Scribing Books
It is my intent to offer words of wisdom for those who wish to follow the scholarly profession of scribe, for wisdom is a requirement in this art. Be sure you have sufficient intelligence to pursue it, and a strong back to carry the heavy scrolls you will need to practice it.
Tools and Resources
You will need pens, of course. You can get them from town if you wish, but those crafted by a grandmaster tinker will last longer.
You will need scrolls to write upon. These can be bought from a number of townspeople. Scribes in the libraries, mages in the mage shops, real estate brokers in the carpenter shop (or Skara Brae town hall) and map makers. If you know a friendly cook who will supply you with wood pulp you can even make your own. One wood pulp will make five scrolls.
If you are planning to write spell scrolls you will need the reagents that cast the spell and you will need scrolls to copy from, you can’t write a spell if you don’t know what it should say. A full spell book is a must.
The final, very necessary resource, is mana. The more you have, the more you can write without a rest, and the faster you regain it, the sooner you can write again. Meditation skill in your template is strongly recommended. It is also worth building a specialist suit for the purpose, including such properties as intelligence bonus, mana regeneration and mana increase. Neither lower mana cost nor lower reagent cost are effective for inscribing.
When writing items for sale, after training is completed, it is advisable to obtain a talisman. This will reduce your resource consumption by increasing your success rate. Exceptional bonus on a talisman is of questionable importance, since the only known advantage comes in the form of a higher number of possible charges in rune books.
The quest reward ‘Chronicles of the Gargoyle Queen Vol 1’ obtained from the quest Journey to Athenaeum Isle has the ability to reduce mana cost when scribing with it in your pack. However it has a limit of 500 charges, so possibly best used only when scribing high level spells.
Learning the Art
To begin using the skill, double click your pen to open the inscription menu.
The mage shopkeepers in town will teach you the beginnings for a small fee, then take a trip to New Haven and visit with Jillian the Inscription Instructor. She will help you reach 50 skill, and give you a worthwhile prize to boot. A Hallowed Spellbook
If, however, you reside in wilder climes, under a Siege Perilous ruleset, you will be unable to find a teacher and must learn the art alone. Purchase from a provisioner a number of small red books. Open the first book and write in it, then select the skill from the skill menu, or create a macro ‘use skill, inscription’. Copy the book onto each of the others you have bought. It is possible to copy over books that have already been written. This method will take you to around 50 skill, though gains will slow down and you may find it beneficial to switch to writing spells around 35 – 40.
After 50 skill
Remember that to write spells you must have the spell to copy from. Therefore to write magery spells you will need a full magery spell book, to write necromancy spells, a full necromancy spell book and to write mysticism spells, a full mysticism spell book. You do not need to have skill points in these three arts to write the spells for them. Skill requirements for each spell level can be found on the Inscription Items page to help you know which spells to write and what level. If you’ve plenty of scrolls, once you reach 75 you can put the reagents away and scribe spell books instead. Unless you have skill points in the art for which you are writing the book, these will have no properties.
Bulk Orders
Bulk orders for Inscription became available in late 2016, publish 95, details of the system are explained in Bulk Orders and orders and rewards relating to Inscription can be found by following the link at the bottom of this page. All inscription BODs are of normal quality.
Books with Properties
If you do have skill points in the arts you will be able to write books which have properties such as lower reagent cost, mana regeneration, skill bonus etc. To write magery books you will need magery skill, to write necromancy books, necromancy skill and to write mysticism books, mysticism skill. Likewise the + skill possible on these books will also be appropriate to the book type. While + resist spells, + evaluate intelligence and + meditation are possible on all three book types you will only get + magery skill on a magery book, + necromancy skill on an necromancy book and so on. Obviously the higher your skill, both in inscription and the book-type skill, the better the books you can potentially write.
Other Items Produced By A Scribe
The range of items a scribe can produce has increased considerably over recent time. The skill level and resources required for these items can be found by following this link. A full explanation on the crafting and use of rune books can be found here.
Earning a Crust
The most saleable items from your inventory are:
- Spell books (filled or unfilled, with properties)
- Scroll binders
- Spell book engraving tools
- Runebooks
- Recall spell scrolls (for charging rune books)
- Scrapper’s Compendium
Scrapper’s Compendium is the most expensive item a scribe can produce. It can only be written by a scribe who has read the recipe, obtained from the Heartwood Elves. Strangely the quests which offer this recipe as a reward are the Tinker quests. If the scribe writing the Scrapper’s compendium also has high magery skill it is possible that up to three properties, in addition to the fixed recipe properties, may be produced.
Spell Books in Siege Perilous Rulesets
Note that player written books in this ruleset are not blessed. To sell blessed, filled spell books on shards with this ruleset you will need to purchase the empty books from npc mage shops.
Inscription in Battle
While most scribes are peaceful, scholarly types, inscription also gives benefits to spellcasters. These benefits are in addition to any bonuses from items.
Inscription adds 10% bonus damage to the following spells at Grandmaster
level:
- Magic Arrow
- Harm
- Fireball
- Lightning
- Energy Bolt
- Explosion
- Chain Lightning
- Flamestrike
- Meteor Swarm
Inscription adds Casting Focus – from Apprentice to Grand Master a 1% increase to base casting focus per 10 points of Inscribe. (5% at Grand Master)
The potency of the following spells mainly depends on the caster’s inscription
skill:
- Reactive Armor: Increases caster’s Physical Resistance by ((Inscription
/ 20) + 15) points, decreases caster’s Fire, Cold, Energy and Poison
Resistance by 5 points each.
Lasts until cast again. - Protection: Allows you to cast spells without being interrupted. Lowers
physical resistance and resist magic skill, increases spell casting
delay. Excellent for mages that like to use Harm or Poison since those
spells are more potent if you stand next to your victim. Also allows
you to cast Greater Heals without the need to run away first.
Lasts until cast again. - Magic Reflect: Decreases caster’s Physical Resistance by (25 – (Inscription
/ 20)) points, increases caster’s Fire, Cold, Energy and Poison Resistance
by 10 points each. Almost opposite of Reactive Armor spell.
Lasts until cast again.