John Cooper
Explorer
50 NEW WAYS TO TURN THINGS INTO OTHER THINGS: STARLANKO THE MAGNIFICENT'S BIG BOOK OF TRANSMUTATIONS
By Matthew J. Hanson
Silven Publishing product number SP1006
32-page PDF, $8.00
50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things is the second in the series of "50 New Ways" PDFs ostensibly written by Starlanko the Magnificent, an Elminsteresque wizard complete with pointy hat, long, white beard, and comments about everything he encounters. The first time out, he was focusing on evocations; this time, he devotes his time to transmutation spells.
The cover art for this PDF is quite impressive; rather than the minimalist artwork that often comes with PDF products (usually because of a perfectly understandable limited art budget), 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things sports a full-color painting by Joe Slucher. The scene depicted is of Starlanko in his laboratory, transmuting a bunny rabbit into something significantly more fierce (involving a row of spikes along its spine, and a rather fearsome expression on its fang-filled face). If you look closely at the parchment in the background, you can even see what brought about this experiment in transmutation: the "bunny-plus" is a birthday gift to one "Dunbar the Jokesmith" - apparently, Starlanko's getting even with someone who pulled a prank on him. This is an excellent piece of cover art, perfectly capturing not only the subject matter of the PDF - transmutation spells - but also Starlanko's own unique personality.
Joe also provides the 8 monochromatic pieces of artwork in the interior of the PDF. Of these, only one was a "repeat" from the first PDF: the illustration of Starlanko the Magnificent on page 5 also appeared in 50 New Ways to Blow Things Up: Starlanko the Magnificent's Big Book of Evocations. These are all pretty well done, with my favorites being the example of the petrify spell at work on page 24 (a spellcaster casts it on two onrushing foes mounted on horseback, and the closest horse and rider have already failed their saves; if you look, the horse's lower legs - now stone - have snapped off at the knees) and the woman casting telekinetic launch on a poor, befuddled grick on page 28 (I can only imagine what's going on in the grick's mind!). Like the first PDF in this series, there isn't a whole lot of artwork, but what's there is well done.
Shall we get the proofreading and editing out of the way next? I was very, very disappointed with those jobs done in the first volume, and I'm sorry to report that a similar level of attention to detail - or lack thereof - was evident in this second volume. I could go on with the specifics, but let's cut to the chase and say that all of the same types of mistakes from the first volume were present here as well, but author Matthew J. Hanson and editor Christina Eftekhar found a couple of entirely new ways to screw things up: keeping all of the necessary words in a sentence but rearranging their order (that was a new one that I don't think I've seen anywhere else), and stat block errors. The first PDF in the "50 New Ways..." series didn't have any creature stats, so that wasn't even an issue. This one includes a spell called dragon's teeth warriors, which involves planting the teeth of a dragon into the ground and having constructs rise up to serve you. (Kind of like the scene from the Ray Harryhausen "Jason and the Argonauts" movie, only constructs instead of skeletons.) I recommend making the following changes to that stat block (the only one, incidentally, in the whole PDF):
Okay, enough about that. As for the content of 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things, on that front I have better news. The spells are pretty varied and interesting (and they all made it to the Table of Contents this time, too, with only a couple losing their way alphabetically), and best of all, for the price you're paying for 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things, you're actually getting 53 new ways to turn things into other things - for whatever reason, Starlanko (via Matthew) snuck in an extra three spells this time around, which was a rather nice surprise. Some of them were rather obvious (time slow is pretty much a watered-down - and lower-level - version of time stop; ice body is a variation on iron body; expeditious charge is a slight variation on expeditious retreat), but for the most part the spells are interesting takes on areas where the spells in the Player's Handbook are somewhat lacking. Flexarmor makes it easier for arcane spellcasters to wear armor without blowing their chances at casting spells while doing so; flatten pretty much brings back the old duo-dimension spell from earlier editions of the (A)D&D game; fearsome familiar makes your familiar handy in a fight without putting it too much at risk. One of my favorites, though, is redefine the tools of war, which allows you to take a magical weapon or magical armor and convert it into a different type of magical weapon or magical armor, so if a fighter has devoted his feats to, say, using a longsword (with Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and the Greater versions of each feat focused on longsword use), and then he comes across a really nice +3 icy burst greatsword, his wizard buddy can recraft that into an even-nicer-for-him +3 icy burst longsword. Now that's a useful spell - it finds a "problem" in the current rules and "fixes" it in a logical fashion. (Redefine the tools of war is an excellent way to get around the "fighter-carrying-a-golf-bag-full-of-swords" problem that infects many D&D games.) I also really like free hand, whereby the caster's hand falls off at the wrist and scurries around as a separate creature under the spellcaster's control. It's a quirky little spell with a whole lot of practical applications, like getting the keys to the cell from the desk just across from the cell that the spellcaster's currently incarcerated in.
