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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 2008617" data-attributes="member: 1">Chaos Magic is the third in Mongoose's Encyclopaedia Arcane series.  It differs from its two predecessors, Necromancy and Demonology in that it rewrites the D&D magic system completely, dropping the Vancian standard (referred to by Mongoose as 'static' magic) for a more flexible, freeform system.When I first heard about this book, I assumed it was Wild Magic for 3E.  I assumed this right up until the moment my copy arrived in the mail and I opened up the book.  Well, it's not Wild Magic -  what Mongoose have done is written an entirely new magic system for D&D based on the concept of using raw chaotic energy to produce a desired effect. No wild surges, random effect tables or anything like that - the energy may be 'chaos', but the use of it is very controlled. The Chaos Mage is, of course, a character class.  It's similar to the standard Wizard, with an obvious alignment requirement of 'any chaotic'.  Class Abilities include things like Chaos Familiar (a familiar created out of chaotic energy - stronger than a 'static' familiar but with certain drawbacks) and Purge Chaos used to pull oneself back from the destructive Paths of Chaos mentioned below).  There are two prestige classes mentioned - the Bloodcarver (who injures himself in order to focus the chaotic power) and the Doomringer (who combines necromancy and chaos magic, providing energy for the caster's magic by draining it from the dead).The system uses casting checks against a DC determined by the various spell elements chosen at the time of casting. For example, the caster may choose an effect of Raw Damage (DC 10), an area of Cone (DC +5), a range of Close (DC +1) and a duration of 1 minute per level (DC + 10) for a total DC of 26. The casting check is a d20 roll plus the caster's class level, plus his Charisma bonus. There is no limit to the number of spells available per day, but each casting causes 2 HP of subdual damage for every 5 full points of the DC (so the above spell would cause 10 points of subdual damage). The caster also needs to watch out for Backlashes, which occur whenever he rolls a 1 on his casting check; each Backlash pushes the caster further down a Path of Chaos (there are several different paths), which have different effects on the character at each step along the path. If you have Mongoose's Necromancy book, you'll get the idea, as they use something similar there. Otherwise, think along the lines of the Dark Powers checks from Ravenloft.  There are seven paths - the paths of Berserk Growth, Bloody Rage, Rapid Regression, Shrieking Pain, Screaming Shadows, Writhing Serpents, Tortured Stone and Whispering Madness, randomly selected when the Chaos Mage suffers his first Backlash.  The first step along each path is relatively harmless - for example, the Path of Berserk Growth begins with Blades of Chaos - the mage's hair changes colour to green and adopts the texture of grass; towards the end of this path, the caster's entire body becomes a mass of vegetation (which is darned inconvenient!).   The final (tenth) step in each path turns your character forevermore into a creature of chaos, destroying him.Rather than thinking of this as wild magic for 3E, you'd be better off thinking of it as an alternative magic system for the game. So just how flexible is the system?  As presented (although I'm sure that any DM could easily expand on the options), you have a choice of four different overall effects - Damage, Materialisation, Movement and Transformation.  Each of these is again subdivided - Damage, for example, is divided into raw, persistent and degrading effects, whilst the others are divided into category is dependent upon the power level required - Movement is divided into minor (20 ft plus 5 ft/2 caster levels), Moderate, Major all the way up to Universal (1 plane).  The elements essentially control the mechanics - you select Area, Range, Duration and Saving Throw, which all add up to a total DC for your spell.  I haven't had the opportunity to exhaustively test this system - in principle it looks very elegant and flexible; whether or not it is flexible enough or whether it is balanced enough is another matter, but looking at it I can see no obvious flaws.  I ran a single NPC in my game using this system a couple of days ago, and ran across no problems (apart from some very confused players!).The bulk of the book is concerned with presenting this system, but there is more to be found here.  Wanton Talents (for some reason I'm reminded of Gary Gygax's 1E wandering prostitute table...) are available to 'static mages' - there are seven such talents, such as Chaos Flare and Random Amplification, and these are used to enhance normal spellcasting.  Characters with these talents make a concentration check in order to use them to affect the spell being cast.  If you recall the 2e Tome of Magic level variation table for wild magic, this is, in effect the same thing approached from a different angle.Bottled Lightning deals with chaotic magic items - 6 pages of rules on how a chaos mage can craft such an artefact.  Chaotic items are less stable than their static counterparts, and each is unique - there are no 'standard item' lists.  The caster moulds his own item at the time of creation. These rules are a tad complicated but appear to work fine.This book presents a totally new magic system for D&D; and I'm sure that it's a system that many people have tried to create for their own camapaigns.  I know that I've had variations on this theme in scattered notebooks spanning various incarnations of D&D/AD&D over the years.  It's not a new concept - other games have done it before, with varying degrees of success - but it is the first time it has been done for D&D (unless you count the 2E Player's Option 'True Dweomers', which also concentrated on 'building' your unique magical effect).  This is also the first Mongoose product written by someone other than Matthew Sprange, and I feel that Sam Witt has done a fine job here.  That said, I have merely read the book and playtested it for on gaming session as an NPC; a new system is hard to review accurately until it has been exhaustively tested.  Because of this, I am going to give this book a preliminary 4/5; I may well come back and amend that score (and this review) should I find that either 1) the system works so well that I'll permanently adopt it for my games or 2) the system is broken and requires substantial work on the DM's part.  I'll be trying the system in my weekly game for the next month or so, so don't expect me to come back to this review until February at the least.</blockquote>

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