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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="trancejeremy" data-source="post: 2783663" data-attributes="member: 924">Joyce Dewitt would like thisThe Behind the Spells SeriesOne 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 MissileThis 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 ThoughtsLots 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</blockquote>

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