, it's super easy to figure out what spell you'll cast. ;)
In case you're not familiar, prior to 3.0 wizards had a hard limit on the number of spells of a given level they could store in their spellbooks, linked to Intelligence. If they wanted to learn a new spell outside of this limit...they were completely out of luck, since the "spells known" were permanent and even if you lost the spellbook they took up a slot.
Very few groups actually played this rule as written, if at all.
And if you were familiar, you knew that at 19 Int, you had that cap removed.
Ability .. # of .. Spell .. Chance to .. Max. # of .. Illusion
Score .. Lang. .. Level .. Learn Spell .. Spells/Level .. Immunity
1 .. 0* .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
2 .. 1 .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
3 .. 1 .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
4 .. 1 .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
5 .. 1 .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
6 .. 1 .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
7 .. 1 .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
8 .. 1 .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. -- .. .. --
9 .. 2 .. 4th .. .. 35% .. .. 6 .. .. --
10 .. 2 .. 5th .. .. 40% .. .. 7 .. .. --
11 .. 2 .. 5th .. .. 45% .. .. 7 .. .. --
12 .. 3 .. 6th .. .. 50% .. .. 7 .. .. --
13 .. 3 .. 6th .. .. 55% .. .. 9 .. .. --
14 .. 4 .. 7th .. .. 60% .. .. 9 .. .. --
15 .. 4 .. 7th .. .. 65% .. .. 11 .. .. --
16 .. 5 .. 8th .. .. 70% .. .. 11 .. .. --
17 .. 6 .. 8th .. .. 75% .. .. 14 .. .. --
18 .. 7 .. 9th .. .. 85% .. .. 18 .. .. --
19 .. 8 .. 9th .. .. 95% .. .. All .. 1st-level
20 .. 9 .. 9th .. .. 96% .. .. All .. 2nd-level
21 .. 10 .. 9th .. .. 97% .. .. All .. 3rd-level
22 .. 11 .. 9th .. .. 98% .. .. All .. 4th-level
23 .. 12 .. 9th .. .. 99% .. .. All .. 5th-level
24 .. 15 .. 9th .. .. 100% .. .. All .. 6th-level
25 .. 20 .. 9th .. .. 100% .. .. All .. 7th-level
* While unable to speak a language, the character can still communicate by grunts and gestures.
If you have a way to sacrifice a spell from a scroll to gain a benefit, it can also be nice.
/cevah
Minor thread rez to ask what sort of shield this item is supposed to be. Buckler/Light/Heavy? Wood/Steel/Mithral? I'm not sure how I'm supposed to know the AC boost. And if it's a buckler, that means a rod or something else could be held in the same hand, so that would be nice to know.
yea. clawhand shield is better and cheaper. +2 heavy shield (both are named items so both can't be upgraded without gm approval). but clawhand, beside the higher ac is actually helpful if grappled. and like the above doesn't have ac penalty or arcane miss chance. AND it make the somatic hand gestures so you don't need the other hand to be free.
also it's NOT an annoying so called 'intelligent' item that argue with you..
This caster’s shield always has one arcane scroll and knows the same arcane spells as the wielder. When the spell on the scroll is cast, another scroll of a spell the wielder knows randomly manifests to replace it. The shield has no arcane spell failure. The shield can also read magic. It will often debate with its wielder for the most devastating course of action, but does what the wielder commands.It's a +1 Light Wooden Shield.This +1 light wooden shield has a leather strip on the back on which a spellcaster can scribe a single spell as on a scroll. A spell so scribed requires half the normal cost in raw materials. The strip cannot accommodate spells of higher than 3rd level. The strip is reusable.
A random caster’s shield has a 50% chance of having a single medium scroll spell on it. The spell is divine (01–80 on d%) or arcane (81–100). A caster’s shield has a 5% arcane spell failure chance. The price of the shield is modified by the value of the scroll spell if one is currently scribed.
Awesome, thank you.
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yea. clawhand shield is better and cheaper.
Idk if it's objectively better.. It's just different. Better is determined by what kind of style your table uses. If your GM is one that pushes play and forces the party to really manage character resources, then the Shield of the Mage is definitely better.
The clawhand shield has it's benefits
1. Two more AC bonus, but most full caster's won't really be relying much on AC anyways
2. Auto attack against a grappler
3. Allows somatic components, so you can hold something (staff, rod, touch attack etc.) in your off hand.
But the Shield of the Mage can truly be built around to the point where it becomes broken.
1. Though it is a 2-turn use in combat (1 for the shield to decipher the scroll as a full round, and 2 to cast it) It doesn't actually use any of your actions.
2. Here's the big one... You can control and determine your "spells known" through a variety of ways. A wizard can erase spells that they deem as unnecessary and a sorcerer can reselect spells known as they level, and as graystone pointed out an alchemist can limit spells known to 1. If the only spells that the shield can cast are ones that are always useful, then it's essentially a free lesser quickened spell every other turn, and virtually unlimited use outside of combat. Haste, Invisibility, fly, ray of exhaustion, heroism... How about a party that has permanent heroism 24-7?
I of course think that using the item this way is dumb and really takes the fun out of the "randomness", but still. It truly can be munchkinned into being OP.
Erasing a spell from their spellbook--or even destroying the spellbook--doesn't cause a wizard to no longer know that spell. It's still one of their spells known, which allows them to, for example, prepare the spell using a borrowed spellbook. As far as I know, there is no way to remove spells known from a wizard, possibly excluding retraining their wizard levels to something else.
The sorcerer thing works, though.
There is one other drawback to the shield of the mage: If the bearer already has another intelligent item, they'll have to deal with petty bickering at best and outright dissension at worst.