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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pinotage" data-source="post: 2572666" data-attributes="member: 15194">17 Ranger Spells is a pdf product from The Le Games, one of several products in the growing The Le Games' 17 Series. 17 Ranger Spells features 17 new ranger spells, as well as several baubles and urus that can be used to enhance existing weapons with ranger-like abilities. 17 Ranger Spells is a 26 page pdf written by Tony DiGerolamo and The Le, with one page devoted to the introduction and table of contents, three pages devoted to OGL declarations and four pages devoted to a reprint of the Ranger class, leaving 18 pages to describe the spells, baubles and urus in this pdf. 17 Ranger Spells normally retails on RPGNow for $2.75. I received the pdf as part of the Review Project.Initial Impressions:The Le Games always does a good job of providing the pdf in several different formats - onscreen, print and rich-text - one of the things I appreciate in my pdfs. This one is no different. Art work is taken from a variety of different sources, including Mongoose Publishing's Character Portraits series, Larry Elmore drawings and a handful of others. Most are pretty suitable to the content, although the cover itself is more a Robin-Hood style cover than something I'd normally associate with fantasy rangers. Layout is simple, with no major errors, although there are the occasional glitches in editing and writing.There are 17 spells presented in this pdf, four from each ranger level except the fourth, which has five. In addition to the spells, there are four baubles and three urus, kind of a minor artifact that can be added to an existing weapon to enhance its abilities. The spells are arranged according to level. My main comment on this pdf has to be the rather strange and mostly weak mechanical implementation of the rules. Spells with a casting time of 1d4+1 standard actions don't exactly fill me with confidence. And while I would hope to say it's an isolated case, unfortunately most of the spells suffer from some form of poor wording or would need mechanical correction.The Details:The pdf starts by describing the Book of the Woodsman, a magical tome that presumably holds knowledge of the spells contained in the pdf, although that is not explicitely stated, and as such appears to be a disjoined piece of writing. Given that rangers do not require books to normally cast spells, and there is no explanation for the inclusion of the book, it's rather strange. That said, there's nothing wrong with a well-described book offering rangers knowledge on spells, but then that should be clearly stated in the book's description.The seventeen spells are as follows:Level 1: Ambidexterity, Eyes of the Eagle, Heal the Land, Natural ShelterLevel 2: Detect Poacher, Enemy Shield, Favored Strike, Free AnimalsLevel 3: Borrow Animal Trait, Nature's Armory, Resume Decay, Summon WaveLevel 4: Animal Assistant, Earth's Armory, Enemy Slayer, Nature's Roar, QuicksandAs mentioned earlier, there is a lot of clumsy implementation amongst these spells. For example, Borrow Animal Trait allows you to borrow an animal's power. The description says that the power must be natural. It would've been much better served saying that the ability had to be an extraordinary ability of the animal, using properly defined game terms rather than making up new ones and then struggling to explain them. There are also a number of non-standard uses of spells, such as 20 rounds + 2 rounds/level durations, or 1d4+1 standard actions casting time or even 1 standard action casting time per object included in the casting. There are also a number of editing errors, such as Detect Poacher listing a duration of Instantaneous, but allowing the ranger to track presumably indefinitely based on the description.Having said all that, there are a number of useful spells here, once clarified and mechanically corrected. Natural Shelter can be used to escape severe weather while hiding from your enemies, while Enemy Shield can protect you from your favored enemy. Summon Wave can draw forth water from nearby sources to inflict harm on your enemies, while Nature's Armory can be used to fashion weapons and armor from nature itself. A decent set of ideas on some of the spells, but some poor and clumsy mechanics.The final sections of the pdf are devoted to the baubles and urus, minor artifacts that can be used to enhance weapons. I've always like this idea, and it would've been nice to see a more concrete basis for these, rather than simple as uncosted mini-artifacts. Examples include: Bauble of Blood Strike which allows the weapon to use the Blood Strike ability once per day, or the Bauble of Speech which allows the wearer to speak a language associated with the bauble once it's implanted into a helmet or hat. Here too there are some rather strange mechanics. The Bauble of Rapid Fire allows a wielder to make a number of ranged attacks equal to half his level, at half his BAB with a -1 cumulative penalty per attack thereafter, a potentially unbalancing mechanic.Conclusions:17 Ranger Spells presents seventeen ranger spells and a number of mini-artifacts called baubles and urus. The spells are mixed between the four ranger spellcasting levels, and some of them are usable with a little tweaking. Many, however, suffer from strange implementation or are mechanically weak, some of them not providing as much information as required, or others not explaining the mechanics fully. Based on some usable spells, but mostly weak implementation, a decent layout and appropriate art, I'd have to grade this with two and a half stars rounding down to two.</blockquote>

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