Elements of Magic Comments

[RangerWickett]

Abjure Humanoid would protect against all types of humanoids and giants.

 

[nopantsyet]

I'd really love to get The Elements of Magic, but I hate reading PDFs off computers. Are you going to be doing a print version in the near future, or at least making it a 'Print on Demand' product at RPGNow? Home-printed stuff is never the same.

My (thus far unexecuted) plan is to take it to Kinkos, laser print it 2-up, double-sided on heavy tabloid-sized paper, using a cardstock weight for the cover, then staple-bind it. The result will be a letter-sized book. I figure it'll cost less than $10, but I'll post once I've actually done it if you're interested to know.

 

[Alzrius]

Nopantsyet, I just wanted to add that I'm personally very interested to know how that goes. I buy a lot of PDFs and always print them out, but many don't staple well or the papers get lost, etc. Binding them has long been a dream of mine.

If your plan works, could you post pics of how the final copy turned out, and then list those steps again in order? Thanks.

 

[Dave Blewer]

Abjure Humanoid would protect against all types of humanoids and giants.

so if a mage warded an area to stop a group of Orcs and Ogres from stealing an important magic item and a Mindflayer also arrived in the monstrous raiding party and also tried to steal the item.

The Orcs and Ogres would have to make a saving throw to enter the warded area.

The Mind Flayer wouldn't - he is an aberration.

The PC group would have to make a saving throw to enter the area in order to reach the item before the Mind Flayer.

The caster would presumably not have to make a saving throw to enter the warded area?

 

[Bandido]

My (thus far unexecuted) plan is to take it to Kinkos, laser print it 2-up, double-sided on heavy tabloid-sized paper, using a cardstock weight for the cover, then staple-bind it. The result will be a letter-sized book. I figure it'll cost less than $10, but I'll post once I've actually done it if you're interested to know.

Kinkos?

Anyway, yeah, I'd love to know how much it cost. And could you explain how you did it, like Alzrius said? Then I'll know if it's worth me doing something similar.

Mmmmmm, Natural20 employees? Are you going to do a print version of EoM? If not, can you at least put it on the Print on Demand list at RPGNow? Please?

 

[G.A. Donis]

I just printed mine out at work and had someone there use our binder that is used for some manuals we supply. Of course, this left me with a black and white book, but I'm all for keeping it cheap.

I also spent some time and reformatted the Elemental Spirits document before I printed it. I just got a hair and needed nice breaks between the pages with a Spirit's description appearing complete on a page instead of flowing to the next page. Just my little version of OCD.

 

[Alzrius]

Kinkos?

You don't have Kinkos in the UK?? I'm shocked, we have them even here in Japan. They started as just a professional copy service, but they've since expanded into a larger service on professional printing, document production, and much more. Go here for more information about them: http://www.kinkos.com/

 

[Krizzel]

Wow. I just finished making my first EoM character, and I had to stop by and say that EoM is very nice We're starting up a small game over in the IC forum to take EoM on a test drive - you can take a look at my character and my gushing over the spell lists here.

Skimming through this thread it looks like everyone's made the same discoveries I have. I really like the usefulness and flexibility of the spell lists and I can't wait to try making a couple more characters.

I need to go through the pdf a little more before I start making more useful comments (I think I only looked carefully at perhaps a dozen spell lists while making my character), but there are a couple of requests I'd like to start off with.

1) I'd like to see a chart of all the spell lists, with prerequisites listed and perhaps brief descriptions of the general effects of each list (if that is even possible given how much you can do with one list). Something like the spell charts at the beginning of the Spells chapter in the PHB is what I'm thinking of, that could be used to quickly pick out potential lists when you're building a character (I used the contents page for this). Also charts listing the creature types, element types, and (for the sake of completeness) outsider types to be used along with the chart of spell lists would help. Finding the list of creature types didn't take me too long, but it would be nice to have a reference chart for convenience.

2) A brief description of each element, with examples for what you get when you evoke, infuse, create, polymorph, etc. with it. I know someone asked about evoke biomatter before, and I was wondering about evoke void. Some of the others could be questionable too. I know you can interpret them many ways, but a few examples would help get the ideas flowing. There was also a suggestion about using Polymorph Sonic to emulate the tongues spell. I'd particularly like some ideas for what Polymorph [Element] can do.

3) I still like magic-users learning from spellbooks (though the memorization stuff is a welcome removal). I'd like guidelines/rules options for mages learning their spell lists instead of gaining them automatically. Specifically whether it would be unbalancing for a mage to know less or more than the number of lists given on table 1-1 for a given level.

Any of these things could be something from a web-enhancement to just a discussion on the boards. I'd be happy to do some of the work of writing them up. And if they've already been discussed, anyone please feel free to direct me to the relevant thread

 

[masque]

1) I'd like to see a chart of all the spell lists, with prerequisites listed and perhaps brief descriptions of the general effects of each list (if that is even possible given how much you can do with one list). Something like the spell charts at the beginning of the Spells chapter in the PHB is what I'm thinking of, that could be used to quickly pick out potential lists when you're building a character (I used the contents page for this). Also charts listing the creature types, element types, and (for the sake of completeness) outsider types to be used along with the chart of spell lists would help. Finding the list of creature types didn't take me too long, but it would be nice to have a reference chart for convenience.

For my personal use I have a document that has a master spell list with names, which class can use the spell list, and prerequisites. After that it is divided by lists, so that it has only the lists which a class can use. Farther down is a crude spell tree, and at the end the element, creature, and outsider lists are separated so that one doesn't have to hunt through everything.

Sounds pretty much like what you want. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of information I should put on it before I put it out on the web. "For use with Elements of Magic by Natural 20 Press" maybe? On a footer or on a separate page? Eh, I'm paranoid, what can I say.

 

[RangerWickett]

For my personal use I have a document that has a master spell list with names, which class can use the spell list, and prerequisites. After that it is divided by lists, so that it has only the lists which a class can use. Farther down is a crude spell tree, and at the end the element, creature, and outsider lists are separated so that one doesn't have to hunt through everything.

Sounds pretty much like what you want. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of information I should put on it before I put it out on the web. "For use with Elements of Magic by Natural 20 Press" maybe? On a footer or on a separate page? Eh, I'm paranoid, what can I say.

Do not do this, or we will track you down and dislocate every non-jointed bone in your body. You won't like that, will you?

Just kidding. Go for it. Heck, upload it here (though you should start a new thread, for better visibility). I had a cheat sheet of this sort myself that I used to doublecheck the text while editing it, but if yours is nice, we might co-opt it and put it in EoM2.