Homebrew Living Spellbook Species Details

Lanky and made from spellpaper, each page twisted and folded, all lined with arcane formulas. Whis'my searched tirelessly for another spell to absorb. The lantern-like glow in its paper hood swayed, the absence of books, distressful. Perhaps all it wants to do is find more knowledge and learn like an ordinary scholar, without all of the hinderances of mortality, that is. 

 

 

—  Ran Stormgrip, Research on Self-aware Spellbooks

A low monotonous hum quietly rings through the air. Paper swarms and drifts in masses with inkwells, parchments, and feathered-pens hovering closeby. The swarm of paper coalesces into a humanoid figure, the writing implements seamlessly working together to make new pages which join the mass and disappears in the flurry of parchment. A new spell has entered the cluster of pages then which they simultaneously glow then dissipate.

Living spellbooks are tomes of powerful wizards who have perished in a state of emotional turmoil or stress. It is still unknown if the mage's soul is in the spellbook or if artificial intelligence has manifested. Living spellbooks usually only have one purpose, to fulfill their master's dying wish or predominant goal in life. Once completed, the spellbook will seek to increase its knowledge of spells, history, or anything it can find.

Warped Consciousness

Coming into being through their master's death, timely or not, Living Spellbooks retain only a fragment of their master's original consciousness. Living Spellbooks make their own decisions, but are influenced by their late master's desires. They have been known to grow confused, hostile, or behave erratically, speaking with their master's voice as well as with their own.

Starved for Knowledge

Comprised of pages from their master's spellbook, a Living Spellbook desires to continue adding pages to its body. Living Spellbooks will hunt for new spells, hoping to place them on paper and absorbing them. Noticing a wizard's spellbook provokes these beings to rifling through the pages, tricking or forcefully taking the spellbook from its owner. Living Spellbooks only add new spells to their form, destroying copies of the spells it has already seen. Especially old Living Spellbooks are massive constructs, capable of answering any question about arcane magic.

Dynamic Personalities

The school of magic that a Living Spellbook's master studied has a great influence on the construct's personality. Living Spellbooks originating from the Illusion school may be prone to guile and subterfuge, where as origins from the school of Necromancy produces a Living Spellbook that delights in investigating death. The spells that a Living Spellbook uses are indicative of their tendancies. 

Spellbook Names

Wizards seldom give names to their books, but those who develop familiarity with inanimate objects do. Often times a Living Spellbook takes the name of its late master, a nickname, or a pseudoname if it's personality is extremely developed.

Names: Church, Whis'my, Ar'vi, Harret Bans, Korrel Tervin

 

 

Living Spellbook Traits

Your Living Spellbook develops a variety of traits as it grows.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 2 and your Dexterity or Constitution increases by 1.

Age

Living Spellbooks do not age. The maximum known lifespan of this creature remains a mystery; they show no immediate signs of deterioration.

Alignment

Living Spellbooks usually adopt the nature of their late masters. Also, it is usually affected by what school of magic its master stemmed from. In extremely rare cases, the entity develops its own personality based on the experiences it's had - reactively adapting to the lifestyle and situations it's in.

Size

Living Spellbooks are 5 and 6 feet tall and average about 20 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one additional language of your choice.

Innate Arcana

You know 1 Wizard cantrip of your choice. When you reach 3rd level you can cast Disguise Self at will, and at 5th level you can cast Misty Step once per long rest.

Arcane Aspect

You have advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Information Assimilation

Twice a day, you may choose a spell scroll you are inscribing into your spellbook body and may reduce the gold cost and time spent by half. This cannot apply to spell already discounted by a similar feature. This feature recharges at the next dawn.

Flammable

You have vulnerability to fire damage. You are made of paper.