Old Fezziwig
this is a low-flying panic attack
A Dozen Disgusting Spells is a small, 5-page PDF written by Michael Hammes. The layout, font, and design of the PDF are all identical to other similar titles from Ronin Arts, such as A Dozen Disturbing Rumors. The PDF consists of a brief introduction explaining how the author got the idea and why he feels it would be useful, a side-bar called "Roleplay Alert" that offers suggestions for making existing spells more "visceral," and the spells themselves, arranged in alphabetical order.
I should mention from the start that I have little to compare this with in terms of the marketplace, as I've only glanced through WotC's Book of Vile Darkness and never saw many of the other texts that dealt with vile or disgusting things (such as AEG's Evil, although I don't know if that book handles any material similar to what is found here, so that could be a moot point). In fact, I bought this PDF because I felt that the demand for disgusting/vile spells in my game was fairly low and that a dozen of them ought to handle my needs. Overall, I found this to be true after I finished reading the PDF.
On the whole, the spells presented are disgusting and could serve as appropriate fodder for both NPCs and even PCs --PCs in a game focused on diplomacy could have a blast with curse of warts, for instance. And, over all, the flavor text here and the ideas behind the spells are not problematic. In fact, I would consider them to be the strength of this book. Mechanically, however, the book makes some choices I find questionable.
For instance, to return to curse of warts, the spell covers the victim's body with warts, which are curable only by (1) cutting them off, (2) remove curse, or (3) cure disease. Good enough so far. The problem is that the adjudication of the warts regarding how they impact the victim's is left entirely up to the DM -- I think a small, but concrete penalty, such as a -2 circumstance bonus to Cha-related skill checks until the warts are healed, would be a little better (this could account for things as disparate as the victim being disfigured from cutting them off to someone wrapping themselves up like a mummy so as not to offend). Devein and maggot infestation both present clerics with 6th-level spells that can cause instant death -- even harm can't do that (additionally, devein still does more damage than both blade barrier and inflict moderate wounds on a successful save -- 3d8+1/level vs. 1d6/level and 2d8+1/level). Noxious stench was basically a 4th-level version of stinking cloud, but the only real differences were increased duration, sickening effects on people who successfully save, and a smaller area of effect -- I'm not really sure why I wouldn't stick with the 2nd-level spell, especially with the potential to cause real damage to my opponents with spells like enervation or contagion. Likewise, rain of putrescence (love that name) doesn't cause any sort of nausea, despite being a downpour of fecal matter. Finally, the duration of vile stench might be a bit long for a 1st-level Wizard spell (it ends up having a similar effect to doom, which only has a duration of 1 min./level)
Spells that I did like and seemed useable with little to no modification included explosion of gore (a corpse explodes in a mess of, well, gore), oozing itch, plague of boils (both have pretty self-explanatory effects), slime touch (deals 1d6 permanent Con damage, may turn victim into green slime), and violent retching (target does best impression of a first-semester college freshman the morning after the year's first frat party). I'm still a bit hung up on whether or not vacate bowels would be useful for a game -- I can't imagine telling my players that their character has diarrhea, but it would be appropriate for some villains I may use in the near future, so I'll stay on the fence on that one.
In the end, the ideas are good enough, without being too puerile, that I'm happy enough with my purchase, and the mechanical choices that I don't really agree with can be modified fairly easily. For the amount of use that I expect to get out of the spells here (and I think a little use will go a long way -- if any of them, with maybe the exception of a modified curse of warts or slime touch, became regulars in any of my games, I'd have to ask what sort of game I'm running), I think the PDF achieves its goal of presenting the DM (and even the players) with some disgusting, new spells to use, and, although it has mechanical issues, the ideas are sound.
I should mention from the start that I have little to compare this with in terms of the marketplace, as I've only glanced through WotC's Book of Vile Darkness and never saw many of the other texts that dealt with vile or disgusting things (such as AEG's Evil, although I don't know if that book handles any material similar to what is found here, so that could be a moot point). In fact, I bought this PDF because I felt that the demand for disgusting/vile spells in my game was fairly low and that a dozen of them ought to handle my needs. Overall, I found this to be true after I finished reading the PDF.
On the whole, the spells presented are disgusting and could serve as appropriate fodder for both NPCs and even PCs --PCs in a game focused on diplomacy could have a blast with curse of warts, for instance. And, over all, the flavor text here and the ideas behind the spells are not problematic. In fact, I would consider them to be the strength of this book. Mechanically, however, the book makes some choices I find questionable.
For instance, to return to curse of warts, the spell covers the victim's body with warts, which are curable only by (1) cutting them off, (2) remove curse, or (3) cure disease. Good enough so far. The problem is that the adjudication of the warts regarding how they impact the victim's is left entirely up to the DM -- I think a small, but concrete penalty, such as a -2 circumstance bonus to Cha-related skill checks until the warts are healed, would be a little better (this could account for things as disparate as the victim being disfigured from cutting them off to someone wrapping themselves up like a mummy so as not to offend). Devein and maggot infestation both present clerics with 6th-level spells that can cause instant death -- even harm can't do that (additionally, devein still does more damage than both blade barrier and inflict moderate wounds on a successful save -- 3d8+1/level vs. 1d6/level and 2d8+1/level). Noxious stench was basically a 4th-level version of stinking cloud, but the only real differences were increased duration, sickening effects on people who successfully save, and a smaller area of effect -- I'm not really sure why I wouldn't stick with the 2nd-level spell, especially with the potential to cause real damage to my opponents with spells like enervation or contagion. Likewise, rain of putrescence (love that name) doesn't cause any sort of nausea, despite being a downpour of fecal matter. Finally, the duration of vile stench might be a bit long for a 1st-level Wizard spell (it ends up having a similar effect to doom, which only has a duration of 1 min./level)
Spells that I did like and seemed useable with little to no modification included explosion of gore (a corpse explodes in a mess of, well, gore), oozing itch, plague of boils (both have pretty self-explanatory effects), slime touch (deals 1d6 permanent Con damage, may turn victim into green slime), and violent retching (target does best impression of a first-semester college freshman the morning after the year's first frat party). I'm still a bit hung up on whether or not vacate bowels would be useful for a game -- I can't imagine telling my players that their character has diarrhea, but it would be appropriate for some villains I may use in the near future, so I'll stay on the fence on that one.
In the end, the ideas are good enough, without being too puerile, that I'm happy enough with my purchase, and the mechanical choices that I don't really agree with can be modified fairly easily. For the amount of use that I expect to get out of the spells here (and I think a little use will go a long way -- if any of them, with maybe the exception of a modified curse of warts or slime touch, became regulars in any of my games, I'd have to ask what sort of game I'm running), I think the PDF achieves its goal of presenting the DM (and even the players) with some disgusting, new spells to use, and, although it has mechanical issues, the ideas are sound.