As expected, many of these spells do double- or triple-duty as assassin, bard, cleric, druid, and ranger spells. The only real problems I had with any of them gets back to the editing (only this time, I'll have to point my finger at mechanics editor Eytan Bernstein), as a few of them are of questionable spell level. The spell list on page 6, for example, lists weighty armor as a 3rd-level sorcerer/wizard spell, but the spell description has it down as a 2nd-level spell. Likewise, is flatten a 3rd-level spell (like the spell description states), or a 5th-level spell (as the spell list has it listed)? Is stone plague a 5th-level spell (as the spell list proclaims) or a 6th-level spell (as the spell's description states)? These sorts of errors are much more of a problem that the punctuation, misspelling, and word misuse that permeates 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things, as they actually affect the buyer's ability to successfully use the material in the PDF.
Starlanko's comments on each spell are amusing, giving little glimpses into the slightly-specific-but-generic-enough-to-be-plugged-into-nearly-any-fantasy-campaign world in which Starlanko is a part. He references things like an unspecified ancient race that once ruled the planet, and drops hints about wars with dragons, orcs, and goblins - basically, walking a fine line between "so much detail as to make it campaign-specific" and "too generic to be interesting." I like the fact that each spell has a history, either how (and why) it was first created, or how Starlanko himself first discovered a copy of it. He provides practical advice on when it would be best to cast the spell in question, and what spells work well with it, and other tidbits of advice like that. Also, this time the "Starlanko talks directly to the reader" bits are in blue font, making it that much easier to see where the spell description ends and Starlanko's comments begin. (Not that there was any real confusion about it before, but it makes it easier to skim to the right spell description when you're in a hurry.)
50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things is a PDF of good material severely hampered by an apparently poor grasp of proper English, spelling, and punctuation. The mechanics are sound (for the most part, with a few spell-level exceptions and the stat block problems noted above), and if the sloppy editing isn't going to bother you like it does me, then I can heartily recommend it. Otherwise, I think I'd recommend holding off purchasing it just now, until we get some word that the numerous problems have been corrected. (I sent my "unofficial errata list" to the publisher, like I do with every PDF I read. The last one I sent to Silven Publishing was well-received, so I'm confident that they're willing to put forth the effort needed to correct their mistakes.) In any case, I'm going to go with a high "3 (Average)" for now; this volume has more errors than the first one did, and many of them have a significant impact on the usability of the material, rather than just being painful to read in what's being sold as a professional product. However, that said, I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading through it, and look forward to reading the rest of the series, as they come out.
By Matthew J. Hanson
Silven Publishing product number SP1006
32-page PDF, $8.00
50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things is the second in the series of "50 New Ways" PDFs ostensibly written by Starlanko the Magnificent, an Elminsteresque wizard complete with pointy hat, long, white beard, and comments about everything he encounters. The first time out, he was focusing on evocations; this time, he devotes his time to transmutation spells.
