Scrimshaw Bone (3.5e Feat)

Scrimshaw Bone [Item Creation]

You can create scrimshawed bones, an alternate single-use spell-completion item.

Prerequisite:

Benefit: You can scrimshaw a spell of any level that you know into a humanoid bone. Scrimshawing a bone takes one day for each 1,000 gp in its base price. The base price of a bone is its spell level x its caster level x 25 gp. To scrimshaw a bone, you must spend 1/25 of this base price in XP and use up raw materials costing one-half of this base price. Any bone that stores a spell with a costly material component or an XP cost also carries a commensurate cost. In addition to the costs derived from the base price, you must expend the material component or pay the XP when carving the bone.

Special: When taking this feat, choose a school of magic (if you are a

specialist wizard, you must choose your specialist school). Spells you scrimshaw from this school are at +1 caster level (with no additional cost). Choose a second school of magic that you have access to. You may not scrimshaw spells of that school. If you are a specialist wizard,

you may not choose one of your prohibited schools of magic.

About Scrimshawed Bones

A scrimshaw bone is a spell-completion item that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Scrimshawed bones must be at least one inch long for every level of spell contained upon them. Once a scrimshawed bone is discharged, the bone cracks, becoming powerless. Identifying a spell stored in a scrimshawed bone is automatic with Read Magic, or may be made after studying the bone for one minute and a successful Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). No scrimshawed bone may contain multiple spells.

Design

This feat is intended to replace Scribe Scroll, and should not be available to characters with access to Scribe Scroll or any feat intended to replace it. This feat is intended to improve game flavor (along with the other Alternate Item Feats), and in any particular campaign should have some requirement limiting the feat to a particular polity, organization, or race. It is slightly better than Scribe Scroll. This is deliberate, and meant to reward players for better integrating their characters with the world mileau. If this is not desired, then using a scrimshawed bone should draw an attack of opportunity, the feat possessor should not be barred from scrimshawing any spell she knows, and no school should have a caster level adjustment.

This Scribe Scroll replacement feat is intended for more primitive or otherwise unsophisticated casters. Evil humanoids, for example, might use this in place of Scribe Scroll. Another possibility would be to give scrimshaw bones an automatic Spell Focus effect for spells with the Evil descriptor instead of a caster level bonus and prohibited school.

The dungeon master should note that by default, using a scrimshawed bone does not draw an attack of opportunity. This is deliberate, to make a scrimshawed bone closer in function to a wand. When using alternate item creation feats, the world designer may wish to restrict anyone with access to Scrimshaw Bone from gaining the Craft Wand or [[SRD:Craft Staff|Craft Staff] feat, in addition to other Scribe Scroll variants.

As an additional flavor variant and to emphasize political or racial discord, bones of humanoid type might be used by some other group to greater effect or with less effort. For example, the dungeonmaster might decide that orcs using hobgoblin bones scrimshaw spells at +1 caster level, or that goblins scrimshawing human bones get a 15% reduction in the base price for creation.

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