Behind the Spells: Magic Missile

[Old Fezziwig]

Behind the Spells is a pdf series which 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.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Behind the Spells: Magic Missile is a 4 page, black & white PDF by Bret Boyd from Ronin Arts. There is no art, and the layout is clean, readable, and professional.

The conceit of the PDF is that it serves as a guide to the creation of a specific spell in the SRD, offering notes on its development as well as notes on variants, from the point of view of a fictional narrator, Maxolt Alberiim. When Alberiim describes an alternate use of the spell, a gray box of text follows, detailing that note in game terms (for instance, changing the appearance of magic missiles increases the Spellcraft DC that other wizards need to beat to identify what spell is being cast).

What I liked about this PDF were the small adventure hooks embedded in the narrative — such as the idea that ghostly goblins and humans haunt the area around the workshop of Mirtanin Moldao, keeping potential looters, researchers, and adventurers away from the rest of Moldao's work. This doubles the utility of the PDF, making it potentially useful for GMs as well as players. Another nice touch was the description of potential variants, which could be useful for a player looking to create a personalized spell but feeling daunted at the prospect of creating something whole cloth — by using Boyd's small descriptions, the player has a framework to apply to his new spell.

On the other hand, I was less enthused by the variants and alternative spell suggested. Although balanced and well-designed, none of them were particularly exciting to me. The magic sickles variant had a great backstory and a definite niche in a fantasy world (it'd be perfect for Eberron) but struck me as being of limited use as a spell for a player character or NPC, except as something to stow in a spellbook.

Behind the Spells: Magic Missile is, in the end, what a GM or player makes of it and is wonderfully priced. In terms of style and idea, I'd say the product is a solid 5, with some neat ideas for adventures, but the pedestrian mechanical material brings the product rating down to a 4.25, rounded down.

 

[trancejeremy]

Joyce Dewitt would like this

The Behind the Spells Series

One of the more flavorful things of the original AD&D was that many of the spells were named after their creator, generally famous magic-users played by one of the original D&D-ers. This has carried on even into modern day, though the proper names were dropped when put into the SRD (the source of the rules non-Wizards of the Coast d20 authors can use.)

But who invented the other spells, particularly the really common ones like magic missile and fireball? What's the story behind them?

That's what the "Behind the Spell" series is designed to answer in a slightly humorous but also useful way. It's presented somewhat like those TV shows that expose the secrets of an earlier, popular TV show, complete with host. In this case, an ancient Gold Dragon.

As near as I can tell, it's an ongoing series of PDFs. Weekly, bi-weekly, something like that. Short (3-5 pages), but priced cheap ($1). It's by Bret Boyd, who you might know from various RPG related boards (like here) as the extremely hard to spell "Napfthor"


This particular installment, the Magic Missile


This is the first in the series, on the magic missile spell. Basically it gives some background on the creator of the spell, basically who he was, why he created it, the circumstances surrounding its invention. Then some ways to use the spell that are not readily obvious. One example in this case is how the magic missile might not be able to damage items, but probably can nudge them a bit.

Lastly, there is some "related research" which is essentially about variations of the magic missile spell. A half dozen are given, 5 ideas and one writeup. The writeup is "Magic Sickles", a version that only affects plants, and basically works like a scythe or machete.

The PDF itself is plain, with no artwork except perhaps the logo for "Behind the Spells", if you count that as art. It's quite easy to read though and the lay out is clean and concise with nice, normal fonts. (I hate weird fonts)


Final Thoughts

Lots of products are based on clever ideas, but fail in the execution. This is both clever in idea and I think in practice. The background does a good job of explaining why the spell has the features that it does. Why it always hits, and possibly why it's one of those spells that actually isn't all that useful for a 1st level mage, but can be useful higher up.

It also gives you a really good adventure seed: Finding (and of course, looting) the wizard who invented this's secret lab. It does a good job of describing both the lab itself and the general area around it.

The other uses for the magic missile spell given are reasonable. Non-standard ways of using it, but nothing really invented out of the blue, just really parsing the description of the spell. So while this is really up to the DM, I think most would agree with the material here.

On the other hand, I think the variant spell examples needed some work. The one that was statted out wasn't all that useful (just affected plants) and the flavor text for it doesn't really match up with economics - it mentioned that farmers often hire mages to cast it to help their harvest, but the scale is much too small compared to an actual farm.

And while a few other variants are mentioned, they aren't statted. I think we could have gotten stats for 1-2 more.


