FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 2
MOVE: 12" (or as guarded object
moves)
HIT DICE: 4 + 4
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: See Below
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Average
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: S
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil

The tome guardian (sometimes mistakenly
heard and passed on as “tomb
guardian”) is a creature of the Elemental
Plane of Fire. Its nature and activities
there are unknown, but it can be sum-

moned to the Prime Material Plane by
magical means to serve as a guardian.
A magic-user summons the tome
guardian by casting and ensnarement
(sending or demand work if the guardian’s
name is known; they do have personal
names), and compels it to service
by the use of a truename or binding
spell. The object to be guarded must be
visible to the magic-user, who indicates
it (by pointing and speaking) to the
guardian. Tome guardians do not mind
protecting an object, for unknown reasons
of their own, and unless otherwise
attacked are not hostile. Door and torment
spells do not affect guardians, and
are viewed as attacks. Charms of all
sorts except a geas do not affect tome
guardians; they cannot be psionically
dominated, and anyone attempting ESP
or similar mind-meeting magic, by spell,
item, or natural ability, finds that
attempts to attack, control, or change a
guardian cause it to attack—and that it
can somehow employ its fireburst
attack (see below) through such a mental
link.
The guardian envelops, and appears
to merge with, the object it has been
bound to, becoming invisible. The
object radiates a faint dweomer, and
infravision detects the presence of the
guardian—but the creature cannot be
telepathically contacted or in any way
coerced, tricked, or forced to leave its
object except as described below,

under “driven out”. A guardian can
only guard one physical object—and if
the object is composed of readily separable
parts, only one part (i.e. a sword
or its scabbard, not both). The guarded
object must be small (of less than 4
cubic feet volume), and non-living. Usually
magical tomes of lore are so guarded,
hence the guardian’s name.
An individual can summon only one
tome guardian per 24 hours. Only one
guardian can be bound to any object.
Guardians who are summoned to the
Prime Material Plane but not successfully
bound to an object, or who have
been driven forth (see below) from the
object they were guarding, assume
what is known as their “free form,” and
remain on the Prime Material Plane for
2-40 turns before “dwindling away,”
returning to their own plane by natural
means. They are not under any being’s
control during this time, and attack any
creature who attacks (or attempts to
control) them. Otherwise, they are
attracted to large fires, of natural (e.g.
volcanoes and forest fire) or man-made
(e.g. bonfires, forges, even isolated
campfires) origin. Statistics given on p.
10 are for the guardian’s free form.
A tome guardian can absorb fiery
energy impinging upon it (when it
guards an object, it envelops it, and
thus absorbs all fire directed at the
object), whether of natural or magical
(e.g. fireball) origin. It gains a number

of hit points equal to the number of
points of damage the fire(s) would deal
to an unprotected creature, which
replenish any damage it has suffered
and then increase its own hit points
temporarily (i.e. for the following 24
hours). During this time, the tome
guardian can add any or all of this additional
fiery energy directly to the damage
dealt by any fireburst attack(s) it
makes. Heat energy (such as that
caused by melt or heat metal spells) the
guardian merely absorbs.
If it wishes, a tome guardian can
deliver a fireburst attack thrice per 24
hours to any creature(s) touching it or
the object it guards (it never so attacks
any master it is guarding an object for).
A fireburst is a pencil-thin, white-hot
flame that operates directly into the target
creature (thus, it cannot miss) and
does not generate any incidental heat
or flame that might damage surrounding
creatures or objects—such as the
item being guarded). If two or more
creatures laid hands on a guarded
object simultaneously, and the guardian
generated a fireburst in one of them,
the other(s) would not even feel it.
Only one s u c h a t t a c k c a n b e
unleashed in a round. A fireburst can
operate through clothing or armor; it
deals 6-24 points of internal damage (no
saving throw) to all creatures not
immune to the effects of heat or fire. A
tome guardian always uses this attack

against a bookworm (q.v.) or any other
creature attempting to consume or
strike the object it is guarding. Human,
demi-human, and humanoid beings
who survive a fireburst attack are rendered
unconscious for 2-5 turns unless
they save vs. poison at -3, due to the
shock of their blood boiling momentarily
in the area affected by the fireburst.
Tome guardians can be affected by all
s p e l l s s a v e ( a s n o t e d e a r l i e r )
enchantment/charm magics such as
maze, sleep, and suggestion (although
geas is an exception). Cold does them
double damage (water, it should be
noted, does not), and all physical
attacks upon the object they are guarding
do not harm the object until the
guardian is destroyed, as it gathers its
form into a rigid shell to ward off
blows; but because of this, all such
attacks do the maximum possible damage
to the guardian. When in free form,
physical attacks do it normal (not necessarily
full) damage.
Note that fiery protective spells such
as explosive runes and fire trap can be
cast upon a tome guarded by a guardian,
but the creature absorbs the spell
energy as it is being cast, so that the
spell’s protection does not exist (and the
guardian gains for a day hit points
equal to the maximum damage these
spells would have dealt.

Symbols and glyphs can be cast upon
a guarded object without affecting it,
and function normally (without harming
the guardian). Save for the exceptions
noted above, tome guardians have
standard magic resistance.
A tome guardian can be “driven out”
of the object it is guarding by the casting
of a dispel magic (the guardian gains
a save vs. spell; if successful it is unaffected).
Even the individual who bound
the guardian to the object can dismiss it
only in this way. The guardian will be
seen leaving the object, even in darkness.
A tome guardian is immune to the
attacks of, but cannot itself harm, a fire
elemental, salamander, will-o-wisp, and
xag-ya. If a guardian is brought into the
presence of a xeg-yi, they attack each
other at once. Tome guardians can
coexist peacefully with guardian
daemons, guardian familiars, homonculi,
and the like. More than one tome
guardian can guard the same object,
although it is very rare. Tome guardians
can conduct their fireburst attacks
through metal weapons and armor if
they wish, and gain hit points from electrical
attacks just as from fiery attacks.
They can apparently hear and understand
Common and perhaps other languages,
but not speak them.