JoeGKushner
Adventurer
New spells for all core classes.
Eldritch Sorcery
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
- Start date
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Eldritch Sorcery
Written by Patrick Lawinger, ScottGreene, and David Mannes
Published by NecromancerGames
WW 8396
ISBN: 1-58846-766-X
www.necromancergames.com
144 b & w pages
$26.99
Eldritch Sorcery is a simple book. It’s a book with hundreds of new spells to add to a standard fantasy d20 campaign. There are even a few feats and the company has a nice download with a few prestige classes for free at their website.
The book uses standard two-column layout. It has a bit of waste at the end of each chapter thanks to white space. Margins are a little wide on the outer edges. Fortunately there are only four chapters so it’s not a lot of wasted space. The book includes art by fan favorite Brian Leblanc, and Eric Lofgreen, as well as Llyn Hunter, Tom Biondillo, Mike Chaney and others. The cover art by Rick Sardinha doesn’t do anything for me, but at this point I’m almost simply glad that it’s not a Player’s Handbook rip off at this point. The format, a hardcover, is a little unusual for books under 160 pages, but since the price has been reduced from the standard $29.99, seems reasonable.
The feats are broken up into general, item creation, and metamagic feats. Some of these are simple abilities like the metamagic feat colorize spell where the caster changes the visible spell effect. This allows you to have things like orange lightning bolts. It doesn’t effect damage or range but does provide some role playing benefits and doesn’t use a spell slot of a higher level. Others like Divine Focus provide a bonus on turning checks and turning damage rolls while others like Maximize Undead Creation, provides the undead creatures the caster creates with maximum hit points, similar to the template in Dragon magazine where summoned creatures get maximum hit points. It’s a nice selection but certainly not the meat of the book.
The book of the book starts off with a massive listing of spells. Spells are broken up by class, and include two favorite PrCs of the Necromancer crew, the assassin and blackguard. Spells are listed by level for most classes, and for the sorcerer/wizard spell list, also by school. For example, under the 2nd level list, it start’s with abjuration, then the first spell by alphabetical order in that list, before moving through all abjuration spells of second level and moving into conjuration spells.
In addition to the spells, we have several domains including guardian, music, retribution, slime, and others. Each comes with a granted power and spells from first to ninth level. Unfortunately there is no suggestion as to what type of god would grant access to such domains. Thankfully it should be pretty obvious in many cases, especially those more esoteric domains like slime or torment.
As with any source of spells, I haven’t used everything in here at once, nor all in one campaign. There’s simply too many spells here, even when I’m using lots of non-player character spellcasters.
Some of the spells I didn’t care for. I really don’t need to see any new versions of Summon Undead spells or things that mimic old favorites from previous editions. Some might be looking forward to spells like feign death, fireburst, erase, or fist of stone. I know back in the days of first edition and the old Tome of Magic and other books, I’ve used a few of them myself and they certainly have a place in the game. It’s just a palce I’d rather see left to any official updates.
That doesn’t mean that I haven’t used it at all though. I have a few NPCs right now that I’ve loaded down with a few spells from this book like Vigor, a 3rd level spell used to dispel fatigue or reduce exhaustion to fatigued. There are lots of spells here for some of the neglected classes like the druid. Normally I don’t more than a handful of druid spells in a spellbook. Here though we have several that are nature based and make sense even if they’re not immediately useful.
Things like earthen wave that knocks opponents prone or the powerful but old school chariot of fire that conjures a, yes, chariot of fire. Others like enrich soil or corrupt water can be used in long-term campaign goals and plots of either the game master or players.
In essence, this is a very simple book. It’s a Tome of Horrors but for spells. Lots of spells, lots of options, and lots of ideas that can be inserted into a campaign.
If previous books of spells have left you feeling flat, check out Eldritch Sorcery and see how it fits into your campaign.
Reviewer's Note: I've been informed that some of the spells have been collected from other products, Dead Man's Chest and Glade of Death.
