Drow Magic: Sorcery of the Endless Night

There are beasts in the deep, beasts whose flesh is perfect obsidian, beasts whose eyes shine like midnight stars, beasts who yearn to hunt again beneath the open sky. These beasts are the drow, and it is their doom to never again feel the light and heat of the sun, until such time as the elven gods are thrown down and all their favored children slain.

The cities of the drow spread like cancer throughout the world’s veins, glittering jewels of decadent, blood soaked corruption. Ruled by great, matriarchal families and by the will of the church of the Dark Mother of Spiders, these cities are cosmopolitan nightmares, home to the worst depravities imaginable and swarming with untold legions of drow.

While all drow have earned a reputation for cruelty and deadly cunning, none deserve it more than those drow who command the primal, arcane forces. This book, the Encyclopedia Arcana: Drow Magic, shows you why.

In this, the latest in Mongoose Publishing’s line of books designed to broaden the horizons of wizardry in fantasy gaming, you will find a host of new options specifically designed with the sinister needs of the drow in mind. You will find page after page of new spells; spells which create living webs, which infect enemies of the drow with deadly soul poisons or virulent diseases, which summon up gibbering mounds of shadow to bite tear at flesh and spirit.

You will also be introduced to the drow dark weaver, a contemporary of the wizard and sorcerer whose powers stem from his arcane studies and from his devotion to the drow race and his goddess, the Dark Mother of Spiders. The dark weaver is the spider in the shadows, the avenger in darkness, the protector and shepard of the drow, and he is the master of those most powerful and feared of all drow enchantments, the black ceremonies.

Speaking of the black ceremonies, you will find them here as well. In the Black Ceremonies, you will be given all the rules you need to bring this whole new form of magic to your fantasy campaigns. Magical ceremonies are those enchantments which require the participation of dozens or hundreds, which are powered by the ritual sacrifice of living beings or heaping mounds of treasure and which have the capacity to bring about catastrophic changes throughout the campaign world. Thanks to the power of ceremonial magic, and more specifically black ceremonies, you and your players will never see the drow, or your fantasy gaming, the same way again.

Drow Magic is the latest in Mongoose Publishing’s long Encyclopedia Arcana line, presenting a new look at the magic of one of fantasy gaming’s staple races, the dark elves known as the drow. Designed to be slotted seamlessly into any fantasy-based D20 system, these sourcebook enhance and expand all arcane spellcasting classes, adding a whole new dimension to your campaigns. Each book of the Encyclopedia Arcana line is not just intended for the Game Master to enhance his campaign, however. Players themselves will find full details on how to use the new magic systems with new or existing characters, greatly increasing the wealth of options they are presented with in the Core Rulebooks.
 

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Product Review

Product Identity:
Name of Product: Encyclopaedia Arcane Drow Magic: Sorcery of the Endless Night
Publisher: Mongoose Publishing
Author/s: Patrick Younts
Link: www.mongoosepublishing.com
Artists: Cover: Anne Stokes, Interior: Alejandro Villen
Stock Number/SKU: MGP 1025
ISBN: 1-904854-01-X
Cover Price: US $14.95
Page Count: 64
Hard/Soft Cover/PDF: Softcover
Color/B&W Artwork: Cover: Full Color, Interior: B&W

Date of Review: June 21, 2004
Reviewer: DM5

Summary Ratings:
Features scored 0-5, with comments
Substance: 5 -This is good stuff, and well written.
Style: 5 -Mongoose succeeds in making Drow dangerous and enigmatic again.
Innovation: 4 -The Black Ceremony rules are a good beginning to an oft considered approach to ceremonial magic, if too lengthy.

Story: 2 -The absence of Story elements is a necessity in lower page-count products where most gamers want more than fluff for their money.
Setting: 0 -Not scored.
NPCs: 0 -Not scored.
Game Mechanics: 5 -Ceremonial magic rules are enhanced.
PCs: 4 -There is much to enhance your PC.
Classes/Prestige Classes: 4 One new Class, and 3 new Prestige Classes; each nicely detailed.
Feats/Skills: 4 -A handful of balanced new Feats.
Equipment: 0 -Not scored.
Magic Items: 0 -A book about magic with no new magic items… Surely this was an oversight?
Magic: 5 -The Spells and Ceremonial magic return the Drow to their place of honor.
Spells/Psionic Devotions: 5 The heart of the book, and a strong one indeed- worth the cover price!
Creatures: 3 -One new creature presented.

