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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2008644" data-attributes="member: 172">Chaos Magic: Wild SorceryOne of Mongoose Publishing's most attractive lines to date has been their Encyclopaedia Arcane series. The first two books in the series, Demonology: The Dark Road and Necromancy: Beyond the Grave too a deeper look at two traditions of arcane magic that the authors felt the d20 system rules did not adequately cover.Chaos Magic: Wild Sorcery takes a slightly different cant. Instead of expanding on a realm of magic that already exists in the d20 system rules in some capacity, it instead tried to develop a new type of arcane magic that has not yet been examined by the d20 system rules.Now the words "wild" and "magic" in the title may lead you to believe that you will be getting a rehash of the wild magic rules as they existed in the AD&D 2nd edition Tome of Magic book. Well in some ways it is like that. But in many ways, it isn't.A First LookChaos Magic: Wild Sorcery is a 64 page perfect-bound book priced at $14.95. The cover has a border pattern similar to the previous books. The cover has a rendition of a scantily-clad woman with outstretched arms and streamers of blue energy flowing from her hands and whirling about her body.The interior is black and white. The interior art is fairly well done, with pencil and pen-and-ink pieces by a variety of artists. I miss the detailed artwork of Chris Quilliams from earlier Mongoose art. However, none of the art was as bad as some of the stuff that appears in earlier Mongoose books. There are a few illustrations that are a little racy and/or tacky, but not to the degree that the book bowls you over with it.The typeface is about average, with some large headers. Combined with the presentation and price, this delivers a decent value.A Deeper LookAs with the other books in the series, the book is not organized into clearly defined chapters, but rather a variety of topical sections.The book begins with a little overview of the underlying theory of the chaos magic. The premise is that the universe is composed of two elements: substance and illusion. Substance is chaos, but is given form by the order imposed by sentience. Chaos mages power springs from the use of the raw primal chaos inherent in the universe.The use of chaos as a form of magic can be realized in a few ways under this book. The existing arcane spellcasting classes (called static mages herein) can dabble in adding elements of chaos magic to their own magic. In doing so, they develop what are called wanton talents. Wanton talents can be developed by accidental or deliberate exposure to primal chaos, by the caster suffering death (and presumably resurrection), or by means of research. The nature of the talent is random, but once the caster has the talent, it may be used to alter or enhance their spells in a particular way. For example, a spellcaster with the chaotic component can draw from raw primal chaos to power her spells in the place of a normal material component, but suffers damage from doing so. Random amplification makes the casters spells that require dice rolls more random, but with a potentially great payoff: the caster roll two different sets of dice, and depending on how the roll compares, the caster may use the lesser of the two, the greater, the average, or the total.While this is a nice flavorful little perk that some arcane spellcasters can take advantage of, the real meat revolves around a new basic arcane spellcasting class, the chaos mage. On the surface, the chaos mage appears similar to other arcane spellcasters. They are a basic class (i.e., you can play one at first level) with poor combat abilities and fortitude and reflex saves, but a good willpower save advancement, and they have a variety of class abilities that they receive as they advance in levels.However, chaos mages are different in that they have no spells per day or spells known charts. Their spellcasting is totally off the cuff. To cast a chaos spell, the player decides what she wants to do, and rolls for it.This is done by selecting a number of elements. All spells require at least one basic effect element, though more advanced chaos mages can select more than one. Basic elements include effect like one of a few raw damage effects, materialization effects, movement, or transformation effects. This gives the spell a base DC. Then the caster can add area elements, range elements, duration elements, and saving throw elements. Each of these elements can add to the DC of the spell. Once all elements are selected, the DC is total, and the caster makes a caster level check, using 1d20 + chaos mage class level + charisma modifier. If the roll succeeds, the spell goes off as planned.The limiting factor on chaos spells - other than the fact they might not work - is that the chaos mage takes damage every time she casts one. If you made the caster roll, the damage is only subdual. If the roll fails, the damage is applied as real damage. The damage applied is a function of the DC of the spell; one point of damage is inflicted per 5 full points of DC.Another hazard associated with the use of chaos magic is backlash. The first time that the character rolls a "1" on a casting check, a backlash occurs. When this happens, the GM (deliberately or