Maybe "you can make a DC10 INT check to make a sudden realization. You can ask the DM for the answer to a puzzle or riddle that you character is pondering. You can alternatively ask the DM a question that your character could reasonably deduce at their discretion. Once a question has been answered you cant use this feature again until after a long rest."
It's a half-stat feat, meaning normally you're taking it because you only need a +1 to INT and just want some other cool features. I think it's plenty fun and even powerful in social and skill-based encounters, it just doesn't really have combat relevance. If you do want to rework it to provide a combat effect, that would probably warrant removing the +1 INT bullet. Some sort of intelligence/memory based effect could be a mini-version of the Battlemaster's 7th level Know Yours Enemy feature.
I don't care about the lack of combat effectiveness. It's the always know what's north part that I find to be weak. I'm just looking to re-flavor it, I guess.
Being able to correctly orient yourself underground, in a maze, while blindfolded and being led somewhere, etc etc is a very powerful ability. So is photographic memory. So is knowing accurately what time of day it is undergound, indoors, etc. In the context of the right plot, these are possibly even game breakingly good. They aren't so much "Keen Mind" as they are "I'm a Computer".
If you want other "I'm a smart guy" features to replace them with that are similar in power, houserule away. They'll probably be too strong, but maybe one of these would be a jumping off point
Mini-Prodigy: Learn one knowledge skill, and gain Expertise in one knowledge skill of your choice that you are proficient in (Arcana, History, Religion, Nature)
Add half your proficiency bonus to any knowledge skill which does not already add your proficiency bonus (e.g. a more limited version of Bard's Jack of All Trades, mental version of Champion's Remarkable Athlete )
Spend 1 minute observing an NPC to be able to tell if a creature is your superior, equal, or inferior for two of the following: one or more mental stats (WIS, INT, CHA), saving throw DC, highest level spell slot compared to your own, total class levels (e.g. a mental version of Battlemaster's Know Your Enemy)
Honestly the only reason why it seems underwhelming is because most tables are lenient with this information in the first place.
I know for my own table i keep the compass rose on the map grid and SO many times I repeat old history or lore or more when I'm going over or introducing something. I honestly *don't* want to be so free with recalling information especially since one of the players was contemplating taking this but ended up not but still freely give out past information if only to keep the players engaged in the story (my first time DMing, not the best storyteller & doing a campaign thats not the most linear, or story packed so feel kind of stagnant if i withhold things)
I think I'm just going to aim player at the prodigy feat. The automaticity of Keen Mind kills too much story tension for me, and the game I'm running doesn't make the "I know which direction is North" feature all that useful.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I appreciate it.
Honestly the only reason why it seems underwhelming is because most tables are lenient with this information in the first place.
I know for my own table i keep the compass rose on the map grid and SO many times I repeat old history or lore or more when I'm going over or introducing something. I honestly *don't* want to be so free with recalling information especially since one of the players was contemplating taking this but ended up not but still freely give out past information if only to keep the players engaged in the story (my first time DMing, not the best storyteller & doing a campaign thats not the most linear, or story packed so feel kind of stagnant if i withhold things)
not just that...
but most tables/DMs, etc.
for the sake of brevity and expedience will let players just “remember” stuff that was maybe only briefly mentioned once, by some forgettable townsfolk randomly gossiping in town, over a month of downtime and adventuring ago. Just to speed up the game. Cause they don’t want to waste time having all their players rolling history and arcana checks, based on what they are remembering, to remember.
and will just let them remember it, or flat out tell them, just to speed up the game/not bog the game down.
-when games and DMs, routinely do things that undermine built in mechanics and feats. Of course the effected mechanics and feats are going to seem lame. (Remarkable athlete of champion anyone?).
so you got to then go out of your way essentially. you make things useful by overdramatizing them. Like the level 6 variant human barbarian totem barbarian who will then multiclass rogue/bard or something. But only went 6 levels of barbarian to get the aspect of the eagle to see things super clear and detailed 1 mile away to go with his keen mind and observant feats. And is a spy. Lip reading conversations perfectly from 1 mile away.
Good for spellcasters who lost their spellbook - they can just remember all the spells for making a new one.
Good if you have some artistic skill to make photo-like pictures or basically anything you have seen.
Great for solving mazes and navigation.
