Manuals of bodily health were rare and highly sought-after enchanted books that held a cornucopia of valuable information on medicine with its words entwined with powerful magics that could improve the reader's constitution.[1][10]
Description[]
Bound in metal[11], manuals of bodily health often were extremely thick and heavy tomes that cold weigh from 5 lb (2.3 kg)[10] to 25 lb (11 kg)[1]. The copious pages inside the binding were filled with invaluable information on preventative medicine, first aid, and muscle toning.[1]
Powers[]
Apart from being a trove of knowledge, a typical manual of bodily health could be used to magically imbue the reader with its knowledge that boosted their constitution permanently.[1] In order to tap into this powerful magic, a reeder needed to spend up to forty eight hours over six days, studying the tome.[10] However upon utilizing that power, the book itself disintegrated,[1] or became an ordinary book.[10]
Creation[]
An open manual of bodily health.
Manuals of bodily health could be created with several power levels that enchanted the reader's constitution accordingly. An experienced crafter of wondrous items could create one of these manuals using the wish or miracle spell.[10]
History[]
In the days of pre-Weeping War Myth Drannor, the monks of the abbey of Deneir created a masterwork manual of bodily health. The enchanted book was placed in a lockbox of the abbey's chapel. The box remained unopened past the destruction of the City of Song and the book was still there in the early-to-mid-14th century DR.[3]
In 1340 DR, one of these magic books could be found within Mantor's Library, of old Phlan. The book belonged to the library's former master who was a health nut.[12]
In 1357 DR, another manuals of bodily health surfaced, hidden in a shrine of Mask in the sewers of Tilverton and not far from the city's thieves' guild lair.[13]
Notable Owners[]
- Black Alaric, the infamous pirate, or to be more precise one of the pirates who used the name, stashed one of the manuals of bodily health inside a cave across the cove from the Seawatcher, guarded by flesh golems.[1]
- The "Old Mother Wyrm" Ghaulantatra had a manual of bodily health in her dragon hoard circa 1374 DR.[2]
- The book-obsessed lich Adzerak kept a manual inside his lair of Barrenstone.[14]
- A manual was hidden inside the accounting room of Castle Ravenloft in Barovia, one of the Domains of Dread.[15]
Rumors & Legends[]
Inhabitants of Skullport claimed that Halaster Blackcloak hid a library filled with fake books labeled as manuals of bodily health, librams of gainful conjuration, and Elminster's Black Book that hid hungry palimpsests inside, ready to devour anyone foolish enough to grab the tomes. This library was created as a joke by Halaster.[4]
Appendix[]
See Also[]
Appearances[]
Adventures
Video Games
Card Games
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 BioWare (December 1998). Designed by James Ohlen. Baldur's Gate. Black Isle Studios.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Eric L. Boyd, Eytan Bernstein (August 2006). Dragons of Faerûn. Edited by Beth Griese, Cindi Rice, Kim Mohan. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 49. ISBN 0-7869-3923-0.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 J. Mark Bicking (May/June 1991). “'Til Death Do Us Part”. In Barbara G. Young ed. Dungeon #29 (TSR, Inc.) (29)., p. 54.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Monstrous Compendium included in Ed Greenwood, Steven E. Schend (July 1994). City of Splendors. (TSR, Inc.). ISBN 0-5607-6868-1.
- ↑ John Terra (November 1997). Four from Cormyr. Edited by Kim Mohan. (TSR, Inc.), p. 18. ISBN 0-7869-0646-4.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb (August 1992). Land of Fate (Fortunes and Fates). (TSR, Inc), p. 61. ISBN 978-1560763291.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins, James Wyatt (December 2014). Dungeon Master's Guide 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 180. ISBN 978-0-7869-6562-5.
- ↑ Gary Gygax (August, 1985). Unearthed Arcana (1st edition). (TSR, Inc.), p. 87. ISBN 0880380845.
- ↑ Andy Collins, Eytan Bernstein, Frank Brunner, Owen K. C. Stephens, John Snead (March 2007). Magic Item Compendium. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 262. ISBN 978-0-7869-4345-6.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, Skip Williams (September 2000). Dungeon Master's Guide 3rd edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 261. ISBN 978-0786915514.
- ↑ David "Zeb" Cook (1989). Dungeon Master's Guide 2nd edition. (TSR, Inc.), p. 231. ISBN 0-88038-729-7.
- ↑ Mike Breault, David "Zeb" Cook, Jim Ward, Steve Winter (August 1988). Ruins of Adventure. (TSR, Inc.), p. 28. ISBN 978-0880385886.
- ↑ Jeff Grubb and George MacDonald (April 1989). Curse of the Azure Bonds. (TSR, Inc.), p. 24. ISBN 978-0880386067.
- ↑ John Terra (November 1997). Four from Cormyr. Edited by Kim Mohan. (TSR, Inc.), p. 18. ISBN 0-7869-0646-4.
- ↑ Christopher Perkins, Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman (March 2016). Curse of Strahd. Edited by Kim Mohan. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 63. ISBN 978-0-7869-6598-4.