Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drew" data-source="post: 2478918" data-attributes="member: 1314">If you just want a brief review, skip ahead to the Conclusion below. Otherwise, read on for the full review.17 Paladin Spells is a product from The Le Games. As is standard, the download includes both a full color screen version and an ink friendly printer version. The art in this product is, dare I say, pretty darn good. The layout is adequate, and the screen version makes good use of color. Its nice that the dowbload included a RTF file for copy / paste purposes.17 Paladin Spells actually contains 18 spells. The Le Games have a number of similarly named products, and apparently didn’t want to break from their usual naming conventions. Who am I to complain about getting more than I had anticipated?The PDF begins with a description of a book called The Tome of the Crusader. It isn’t immediately apparent whether the Tome is meant to be a magic item, or just some kind of paladin spellbook. If it’s the former, 17 Paladin Spells doesn’t tell us the Tome’s caster level, gp value, etc. If it’s the latter, well, paladins don't typically use spellbooks in D&D. The issue is further muddied by a couple of “GM’s Options” that make the tome function something like existing magic items (a Book of Exalted Deeds in one case.) The Tome of the Crusader is a cool idea, and it presents a nice way to help the GM integrate these new spells into his game, I just wish I knew what kind of item its supposed to be. I should point out that the flavor text of the Tome describes it as containing 17 spells. Apparently, even the Tomb of the Crusader is in denial about that 18th spell. Speaking of spells, they make up the meat of this product, so let’s take a look at them:The SpellsThe majority of the spells in this book fit the flavor of the paladin fairly well. Spells like Hide the Innocent and Shared Sacrifice lend to the paladin’s role as a defender of weaker beings. Righteous Strike and Rally the Righteous give the paladin some added punch when leading allies against the forces of evil. For the most part, the designers did a good job with the flavor of the spells.Where the book suffers is in the actual design and execution of the spells. Some of them seem unnecessarily restrictive. For example, Shared Sacrifice lets a paladin heal a creature’s wounds by taking on some of the damage himself. That’s a really cool idea, but for some reason the spell only works on good or neutral creatures. Why can’t paladins heal evil beings? Rapid Rescue is essentially an Expeditious Retreat that can only be used when rescuing a good or neutral creature. That’s too narrow a set of circumstances for this spell to see much use. It would have been better design to give the spell a primary effect (say, +30 speed) along with a secondary effect that only triggers when rescuing someone. Other spells were designed fine, but just rubbed me the wrong way. Paladin Mind Trick allows paladins to perform “the old jedi mind trick.” It’s a neat ability, and in some ways fits the paladin, but the name drives me crazy. I’d rather have read a spell called Word of Clouding or Beguile the Wicked or something that had a similar effect without feeling so blatantly Star Wars. Martyr to the Cause is a spell that, despite its 4th level designation, can only be used by a paladin of 20th level or higher. The spell relies heavily on GM fiat to balance it, as it “hasn’t been used in several centuries” and “can only be cast when there is something very grave at stake.” While the flavor here is once again pretty cool, I’m left scratching my head at the logic of including a spell that the book clearly doesn’t want anyone to cast. On the other hand, I do think that blowing yourself up to deal 10d10 damage to every evil being in a 100 foot radius is a pretty cool way to go out.Conclusion17 Paladin Spells is full of spells with a lot of flavor and good concepts, but it suffers from restrictive design and occasional poor implementation. If you’re looking for a source of ideas and inspiration for new paladin spells, this book is a great value. If you are (or have) a DM that’s very good at wielding his fiat in a fair and logical manner, you can probably use some of these right out of the box.This product earns good marks for intention and flavor, but loses points for execution and implimentation.Andrew Branstad</blockquote>

Verification