Written by Patrick Lawinger, ScottGreene, and David Mannes
Published by NecromancerGames
WW 8396
ISBN: 1-58846-766-X
www.necromancergames.com
144 b & w pages
$26.99
Eldritch Sorcery is a simple book. It’s a book with hundreds of new spells to add to a standard fantasy d20 campaign. There are even a few feats and the company has a nice download with a few prestige classes for free at their website.
The book uses standard two-column layout. It has a bit of waste at the end of each chapter thanks to white space. Margins are a little wide on the outer edges. Fortunately there are only four chapters so it’s not a lot of wasted space. The book includes art by fan favorite Brian Leblanc, and Eric Lofgreen, as well as Llyn Hunter, Tom Biondillo, Mike Chaney and others. The cover art by Rick Sardinha doesn’t do anything for me, but at this point I’m almost simply glad that it’s not a Player’s Handbook rip off at this point. The format, a hardcover, is a little unusual for books under 160 pages, but since the price has been reduced from the standard $29.99, seems reasonable.
The feats are broken up into general, item creation, and metamagic feats. Some of these are simple abilities like the metamagic feat colorize spell where the caster changes the visible spell effect. This allows you to have things like orange lightning bolts. It doesn’t effect damage or range but does provide some role playing benefits and doesn’t use a spell slot of a higher level. Others like Divine Focus provide a bonus on turning checks and turning damage rolls while others like Maximize Undead Creation, provides the undead creatures the caster creates with maximum hit points, similar to the template in Dragon magazine where summoned creatures get maximum hit points. It’s a nice selection but certainly not the meat of the book.
The book of the book starts off with a massive listing of spells. Spells are broken up by class, and include two favorite PrCs of the Necromancer crew, the assassin and blackguard. Spells are listed by level for most classes, and for the sorcerer/wizard spell list, also by school. For example, under the 2nd level list, it start’s with abjuration, then the first spell by alphabetical order in that list, before moving through all abjuration spells of second level and moving into conjuration spells.
In addition to the spells, we have several domains including guardian, music, retribution, slime, and others. Each comes with a granted power and spells from first to ninth level. Unfortunately there is no suggestion as to what type of god would grant access to such domains. Thankfully it should be pretty obvious in many cases, especially those more esoteric domains like slime or torment.
As with any source of spells, I haven’t used everything in here at once, nor all in one campaign. There’s simply too many spells here, even when I’m using lots of non-player character spellcasters.
Some of the spells I didn’t care for. I really don’t need to see any new versions of Summon Undead spells or things that mimic old favorites from previous editions. Some might be looking forward to spells like feign death, fireburst, erase, or fist of stone. I know back in the days of first edition and the old Tome of Magic and other books, I’ve used a few of them myself and they certainly have a place in the game. It’s just a palce I’d rather see left to any official updates.
That doesn’t mean that I haven’t used it at all though. I have a few NPCs right now that I’ve loaded down with a few spells from this book like Vigor, a 3rd level spell used to dispel fatigue or reduce exhaustion to fatigued. There are lots of spells here for some of the neglected classes like the druid. Normally I don’t more than a handful of druid spells in a spellbook. Here though we have several that are nature based and make sense even if they’re not immediately useful.
Things like earthen wave that knocks opponents prone or the powerful but old school chariot of fire that conjures a, yes, chariot of fire. Others like enrich soil or corrupt water can be used in long-term campaign goals and plots of either the game master or players.
In essence, this is a very simple book. It’s a Tome of Horrors but for spells. Lots of spells, lots of options, and lots of ideas that can be inserted into a campaign.
If previous books of spells have left you feeling flat, check out Eldritch Sorcery and see how it fits into your campaign.
Reviewer's Note: I've been informed that some of the spells have been collected from other products, Dead Man's Chest and Glade of Death.
