Editing Codex of the Infinite Planes

[[File:Codex of infinite planes PF.png|thumb|The Trapper-Keeper of Nyarlathotep.]]
The '''Codex of the Infinite Planes''' is a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] [[artifact]] hailing from the White Box Supplements. It then went on to appear in the [[AD&D]] 1e DMG, AD&D 2e Book of Artifacts, D&D [[3e]]'s [[Epic Level Handbook]], and D&D [[4e]]'s Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. It also appears in [[Pathfinder]]'s Artifacts and Legends.

The covers are made of obsidian, the pages are made of lead, and it's so big you need two people to lift it.

Throughout its appearances, the Codex remains firmly defined: this massive book of inscrutable origins holds many powerful secrets relating to planar magic... secrets so powerful that even opening the book can be potentially deadly to a would-be user. While details have fluctuated over the editions, its basic themes revolve around the ability to teleport users throughout the planes, enhancing their magical abilities, and access to various conjuration spells - though always at a steep and probably deadly price. And there's "no index or table of contents," per David/Zeb Cook. (Although maybe some madman has jotted fragments of such, in some secondary work - that's up to your DM.)

[[E. Gary Gygax]] stuck it into [[Greyhawk]] lore in, interestingly, his [[Dungeon Masters Guide]] some years before the noobs had the Greyhawk boxed set itself. The Codex was tied to the Nyr Dyv region, maybe even before the [[Invoked Devastation]]; later, a high-level wizard named Tzunk used it to take over the [[City of Brass]]. That illustrates just how [[awesome]] this book is.

Although... let's just say that Tzunk is probably ''not'' the master of the [[Efreet]] madinat today. All in all, if you find the Codex of the Infinite Planes, it is best not to use it.

==2e==
Zeb Cook delivered the Codex to 2e's ''Book of Artifacts''. Because of [[Lorraine Williams|You Know Who]], the Greyhawk-specific lore is abstracted out. But - because of staff ''resistance'' to her misrule - it is heavily referred to, down to the "Yagrax' Tome" reference.

Cook advises that this book is a plot device, so not something the party "should have long access to." Putting teeth into this, each page read adds "a 1% cumulative chance of triggering an awful fate". And yes, the Little Three Words are invoked - "no saving throw."

==3e==
Appearing in July 2002's [[Epic Level Handbook]] (thus entering the 3.0 [[OGL]]), Andy Collins and [[Bruce R. Cordell]] lived up to the Codex's legacy. For them, it is a Major Artifact that has been in the Brass City. They note Yagrax but not Tzunk.

Opening it up for the first time will hit you with Destruction (DC 30 for 10d6 damage: if you fail, you turn to dust). If you manage to survive this, you get to study its infinite pages for wonderful knowledge and power... at risk. After a day of study, you can roll a DC 50 Spellcraft check to see if you learned something new: if you don't make the roll, you get +1 to your next one. You can learn quite the list of powers, who once known you can use at will: astral projection, banishment, elemental swarm, gate, greater planar ally, greater planar binding, plane shift, and soul bind. Powers are learned at random. But the risk is always there: every day also requires a DC 30 Will save, or you go insane (as per Insanity).

Actually using a power is risky as well: you need both a Concentration and a Spellcraft check with a DC 40 + double the spell's level (making it 50 at its lowest and 58 at its highest). If you fail, you roll percentile dice to decide your fate: get hit by an Earthquake and Storm of Vengeance spell, summon 1d3+1 Balors, Pit Fiends, or similarly powerful evil Outsiders to mess you up, have your soul put in a gem (as per Trap the Soul) and your body entombed somewhere (as per Imprisonment) both in a random place on the current plane, or utter a Wail of the Banshee and get hit by Destruction every turn for 10 turns.

==4e==
Oddly enough, in 4e, the Codex is almost meager. MME has a bunch of big-name artifacts, including the Book of Infinite Spells, the Hammer of Thunderbolts, and the Shadowstaff. The thing is, only a few have a full artifact writeup, with Concordance levels and their bonuses/penalties. None of those three have one, and neither does the Codex.

The Codex is an Epic artifact, a wonderous item rather than a tome implement, with two daily powers. One banishes a target from another plane, but on a miss damages the user and target and causes the user to be stunned for a turn. The other takes you and your friends anywhere on the planes you name, or even provides a vague category or description for, like an archdevil's treasure room or a safe place with friendly people. You then have to pass an Arcana check or suffer a disaster of the DM's choosing.

==Pathfinder==
Because it appears in the SRD, Paizo also decided to use it. It works more or less like its 3e equivalent, except the "you done fucked up" chart is expanded to two dozen results of a varying number of DO NOT WANT, from having 444 Shinigami show up and try to murder people to being hit by Energy Drain or Reincarnate every day, [[Magical Realm|grow to 65 feet in size and gain 5 feet every day]], having everyone around you turn alignment, get hit by a series of Meteor Swarms, a [[zombie]] apocalypse starts and others.

And since the Codex is a book, this means that it's a legal target for a [[Occultist|Tome Eater archetype Occultist]] to devour. The text is a bit murky as to if eating a book constitutes tearing out its pages, but if given the opportunity to do so, you should totally do this if only to see your [[DM]]'s face when you tell him you want to eat the Codex of the Infinite Planes.

==Links==
*http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-codex-of.html
*http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Codex_of_Infinite_Planes
*http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/artifacts/major-artifacts/codex-of-the-infinite-planes/
*http://dnd4.wikia.com/wiki/Codex_of_Infinite_Planes

[[Category:Magic Items]]
[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]