Let's assume that Profession: Scholar is a valid profession, or else maybe Profession: Barrister will work. Let's say that we take this at level 1. How can we best weaponize a book?
No, I don't mean a spellbook. I don't mean magic. I mean literally grab a book and beat the living CRAP out of people with it.
Discuss. High INT builds preferred.
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Three words: Living Grimoire Inquisitor.
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Three words: Living Grimoire Inquisitor.
YES.
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I can not support this idea...the damage to the books would be too great.
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You need an archetype for that?
Rules lawyers can kill whole campaigns with books.
A friend of mine has a hypothetical build with that. Grab the Knowledge domain, boop people on the head with an encyclopedia, and have writing magically appear about that creature in the encyclopedia.
Furthermore, the Scrollmaster Wizard turns scrolls into actual weapons. Not quite books, but close enough. A bit pricey, but I've seen a build that could make it work:
Scrollmaster Wizard 1/Magus x - I will fully acknowledge how silly this one is, but with a fortifying stone to keep the scroll from breaking, and make whole to keep them intact, you can easily be swinging an effective +6 weapon in PFS for under 2k gp. You will likely want to use a ring of spell knowledge or an arcana to add the make whole spell to the magus list.
(Credit to Angry Wiggles for the idea)
And there's the Tome Eater Occultist who draws magic from his book and blasts people with it. Maybe not as flavourful as the Living Grimoire, but it's close.
Lore Keeper (Sp): You can touch a creature to learn about its abilities and weaknesses. With a successful touch attack, you gain information as if you made the appropriate Knowledge skill check with a result equal to 15 + your cleric level + your Wisdom modifier.
With a successful Touch Attack... Does that mean I have to use an action specifically to get that information, or could I (if I had touch attack spells) charge up a spell and WHAP people with the book as a touch attack to discharge the spell and get my knowledge? I'm assuming I'd need to take a separate action to use Lore Keeper.
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When you place the Conductive enchantment on the book, then bop someone on the head with it, you can channel the Lore Keeper ability through the book.
In context I think Lore Keeper uses its own touch attack.
BTW, a telekineticist can use anything as a weapon. Including books.
I was going to say that Make Whole wouldn't work on scrolls but then I found out about the stone, question then. Do you need to make whole before the Fortifying Stone is destroyed or can you wait for it to break and then repair it?
So, a Living Grimoire Inquisitor with the Magic and Knowledge Domains could literally throw the book at someone as a standard action and with the conductive property could use a spell with a range of Touch OR get a free Dispel off OR get to make an automatic 15 on a Knowledge Check vs. that enemy?
This is starting to sound amazing.
Conductive works on spell-like and supernatural abilities but not actual spells. You need the spell storing property or the spellstrike ability for that.
Hm. Is there any way of getting an inquisitor-friendly spellstrike? VMC Magus doesn't sound useful for this particular concept. (You sacrifice a lot to get Spellstrike at level 11... with spells that are shared with the Magus. The other abilities are cool, but lots of games are nearing their end/climax by then.)
Naw, Inlaa is talking about the domain powers. Unfortunately the conductive weapon requires you to expend two uses of the domain power, so while the knowledge power works all of the time (since it has no limit) the Magic Dispel has a very hard limit of times you could use it with a conductive weapon of Once at level 12 and once again at level 20.
There is no method for an inquisitor to use spellstrike, the closest thing Divine spellcasters have to that is Fervor from the Warpriest.
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Three words: Living Grimoire Inquisitor.
I approve of this self-insertion rules lawyer archetype.
So, a Living Grimoire Inquisitor with the Magic and Knowledge Domains could literally throw the book at someone as a standard action and with the conductive property could use a spell with a range of Touch OR get a free Dispel off OR get to make an automatic 15 on a Knowledge Check vs. that enemy?
This is starting to sound amazing.
Unfortunately, Inquisitors only get 1 domain.
Unfortunately, Inquisitors only get 1 domain.So, a Living Grimoire Inquisitor with the Magic and Knowledge Domains could literally throw the book at someone as a standard action and with the conductive property could use a spell with a range of Touch OR get a free Dispel off OR get to make an automatic 15 on a Knowledge Check vs. that enemy?
This is starting to sound amazing.
Oh. Right. Drat.
Okay, so either Knowledge OR literally throwing the book at someone.
