Behind the Spells: Mirror Image is a four-page, black & white PDF by Bret Boyd from
Ronin Arts. The layout remains the same as previous titles in the line both as regards quality and style: no art, clean page design, highly readable — in a word, professional. One editing mistake, however, pops up consistently throughout the text. The last name "Sarrt" is frequently pluralized as "Sarrt's," rather than "Sarrts." This doesn't interfere with the text as far as its utility, but it annoyed me as a reader.
The typical product in this line has a few common parts: the narrative detailing the origins of the spell, spell secrets, and variant spells. I found the narrative itself to be enjoyable, particularly in its having the spell be created by a bard seeking revenge on a neglectful family. The alternate described there (
Sarrt's sudden chorus, a reconstructed version has game mechanics described later) felt fairly organic in that it felt like it could have been created to fill a need, rather than having the backstory feel like it was created to fit the spell described. Although this is, of course, what Bret Boyd does in this line, and it's far more pleasing to me as a reader to at least have the illusion of a chronology or progression followed — what helped especially here was the origin detailing a variant with a very specific function that could then be assumed to naturally grow into a spell with a broader application.
For plot hooks, the suggestion of Aldomin's manuscripts and charts as being possible treasure items was highly appropriate and fits in well with one of Ronin Arts's signature pieces of design (non-standard treasures), but I found other suggestions in the text less appealing. A cult dedicated to destroying musicians could be interesting, but I'd have a hard time really explaining their goals to a player (on the other hand, a cult focused on silence would make perfect sense to me for some reason).
I was slightly disappointed with the last two sections. The part about the secrets of
mirror image was nice, although I would have preferred to see different ways to use the spell, rather than different ways to foil the spell. And one of the alternate spells,
sudden chorus, was mechanically curious — it seemed to be too powerful to be a 2nd-level spell, but possibly not useful or powerful enough to be a 3rd-level spell worth being taken by a bard given that class's limited number of spells known. The other alternate,
distracting image, looked, at first glance, like a fine addition to an illusionist's or bard's repertoire and could be used to fine effect to gain a momentary tactical advantage.
Overall, this product is solid and presents some useful options for spellcasters using
mirror image.
Score: 3.5, rounded up to
4 (intrusive editing mistake; great narrative text; solid, if unexciting, mechanical material).
