Tome

Tomes
A tome is a special book that will permanently increase an ability score, granting an inherent bonus. Tomes come in 7 varieties (1 for each Ability, plus one for all abilities.):


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

Tomes come in the range of +1 to +4.


 * +1 Tomes can drop in ordinary chests of loot level 9+
 * +2 Tomes can drop in ordinary chests of loot level 17+ or as a raid reward item. You can also get one at your 1750 favor reward. Needs confirmation: with Update 12 +2 Tomes can drop in level 15+ chests, maybe lower.
 * +3 Tomes can drop unbound in maximum level loot (loot level 23), and bound to character in some raids, as a raid reward item.
 * Maximum level loot (lvl23) currently can only be found in Epic raids, and some challenges.
 * Zawabi's Revenge on epic difficulty can also drop bound to account versions, at a very very low chance.
 * During Festivult, the Jester of Festivult has an extremely small chance of rewarding you an unbound one for a gold coin.
 * +4 Tomes (Bound to character) can drop in the Tower of Despair, Zawabi's Revenge on Epic Difficulty and The Vault of Night on Epic Difficulty. There is also a chance of getting a +4 tome in your 20th completion end reward list from Tower of Despair, but not the other raids.
 * During Festivult, the Jester of Festivult has an extremely small chance of rewarding you an unbound one for a gold coin.

Only the highest value + for a given ability will affect your character, so attemping 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 (+2, +3 and +4) 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.

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. These are also the levels at which the tomes come into effect (or partial effect) during a Greater or Lesser Reincarnation.
 * +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

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.).

Update 13
On the Lamannia server is being experimented a new feature for tomes: in http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=206066 a Dev states that: "Ability Tome benefits are now preserved after True Reincarnation."