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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009587" data-attributes="member: 1129">One of the nice things about the internet community is that the authors often take the time to listen to the reviewers and fans, often resulting in better products.  In this case, Philip has done away with fancy borders and odd colors in his electronic file to go with utility and it works wonders.  The cover is a unique piece that Philip has, in my opinion, earned with his support of the Elmore Clip Art collection.  101 Arcane Spell Components is a book that takes different items, both rare and mundane, and makes them spell boosters for different fields.  By fields, I mean types of spell descriptors like force, fire, acid, good, evil, you know, the major heading of the spell type.  The book is broken up into the different sections so it starts off with Acid and the spell components you can use for acid.Each spell component has the name, description, effect, casting time modifier, knowledge (arcane) DC check, weight, and value of the item in question.  The knowledge check is a quick roll to see if the spellcaster knows what the component can do.  This would probably be important in searching out the components rather then buying them as some of them just wouldn’t be available in most markets.The problem for me is that the bonuses are simply too great.  For example, an Ankheg’s Poison Sack increases the casting time modifier for a round but causes an acid spell, upon completion of a spellcraft check (DC + spell level) to inflict an additional 2 points per level of the caster.  Not per die, not with a level limit, but 2 points per level.  It’s also a little vague on how long said effects can continue sometimes.  For example, in this case, if you used a Melf’s Acid Arrow, it is for the first round of damage, for the duration of the spell?  I’d say just the first round but others…  Other examples of this are common but would probably fit in a high magic campaign.  One of the things that struck me odd though, is that there are components whose benefits aren’t actual damage but rather, powerful, but not directly so.  Take using a minotaur’s fist when casting a spell.  The spellcraft check is high (30) and it does add 2 rounds to the casting time, but if you make it, you gain a +2d6 enhancement bonus to strength for a number of rounds equal to your level.  Whoa there.One of the things I dislike about some of these components is that they encourage ‘reaping’ by the players where they’ll now be cutting off every part of a monster in an attempt to augment their spell power, and because the author provides bonuses not directly related to the spells in some cases, they’ll be casting some spells that have no offensive ability, like Mage Armor, and gaining huge bonuses.  Now if you’re running a strict campaign without multiclassing, that’s probably not a problem.  After all, how many mages are going to run into combat?  Fighter-mages though?  Ah, now we’re getting to another issues.Now me, I’ll be using some of these components but whenever it goes by the caster’s level I’ll probably put it per die.  For example, I’d allow a mage to use an armored gauntlet with the +1 casting round to gain +2 points of damage per magic missile.Now don’t let my bias against the high level of power here say that everything is on this level.  A good way to check the power levels is the casting time modifier.  If there isn’t a casting time modifier, it’s probably something a normal campaign could allow without too much thought.  For example, casting a fear descriptor spell under a full moon has a chance of being augmented if the percentage is right so that the variables are doubled.  Powerful yet, but cool and appropriate.Another issue I had with the product, a minor one, is what makes these arcane spell components as opposed to divine ones?  Is there a certain property of the Fire Flower that prevents it from augmenting cleric’s flame blades and flame strikes?One of the things I’m most grateful to Philip for doing was making sure he stated right at the start of the book, “As with all new games rules these are not official or available…until the gamemaster gives his approval.”  Thank you Phlip!In terms of layout, the file is simple using two colums with no colored backgrounds or borders.  Just simple text.  The Elmore clip art collection gets another good round here with several examples of Philip’s skill showcasing a few different methods of wrapping text to its best effect.  The electronic portion of the file allows the reader to jump around to the different spell descriptors making the file easy to maneuver around.In short, the book is an excellent resource for those looking to add the ‘magic’ to the game again but make sure that your campaign can handle the new levels of power found and make sure that the NPCs have access to the same goods that the players do.</blockquote>

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