I spent some time lately pondering the mostly flavor ability of the order of scribe's quill pen and it occurred to me that two of the features could have a lot of uses to a creative mind: Quill can write any color on a "writIng surface" and erasing ink from the pen with a wave of the feather (within 5 feet).
Basic uses of this easily create secret messages, reusable journal logs, messages scrawled on "writable" walls, etc
Some more creative uses might be:
- contracts that change after signing(wave of a feather),
- "helpful" messages on maze walls that are changed frequently by a prankster maze owner,
- magic scrolls that are unreadable to others because the ink is the same color as the paper
It also occurred to me that the spellbook being written in this ink implies that any spell In the spellbook can be erased at any time by the wizard who wrote it, but since the awakened spellbook can literally be destroyed and the spells be resummoned to another book... would erasing the Ink actually remove a spell from the book, or could this be used to hide forbidden spells from sight until the awakened book is resummoned to a spare book later?
Does anyone else have fun ideas on uses for this pen feature?
- contracts that change after signing(wave of a feather), - "helpful" messages on maze walls that are changed frequently by a prankster maze owner,
The quill doesn't allow you to change the writings, it only allows you to delete parts. While that could have some potential effect for contracts it would be limited (unless you where running a game for accountants/lawyers).
You could change a contract by removing a critical final phrase such as "this is valid until the new moon" or something along these lines, assuming you're the one that wrote it.
And you can redact a text (including your spell scrolls) by having it written in normal ink, then blot it out with your quill's ink, matching the normal ink's color.
Just to be clear, I wasn't intending to modify other inks, just creative use of deleting ink written by the quill itself.
I am more trying to brainstorm creative uses of said ability but I do appreciate having holes poked into ideas that stretched a bit too far.
I am curious about the spellbook idea though, since the spells in your spellbook would presumably all be written in the quill ink, the writing could be removed. Would that remove the spell itself or would its essence still be in the awakened spellbook and reappear when the character performs a book replacement over a short rest?
To me the phrase "if the book still existed" implies a damaged ot destroyed book could be fully restored, so it could have interesting implications if removing the ink of a spell did not actually remove the spell itself.
Though if the restored.book restored the spell but with the ink gone that would not br quote so useful...
As a bonus action, you can magically create a Tiny quill in your free hand. The magic quill has the following properties:
The quill doesn’t require ink. When you write with it, it produces ink in a color of your choice on the writing surface.
The time you must spend to copy a spell into your spellbook equals 2 minutes per spell level if you use the quill for the transcription.
You can erase anything you write with the quill if you wave the feather over the text as a bonus action, provided the text is within 5 feet of you.
This quill disappears if you create another one or if you die.
So, yes, there are creative uses. Many a DM would give a bonus (lower DC or Advantage) to a forgery roll... assuming the writing was done with the magic quill. One could do all sorts of sneaky things here. Note not everything is foolproof or undetectable.
For the changing a contract, sure it would give a huge edge, assuming your wrote the contract with said pen. If you delete wording and then re-write in a blank space, the spacing of the newly added words might not be the same as the rest of the document, raising some suspicion.
Of course you can write on walls with the pen and change them at will (when present). Of course some chalk and water do the same thing, so its cantrip level shenanigans (but could be a hoot nonetheless)
Personally I'd hesitate to allow writing a magic scroll with the ink claiming only the spellcaster could read it. Normally special magical inks are required to pen a magical scroll, which would not be duplicated by the quill's magic ink. But if it was allowed, without magical aid, anyone would have a near impossible time reading it due to the color... which could be funny all its own "Roll an Arcana or Perception check for this Fireball scroll... the creator foolishly made parchment colored ink when penning it. Oh you rolled a "1" did you... here's what happens!"
Here's mine: Draft a will for the King of the Realm. Upon his death, delete the writing, but leave the King's signature and royal seal. A whole "Game" around trying to get on the "Throne" could ensue...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Remember there are Rules as Written (RAW), Rules as Intended (RAI), and Rules as Fun (RAF). There's some great RAW, RAI, and RAF here... please check in with your DM to determine how they want to adjudicate the RAW/RAI/RAF for your game.
Neat ideas! Getting the King to let you draft said will might be a challenge, but it could be a cool evil NPC/plot hook idea!
At level 10 the Master Scriviner ability can craft scrolls at half price anyway so I think the ink is fIne for magic scrolls at any level so long as its full scroll crafting price for levels 1~9.
Alternate idea... infrared inks and either goggles of the night (themed as infrared goggles) can see them or perhaps Gnome or Artificer tinkerIng (with DM permission) can make special glasses that color shift the reflected light so users of said glasses could read it. (these glasses would NOT generate darkvision though)
Doing explosive runes (Glyph of Warding) this way might be fun (flavor wise) but they are already nearly invisible anyway.
Eccentric Gnomish inventor/order of scribes wizard with a macguffin the players need for story reasons has disappeared. In the Gnome's abandoned mansion is a pair of strange glasses that are aimed at an invisible message only the glasses can allow you to see... can the players find all the clues with the special glasses to help them find either the macguffin or the missing gnome? Is there another sinister meaning behind the invisible messages?
Eccentric Gnomish inventor/order of scribes wizard with a macguffin the players need for story reasons has disappeared. In the Gnome's abandoned mansion is a pair of strange glasses that are aimed at an invisible message only the glasses can allow you to see... can the players find all the clues with the special glasses to help them find either the macguffin or the missing gnome? Is there another sinister meaning behind the invisible messages?
