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Message: <blockquote data-quote="catsclaw227" data-source="post: 2455375" data-attributes="member: 14197">101 Arcane Spell Components – Revised.Written by: Philip ReedPublished by: Ronin ArtsIllustrated by: Christopher ShyPDF - 27pgs – LandscapeThis review is based upon a copy I purchased from RPGNow some time ago and have used in my game for a few months.101 Arcane spell components is a 27 page PDF, with color illustrations, designed in landscape mode.  There is a cover page, a credits page and the OGL, leaving 24 pages of material.   The art is in the typical abstract colorful style that Ronin Arts is known for, and the various pieces throughout the book are provocative, dark and generally linked to one of the components described in the body of the text.  I love their style. ‘Nuff said.This is a revised version of the original 101 Arcane Spell Components, with changes made due in part to the help of Enworlders.  This version actually has 117 spell components, though I don’t actually know which were additions to the original text.The book essentially finds ways to take mundane items, monstrous bits and events, allowing arcanists to weave them into their spells for some additional effect.  None of the effects are overwhelming, given the restrictions and rarity of some of the components, and using these in play has not only added a new level of uniqueness to our spellcasting, but made them acutely aware an curious about the use of other things to enhance their skills.  It has opened the door to imagination and this is really what a good supplement is supposed to do.The book separates components into categories defined by 18 spell descriptors, fairly equally distributed, providing unique effects if certain components are used to augment a spell in it’s descriptor.  The component is destroyed in the process.For Example, under the ACID category is a Digester’s Skull.  When casting a spell with an ACID descriptor, the skull will provide a bonus multiplier to the range of the spell.  A spell craft check (DC15 + spell level) is required to activate the enhancement, and the skull is destroyed. Some components have a negative side effect though, so caution is sometimes required when using certain components. Another type of component is actually not a physical item at all.  ‘Suffered from..” components allow you to react to taking damage or being affected by a certain effect.  For example, under the FIRE descriptor, there is a Suffered Fire Damage component that allows the caster to add ½ of the damage she received from fire damage to her own fire spell directed back at the enemy that dealt her damage. She has only 10 rounds to respond to this attack and use the damage she took to her advantage.For my players, I provided a tome with a subset of the components in this book, with legendary knowledge of a 2nd and 3rd tome in existence.  I house ruled the use of these in the following way:  If the caster spends 1 hour and pays 5xp he can learn the necessary verbal and somatic components to augment his spells with the new component.   The sorcerer in the party learned 10 of them, at the cost of 50xp, and it worked out very well.  Note that his “change” is not suggested or recommended in the PDF, but merely how I implemented these in my game. This book provided a nice add-in for the arcanists in the game I GM.  I wholly recommend it to anyone looking to add some flavor, without overbalancing things.Matthew Oliviaaka Catsclaw</blockquote>

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