Crothian
First Post
The Behind the Spells series is a solid product line of PDFs that each take a single spell and look at it more closely. They are given a history and shown how other things can be dine with the spell many times creating new rules for the new uses. There are also usually spell variations that create stronger versions or more specific ways the spell can be altered to be used. I am so slowly working my way through the whole series and I look forward to seeing them in print.
Behind the Spells: Web is written like all the series is by Bret Boyd and published through Ronin Arts. The lay out of them all look the same and each in the series is rather short even for a PDF. This one for instance is five pages long and with the front page being mostly cover and the last page being the Open Game License one can easily realize that there is not a lot of content to these PDFs though what is there is usually good.
The history of the spell as one might imagine originates with the Drow. A male Drow made it to impress the female rulers in one of their attacks of the surface world. The spell worked well but the guy said the wrong things about the female leaders and they killed him for it. There is a great idea for an adventure though about webs that appear and disappear near where he died and I would love to see Bret Boyd write it up based on the foundation for it he laid here.
There are two spell secrets for Web here. A spell Secret is a new rule that allows the spell to be used in a new way. The first one is a bit like what Spider Man does with concentrating all of the web on one target. It makes a good alternate way to do a hold person though it does require a ranged attack roll. The other one is not near as potent but cool none the less. It places the web on the ground so that it will stick and hopefully stop people who enter that space. And if the wizard knows an illusion spell he can try to have a simple glamour be part of the web spell so that people cannot detect it is there. I like both of these uses.
The two spell variants are also creative. The first might be a little much as it is a web spell with contact poison that inspires evil Drow giving them mechanical bonuses. There is a lot going on with this forth level spell and I think a web with a contact poison is more then enough for it. The other variation uses web as a barrier in doorways that will cause anyone trying to get through to not only have to deal with the web but to also glow. I like that one a lot.
Behind the Spells: Web is a well done PDF that takes the web spell and brings it to life. This one has a strong history that is easy to use and variants and spell secrets that fit well into most campaigns.
Behind the Spells: Web is written like all the series is by Bret Boyd and published through Ronin Arts. The lay out of them all look the same and each in the series is rather short even for a PDF. This one for instance is five pages long and with the front page being mostly cover and the last page being the Open Game License one can easily realize that there is not a lot of content to these PDFs though what is there is usually good.
The history of the spell as one might imagine originates with the Drow. A male Drow made it to impress the female rulers in one of their attacks of the surface world. The spell worked well but the guy said the wrong things about the female leaders and they killed him for it. There is a great idea for an adventure though about webs that appear and disappear near where he died and I would love to see Bret Boyd write it up based on the foundation for it he laid here.
There are two spell secrets for Web here. A spell Secret is a new rule that allows the spell to be used in a new way. The first one is a bit like what Spider Man does with concentrating all of the web on one target. It makes a good alternate way to do a hold person though it does require a ranged attack roll. The other one is not near as potent but cool none the less. It places the web on the ground so that it will stick and hopefully stop people who enter that space. And if the wizard knows an illusion spell he can try to have a simple glamour be part of the web spell so that people cannot detect it is there. I like both of these uses.
The two spell variants are also creative. The first might be a little much as it is a web spell with contact poison that inspires evil Drow giving them mechanical bonuses. There is a lot going on with this forth level spell and I think a web with a contact poison is more then enough for it. The other variation uses web as a barrier in doorways that will cause anyone trying to get through to not only have to deal with the web but to also glow. I like that one a lot.
Behind the Spells: Web is a well done PDF that takes the web spell and brings it to life. This one has a strong history that is easy to use and variants and spell secrets that fit well into most campaigns.