And you do a snippet in real life for cool handout effect. Have a message be in one light colored ink with lots of red ink distracting. Have the player look thru clear red plastic and the confounding red ink goes away leaving the true message...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Remember there are Rules as Written (RAW), Rules as Intended (RAI), and Rules as Fun (RAF). There's some great RAW, RAI, and RAF here... please check in with your DM to determine how they want to adjudicate the RAW/RAI/RAF for your game.
I spent some time lately pondering the mostly flavor ability of the order of scribe's quill pen and it occurred to me that two of the features could have a lot of uses to a creative mind: Quill can write any color on a "writIng surface" and erasing ink from the pen with a wave of the feather (within 5 feet).
Basic uses of this easily create secret messages, reusable journal logs, messages scrawled on "writable" walls, etc
Some more creative uses might be:
- contracts that change after signing(wave of a feather),
- "helpful" messages on maze walls that are changed frequently by a prankster maze owner,
- magic scrolls that are unreadable to others because the ink is the same color as the paper
It also occurred to me that the spellbook being written in this ink implies that any spell In the spellbook can be erased at any time by the wizard who wrote it, but since the awakened spellbook can literally be destroyed and the spells be resummoned to another book... would erasing the Ink actually remove a spell from the book, or could this be used to hide forbidden spells from sight until the awakened book is resummoned to a spare book later?
Does anyone else have fun ideas on uses for this pen feature?
Seems to me that you over estimate what the quill does.
The quill doesn't allow you to change the writings, it only allows you to delete parts. While that could have some potential effect for contracts it would be limited (unless you where running a game for accountants/lawyers).
They would be unreadable to you too though, so not overly helpful I'd say.
You could change a contract by removing a critical final phrase such as "this is valid until the new moon" or something along these lines, assuming you're the one that wrote it.
And you can redact a text (including your spell scrolls) by having it written in normal ink, then blot it out with your quill's ink, matching the normal ink's color.
Just to be clear, I wasn't intending to modify other inks, just creative use of deleting ink written by the quill itself.
I am more trying to brainstorm creative uses of said ability but I do appreciate having holes poked into ideas that stretched a bit too far.
I am curious about the spellbook idea though, since the spells in your spellbook would presumably all be written in the quill ink, the writing could be removed. Would that remove the spell itself or would its essence still be in the awakened spellbook and reappear when the character performs a book replacement over a short rest?
To me the phrase "if the book still existed" implies a damaged ot destroyed book could be fully restored, so it could have interesting implications if removing the ink of a spell did not actually remove the spell itself.
Though if the restored.book restored the spell but with the ink gone that would not br quote so useful...
Just to be clear the text reads:
So, yes, there are creative uses. Many a DM would give a bonus (lower DC or Advantage) to a forgery roll... assuming the writing was done with the magic quill. One could do all sorts of sneaky things here. Note not everything is foolproof or undetectable.
For the changing a contract, sure it would give a huge edge, assuming your wrote the contract with said pen. If you delete wording and then re-write in a blank space, the spacing of the newly added words might not be the same as the rest of the document, raising some suspicion.
Of course you can write on walls with the pen and change them at will (when present). Of course some chalk and water do the same thing, so its cantrip level shenanigans (but could be a hoot nonetheless)
Personally I'd hesitate to allow writing a magic scroll with the ink claiming only the spellcaster could read it. Normally special magical inks are required to pen a magical scroll, which would not be duplicated by the quill's magic ink. But if it was allowed, without magical aid, anyone would have a near impossible time reading it due to the color... which could be funny all its own "Roll an Arcana or Perception check for this Fireball scroll... the creator foolishly made parchment colored ink when penning it. Oh you rolled a "1" did you... here's what happens!"
Here's mine: Draft a will for the King of the Realm. Upon his death, delete the writing, but leave the King's signature and royal seal. A whole "Game" around trying to get on the "Throne" could ensue...
Remember there are Rules as Written (RAW), Rules as Intended (RAI), and Rules as Fun (RAF). There's some great RAW, RAI, and RAF here... please check in with your DM to determine how they want to adjudicate the RAW/RAI/RAF for your game.
Neat ideas! Getting the King to let you draft said will might be a challenge, but it could be a cool evil NPC/plot hook idea!
At level 10 the Master Scriviner ability can craft scrolls at half price anyway so I think the ink is fIne for magic scrolls at any level so long as its full scroll crafting price for levels 1~9.
Alternate idea... infrared inks and either goggles of the night (themed as infrared goggles) can see them or perhaps Gnome or Artificer tinkerIng (with DM permission) can make special glasses that color shift the reflected light so users of said glasses could read it. (these glasses would NOT generate darkvision though)
Doing explosive runes (Glyph of Warding) this way might be fun (flavor wise) but they are already nearly invisible anyway.
SpeakIng of plot hooks...
That Infrared idea just gave me another idea:
Eccentric Gnomish inventor/order of scribes wizard with a macguffin the players need for story reasons has disappeared. In the Gnome's abandoned mansion is a pair of strange glasses that are aimed at an invisible message only the glasses can allow you to see... can the players find all the clues with the special glasses to help them find either the macguffin or the missing gnome? Is there another sinister meaning behind the invisible messages?
And you do a snippet in real life for cool handout effect. Have a message be in one light colored ink with lots of red ink distracting. Have the player look thru clear red plastic and the confounding red ink goes away leaving the true message...
Remember there are Rules as Written (RAW), Rules as Intended (RAI), and Rules as Fun (RAF). There's some great RAW, RAI, and RAF here... please check in with your DM to determine how they want to adjudicate the RAW/RAI/RAF for your game.
Yeah, maybe not much in the way of battle use, but this pen could have lots if RP opportunities.