randomly) selects one of several paths of chaos. Once such a path is selected, that is the path that the character will always use.Each path of chaos has a specific theme and ten steps. For example, the path of berserk growth involves the growth of wild things. The first step is merely cosmetic (in this case, the character's hair takes on the appearance of grass and instantly regrows if cut.) Subsequent steps have more severe game penalties associated with them. Should the character ever reach the 10th step, the character is effectively gone. For example, the 10th step in the path of berserk growth, plants burst forth from the character's body and the character becomes a grove of shifting alien plants.Each time the character has a backlash, they progress one more step down the path. To make matters worse, the further down a path you are, the easier it is to tread further along the path. Instead of a 1, if you are far along a path, you only need roll less than the step number on the path to trigger a backlash. However, high level chaos mages can expend XP to reverse their course along the path of chaos.I like the idea of the paths of chaos, but personally thought that it should really depend more on the power of the spell being cast, to make casting powerful spells seem that much more daunting a prospect. Perhaps you could allow a will save verses the backlash, with a DC equal to the casting DC.In addition to the classes, casting system, and paths of chaos that seem to form the core of the book, a number of other resources are provided.Some new feats are introduced to take your chaos mage in even more unique directions. Casting focus simply allows a bonus to caster level checks. Specialized focus allows a larger bonus to caster level checks, but it only applies to a single effect element. Chaotic healing gives you the ability to heal faster on the average, but more sporadically.The section entitled Servants of Chaos describes the creation of a chaos familiar. Chaos familiars are gained as a class ability at 4th level. The player (or GM) designs the chaos familiar by selecting from lists of traits and special abilities.The section entitled Wild Specialists introduces two prestige classes for chaos mages. The bloodcarver is a chaos mage that further focuses their magic by means of self-mutilation. Doomringers are a cult that combine their art with necromancy, and can redirect damage from Chaos Magic spells to a corpse that they form a bond with.The prestige classes do not explicitly state anywhere that their levels count toward chaos mage spellcasting. One would assume that in this case that their levels don't count, but it seems to me like some of the class abilities granted by these classes would be fighting uphill if you lose the chaos spellcasting advancement. It seems to me like at least partial advancement as a chaos mage for the purposes of spellcasting would be appropriate.Chaos mages don't craft items as typical spellcasters do. A section entitled Bottled Lightning details how chaos mages can make their own brand of magic items. The process is more haphazard than standard d20 magic items, does not require XP, and only has a limited range of capabilities. Further, the items tend to decay, especially when untended and can only be used by those attuned to the item… a process that inflicts penalties to the character's physical scores. I am a little iffy on the possible balance repercussions of this section, more so than the rest of the book.The book concludes with a short section on GM tips and designer notes, which attempt to provide some insight into how the system works in play and how to handle possible problems that could crop up.ConclusionChaos Magic: Wild Sorcery definitely isn't what some people expected it to be: a retelling of the AD&D 2e wild mage. That said, I think it will appeal to a lot of the same player: those who are willing to gamble with their characters lives to get a cool effect or power. Unlike the 2e wild mage, a chaos mage will probably not be a major threat to his companions, beyond the fact that bad rolling can really make the chaos mage fail to hold up his end of the party load.Much like Demonology: The Dark Road, this book requires a GM who is tolerant of foibles of randomness and adjudication. I am uncertain of how chaos magic would play out in a campaign given its unusual techniques. Using HP as a source of magical power and relying heavily on dice rolls when spellcasting sounds like it could have some unintended consequences.That said, I like Chaos Magic: Wild Sorcery a bit more as a product. Not only is it better organized, but it also seems like it would be easier to insert in a campaign that is not wholly focused on the book. Even if you decide not to use the book wholesale, there is a lot of material you can use. For example, you might use the paths of chaos as curses or side effects from other brands of chaotic or baleful magic, or might use the spell construction system as the basis for your own.I could see this book being useful supplementing the existing repertoire of arcane spellcasters in an existing game. Brave GMs may even consider the somewhat fun sounding proposition of replacing conventional arcane spellcasters in a game with chaos mages.-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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