Remember, Conductive requires 2 uses of the ability in order to function!
Yeah, that'll sting if I go Arcane. It'd be nice to cast a dispel on the enemy with a throw of the book, but... Ouch.
Knowledge sounds like the better choice with this setup. Beat 'em and learn their weaknesses, then spout off the lore to the party and beat 'em a little harder, this time with gusto.
But its cool, and style is key in table-top games.
The Librarian 3PP Class has an archetype beating people with books.
Living Grimoire could have been pretty good but the Campaign Clarifications and some shoddy wording of abilities really killed it. The main points:
The book is not considered an improvised weapon.
If you choose the Bane ability for your sacred weapon once, you must choose the same creature type for Bane all day.
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Living Grimoire could have been pretty good but the Campaign Clarifications and some shoddy wording of abilities really killed it. The main points:
The book is not considered an improvised weapon.
If you choose the Bane ability for your sacred weapon once, you must choose the same creature type for Bane all day.
Could you point me to the source for being stuck with the same Bane choice all day?
Could you point me to the source for being stuck with the same Bane choice all day?Living Grimoire could have been pretty good but the Campaign Clarifications and some shoddy wording of abilities really killed it. The main points:
The book is not considered an improvised weapon.
If you choose the Bane ability for your sacred weapon once, you must choose the same creature type for Bane all day.
Well, it says so in the ability itself:
At 4th level, the living grimoire gains the ability to enhance his holy book with divine power as a swift action. This ability grants the holy book a +1 enhancement bonus. For every 4 inquisitor levels the living grimoire has beyond 4th, this bonus increases by 1 (to a maximum of +5 at 20th level).
These bonuses stack with any existing bonuses the holy book might have, to a maximum of +5. The living grimoire can enhance his holy book to have any of the special abilities listed in the warpriest’s sacred weapon ability, subject to the same alignment restrictions, but adds bane to the general special ability list. Adding any of these special abilities to the holy book consumes an amount of enhancement bonus equal to the special ability’s base price modifier. The holy book must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus before the living grimoire can add any special abilities to it. The living grimoire can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to his inquisitor level, but these rounds don’t need to be consecutive. As with the warpriest sacred weapon ability, he determines the enhancement bonus and special abilities the first time he uses the ability each day, and they cannot be changed until the next day.
And just for good measure:
....These bonuses stack with any existing bonuses the weapon might have, to a maximum of +5. The warpriest can enhance a weapon with any of the following weapon special abilities: brilliant energy, defending, disruption, flaming, frost, keen, and shock. In addition, if the warpriest is chaotic, he can add anarchic and vicious. If he is evil, he can add mighty cleaving and unholy. If he is good, he can add ghost touch and holy. If he is lawful, he can add axiomatic and merciful. If he is neutral (with no other alignment components), he can add spell storing and thundering. Adding any of these special abilities replaces an amount of bonus equal to the special ability’s base cost. Duplicate abilities do not stack. The weapon must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus before any other special abilities can be added.
If multiple weapons are enhanced, each one consumes rounds of use individually. The enhancement bonus and special abilities are determined the first time the ability is used each day, and cannot be changed until the next day. These bonuses do not apply if another creature is wielding the weapon, but they continue to be in effect if the weapon otherwise leaves the warpriest’s possession (such as if the weapon is thrown).
Unfortunately, Inquisitors only get 1 domain.So, a Living Grimoire Inquisitor with the Magic and Knowledge Domains could literally throw the book at someone as a standard action and with the conductive property could use a spell with a range of Touch OR get a free Dispel off OR get to make an automatic 15 on a Knowledge Check vs. that enemy?
This is starting to sound amazing.
Dip into Cleric for one level for both Domains? Nethys has both domains on her portfolio.
And you need to use a standard action to boop people for the Lore Keeper ability. It's a Supernatural ability, and those are usually a standard action to manifest (unless you have the Conductive weapon, as above).
I was going to say that Make Whole wouldn't work on scrolls but then I found out about the stone, question then. Do you need to make whole before the Fortifying Stone is destroyed or can you wait for it to break and then repair it?
Depends on your caster level, I think. Most one-use magic items (such as a Snapleaf) are completely destroyed once they run out, and Make Whole specifically says it can only repair destroyed magic items if the caster level is at least twice the item's CL (in this case, 7). I was planning on buying scrolls of Make Whole, so they don't go above the twice the CL needed for the item, so I'd need one or two casts per PFS adventure for that.
