Tablets
Tablets
A tablet is a spell of 4th-level or lower that has been stored in a carving, spells with a range of personal cannot be made into a tablet. A spell on a tablet can be used only once, the tablet for an activated spell crumbles to dust when successfully activated. This dust emits a magical aura of the same school with half the intensity of the spell cast for 24 hours before fading. The price of a tablet is equal to the level of the spell × the creator’s caster level × 2.5 GP. If the tablet has a material component cost, it is added to the base price and cost to create. With the right item creation feat, you can store a metamagic version of a spell in a tablet. Level limits for tablets apply to the spell’s higher spell level (after the application of the metamagic feat). A character doesn’t need the metamagic feat to activate an item storing a metamagic version of a spell.
The Engrave Tablet Feat is required to craft Tablets.
A tablet can be made out of many different materials, some provide a boon to the spell engraved upon it. Each tablet weighs about 1 lbs. and has an area about 6 inches wide by 6 inches tall by 1/2 inch thick and holds only one spell. A tablet has an AC 9, 1 hit point, hardness (Varies by material), and a break DC of 10.
Silver: +5 GP Cost; Spells with the [mind-affecting] descriptor are cast at +1 caster level for the purpose of determining duration.
Darkwood: +5 GP Cost: Spells with the [Healing] descriptor heal an additional 2 points per dice of the spell.
To activate a tablet, you must read the spell written on it. This involves several steps and conditions.
Decipher the Writing: Tablets are written in plain text imbued with magic and require no special skills other than the ability to read the written word of the language it was crafted in. A literate individual may make a linguistics check to decipher a tablet written in a unknown language DC = 10 + 2x spell lvl; This check is reduced by 5 if you speak a different dialect of the same language.
Deciphering a Tablet to determine its contents does not activate its magic unless it is a specially prepared cursed tablet. A character can decipher the writing on a tablet in advance so that she can proceed directly to the next step when the time comes to use the tablet. A number of tablets can be prepared in this way up to a maximum of his/her Intelligence modifier, minimum of 1.
Activate the Spell: Activating a tablet requires reading the trigger text of the spell from the tablet. The character must be able to see and read the writing on the Tablet. Activating a tablet spell requires no material components or focus. (The creator of the tablet provided these when engraving the tablet.) Note that some spells are effective only when cast on an item or items. In such a case, the tablet user must provide the item when activating the spell. Activating a tablet spell is subject to disruption just as casting a normally prepared spell would be.
Activating a tablet is a standard action (or the spell’s casting time, whichever is longer) and it provokes attacks of opportunity exactly as casting a spell does.
Using a tablet is much simpler than casting a spell requiring no somatic components and does not have an arcane spell failure chance. If the activator meets the following requirements they do not need to make a check to activate a tablet they have deciphered within the past 24 hours.
The spell type matches the casters class (Arcane or Divine).
The user has the spell on his/her class list.
The user has the requisite ability score. (Ability Modifier ≥ Spell lvl)
If the activator does not meet all three requirements or their own caster level is lower than the tablet's spell’s caster level, then he/she has to make a Use Magic Device skill check (DC = 10 + tablet’s CL + 1) to cast the spell successfully.
If the check is failed by 5 or more, the activator must make a DC 10 Wisdom check to avoid a tablet mishap. A natural roll of 1 always fails, whatever the modifiers. If the Use Magic Device check fails but no mishap occurs, the tablet is not expended.
Determine Effect: A spell successfully activated from a tablet works exactly like a spell prepared and cast the normal way. Assume the tablet's spell’s caster level is always the minimum level required to cast the spell for the character who engraved the tablet, unless the engraver specifically desired otherwise.
When a mishap occurs, the spell on the tablet has a reversed or harmful effect. Possible mishaps are given below.
A surge of uncontrolled magical energy deals 1d6 points of damage per spell level to the tablet user.
Spell strikes the tablet user or an ally instead of the intended target, or a random target nearby if the tablet user was the intended recipient.
Spell takes effect at some random location within spell range.
Spell’s effect on the target is contrary to the spell’s normal effect.
The tablet user suffers some minor but bizarre effect related to the spell in some way. Most such effects should last only as long as the original spell’s duration, or 2d10 minutes for instantaneous spells.
Some innocuous items appear in the spell’s area.
The Spell has delayed effects. Sometime within the next 1d12 hours, the spell activates. If the tablet user was the intended recipient, the spell takes effect normally. If the user was not the intended recipient, the spell goes off in the general direction of the original recipient or target, up to the spell’s maximum range, if the target has moved away.