Can be great at making illusions of anything you have seen even in only passing.
Great with Minor Conjuration to literally create any book you have ever read to either compare notes, help research - or, recreate a spellbook you've quickly read but weren't allowed to take - or your own, since that may be safer than carrying your actual book around.
Please note that it won’t work for spellbook replacement, but probably should to avoid player meltdown :)
It does if you combine with Minor Conjuration. Keen Mind lets you remember every page, the conjuration effect can be a perfect copy of anything you have seen. So, yes, you can recreate the spellbook - temporarily. But while it is there you can copy spells into a new real book - at half the time and cost. And you can use the conjuration as often as you want.
Realistically keen mind should let you recreate the spellbook without needing the conjuration, but the wording in the spell-copying feature stating it must be from a written source does prevent that (which is bonkers).
It may be worth looking closely at the "Preparing and Casting Spells" and "Your Spellbook" entries in the Wizard class:
Preparing and Casting Spells
The Wizard table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your wizard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
You prepare the list of wizard spells that are available for you to cast. To do so, choose a number of wizard spells from your spellbook equal to your Intelligence modifier + your wizard level (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
For example, if you’re a 3rd-level wizard, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With an Intelligence of 16, your list of prepared spells can include six spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination, chosen from your spellbook. If you prepare the 1st-level spell magic missile, you can cast it using a 1st-level or a 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn’t remove it from your list of prepared spells.
You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of wizard spells requires time spent studying your spellbook and memorizing the incantations and gestures you must make to cast the spell: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.
YOUR SPELLBOOK
The spells that you add to your spellbook as you gain levels reflect the arcane research you conduct on your own, as well as intellectual breakthroughs you have had about the nature of the multiverse. You might find other spells during your adventures. You could discover a spell recorded on a scroll in an evil wizard’s chest, for example, or in a dusty tome in an ancient library.
Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a spell level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
Copying that spell into your spellbook involves reproducing the basic form of the spell, then deciphering the unique system of notation used by the wizard who wrote it. You must practice the spell until you understand the sounds or gestures required, then transcribe it into your spellbook using your own notation.
For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the spell just like your other spells.
Replacing the Book.You can copy a spell from your own spellbook into another book—for example, if you want to make a backup copy of your spellbook. This is just like copying a new spell into your spellbook, but faster and easier, since you understand your own notation and already know how to cast the spell. You need spend only 1 hour and 10 gp for each level of the copied spell.
If you lose your spellbook, you can use the same procedure to transcribe the spells that you have prepared into a new spellbook. Filling out the remainder of your spellbook requires you to find new spells to do so, as normal. For this reason, many wizards keep backup spellbooks in a safe place.
The Book’s Appearance. Your spellbook is a unique compilation of spells, with its own decorative flourishes and margin notes. It might be a plain, functional leather volume that you received as a gift from your master, a finely bound gilt-edged tome you found in an ancient library, or even a loose collection of notes scrounged together after you lost your previous spellbook in a mishap.
Interested to hear your takeaways, but as I see them:
Preparing spells can only be done "from" your Spellbook with "time spent studying" the spellbook. I've always taken this to mean that you have your Spellbook open in front of you and are reading it, not merely that you are preparing a spell which also happens to be in your Spellbook off somewhere else. Do you read "from" differently?
Does reading a magical facsimile that looks the exact same as your spellbook work for this reading "from"? I see why logically it might, but then again, if all that matters is the shape of the words on the page then why does it require a wizard to spend money/have to personally replicate their own spellbook to make a copy? If all that mattered was the shape of the ink on the pages, and not some sort of magical quality of the book itself, then you'd be able to have someone else copy your book for you (which while maybe possible, isn't what the rules describe), or copy it with Fabricate or something without spending any special costs?
The fact that you can't Prepare spells that are written not in your spellbook (for example, Preparing spells written on Spell Scrolls that you have collected?) further reinforces for me that there's something special about the spellbook itself, and not just your ability to read some words on a page that represent a spell. You can read/understand a spell scroll just fine (which is why you're able to comprehend it enough to write it in your own book), and yet that doesn't empower you to cast the spell until you write it in your book and then read it from that book.
