Books

In Native, books can be read by the player to improve Attribute or Skill points permanently or held in the player's inventory to improve them temporarily. In Silverstag, companions may be given books using the Companion Management System to access their inventory. Once a book is in a companion's inventory, you can direct them to read it as long as they meet the basic prerequisites.

Since the bonus granted from a readable book is immediate and permanent, this meant choosing the right time to read the book to get the most optimal use of that bonus. As a result, Native characters would wait to use a book for their last skill point, so it could be above the limit imposed by the Attribute that the skill is under. In Silverstag, this has been changed so that once you read a book the benefit is always applied as a bonus instead of a permanent increase. This means that if you gain the +1 trade bonus from reading A Treatise on the Value of Things while you only have 11 charisma and are limited to a trade skill of 3 you gain a trade skill of (3+1). Once you increase Charisma to 12, you can raise your base trade skill to 4; you are now able to increase it and still have the book bonus (essentially 4+1).

Books do not exceed the ten point limit for skills. While you can apply the bonus early, readable or reference books will provide the tenth point in a skill. Silverstag has books for every party skill as well as books for Intelligence and Charisma. It is possible to have ten-point skills, such as Leadership, Wound Treatment, and Path-finding, with a 26  INT or CHA investment because you can read books to get the extra Attribute or skill point.

Normally you gain a flat 7% progress towards reading a book every hour that you are resting on the world map. In Silverstag, this is altered by the character's intelligence, granting 1% reading speed per 2 intelligence. This means that at an intelligence of 14 you have the same flat reading speed as you would in native, but at 30 intelligence you're over twice as fast at reading books. Certain abilities such as Quick Study can further boost the reading speed of companions.

There are three basic types of books:
 * Readable Books
 * Reference Books
 * Specialty Books

Readable books grant the player or any companion a permanent bonus to an Attribute or Skill once it has been read from cover to cover; this takes some time. Reading can only be initiated by a character who has a not-yet-read book in her/her inventory and who has a sufficiently high Intelligence. The player begins reading a book while in camp and can give his or her companions books accessing their inventory via the companion management system. Companion Advisors can be given books to read via dialog options and will make continual progress, but they progress slower than a companion within your party.

Reference books give the character holding them a Skill bonus. Unlike readable books, a reference book gives a bonus the moment you purchase it but can (obviously) only benefit the character holding it in his/her inventory.

Specialty books are an entirely new category of book added into the game with Silverstag. Some are treated as reference books, such as the Trade Ledger that allows access to the trade ledger report while in your inventory. Some are readable books, such as the Journal of Andrin that allows a permanent reduction in repair costs for improvements once read.