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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crothian" data-source="post: 3472465" data-attributes="member: 232">Behind the Spells is a series of short PDFs by Ronin Arts.  They are all written by Bret Boyd and the series at this point has been completed.  Each one take a single spell and gives it depth, history, and greater context to be used in one’s game setting.  This one deals with Bless a spell that has been around seemingly for ever and it is one of the more popular first level cleric spell.  It is also one of the more boring in that it just gives a little mechanical benefit.  The game has many spells that are boring like that so it is nice to see some of them get this treatment and become a little more exciting.      The PDF of Behind the Spells: Bless is small like all of them are in this series.  The layout is well done and they all look alike.  The PDF might only be five pages in length but it is still book marked.  There is no art in the book and it is really not missed.      The book starts off with a history of how the spell came about.  I like the specific use of an enemy that has a fear effect.  It seems to be one of the lesser uses of the Bless spell so I was pleased to see why that is part of the spell.  It was first used by a person who looked for peace first though the effects of the spell are combat oriented making it a weird pairing.  There is a nice and simple adventure hook in the history of the person’s church wanting to locate the inventor’s remains which the story suggests were scattered.  The PDF also has a pair of spell secrets.  A Spell Secret in this series of books is a way to modify the current spell at time of casting with the success of a spell craft check.  The fist secret deals with altering what the Bless spell effects.  For instance it could be sued to give a bonus to abilities checks, or grant a damage bonus, or even a bonus to saving throws.  This makes the spell a lot more versatile and useful especially in the low level game.  The second one actually requires a concentration check and the continued concentration of the caster.    This secret increases the bonus to fear saves by the caster charisma modifier.  That variant could be fun and useful in Ravenloft or even Robinloft.The spell has just one variant.  It is called Mutable Bless that allows the bonuses of many people to be combined to a few people for a greater bonus.  There are limits to how fast the bonuses can be moved and how high of a bonus one can benefit from. I can see a lot of fun with this and the leadership feat as the cleric moves bonuses around to different followers as they need it.  The PDF also has a magical item that is not connected with Bless, but to the enemies of the inventor in the history.  They followed a god called the Beast and they had War Pain of the Beast.  It basically gives one a short term fear effect.  It is a very creative and inspired item.  Behind the Spells Bless takes a common spell and gives it depth.  The context and adventure ideas in the history can make the spell a lot more fun and provide some useful flavor.  The spell secrets are well done and useful, the variant spell is one that players could get use out of.  And the magical item has a lot of character and can easily be used in any campaign for barbarians and other less civilized societies.</blockquote>

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