Dark Mistress
First Post
My review of Book of Thaumaturgy by Magechantry
This product is 39 pages long. First two pages are cover and dedication.
Chapter 1 – Witch Class (10 ½ pages)
The witch class d6, 4 skills, simple weapons, no armor, low BAB, spells like a wizard. Basically very similar to a wizard except in class abilities and own spell list.
Totem Guide – 1st level, This ability grants one extra spell per spell level that can be cast and not prepared ahead of time. Basically they can cast one spell of each spell level they know from any spell in their spell book. At 4th level and ever 4 levels after, the witch can pick either Str, Dex, Con, Natural armor or caster level bonus(eventually you get them all), when selected it gets a enhancement bonus equal to their Charisma mod. So if the witch has a Chr of 18, then eventually she will have a +4 to all of those abilities. Honestly this seems a bit strong to me and it is not clear if temp chr boosts or from magic items count or not.
Arcane – At 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th level the witch gets one of the arcane abilities. Most seem ok, some are interesting. One group, Empower, Extend, Enlarge spell, like the meta magic feats. With these powers a witch can as a free action add that to a spell they are casting, by making a power check(witch level + Int mod + D20) DC is 18 or 15 depending on the power + 2 times spell level. So a second level spell would have a DC of 22 or 19 depending which one is used. Failure results in taking 1d4 per spell level in dmg and the spell not going off but not lost. I think the spell should also be lost personally.
Arcane Major – At 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th level the witch gains one of these abilities. Drain Item, drain one charge from a item and heal 1d6. Quicken and Maximize spells like the feats DC's 20 and 22 + 2x level respectively.
Some of the stuff I honestly wasn't sure what the author meant. A example Dispelling Blast, added to any evocation spell as a free action, Power check DC 20. But what does it do? Add in a dispel magic spell? That seems to be the case if I had to guess but it doesn't say for sure.
Arcane Grand - 18th and 20th level gains this ability. Timeless Body, Eye bite spell at will, Power Summoning can cast any summoning spell known in spell book at will with a power check of DC 22 + 2x level.
Spell list, has some cleric/druid spells and most wizard spells but gives up most of the wizard evocation spells. It looks ok but I did notice the cure light wounds was missing even though it had inflict light wounds and other spell levels had both. I am guessing that is a error and the spell was left off on accident.
All and all the class feels a bit powerful to me, but it is just gut reaction. With the DC's it might not be as bad as my gut reaction feels and I wouldn't know with out play testing.
Chapter 2 – New Feats (8 pages)
There is 19 new feats, some are pretty normal. Some add 1 extra dmg per caster level to all dmg spells(either as fire, cold, acid, sonic or lightening dmg, feat for each and they don't stack), some feats are super natural abilities and once more my gut reaction is some of them are overpowered for a feat.
Chapter 3 – Implements (1 page)
Atheme, Wand and pentacle. I will be honest I had trouble understanding what the author was saying at point. Like with wands as a example, they can add more charges than normal at cost +10%, and meta magic added only cost 50%. So is there a limit or can a witch make a wand with 1000 charges? It just wasn't real clear.
Chapter 4 – Omin Nasir (5 pages)
This is a PrC, I won't get into the details about this one. It is a 10 level PrC but I feel the abilities are to powerful for this PrC. There was some interesting idea's.
Chapter 5 – New Spells (11 pages)
There is 19 new spells. Some are interesting others were ok. But I am not sure I agree with the levels on several of them.
Last 2 pages are the OGL.
Closing thoughts. I dislike saying bad things about other peoples hard work, I feel especially bad cause I know I don't have that kind of talent myself. But with that said.
Well the book needs another round of edit, there is parts that I am sure to the author makes perfect sense but I found confusing by how it was worded. I already touched on how I felt some things was border line if not OPed. There is also no art in the book hardly. I did like the Black Company quote on ever other page, being a fan of the Black Company books. So in short I consider this a book to mine idea's from cause it needs a bit of work in my opinion. The killer for the book is the price, It is just not worth the price. At 39 pages for 10 bucks is high. I mean take some of the 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming books, which have more art, better quality, 100+ pages for 9 to 11 bucks. Or Otherworld Creations Super Genius Guides which cost 2 to 3 bucks and range from 10-18 pages in size with better art and production values. I would have liked to contact the author to share my views but I dislike signing up for things like face book and know of no other way to contact him. In short I can't recommend this product at this price. To me this is more of a 3-5 buck product, 3 or 4 would be ok, I think 5 would be pushing it but with another edit pass possible worth it.
