OK GMing question. I am working out a campaign where the players are starting of as early teens in a small town. The first few levels will occur over the years. Those playing "educated" classes are going to have mentors. This includes a Druid, an Arcanist, and either a Magus or an Occultist. There is also an Oracle, a Kineticist, and a Slayer.
Anyway I had the idea of the Arcanist receiving a book from his mentor. This could include arcane knowledge. Potentially things like how ley lines work or how to read a harrowing. That may or may not become useful in the campaign. Now I had 3 thoughts. Originally thought it might be cool to age up some paper with tea and make the whole booklet right from the start. This i thought woukd give it that I have a prop that "belongs in this world" feeling. I also had the idea of making a binder so the book can have "a spell on it that only allows him to see the pages when he is ready for them." That way I could add more later. Then I also thought what if each character had some source of knowledge that could be used later. If the one guy plays an Occultist he might have half translated lists of words from an ancient language he gets from his parents. The Druid might have a lexicon for reading Druidic and stories around places of power. The slayer may even know the ingredients for natural poisons.
I like the last option best, but not sure how to give something similar to the Kineticist and Oracle. Also does this make it seem boring and all the same if everyone or nearly everyone has some knowledge base like this? The benefit I saw was down the road I could slip in puzzles like having a password to enter a tomb be an ancient word written in Druid and then players have the info to work it out from the beginning making their backstory and mentor important.
The forum ate my last post...okay anyway I love your last option, also maybe give your oracle a list of prophecies and your kineticist innate knowledge of his elements or something, it was longer but I don't remember my post in its entirety
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Your basic idea and approach sounds great; I'm a little confused about what your question/problem is.
Regarding the Occultist: As you probably know, an Occultist's powers are dictated by their chosen Implements, each of which are of a magical school, and each school has different kinds of items that can be Implements for that school - a book is only appropriate for divination, for example - so for the Occultist, you should find out what schools of Implement the player's chosen for his starting two, and get him a prop that matches one of those.
Your basic idea and approach sounds great; I'm a little confused about what your question/problem is.
Regarding the Occultist: As you probably know, an Occultist's powers are dictated by their chosen Implements, each of which are of a magical school, and each school has different kinds of items that can be Implements for that school - a book is only appropriate for divination, for example - so for the Occultist, you should find out what schools of Implement the player's chosen for his starting two, and get him a prop that matches one of those.
I think I am going with the binder to add stuff later. Mostly my question was around what kind of game seemed more fun. I originally came up with the book idea for the Arcanist as something cool for his character. I am worried that giving everyone a similar tome would ruin the interest factor because then it's ok I have a book but everyone has a book so nothing cool. So would it would be better to have the Arcanist get a book and come up with something different for each character. Or is it enough that the contexts would cover different areas and so each person get their own area of expertise.
The book wouldn't need to be a focus for the occultist, if that is what he ends up playing. It would be a prop with in world knowledge of some kind that may end up useful to the character. If he does play an occultist he then I guess he could use it as a focus if he does divination since it would be an item pf personal significance from his mentor.
The forum ate my last post...okay anyway I love your last option, also maybe give your oracle a list of prophecies and your kineticist innate knowledge of his elements or something, it was longer but I don't remember my post in its entirety
Ok for a knowledge base that work I also guess I can piggy back on the mentors of 2 other characters since the kineticist is a non human following the druid around like a companion and the oracle is going to be a unicorn following the Arcanist around, so I could have their mentors give the kinetecist and oracle their tomes.
Flavor wise your idea sounds fine.
I would nail down the mechanics a little harder, with each of their tomes providing a +2 (most likely) bonus to a (different) craft, knowledge or profession skill as appropriate. This makes them the equivalent of a masterwork tool. If you want them to be cooler than just a masterwork tool you could (a) have them provide insight instead of circumstance as the bonus type, so they would stack or (b) make the bonus higher.
One other advantage to this is that you can, should you wish, alter the flavor of some of the items to be something other then tomes, the Unicorn Oracle could have a carved gemstone flower handed down from her ancestors that whispers secrets of fighting evil outsiders to her (i.e. +2 knowledge: planes). You could still create specific 'pages' for each player/character as you desired of specific flavor things for your world that might or might not impact the game (The tale of the herd battle against the evil Balor)
Flavor wise your idea sounds fine.
I would nail down the mechanics a little harder, with each of their tomes providing a +2 (most likely) bonus to a (different) craft, knowledge or profession skill as appropriate. This makes them the equivalent of a masterwork tool. If you want them to be cooler than just a masterwork tool you could (a) have them provide insight instead of circumstance as the bonus type, so they would stack or (b) make the bonus higher.
One other advantage to this is that you can, should you wish, alter the flavor of some of the items to be something other then tomes, the Unicorn Oracle could have a carved gemstone flower handed down from her ancestors that whispers secrets of fighting evil outsiders to her (i.e. +2 knowledge: planes). You could still create specific 'pages' for each player/character as you desired of specific flavor things for your world that might or might not impact the game (The tale of the herd battle against the evil Balor)
Hmm I will consider the mechanics, but I had originally seen these as more character pieces that might come in handy for in-world situations not as a stat bonus, but for knowledge / personal significance. The Arcanist, for example, is going to play an archetype to focus on the divination school. I figured his book, at least at first, may only have directions on how to read a harrowing. If he performs a harrowing when it is a story moment, then I will actually place the cards out as the character feels something like, "Though you have played the cards many times, now it feels as though hands not your own embrace yours as you shuffle the deck and begin to lay them out." The guy will then get a real in game divination, if he can read it right according to what is in his book.
The Slayer on the other hand may have different poisons, the ingredients, and their best use. Maybe a spider's venom will work quicker in the blood and best used for blades. A specific serpent's venom might seem to cause a person to become ill over several days before dying if ingested allowing a clean get away. He can use the knowledge to plan his attempt not as a random bonus, but for strategy.
The Druid will have a druidic script he can therefore read. The former occultist now shaman wants quests related to learning the true names of spirits, so he may have some in his book to get him started. Maybe there will be a riddle written in druidic, but referencing several of these names. These 2 would together have the knowledge to solve the riddle.
That's the kind of things I have been thinking instead of stat bonuses. For the Oracle and the Kinetecist though especially I do like giving it some other form.