So the party just finished the Scribbler's Rhyme and are using the Quill found within Lamashtu Shrine. They are still in Sandpoint and are taking a little downtime before seeking the Runeforge.
So the person playing the Cleric/Wizard sent the following;
Since we're in town and having some down time, I'd like to create some magic items.
* I'd like to turn the figurine I had prepared previously into an Ivory Pegasus (same as Ebony Fly except it's a figurine of ivory and turns into a white
Pegasus -- same mechanics). Book says I could build an Ebony Fly for 5,000 gp. I'll spend 6,000 gp to make this customized version. [6 days]
* I'd like to bump my Amulet of Natural Armor +1 into a +2. Difference in base price is [8000 - 2000] 6000 gp. Cost for me to improve would be 3000 gp [3 days]
So, I would spend the 6000 + 3000 gp and make the Ivory Pegasus and improve the Amulet of Natural Armor (assuming we can spend at least 9 days in town.
* With the use of Tongues spells and using the books we took from the library, Fenwich Obavo has taught himself and Thasalonian language. He can now speak, read and write it.
Is all that okay?
Would you as a GM allow all this?
Also, regarding Tongues spell. Is it really that easy cast the spell and now you can speak, read ,and write Thassalonian.
What happens after the spell expires?
When he cast it, is it instantaneous?
If he has 120 minutes total time when cast, how much would he be able to read?
What does he retain?
The party took about 200 books from the Thassalonian library. So the other issue is what can he also find in this amount of time.
Thanks,
Joe
For me only if he would put permanency on tongues that would work. Other way is just trying an abuse of the spell
The magic item math looks solid to me. I'm not sure I see why he should have to pay more for the Pegasus figurine, especially given the explicit reference to pegasus in the Ebony fly write-up.
I might suggest Tongues is for speaking not reading. The spell for reading is Comprehend Languages. Given they have the same duration, the description in CL gives the reading rate using magic which I would use if I allowed Tongues to let you read. But regardless of that, neither gives you the ability to do anything with the language when the magic is not operative. The only way to accomplish that would be to invest a point in Linguistics. (Someone might take Thassilon as a racial language but I'm hard pressed to find a case to justify it.) I would certainly agree that using magic to read Thassilonian documents and having access to the Library creates a justification to take a point in a language almost no one knows and would be hard to learn otherwise.
The books can't be taken from the library. They will turn to dust the moment they are taken out of the timeless field in the library itself.
The books can't be taken from the library. They will turn to dust the moment they are taken out of the timeless field in the library itself.
They put them into a bag of holding. I just rechecked and saw this part about the books decaying. So I'll let him know once they are removed from the Bag of Holding, they instantly start to decay.
Thanks
I think the big issue is they seem to be using the Downtime rules from Ultimate Campaign. You can learn a language using the Retraining rules, but that one sounds a little "iffy" as presented here. It is not horrendously abusive as presented, but a little over-generous may be the way to look at it. The use of tongues seems like just a flavoring for how the period of self-study worked.
If you have not looked at these, you may want to look at them.
The magic item math looks solid to me. I'm not sure I see why he should have to pay more for the Pegasus figurine, especially given the explicit reference to pegasus in the Ebony fly write-up.
I might suggest Tongues is for speaking not reading. The spell for reading is Comprehend Languages. Given they have the same duration, the description in CL gives the reading rate using magic which I would use if I allowed Tongues to let you read. But regardless of that, neither gives you the ability to do anything with the language when the magic is not operative. The only way to accomplish that would be to invest a point in Linguistics. (Someone might take Thassilon as a racial language but I'm hard pressed to find a case to justify it.) I would certainly agree that using magic to read Thassilonian documents and having access to the Library creates a justification to take a point in a language almost no one knows and would be hard to learn otherwise.
So can he take Thassilonian as a language. I don't see it listed as one of the normal languages. It's listed as an Ancient Language in the Ineer Sea world Guide on pg 251.
I don't see the problem here. By spending a point in linguistics you can (technically) learn every language you want. Why not Thassilonian? OK, it's mostly forgotten but the player has access to a whole library. He can use comprehend languages to read and understand thassilonian books and translate them and write the translation down. After the spell expires he can compare his translation with the original texts and has a solid basis for learning the vocabulary, the grammar and finally the whole language. (At least written, but in PF there is no difference in spoken and written when learning languages.)
Of course it's a matter of time but technically there is no time component when learning a new language. If he has enogh spare time, and spends a point in linguistics and has the access at least to the written language in the library I see absolutely no reason why this shouldn't work.