I forget what section describes the process by which if you've lost your spellbook, you can transcribe the spells that you currently have prepared back into it (paying cost/time to do so) but not all of the other un-prepared spells which you've essentially lost completely. But now that I don't see that language... did I dream it? Is it your interpretation that you can normally only re-write spells you currently have prepared if you've lost your book, but that with this feat you could in theory rewrite everything without having to re-find those spell scrolls?
The "spellbook" is not a magic item specifically bound to you. It's just a book. The reason why copying them takes so long and requires expensive ink is because you are translating things into your own understanding, your notes and annotations. You can copy it as much as you want. You don't need to have the pages even bound together - you can have it more as a haphazard collection of notes (it even lists "a loose collection of notes scrounged together" as an example of 'your spellbook') so "spellbook" is only used as an easy reference to 'where you keep your spells'.
When you defeat a wizard the DM will rarely give you their entire spellbook - they'l
Once prepared the spells stay in your head. You don't need to prepare them ever again - you only need to refer to your spells (book, collection of notes, whatever) to prepare a new list.
Making an exact copy of your spellbook doesn't matter if you wrote it out or conjure a temporary copy thanks to your Keen Mind photographic memory.
Spellbooknanigans aside, I'm of two minds about Keen Mind.
On the one hand, I'm one of those players (and also DMs) who feels like demanding that your players take copious notes and taking malicious glee when they fail to remember some obscure bit of trivia I gave them thirty sessions ago and I get to punish them for it is kinda being an awful DM. When I'm saying stuff, setting scenes and describing shit, I don't want my players' noses stuffed in their notebooks - I want them listening to me. If something is noteworthy and important, I will give the players that information after the session - or during it, if they ask. If it's not noteworthy, then I will not make it noteworthy later as a lame retcon "gotcha!" to my players; if it becomes noteworthy on its own, I will remind them of what came before.
Stuff like NPC/location names or positions, quest states, relationships/'reputation' - anything that a video game has a U.I. for, you should probably just give to your players if they need it. The character would know, and if for some reason they wouldn't, THEN you can roll a check if you have to. But hiding things from the players just because they were too busy listening to you to write down what you said is shitty DMing. And that's...basically the only reason most people take Keen Mind - so they can force the DM to not be a dongwhangle and treat their character like it has a functioning frontal cortex. A DM who does not need to be forced to not be a dongwhangle means the player doesn't generally consider themselves as needing Keen Mind. It's a feat that gets a hugely bad rap because most of what most people think it does, a good DM will let you have anyways.
On the other hand...well. Navigation is vastly easier than you're a living compass, coordination is easier when you're a living clock, and there are many ways to use short-term eiditic memory. None of these are combat benefits, but they're absolutely benefits in the right game with the right DM. It's not a universally applicable feat, but I've also had a player select Keen Mind as their starter freat (I allow players to select one non-combat or racial feat at creation, because variant human can **** off and die and I like seeing these more esoteric feats more in my games anyways) despite having a sub-10 Intelligence, as a way of showing that the character is mentally quite capable but suffers from a poor education due to her rustic background. That was a great combination that made for some really cool roleplaying that just wouldn't have happened otherwise. There's some meat on those bones if you're the sort of player who can appreciate meat you don't fight with.
I dunno. I can see it either way, I suppose. I do wish some people would remember that there's supposed to be more to a D&D game than a combat engine, however bad the 5e rules are at expressing that.
At the risk of derailing thread, I think the spellbooknanigans are worth a deeper dive... because depending on how spellbook replacement works, Keen Mind May or May not be important for Wizards.
Wizards don’t “know” spells, but I’m not sure how many different categories of spells they have or what to call them. Two are “learned” every level and added to the spellbook for free, with no need for time, special ink, or source material. Others can be added for a time and material cost, so long as wiz has a source to copy from- explicitly a scroll or another book... also those you’re holding in your head as prepared? Also those you’ve earlier written in a book when you no longer have that book available? Any difference whether they were originally “learned” free spells or found paid spells? Or is everything you’ve written in book considered “learned”? Does “learned” do anything for a wizard (replacing a book without having it to copy from?)
The fact that copying your own book to a new book has a gold cost (can’t be explained by needing to translate, the source material is already in your own notation), even if it is reduced, and that you are the only one empowered to do so, really makes me feel that a wizard spell is more than the sum of the shape of its letters on a page. That “special paper and magical inks” is doing something important when a wizard goes to prepare a spell, and perfect recall of what that page looked like, or even a 100% faithful recreation vis illusion, is not sufficient to replace that.
