Manual of Stealthy Pilfering [Minor Artifact]

This guide to thievery grants any rogue who spends a week studying its lessons a +1 inherent bonus to Dexterity and experience points sufficient to place him or her halfway into the next level of experience.

A character without any rogue levels gains no bonus from the work, but if a divine spellcaster without rogue levels scans even a single word she will lose 2d6 × 1,000 XP and must make a Will save (DC 20) or have 1 point of Wisdom permanently drained.

Except as indicated above, the writing in a manual of stealthy pilfering can’t be distinguished from any other book, libram, tome, or so on until perused. Once read, the book vanishes, never to be seen again, nor can the same character ever benefit from reading a similar tome a second time.

Source: Standard Reference Document under Open Game License v1.0a, which updated this item originally published in the Epic Level Handbook, page 152.