Behind the Spells: Fireball

[Old Fezziwig]

The Behind the Spells pdf series continues with the popular fireball spell! This series examines those spells from the SRD that are listed time and again on character sheets throughout gaming.

These are the spells which, if on your PC’s class list, will be taken as soon as possible and include such quintessential favorites as magic missile and fireball. Each pdf in this series examines the spellcaster who created the spell, one or more of the spell’s hidden capabilities, and possible variants for the spell.

Includes two fireball variants!

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Behind the Spells: Fireball is a 5 page, black & white PDF by Bret Boyd from Ronin Arts. There is no art, and the layout is clean, readable, and professional.

As in Behind the Spells: Magic Missile, Boyd's objective in this PDF is to take a classic spell from the SRD and create a history, variants for casting, and alternate spells based on that spell, all from the point of view of a fictional narrator, Maxolt Alberiim.

Interestingly, I found the narrative text less interesting in this product that I did in the previous work in this line. The embedded hook — that of an ancient tablet containing myserious writings stolen from a monastery — was fine, but it didn't instantly spur any adventure ideas in my head (that said, I've been reading Relics & Rituals: Excalibur, and, upon reflection, it could be used in an Excalibur campaign to good effect). It might be too much to ask that I find plot hooks immediately engrossing, but my initial enthusiasm for them really impacts the chance that I'll use them.

What I really liked here was the section regarding the "early impact" clause of the fireball spell and the optional rules for attacking the small bead of fire in flight in order to cause early detonation. It's a nice touch and rewards characters for paying attention to events and thinking outside the box as far as combat actions go. The two variant spells, ethereal fireball and firebuds, were nice, too, and could be put to good use by enterprising players (right tool for the right job and such).

In the end, I think this PDF was mechanically more interesting than its predecessor, and the section about the "early impact" clause was really clever. It's probably not, in the grand scheme of things, a perfect five, so much as a 4.5, but for our purposes, five stars will do. It's a neat piece of work and well worth the price. I'm curious to see where the rest of this line goes.