I don't care about the lack of combat effectiveness. It's the always know what's north part that I find to be weak. I'm just looking to re-flavor it, I guess.
As someone with quite possibly the worst sense of geography of all time ever (and probably worst sense of time too for that matter), I can honestly say that I would take this feat IRL if I possibly could.
In terms of RAW, the rules are pretty clear. Wizards cannot add a spell to a spellbook - their own or anyone else's - without a physical copy of the spell to transcribe (or, in rare cases, having the spell already memorized/prepared should they lose their book) and without a gold and time cost.
The other argument to look for with Keen Mind, that nobody ever makes despite it being an easy way to defeat Book Preparation, is "Wizards are described as "memorizing" their spells for the day through study of their spellbook. Keen Mind offers 30 days of perfect recall. Does this mean a wizard with Keen Mind can "prepare" every single spell in their spellbook just by reading it once every thirty days?"
The answer is of course not. Perfect recall is an ability different and distinct from spell preparation and has no bearing on it - you don't get your entire spellbook all at once with Keen Mind no matter how perfect your recall is. The spellbook is doing something other than keeping your notes in order. If that's the case, then it would hold that it is also the case when copying spells to/from your spellbook.
I would be more comfortable with a wizard copying a spell into their book from memory of seeing it elsewhere with Keen Mind, than I would letting them Prepare a spell from memory of seeing it in their own spell book. PHB doesn’t detail any particular way the wizard interacts with the spell source they’re copying from, but does detail preparing “from” spell book. Agreed?
I don't care about the lack of combat effectiveness. It's the always know what's north part that I find to be weak. I'm just looking to re-flavor it, I guess.
Have you ever played a game where the ability to navigate based on determining your orientation mattered? I think the value of this feature depends a lot on the answer to that question.
My character is an artificer and uses it for memorizing schematics and time association when performing experiments or crafting. It’s a really fun feat if you lean into it and think outside the box.
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It's just lame:
Anybody know of a good rework? I've gone looking, and haven't found much.
Maybe "you can make a DC10 INT check to make a sudden realization. You can ask the DM for the answer to a puzzle or riddle that you character is pondering. You can alternatively ask the DM a question that your character could reasonably deduce at their discretion. Once a question has been answered you cant use this feature again until after a long rest."
Or just don't take it.
It's a half-stat feat, meaning normally you're taking it because you only need a +1 to INT and just want some other cool features. I think it's plenty fun and even powerful in social and skill-based encounters, it just doesn't really have combat relevance. If you do want to rework it to provide a combat effect, that would probably warrant removing the +1 INT bullet. Some sort of intelligence/memory based effect could be a mini-version of the Battlemaster's 7th level Know Yours Enemy feature.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I don't care about the lack of combat effectiveness. It's the always know what's north part that I find to be weak. I'm just looking to re-flavor it, I guess.
Being able to correctly orient yourself underground, in a maze, while blindfolded and being led somewhere, etc etc is a very powerful ability. So is photographic memory. So is knowing accurately what time of day it is undergound, indoors, etc. In the context of the right plot, these are possibly even game breakingly good. They aren't so much "Keen Mind" as they are "I'm a Computer".
If you want other "I'm a smart guy" features to replace them with that are similar in power, houserule away. They'll probably be too strong, but maybe one of these would be a jumping off point
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Honestly the only reason why it seems underwhelming is because most tables are lenient with this information in the first place.
I know for my own table i keep the compass rose on the map grid and SO many times I repeat old history or lore or more when I'm going over or introducing something. I honestly *don't* want to be so free with recalling information especially since one of the players was contemplating taking this but ended up not but still freely give out past information if only to keep the players engaged in the story (my first time DMing, not the best storyteller & doing a campaign thats not the most linear, or story packed so feel kind of stagnant if i withhold things)
I think I'm just going to aim player at the prodigy feat. The automaticity of Keen Mind kills too much story tension for me, and the game I'm running doesn't make the "I know which direction is North" feature all that useful.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I appreciate it.
not just that...
but most tables/DMs, etc.
for the sake of brevity and expedience will let players just “remember” stuff that was maybe only briefly mentioned once, by some forgettable townsfolk randomly gossiping in town, over a month of downtime and adventuring ago. Just to speed up the game. Cause they don’t want to waste time having all their players rolling history and arcana checks, based on what they are remembering, to remember.
and will just let them remember it, or flat out tell them, just to speed up the game/not bog the game down.
