| For ease of reading, the word “maneuver” will be used in the items below to mean both maneuvers and stances, except where noted, even though stances normally are not considered maneuvers. |
A martial script is a small strip of paper or cloth marked with delicate lettering that holds the secret of a martial maneuver. Any given script grants the use of the maneuver recorded on it for one encounter. Once it is activated, a script vanishes in a puff of white smoke.
Creating Martial Scripts: To create a martial script, you must have the Scribe Scroll or Scribe Tattoo feat (using Scribe Tattoo allows you to craft the martial script as a magical or psionic tattoo) and know the maneuver you are recording. The market price of a martial script is equal to the initiator level × maneuver level × 50 gp. Unless crafted at a higher level, a martial script has the minimum initiator level needed to learn the maneuver. You must use materials costing 1/2 the market price to craft a martial script. Scribing a martial script takes one day for each 1,000 gp of its market price.
Physical Description: A typical script is a long, thin slip of paper or cloth about 6 to 12 inches long and 1 to 2 inches wide, typically wound around a small wooden spindle or rod. Small, precise lettering covers most of one surface. A script has AC 13, 1 hit point, and a break DC of 8.
Identifying Scripts: Martial scripts are magic items. They radiate magic of the Divination school (faint for initiator level 5th or less, moderate for initiator level 6th to 11th, strong for initiator level 12th to 20th, and overpowering for initiator level 21st or higher). Anyone who knows a maneuver of the same discipline as the maneuver recorded on the script can determine what it does, and it can also be identified by any of the standard methods of magic item identification. Furthermore, characters with ranks in Knowledge (martial) can identify the function of a script without knowing a maneuver of the same discipline (Knowledge (martial) DC 20 + maneuver level). Making this check does not grant that character the ability to use the script—only to identify it.
Activation: To activate a script, you must read its words aloud. If you don’t know a maneuver of the same discipline as the maneuver recorded on the script, you can use Knowledge (martial) to activate it. To do so, you must succeed on a Knowledge (martial) check (DC 20 + the initiator level associated with the script). Whether you know a maneuver of the same discipline or succeed on the check, it gives you the option of using the maneuver immediately or readying for later use. Reading a script is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity.
Use: When you read a script, you gain the ability to use the single martial maneuver recorded on it for one encounter. If the maneuver can be used only once per encounter or has other use restrictions, all those limitations apply to your use of it. If you are not an initiator, you use the initiator level of the script and your highest mental ability score to determine the effects of the maneuver and may recover the maneuver with a standard action for the duration of the script. Otherwise, you use your normal initiator level and ability score. Using a script does not allow you to break the normal usage rules for maneuvers. For example, if you would normally be limited to using one stance at a time, that restriction still applies. You need not use the maneuver right away; you can hold it ready for use for up to 1 hour. At any point during that hour, you can use the maneuver simply by initiating it. If you’ve used several scripts, you treat their maneuvers as known for their durations, but you can hold only one script-granted maneuver ready at a time. If you read a second script before initiating the maneuver granted by the first, you swap the first maneuver for the second and now have the second script’s maneuver readied.