If your gonna beat someone with a book I suggest hard backs the heavier the better. PF core is pretty solid start. War and peace however is more like war and unconscious for this use.
The Librarian 3PP Class has an archetype beating people with books.care to share more info on that? I can not find a librarian 3pp class
VMC Magus doesn't seem like a terrible idea. Sure the level 11 ability is late and limited but the other abilities would be great for any intelligence-using melee character.
A possible plan if human:
1: Enforcer feat, heavy armor proficiency feat (drop this if not human), make sure you get the bruising intellect trait and the divine favor spell. Hedging weapons would be fun if you want to throw a book at someone though not amazingly effective. Make sure you're lawful aligned.
3: Lookout teamwork feat, also you get an arcane pool.
4: Assuming your book is now +1 you can now give it the merciful property as a swift action, for use with the enforcer feat. Alternately you'd need to use your arcane pool first. Instrument of agony or castigate would be good spells to get.
5: Scrutinize spell feat. It looks fun and useful and fits with the know-it-all knowledge guy.
6: Outflank teamwork feat.
7: Arcane accuracy magus arcana. The draconic malice spell allows you to use fear effects on anything living (undead & constructs still unaffected, sorry.)
9: Power attack feat, shake it off teamwork feat. Maybe retrain enforcer to cornugon smash.
10: Forceful strike or greater invisibility look like good 4th level spells.
11: Spellstrike. Stricken heart works with this (and is good!) but little or nothing else does. Maybe if you got the close range arcana at 7 there'd be more options? I'm not sure.
12: Allied spellcaster teamwork feat.
There's actually an interesting loophole/exploit I noticed in the Living Grimoire's abilities. The Blessed Script says that the spell you tattoo on yourself has to come from your holy book, however it does not say that it has to be a spell from the inquisitor spell list. This means that you could put a wizard spell into the book (not scribed by you, of course, but by a wizard. Alternatively, designate a wizard's spellbook as your holy book, take a spell from there, and profit.
In addition, the 16th level spell can be "of any level." Grab a 9th level spell, and have fun with it!
If that stretches things too far, just play as a Samsaran, and select the spells you want with their Mystic Past Life alternate racial trait. By the text of that, you don't have to be able to cast the spells as a 1st level caster, or, really, ever. The spell level doesn't change, though, so it's usually useless to 6-level casters. However, with the 16th level Blessed Script tattoo, you can actually get that spell as and SLA 1/day.
I'm not entirely sure what the best use of this would be, however I'm sure there's some fun combos that you could pull off that might make the archetype useful. Well, until this exploit is caught and FAQed away.
Also, fun fact: it's possible to translate the Word of God ability to where anyone you try to smite is automatically immune to the effect for 24 hours.
Poor living grimoire, it needs errata badly.
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There's actually an interesting loophole/exploit I noticed in the Living Grimoire's abilities. The Blessed Script says that the spell you tattoo on yourself has to come from your holy book, however it does not say that it has to be a spell from the inquisitor spell list. This means that you could put a wizard spell into the book (not scribed by you, of course, but by a wizard. Alternatively, designate a wizard's spellbook as your holy book, take a spell from there, and profit.
In addition, the 16th level spell can be "of any level." Grab a 9th level spell, and have fun with it!
If that stretches things too far, just play as a Samsaran, and select the spells you want with their Mystic Past Life alternate racial trait. By the text of that, you don't have to be able to cast the spells as a 1st level caster, or, really, ever. The spell level doesn't change, though, so it's usually useless to 6-level casters. However, with the 16th level Blessed Script tattoo, you can actually get that spell as and SLA 1/day.
I'm not entirely sure what the best use of this would be, however I'm sure there's some fun combos that you could pull off that might make the archetype useful. Well, until this exploit is caught and FAQed away.
Also, fun fact: it's possible to translate the Word of God ability to where anyone you try to smite is automatically immune to the effect for 24 hours.
Are you worshiping the wizard as your god? I think there is a mythic ability to do that.
Be a god wizard focusing on conjuration. The holy text in this case would be his spellbook. Have the other party member be beating your enemies to death with your spellbook.
10/10 would play.
Play a telekineticist. Take telekinetic boomerang from Psychic Anthology.
Throw the book at them.
And again...and again ... and again...