Once per long rest spent at Denali’s, ONE shelf of books may be organized. This action must be taken by at least one player, who cannot take any other actions that long rest (within reason).
One book may be read per long rest.
You can only read books in languages you know.
If you read books out of Volume order, you must succeed on a wisdom saving throw or lose the long rest without taking in any new information. The saving throw DC is determined by the difficulty of the subject and how advanced the book is. Before attempting to read it, the player will be told how high the DC is. (TL;DR, you probably should read books in order.)
Each of Denali’s books falls into one or more of three categories: Information, Lore, and Culture. Categories are tagged by the letter in parentheses by the language it is written in.
Information books: These are mostly textbooks, self-help books, and how-to guides. Once studied, they will either grant you a proficiency bonus in checks pertaining to the information therein, or an ability score increase; whatever makes most sense.
Lore books: These books are specific to Esmir. They’ll give you advantage on history checks pertaining to the subject therein, and will sometimes include verbal information from me. Because these are not full complete books that I have written, you are also welcome to ask questions during gameplay like, “oh, this conversation is on the same subject as X book that i read, do I already know about this/what information should i already know here?” because i don’t want to bog down the playing experience with long monologues like this one.
Culture books: These include books with very specific topics that don’t apply to any DND terms, and most Esmiric fiction. They function similarly to lore books, but also include lots of fluff and things that aren’t necessarily pertinent to the campaign. They also generally deal with more current information than lore books. They will offer you other information that isn't in most lore books, though, such as the social dynamics in certain regions (granting you benefits like what is seen in the Rustic Hospitality mechanic) or giving you the upper hand in navigating an unfamiliar place that some random fiction book you read talked about. Also, for fiction: if you read a specific fandom, and you meet someone who also does, it’s going to give you benefits in interacting with that person.
Before you commit to reading a book, you are allowed to ask questions about them to see if that’s what you want to spend your time studying.
The actual mechanic of studying:
To gain the benefits and bonuses of reading a book, you have to spend one long rest studying it, and then succeed on a couple retention checks (add INT, and the DC gets lower every time) before the bonus becomes permanent. There are two ways to forego retention checks. 1) Use two long rests studying the book. This will make the bonuses automatically apply permanently. 2) Use the book as a reference and look up the information you want to find. The downsides of this one are that this doesn’t count as “learning” the information so you only get the bonuses if the book is physically with you, and that it counts as a full action and bonus action (since a round of combat is only 6 seconds and looking something up arguably takes longer than that), so if you need the info in combat, you will not be able to do anything else during your turn.
I do want you to take into consideration what your character would be most interested in reading. And whether you think they’re a reader.
You can take as many books with you as slots in your inventory you'd like to spare. Any check that directly relates to a book you have in your party's possession is done with advantage. This bonus cannot be applied during combat without expending your full turn. After spending one long rest studying, you can begin making retention checks (+INT). Retention checks cannot be made if you use the book; you must choose to either take the advantage or make the retention check. If the retention check is successful, add the applicable bonus to your roll. After four successful retention checks, among which the DC is continually lowered, the subject is considered learned and you are permanently proficient in the subject.
| 1 |
Retention: DC18 |
3 |
Retention: DC8 |
| 2 |
Retention: DC13 |
4 |
Retention: DC3 |