Art 5 -Great art, overall.
Cover: 5 -Good quality, if busy. It’s the color that gets your attention.
Interior: 5 -Above average quality, and consistent quality and style.
Maps: 0 -No maps included or required for this product. Not scored.

Critique:

First Glance
GM’s take note. Here lies the best kept truth of the Drow- they are still damned sexy and ever so deadly! In this, the latest in Mongoose Publishing’s line of books designed to broaden the horizons of wizardry in fantasy gaming, you’ll found a host of new feats, spells and prestige class options specifically designed for the sinister Drow of your campaign.

Read-Through
Introduction
While all Drow have earned a reputation for cruelty and deadly cunning, none deserve it more than those who command arcane forces. This book shows why. Mr. Younts has distilled the Drow to their bare essence and built on their foundations as the sleek and sexy supermodels of villainy, rather than the tedious socialites that twenty years of overexposure has made them. Huzzah!

Drow Magic – An Overview
Like the Drow themselves, Drow magic is equal parts subtlety and savagery. This book captures both of these qualities and expands on the possibilities that are cast off into the dark recesses of the mind by other races.
A brief discussion comparing Wizards and Sorcerers leads into the introduction of the Dark Weaver, a powerful new class of arcane caster with religious leanings.
Black Ceremony magic is introduced, but is detailed in later pages.

The Drow Dark Weaver
Seven pages of notes are offered to illuminate this new class, which is balanced against other classes. GMs should be aware that the innate Drow abilities will increase the overall CR of the Dark Weaver. A spell list rounds out the detail.

Prestige Classes
Four new prestige classes, each finely illustrated and ready to play. Let your players tangle with a Path Master next time they venture too far under the earth.

Drow Magic Feats
An offering of seventeen new feats adds greater flexibility to Players and GMs alike. Let the Womb of Night cradle your character…

Drow Spells
There are baleful new spells to be learned- spells which create living webs, spells which infect enemies with deadly poisons or virulent diseases, and spells which summon up frenzied mounds of shadow to bite and tear at flesh and spirit. Use these sparingly to strangle dungeon delvers once more in the grip of their own fears.

Black Ceremonies
This richly detailed section expounds on the nature and methods of Drow Black Ceremonies. I have only one criticism- this system is mechanically clunky and could bog down a game session if rolled “live”. I advise using these rules in advance of a planned session.

Help for Games Masters
The first time your players hear that their character’s flesh is bubbling and ripping and erupting into gouts of tiny spiders, they are likely to react with shock, perhaps even a bit of revulsion. In other words, they will react exactly as they should when confronted by the Drow. This section offers guidance for introducing the material in this book into your game world.

Designer’s Notes
Read this for insight into the author’s thoughts about who or what Drow are, and what they should act like. I found myself agreeing with Mr. Younts, point for point.

Dark Weaver Spell List
This is a one-page reiteration of the spell list given previously. Photocopy this page for quick reference during play.

Should you buy it? Yes! This is grand stuff. It was a joy to read and to test with my gaming group.

Overall Score: 4.36
 

Sorry if my critique may irritate you... there's no pun intended :)

I just don't get much usefulness out of this review. It doesn't tell me much about the content of the book: now I know that the product contains a base class, 3 prestige classes, seventeen feats, new spells, and rules for "black ceremonies". Fine, but I have no idea about what are those 4 classes about for instance! And I don't _anything_ about those black ceremonies (your only comment is that they are quite complicated to be handled in-game).

For instance, look at what you wrote about feat: "An offering of seventeen new feats adds greater flexibility to Players and GMs alike. Let the Womb of Night cradle your character…". That's the most generic comment possible isn't it? :p It's the kind of line which gets printed on the book's commercial or back cover, but tells the reader nothing about why buying this book instead of any other of the thousands books with feats, spells and prestige classes (except that supposedly all these are targetted to draw characters).

Mongoose's EA books always give some new mechanics (either through variant rules or new core classes or feats...), and THAT is usually the key point of each of their book. Therefore, from a review about a EA book, I expect to get (1) a preview about what the book's new rule or stuff does, and (2) the reviewer's comment about how does it work in practice. But in your review unfortunately I only read notes about how this book is "cool", which isn't bad but definitely doesn't inform me at all about this specific product (and quite renders you rather complex voting system non-understandable).

I hope my comment wasn't too harsh anyway :)
 

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