The cover art for this PDF is quite impressive; rather than the minimalist artwork that often comes with PDF products (usually because of a perfectly understandable limited art budget), 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things sports a full-color painting by Joe Slucher. The scene depicted is of Starlanko in his laboratory, transmuting a bunny rabbit into something significantly more fierce (involving a row of spikes along its spine, and a rather fearsome expression on its fang-filled face). If you look closely at the parchment in the background, you can even see what brought about this experiment in transmutation: the "bunny-plus" is a birthday gift to one "Dunbar the Jokesmith" - apparently, Starlanko's getting even with someone who pulled a prank on him. This is an excellent piece of cover art, perfectly capturing not only the subject matter of the PDF - transmutation spells - but also Starlanko's own unique personality.
Joe also provides the 8 monochromatic pieces of artwork in the interior of the PDF. Of these, only one was a "repeat" from the first PDF: the illustration of Starlanko the Magnificent on page 5 also appeared in 50 New Ways to Blow Things Up: Starlanko the Magnificent's Big Book of Evocations. These are all pretty well done, with my favorites being the example of the petrify spell at work on page 24 (a spellcaster casts it on two onrushing foes mounted on horseback, and the closest horse and rider have already failed their saves; if you look, the horse's lower legs - now stone - have snapped off at the knees) and the woman casting telekinetic launch on a poor, befuddled grick on page 28 (I can only imagine what's going on in the grick's mind!). Like the first PDF in this series, there isn't a whole lot of artwork, but what's there is well done.
Shall we get the proofreading and editing out of the way next? I was very, very disappointed with those jobs done in the first volume, and I'm sorry to report that a similar level of attention to detail - or lack thereof - was evident in this second volume. I could go on with the specifics, but let's cut to the chase and say that all of the same types of mistakes from the first volume were present here as well, but author Matthew J. Hanson and editor Christina Eftekhar found a couple of entirely new ways to screw things up: keeping all of the necessary words in a sentence but rearranging their order (that was a new one that I don't think I've seen anywhere else), and stat block errors. The first PDF in the "50 New Ways..." series didn't have any creature stats, so that wasn't even an issue. This one includes a spell called dragon's teeth warriors, which involves planting the teeth of a dragon into the ground and having constructs rise up to serve you. (Kind of like the scene from the Ray Harryhausen "Jason and the Argonauts" movie, only constructs instead of skeletons.) I recommend making the following changes to that stat block (the only one, incidentally, in the whole PDF):
- p. 12, Dragon's Teeth Warriors: Add "(6 squares)" after "Speed: 30 ft." No touch or flat-footed AC values were provided; should be touch 11, flat-footed 19. No Base Attack or Grapple values were provided; should be BAB +4 and Grapple +8. Scimitar attacks should be at +9 melee, not +8 (+4 BAB, +4 Str, +1 Weapon Focus). Scimitar damage should be 1d6+4/18-20, not 1d6+3/18-20 (+4 Str). The following entries were also missing from the stat block: Skills ("-" as a construct), Environment (I would guess "Any"), Organization (I'd guess "Solitary or band/group/gang/whatever (2-5)" since the spell allows for a maximum of 5 dragon's teeth warriors at caster level 20th), Challenge Rating (debatable, but I'd guess somewhere around 4), Treasure (probably "None"), Alignment (presumably "Always neutral"), Advancement (I'd imagine "-"), and Level Adjustment ("-" as a mindless construct).