All in all though, I think this is very much worth buying. For the value of things worth a $1, I have a test, which would I rather have? This, or two White Castles? (Or if you are from the South, Krystal. Which are pretty much the same, except I think taste slightly better. And unlike White Castle, they've never refused to serve me.)

The answer would be this, though much like only buying (and eating) 2 White Castles, you'd be hungry for more. Fortunately, this isn't like White Castle for me, and you can buy more, I think there's at least 4 others available, with more down the pipe.

Really Final Thoughts

I don't really like PDFs much. As a general rule, I just hate reading them. Even when they are good, I don't like to read them. But this I like a lot. I guess in part because it's short (my eyes start to glaze over at about page 10 in a PDF), but also because it's fun. RPG materials can be either dry, or somewhat rules heavy. This is pure enjoyment.

Though I hope one day, when he's done every spell in the SRD, they're collected in one big giant book. I'd definitely buy that, as long as it's not Ptolus priced.

Anyway, it's probably a 4.5, but I'm rounding up

 

[Napftor]

Thanks for transferring the review here, Jeremy. I too hope these are one day collected and released in a nice print format.

 

[Pinotage]

Behind the Spells: Magic Missile is a short pdf by Ronin Arts, the first in the Behind the Spell series of pdfs. Written by Bret Boyd, the pdf takes a deeper look at the Magic Missile spell, and includes several variants and new spells as well as a history of the spell's creation. This pdf contains 4 pages, of which 3 pages are devoted to content. Behind the Spells: Magic Missile normally retails for $1.00.

Disclaimer: The reviewer is also a freelance writer/editor but is in no way affiliated with the publisher of this product. Every effort has been made by the reviewer to ensure that this is an impartial review.

Note: This is an older review reposted since the server crash.

Initial Impressions:

Behind the Spell: Magic Missile comes as a single fully bookmarked pdf. As a short pdf the layout is simple and straightforward, and there is no art contained as can be expected. Ronin Arts generally presents professionally looking pdfs and this is no exception. One or two editing errors crept into the pdf, such as using 'enchanted' instead of 'enhanced', but otherwise the presentation and layout was faultless. As an added addition to the layout rules text is blocked out in a grey area, making it easier to discern what is rules text and what is flavor text. Given this distinction, it was straightforward to determine that there's about half a page of rules text and two and a half pages of flavor text to this pdf, although part of the flavor text is taken up by the introduction.

The Details:

The pdf is written from the perspective of a gold dragon that aims to teach others about the utility and versatility of magic. In this instance the spell under discussion is Magic Missile. The pdf starts by telling of the creation of the spell by a mage named Mirtanin Moldao, and does a goes job of describing how the spell came into being and why the spell automatically hits any target it strikes. In addition to the background details of the spells creation, several plot hooks are provided by which players can investigate the old mage tower where Moldao does his work and there is some background information on the structure of the tower and the layout of the surrounding area. This was a pleasant little read, with a simple plot hook that can be expanded on further within the context of the background provided, and is probably the part of the pdf that shines.

Following the creation tale, the pdf examines several variants to the magic missile spell. I found these quite disappointing, and there was little that would be terrible useful in the material. There were three spells secrets to the magic missile spell, and a further variant spell. The three spell secrets didn't offer the best mechanical execution. For example, one of the secrets allows the magic missile to strike objects and send them tumbling off a shelf or table. It does not, however, mention anything about striking attended objects, or whether this can be used to disarm weapons or other objects wielded that can conceivably also be targeted using the spell secret. I felt that a lot more could have been done with these secrets than that presented.

The spell variant offers an interesting back story and is well-written. The spell execution is somewhat weak again, and probably not useful in that it only affects plants. What bothers me the most is that it's a burst effect. The thing that makes magic missile different is that it always hits its target when an attack roll would normally be required. Burst effects don't require an attack roll in any event so why is this a magic missile variant? The variant spell just appears to be a burst effect disguised with magic missile flavor text.

Conclusions:

Behind the Spells: Magic Missile is a great idea and provides an enjoyable back story on the creation of the magic missile spell. In addition to these it provides a number of spells secrets and a spell variant that can be used to further expand upon the spell. The back story and plot hook make for enjoyable reading, but the secrets and variant were disappointing. In the old end it comes down to the usefulness of the pdf, and as is there's not a lot of material that I'll be tempted to use, apart from the back story and one of the secrets where the magic missile can target things that can't normally be seen. Based on a great idea for pdfs, enjoyable back story, but less useful mechanics and rules, I'd grade this pdf with three and half stars, rounding down to three stars.