Complete Mage ToC

[Andor]

I dunno. There are some interesting options for familiars right now. I'm playing a gnome wizard who took the combat familiar feat. Voila! My familiar is now a hell hound he uses as a mount. The low hitpoints are a liability, granted, but he's doubled his speed and cast cast on the fly with a minor concentration check, and being able to share spells with his mount is a real bonus. Plus the Hell hound has a decent bite, a minor breath weapon, and has become the party tracker. Plus he gets a lot more respect in town riding a mount with glowing eyes and flaming slobber.

 

[Nightfall]

*thinks he'll stick with the familiar options presented in Strange Lands: Lost Tribes of the Scarred Lands at the end.* They were pretty neat I thought.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One thing to keep in mind that may help is the idea that at some point in your gameworld's history, there had to have been a first wizard, first paladin, etc. ("In the beginning, there was nobody but commoners, warriors and barbarians. Then someone discovered magic and lo! There were adepts!"). Thus there could appear, in your world's present, the first Hexblade, the first Warlock, etc.

I don't mean that you have to use them, but this might help overcome your suspension of disbelief a bit.

I use the "off the edge of the map" approach. In fact, none of the Tome of Magic classes have appeared IMC yet, but I've explicitly had the players discover lore that talks about all three magical traditions scattering after a long-ago wizard war. So when/if I decide to introduce truenamers, binders or shadowcasters, the players will have been expecting them to show, and it won't be a "wait, where did this thing get dropped in from?"

 

[Nightfall]

Eh with the flucuating state of arcane magic in the Scarred Lands, I'm not adverse to Hexblades, Warlocks, True Namers, Shadow Casters, or even binders. I'm just against Mystics, Favored Souls and maybe Samurai (3.5 version.).

 

[Nyeshet]

Hmm,

30 pages = describing caster specializations / roles / archtypes
05 pages = Alt Class Features (could be interesting)
12 pages = feats (includes more 'heritage' feats, for better or worse)
40 pages = PrCs (only 11, each taking ~3 pages)
36 pages = new spells
10 pages = magic items (looks like a good but sparce mix, no weapon enhancements I note)
20 pages = "arcane adventures" (ideas on how to make adventures that focus on magic items, places, peoples, etc)


Personal Thoughts:

I'm a little surprised at no new base classes, but not over much so. I think I recall someone stating that there would be no new base classes in this book on a thread some months back.

I'm still wondering what a Reserve Feat is. There are several possibilities.

I wonder if the "Eldritch Theurge" is a remake of the Mystic Theurge? If not, I wonder which full casters it combines? The Warlock / Cleric idea is interesting, but then we've yet to see the Warlock combined (in a MT sense) with any class as of yet. So perhaps it could be a general Warlock / full-caster combination - good for fusion with clerics, sorcerers, wizards, druids, etc. A Warlock / Sorcerer could be interesting. One could focus on utility while the other focused on blasting or vice versa.

Warlocks got new Invocations, but the lists and the descriptions take up a total of three pages. I guess it's better than nothing . . . . No love for the Incarnates, I notice. I'm pleasantly surprised that so few new spells are in this book. I thought it might end up as half the book, but instead the lists and descriptions take up only about thirty-six pages. Of course, this book has been trimmed to a mere 156 pages, so that is still a notable amount, I suppose . . . .

I would have liked more info on and examples of UA's Incantations that any can use, as well as a bit more love for Incarnates, but otherwise it looks like a solid buy.

If this is an example of how the Complete Scoundral, etc will be formatted then I may have more interest in them than I thought.

 

[Felon]

Correct, but if I'm not going to use it I would perfer that it not be there and something more useful be in its place. I am happy they did not include an option I would most likely not use for something else that I might.

Oh, I doubt content inclusion really works on a simple for tat basis. Just because they include or don't include another base class doesn't have much to do with what other ideas they have to put in the book. If it's strickly a space consideration you're referring to--the idea of something winding up on the cutting room floor--then I direct you to first thirty pages of the book, whose value appears to be more academic than practical.

More room for worthwhile content, naturally.

And this is from the guy who wasn't bothered by one-third of the Complete Arcane being devoted exclusively to Wu Jen spells?

 

[Mercule]

To those who were hoping for more "specialists as base classes," I feel ya. I'd like to see that, too. However, I think most of you specialist fans will be pretty happy with what you can achieve by combining some of the alternate class features with the master specialist PrC.

That bit right there may have pushed this into my "buy" list. At the least, it's now on the "browse, with expectation of purchase" list.

 

[SkidAce]

Hmmmmm....Unseen Seer? Did I read that right? Perplexing oxymoron.

 

[WarlockLord]

What I'd like to know is, is there anything that could help a drow with LA?

 

[zoroaster100]

After seeing the table of contents, I'm now likely interested in this book. Before that I was not. I'm glad more time seems spent on alternate abilities to the core class and on wizard/sorcerer spells than invocations, since I don't generally need or trust new core classes or new prestige classes.