Okay, enough about that. As for the content of 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things, on that front I have better news. The spells are pretty varied and interesting (and they all made it to the Table of Contents this time, too, with only a couple losing their way alphabetically), and best of all, for the price you're paying for 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things, you're actually getting 53 new ways to turn things into other things - for whatever reason, Starlanko (via Matthew) snuck in an extra three spells this time around, which was a rather nice surprise. Some of them were rather obvious (time slow is pretty much a watered-down - and lower-level - version of time stop; ice body is a variation on iron body; expeditious charge is a slight variation on expeditious retreat), but for the most part the spells are interesting takes on areas where the spells in the Player's Handbook are somewhat lacking. Flexarmor makes it easier for arcane spellcasters to wear armor without blowing their chances at casting spells while doing so; flatten pretty much brings back the old duo-dimension spell from earlier editions of the (A)D&D game; fearsome familiar makes your familiar handy in a fight without putting it too much at risk. One of my favorites, though, is redefine the tools of war, which allows you to take a magical weapon or magical armor and convert it into a different type of magical weapon or magical armor, so if a fighter has devoted his feats to, say, using a longsword (with Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and the Greater versions of each feat focused on longsword use), and then he comes across a really nice +3 icy burst greatsword, his wizard buddy can recraft that into an even-nicer-for-him +3 icy burst longsword. Now that's a useful spell - it finds a "problem" in the current rules and "fixes" it in a logical fashion. (Redefine the tools of war is an excellent way to get around the "fighter-carrying-a-golf-bag-full-of-swords" problem that infects many D&D games.) I also really like free hand, whereby the caster's hand falls off at the wrist and scurries around as a separate creature under the spellcaster's control. It's a quirky little spell with a whole lot of practical applications, like getting the keys to the cell from the desk just across from the cell that the spellcaster's currently incarcerated in.
As expected, many of these spells do double- or triple-duty as assassin, bard, cleric, druid, and ranger spells. The only real problems I had with any of them gets back to the editing (only this time, I'll have to point my finger at mechanics editor Eytan Bernstein), as a few of them are of questionable spell level. The spell list on page 6, for example, lists weighty armor as a 3rd-level sorcerer/wizard spell, but the spell description has it down as a 2nd-level spell. Likewise, is flatten a 3rd-level spell (like the spell description states), or a 5th-level spell (as the spell list has it listed)? Is stone plague a 5th-level spell (as the spell list proclaims) or a 6th-level spell (as the spell's description states)? These sorts of errors are much more of a problem that the punctuation, misspelling, and word misuse that permeates 50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things, as they actually affect the buyer's ability to successfully use the material in the PDF.
Starlanko's comments on each spell are amusing, giving little glimpses into the slightly-specific-but-generic-enough-to-be-plugged-into-nearly-any-fantasy-campaign world in which Starlanko is a part. He references things like an unspecified ancient race that once ruled the planet, and drops hints about wars with dragons, orcs, and goblins - basically, walking a fine line between "so much detail as to make it campaign-specific" and "too generic to be interesting." I like the fact that each spell has a history, either how (and why) it was first created, or how Starlanko himself first discovered a copy of it. He provides practical advice on when it would be best to cast the spell in question, and what spells work well with it, and other tidbits of advice like that. Also, this time the "Starlanko talks directly to the reader" bits are in blue font, making it that much easier to see where the spell description ends and Starlanko's comments begin. (Not that there was any real confusion about it before, but it makes it easier to skim to the right spell description when you're in a hurry.)
50 New Ways to Turn Things into Other Things is a PDF of good material severely hampered by an apparently poor grasp of proper English, spelling, and punctuation. The mechanics are sound (for the most part, with a few spell-level exceptions and the stat block problems noted above), and if the sloppy editing isn't going to bother you like it does me, then I can heartily recommend it. Otherwise, I think I'd recommend holding off purchasing it just now, until we get some word that the numerous problems have been corrected. (I sent my "unofficial errata list" to the publisher, like I do with every PDF I read. The last one I sent to Silven Publishing was well-received, so I'm confident that they're willing to put forth the effort needed to correct their mistakes.) In any case, I'm going to go with a high "3 (Average)" for now; this volume has more errors than the first one did, and many of them have a significant impact on the usability of the material, rather than just being painful to read in what's being sold as a professional product. However, that said, I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading through it, and look forward to reading the rest of the series, as they come out.