-when games and DMs, routinely do things that undermine built in mechanics and feats. Of course the effected mechanics and feats are going to seem lame. (Remarkable athlete of champion anyone?).
so you got to then go out of your way essentially. you make things useful by overdramatizing them. Like the level 6 variant human barbarian totem barbarian who will then multiclass rogue/bard or something. But only went 6 levels of barbarian to get the aspect of the eagle to see things super clear and detailed 1 mile away to go with his keen mind and observant feats. And is a spy. Lip reading conversations perfectly from 1 mile away.
Blank
Good for spellcasters who lost their spellbook - they can just remember all the spells for making a new one.
Good if you have some artistic skill to make photo-like pictures or basically anything you have seen.
Great for solving mazes and navigation.
Can be great at making illusions of anything you have seen even in only passing.
Great with Minor Conjuration to literally create any book you have ever read to either compare notes, help research - or, recreate a spellbook you've quickly read but weren't allowed to take - or your own, since that may be safer than carrying your actual book around.
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Please note that it won’t work for spellbook replacement, but probably should to avoid player meltdown :)
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
It does if you combine with Minor Conjuration. Keen Mind lets you remember every page, the conjuration effect can be a perfect copy of anything you have seen. So, yes, you can recreate the spellbook - temporarily. But while it is there you can copy spells into a new real book - at half the time and cost. And you can use the conjuration as often as you want.
Realistically keen mind should let you recreate the spellbook without needing the conjuration, but the wording in the spell-copying feature stating it must be from a written source does prevent that (which is bonkers).
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Need help with Homebrew? Check out this FAQ/Guide thread by IamSposta
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It may be worth looking closely at the "Preparing and Casting Spells" and "Your Spellbook" entries in the Wizard class:
Interested to hear your takeaways, but as I see them:
I forget what section describes the process by which if you've lost your spellbook, you can transcribe the spells that you currently have prepared back into it (paying cost/time to do so) but not all of the other un-prepared spells which you've essentially lost completely. But now that I don't see that language... did I dream it? Is it your interpretation that you can normally only re-write spells you currently have prepared if you've lost your book, but that with this feat you could in theory rewrite everything without having to re-find those spell scrolls?
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
The "spellbook" is not a magic item specifically bound to you. It's just a book. The reason why copying them takes so long and requires expensive ink is because you are translating things into your own understanding, your notes and annotations. You can copy it as much as you want. You don't need to have the pages even bound together - you can have it more as a haphazard collection of notes (it even lists "a loose collection of notes scrounged together" as an example of 'your spellbook') so "spellbook" is only used as an easy reference to 'where you keep your spells'.
When you defeat a wizard the DM will rarely give you their entire spellbook - they'l
Once prepared the spells stay in your head. You don't need to prepare them ever again - you only need to refer to your spells (book, collection of notes, whatever) to prepare a new list.
Making an exact copy of your spellbook doesn't matter if you wrote it out or conjure a temporary copy thanks to your Keen Mind photographic memory.
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Need help with Homebrew? Check out this FAQ/Guide thread by IamSposta
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Spellbooknanigans aside, I'm of two minds about Keen Mind.
On the one hand, I'm one of those players (and also DMs) who feels like demanding that your players take copious notes and taking malicious glee when they fail to remember some obscure bit of trivia I gave them thirty sessions ago and I get to punish them for it is kinda being an awful DM. When I'm saying stuff, setting scenes and describing shit, I don't want my players' noses stuffed in their notebooks - I want them listening to me. If something is noteworthy and important, I will give the players that information after the session - or during it, if they ask. If it's not noteworthy, then I will not make it noteworthy later as a lame retcon "gotcha!" to my players; if it becomes noteworthy on its own, I will remind them of what came before.