This product is 39 pages long. First two pages are cover and dedication.
Chapter 1 – Witch Class (10 ½ pages)
The witch class d6, 4 skills, simple weapons, no armor, low BAB, spells like a wizard. Basically very similar to a wizard except in class abilities and own spell list.
Totem Guide – 1st level, This ability grants one extra spell per spell level that can be cast and not prepared ahead of time. Basically they can cast one spell of each spell level they know from any spell in their spell book. At 4th level and ever 4 levels after, the witch can pick either Str, Dex, Con, Natural armor or caster level bonus(eventually you get them all), when selected it gets a enhancement bonus equal to their Charisma mod. So if the witch has a Chr of 18, then eventually she will have a +4 to all of those abilities. Honestly this seems a bit strong to me and it is not clear if temp chr boosts or from magic items count or not.
Arcane – At 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th level the witch gets one of the arcane abilities. Most seem ok, some are interesting. One group, Empower, Extend, Enlarge spell, like the meta magic feats. With these powers a witch can as a free action add that to a spell they are casting, by making a power check(witch level + Int mod + D20) DC is 18 or 15 depending on the power + 2 times spell level. So a second level spell would have a DC of 22 or 19 depending which one is used. Failure results in taking 1d4 per spell level in dmg and the spell not going off but not lost. I think the spell should also be lost personally.
Arcane Major – At 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th level the witch gains one of these abilities. Drain Item, drain one charge from a item and heal 1d6. Quicken and Maximize spells like the feats DC's 20 and 22 + 2x level respectively.
Some of the stuff I honestly wasn't sure what the author meant. A example Dispelling Blast, added to any evocation spell as a free action, Power check DC 20. But what does it do? Add in a dispel magic spell? That seems to be the case if I had to guess but it doesn't say for sure.
Arcane Grand - 18th and 20th level gains this ability. Timeless Body, Eye bite spell at will, Power Summoning can cast any summoning spell known in spell book at will with a power check of DC 22 + 2x level.
Spell list, has some cleric/druid spells and most wizard spells but gives up most of the wizard evocation spells. It looks ok but I did notice the cure light wounds was missing even though it had inflict light wounds and other spell levels had both. I am guessing that is a error and the spell was left off on accident.
All and all the class feels a bit powerful to me, but it is just gut reaction. With the DC's it might not be as bad as my gut reaction feels and I wouldn't know with out play testing.
Chapter 2 – New Feats (8 pages)
There is 19 new feats, some are pretty normal. Some add 1 extra dmg per caster level to all dmg spells(either as fire, cold, acid, sonic or lightening dmg, feat for each and they don't stack), some feats are super natural abilities and once more my gut reaction is some of them are overpowered for a feat.
Chapter 3 – Implements (1 page)
Atheme, Wand and pentacle. I will be honest I had trouble understanding what the author was saying at point. Like with wands as a example, they can add more charges than normal at cost +10%, and meta magic added only cost 50%. So is there a limit or can a witch make a wand with 1000 charges? It just wasn't real clear.
Chapter 4 – Omin Nasir (5 pages)
This is a PrC, I won't get into the details about this one. It is a 10 level PrC but I feel the abilities are to powerful for this PrC. There was some interesting idea's.
Chapter 5 – New Spells (11 pages)
There is 19 new spells. Some are interesting others were ok. But I am not sure I agree with the levels on several of them.
Last 2 pages are the OGL.
Closing thoughts. I dislike saying bad things about other peoples hard work, I feel especially bad cause I know I don't have that kind of talent myself. But with that said.
Well the book needs another round of edit, there is parts that I am sure to the author makes perfect sense but I found confusing by how it was worded. I already touched on how I felt some things was border line if not OPed. There is also no art in the book hardly. I did like the Black Company quote on ever other page, being a fan of the Black Company books. So in short I consider this a book to mine idea's from cause it needs a bit of work in my opinion. The killer for the book is the price, It is just not worth the price. At 39 pages for 10 bucks is high. I mean take some of the 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming books, which have more art, better quality, 100+ pages for 9 to 11 bucks. Or Otherworld Creations Super Genius Guides which cost 2 to 3 bucks and range from 10-18 pages in size with better art and production values. I would have liked to contact the author to share my views but I dislike signing up for things like face book and know of no other way to contact him. In short I can't recommend this product at this price. To me this is more of a 3-5 buck product, 3 or 4 would be ok, I think 5 would be pushing it but with another edit pass possible worth it.
