Colours of Magic: Red is a 21-page PDF from
Plot Device aiming at re-imagining the
D&D magic system by redistributing spells into new schools represented by colors. As the author suggests at the beginning of the PDF, it's a subtle change mechanically, but one that can have a profound effect on specialization and how the characters and NPCs view and treat magic in the campaign world. Ultimately, Plot Device intends to release 12 PDFs in the line, one for each of the 12 new schools, detailing the spells in the school, three clerical domains, and a new class focusing on the school (in some ways, this class could replace the traditional specialist wizard, although that's far from necessary). I should note now that I'm really interested in the work that's being done here, as I've found the traditional schools to be rather bland and to feel too much like D&Disms.
On the whole, the presentation, layout, and editing are clean, although the author does have a tendency towards wordiness and repetiton. The two pieces of art in the book, a symbol for the school on the first page and an illustration of a Crimson Battlemage, are competent, although not outstanding. The charts in the text are easy to read, and I really like the choice to produce the product in the landscape layout, as I find it easier to read.
The meat of the PDF begins with an overview of chromatic magic: a new color replaces each of the traditional schools, with each new school having three sub-schools (also called "spheres" in the text). In turn, each of these sub-schools has a clerical domain associated with it. Simple enough, really. I like the connection between the arcane schools and clerical domains; it makes magic more of a unified entity and softens the strong divide between arcane and divine magic just a touch. The PDF briefly covers what each color school deals with in its opposition chart (and by looking at the chart and the prohibited spells for the Red school, you can easily reconstruct its opposing school, Indigo. One problem quickly became apparent as I read through this section: although references to the domains and subschools of the Red school can be found, no clear, one sentence definition is given as to what exactly the Red school is. The chart detailing oppositions describes Red as focusing on energy, which is a touch brief, and the three sub-schools (Dynamics, Photonics, and Pyromancy) reinforce this idea, but a clear two-sentence description of the school would definitely be appreciated.
Dynamics, which covers motion and electricity, is the first sphere described in the text. The PDF lists all the spells belonging to the sphere, but notes that no special benefits are conveyed by speciailizing in a field, although it suggests that DMs may, if they wish, extend bonuses to Sorcerers who learn all the spells in a sphere. Also, the domains each grant two special abilities, one basic and available to all clerics with the domain, and one advanced, open to Mystics (presumably from another Plot Device product, which I don't have) or the new class presented in each
Colours of Magic PDF: the Crimson Battlemage in this case. The things that jumped out at me for Dynamics were its association with the Strength domain and the presence of the
bull's strength,
mass bulll's strength, and
Tenser's transformation spells in its list. Given the description of the field as "the study of the forces of motion and electricity," I found it odd that these spells would be included, but
haste would not be; after all, what does being strong have to do with motion or electricity? Also, I question the necessity of advanced domain powers — there must be a better way to mechanically attach this to the specialist classes or the Mystic class than to give the domain an extra power. Finally, the domains presented here include a 0-level spell, which seems funny, although no reason is given for it, just suggestions to ignore it if you don't like it and on how to add 0-level domain spells into your game.
The Photonics sphere and its accompanying domain held together exceedingly well, with the domain powers flavorful (identify magical darkness without a Spellcraft check), but not overly powerful. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the Pyromancy sphere's basic domain power, which allows the character to set flammable objects aflame at will as a free action, causing 1 fire damage to flesh, but up to 1d6 fire damage/round when used on an item being held. It's not so much the damage that bugs me (held items can be dropped), but the frequency of use — too much, too often. An evil cleric with the fire domain could ignite entire towns at whim.
These three sections are followed by the new character class, the Crimson Battlemage. I have no problems with the flavor text, except that the concept might be more suitable to a 10-level prestige class, as it is rather narrow. Mechanically, I feel a lot sketchier about it, as the class has d8 HD, cleric BAB, 2 good saves (Fort, Will), the ability to cast arcane spells in any sort of armor (although not with a shield), proficiency in simple and martial weapons, access to 2nd level spells at 2nd level, access to domain powers from the Red domain, and a variant on a barbarian's rage that scales with level (up to a +8 Str bonus at 20th level). Aside from the low skill points (2+Int/level), the inability to use a shield, and the ability to only cast spells from the Red school, there are no real penalties to the class — it fights as well as a cleric, casts strong destructive spells like a wizard, and has the high strength score of a fighter (coupled with the ability to rage, after a fashion). If all the color-based character classes Plot Device releases are this strong, the standard wizard or specialist wizard would essentially become obsolete — I cannot see myself using this class in any campaign without some drastic tinkering. As a side note (and I wish more companies making new base classes would do this), Plot Device has included a starting package, complete with skills, equipment, spells, and so on. If you were to include the class, this would make it far, far easier to drop into a campaign as a 1st-level PC.
The PDF ends with an appendix detailing all the spells in the Red school, listed by level, with appropriate changes to the spells to reflect the new system (particularly the new School and Sphere, although I was surprised to see the descriptors dropped in the appendix, even though the PDF says they can be used with little to no change — this error could create a lot of problems for folks unfamiliar with the standard descriptors, as it makes a huge difference for energy resistance and certain other abilities). This is handy, and I really like the choice to include it.
Ultimately,
Colours of Magic: Red is underwhelming and feels incomplete. The root idea is fantastic, and the general execution of it is fine. The problems occur in the details: the domain powers, 0-level domain spells, and the Crimson Battlemage. Also, the PDF, as it details part of a whole (there are 11 other schools to be examined), could be hard to integrate into the game, except as a type of strange, exotic magic — without the rest of the system, it's hard, if not foolish, to try to rearrange things to match this system. I'm curious to see where the series goes and, despite my misgivings about parts of this one, look forward to the next release.