Stuff like NPC/location names or positions, quest states, relationships/'reputation' - anything that a video game has a U.I. for, you should probably just give to your players if they need it. The character would know, and if for some reason they wouldn't, THEN you can roll a check if you have to. But hiding things from the players just because they were too busy listening to you to write down what you said is shitty DMing. And that's...basically the only reason most people take Keen Mind - so they can force the DM to not be a dongwhangle and treat their character like it has a functioning frontal cortex. A DM who does not need to be forced to not be a dongwhangle means the player doesn't generally consider themselves as needing Keen Mind. It's a feat that gets a hugely bad rap because most of what most people think it does, a good DM will let you have anyways.
On the other hand...well. Navigation is vastly easier than you're a living compass, coordination is easier when you're a living clock, and there are many ways to use short-term eiditic memory. None of these are combat benefits, but they're absolutely benefits in the right game with the right DM. It's not a universally applicable feat, but I've also had a player select Keen Mind as their starter freat (I allow players to select one non-combat or racial feat at creation, because variant human can **** off and die and I like seeing these more esoteric feats more in my games anyways) despite having a sub-10 Intelligence, as a way of showing that the character is mentally quite capable but suffers from a poor education due to her rustic background. That was a great combination that made for some really cool roleplaying that just wouldn't have happened otherwise. There's some meat on those bones if you're the sort of player who can appreciate meat you don't fight with.
I dunno. I can see it either way, I suppose. I do wish some people would remember that there's supposed to be more to a D&D game than a combat engine, however bad the 5e rules are at expressing that.
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At the risk of derailing thread, I think the spellbooknanigans are worth a deeper dive... because depending on how spellbook replacement works, Keen Mind May or May not be important for Wizards.
Wizards don’t “know” spells, but I’m not sure how many different categories of spells they have or what to call them. Two are “learned” every level and added to the spellbook for free, with no need for time, special ink, or source material. Others can be added for a time and material cost, so long as wiz has a source to copy from- explicitly a scroll or another book... also those you’re holding in your head as prepared? Also those you’ve earlier written in a book when you no longer have that book available? Any difference whether they were originally “learned” free spells or found paid spells? Or is everything you’ve written in book considered “learned”? Does “learned” do anything for a wizard (replacing a book without having it to copy from?)
The fact that copying your own book to a new book has a gold cost (can’t be explained by needing to translate, the source material is already in your own notation), even if it is reduced, and that you are the only one empowered to do so, really makes me feel that a wizard spell is more than the sum of the shape of its letters on a page. That “special paper and magical inks” is doing something important when a wizard goes to prepare a spell, and perfect recall of what that page looked like, or even a 100% faithful recreation vis illusion, is not sufficient to replace that.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
As someone with quite possibly the worst sense of geography of all time ever (and probably worst sense of time too for that matter), I can honestly say that I would take this feat IRL if I possibly could.
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In terms of RAW, the rules are pretty clear. Wizards cannot add a spell to a spellbook - their own or anyone else's - without a physical copy of the spell to transcribe (or, in rare cases, having the spell already memorized/prepared should they lose their book) and without a gold and time cost.
The other argument to look for with Keen Mind, that nobody ever makes despite it being an easy way to defeat Book Preparation, is "Wizards are described as "memorizing" their spells for the day through study of their spellbook. Keen Mind offers 30 days of perfect recall. Does this mean a wizard with Keen Mind can "prepare" every single spell in their spellbook just by reading it once every thirty days?"
The answer is of course not. Perfect recall is an ability different and distinct from spell preparation and has no bearing on it - you don't get your entire spellbook all at once with Keen Mind no matter how perfect your recall is. The spellbook is doing something other than keeping your notes in order. If that's the case, then it would hold that it is also the case when copying spells to/from your spellbook.
Why you shouldn't start ANOTHER thread about DDB not giving away free redeems on your hardcopy book purchases.
Thinking of starting ANOTHER thread asking why Epic Boons haven't been implemented? Read this first to learn why you shouldn't!
I would be more comfortable with a wizard copying a spell into their book from memory of seeing it elsewhere with Keen Mind, than I would letting them Prepare a spell from memory of seeing it in their own spell book. PHB doesn’t detail any particular way the wizard interacts with the spell source they’re copying from, but does detail preparing “from” spell book. Agreed?
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Have you ever played a game where the ability to navigate based on determining your orientation mattered? I think the value of this feature depends a lot on the answer to that question.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
My character is an artificer and uses it for memorizing schematics and time association when performing experiments or crafting. It’s a really fun feat if you lean into it and think outside the box.