Tome

A tome is a special book that will permanently increase an ability score, thus granting an inherent bonus, or increasing experience gain.



Ability Tomes
Tomes modifying ability scores come in 7 varieties (1 for each Ability, plus one for all abilities.):


 * Manual of Gainful Exercise (Strength)
 * Manual of Quickness in Action (Dexterity)
 * Tome of Leadership and Influence (Charisma)
 * Tome of Clear Thought (Intelligence)
 * Tome of Understanding (Wisdom)
 * Manual of Bodily Health (Constitution)
 * Supreme Tome (All abilities)

Drop locations
Tomes come in the range of +1 to +5. Forum thread:


 * +1 Tomes can drop in ordinary chests of loot level 8+
 * +2 Tomes can drop in ordinary chests of loot level 15+ or as a raid reward item.
 * 1750 favor reward (BTC).
 * Minimum loot lvl dropped from 17 to 15 in Update 12.
 * +3 Tomes can drop unbound in level 22-23 loot. Bound to character versions can drop in some raids, as a raid reward item.
 * Zawabi's Revenge on epic difficulty can also drop bound to account versions, at a very low chance.
 * During Festivult, the Jester of Festivult has an extremely small chance of rewarding you an unbound one for a gold coin.
 * The Reaver's Fate on elite drops +3 tomes.
 * +4 Tomes unbound can drop in Caught in the Web on any difficulty. They can also drop in several Forgotten Realms quests on Epic Elite difficulty. In addition, they drop in level 27 loot (e.g., The Druid's Deep quests on Epic Elite with a +2 jewel of fortune).
 * (Bound to character) can drop in the Tower of Despair. There is also a very small chance of getting a +4 tome in your 20th completion end reward list from Tower of Despair.
 * Zawabi's Revenge, The Lord of Blades and The Vault of Night on Epic Difficulty.
 * During Festivult, the Jester of Festivult has an extremely small chance of rewarding you an unbound one for a gold coin.
 * +5 Tomes can drop in Caught in the Web on Epic Elite difficulty. Extremely rare.

Only the highest value + for a given ability will affect your character, so attempting to use two +1 strength tomes will not raise your strength by 2 - in fact it will not allow you to use the second tome as it will know you already have the appropriate bonus. But if you used a +2 after a +1, the +2 will replace the effect of the +1.

Most raid loot tomes are bind to character on acquire and cannot be passed to other characters after being looted. The only exception are +3s in Epic Zawabi's Revenge, which are sometimes bind to account on acquire.

Supreme Tomes are DDO Store only.

Upgrade tomes
Since Update 16, upgrade tomes are available in game and in DDO Store. Upgrade tomes are bound to account (even if they replace an unbound or BtC tome).

Minimum level
Tomes originally had no minimum level to use them, but they were retroactively changed, so all current tomes have a minimum level to use them: Note that the effects of a tome don't apply until after you use them (so if you use a +2 INT tome at level 7, you will have an additional skill point at level-up 8 and beyond). Intelligence tome bonuses are not retroactive, but other tome bonuses are (you get additional HP as if you had the CON since level 1, etc.).
 * +1 Tomes can be used at level 3 and higher
 * +2 Tomes can be used at level 7 and higher
 * +3 Tomes can be used at level 11 and higher
 * +4 Tomes can be used at level 15 and higher
 * +5 Tomes can be used at level 19 and higher (dev post)

After Reincarnation (Lesser, Greater, or True), the effects of the tomes will be gradually applied at the same levels as you level up (i.e., a +3 tome will have one point applied at L3, a second point at L7, and the third point at L11). But, since the effect applies immediately at the start of leveling up, you get that additional skill point from your +2 INT tome at level 7 instead of waiting to level 8 as you did when you actually ate the tome).

Tome of Learning
Tomes of Learning are a store-only item that grants a permanent bonus experience bonus to your total experience earned for that character, which stacks with all other XP bonuses (including ship buffs, Voice of the Master/Mantle of the Worldshaper, Bravery Bonus, and first time on a particular difficulty bonuses). This includes wilderness, quest exp and optionals.

Versions
There are two versions of the Tome of Learning:


 * Lesser Tome of Learning: +25% permanent XP bonus the first time doing a quest. +10% permanent XP bonus for each additional completion of the quest.
 * Greater Tome of Learning: +50% permanent XP bonus the first time doing a quest. +20% permanent XP bonus for each additional completion of the quest.

There is one upgrade:
 * Lesser to Greater Tome of Learning: Upgrades a Lesser Tome to a Greater Tome