Last edited:
Beholder Bob
First Post
A problem with the book
This book has a major power balance problem. The earthen blast spell mentioned in the review is a major problem: it duplicates burning hands spell with the additional ability to knock down the targets - and is untyped damage (a big boost, as fire resistance is the most common elemental resistance). A good 20% of the spells need a level adjustment.
The feats also need some modification: the colorize spell is a varient of spell thematics - but it gives a bonus to your leadership score. I have to say.... WTF!?!?
I own the book - but would not allow my players free access to the spells without evaluating each spell in advance.
B![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
B
This book has a major power balance problem. The earthen blast spell mentioned in the review is a major problem: it duplicates burning hands spell with the additional ability to knock down the targets - and is untyped damage (a big boost, as fire resistance is the most common elemental resistance). A good 20% of the spells need a level adjustment.
The feats also need some modification: the colorize spell is a varient of spell thematics - but it gives a bonus to your leadership score. I have to say.... WTF!?!?
I own the book - but would not allow my players free access to the spells without evaluating each spell in advance.
B
B
JustKim
First Post
Eldritch Sorcery is a book of spells covering all the core classes as well as the Assassin and Blackguard. It weighs in at 144 pages for $26.99, and though the back cover strangely does not give a spell count, a quick scan through the index turns up just under 500 of them. This is more than twice what a spell-heavy book normally contains, though with a long list of contributing authors, it is a grab bag in terms of quality.
My particular copy of the book has a warped cover which bends inward, and other copies I've seen also carry this noticeable defect.
Chapter One: Using This Book is three pages of advice on how to incorporate the book into a game, but does not refer to the material in the book except one spell name as an example. The advice is regarding spells in general and is not particularly helpful in dissecting the book. Why are there no references to particular spells when the chapter discusses possible problems? In a book of 500 spells, this would have been nice.
Chapter Two: New Feats is five pages of feats, most of which supplement the spell theme of the book and some which are almost out of place. The book is not about these feats, so it's no great disappointment that they're all probably ideas you've seen done elsewhere. Like the spells, these are a grab bag- one head scratcher, Colorize Spell, mentions Leadership "rolls" in a skill context and is not at all consistant between description and benefit. Others simply add to the DC of certain spells or under certain circumstances, such as seasons and phases of the moon.
Chapter Three: Spells is the main body of the book at around 130 pages. It begins with spell lists in the Wizards of the Coast format, broken down by class and by level, with additional separations of Sorcerer/Wizard spells by school and a short description of what each spell does. I was very happy with the way the spell lists were presented, but for the Cleric domains. There are a number of alternate spells for existing domains, but these options are not collected anywhere. Instead the book notes that such spells are marked with an asterisk in their extended description, which means it's impossible to tell at a glance what options there are for someone with the plant domain. The asterisks would have been more useful in the spell lists, where readers will naturally be looking for spells.
The spells themselves subscribe in some ways to Necromancer Games' motto of "first edition feel". Although the book does not call attention to them, many favorite spells from previous editions are among the new spells, and these were my primary reason for buying the book. It's worth noting that many of these spells were culled by WotC for 3rd edition for a reason- that is, under the streamlined rules spells like alter normal fires and protection from undead are no longer particularly useful. With that said, these spells are invaluable for expanding the sometimes methodic flavor of magic in 3E and preserving the feel of previous editions.
Of course, there are many more useful spells in the book for those not particularly nostalgic about sticks to snakes. Every level of every class is covered nicely, and if you're willing to overlook some questionable spells here and there it makes an excellent resource. There are quite a few new high-level spells to add variety to high-powered games, utility spells for making a spellcaster unique, and of course new and inventive ways of blowing things up. Although the summon undead creature lists fill a void left by the unusable lists in Player's Guide to Faerun and Libris Mortis, most of the creatures are drawn from other Necromancer Games books Tome of Horrors I and II. This is good news for folks who own those books, but may leave a bad taste with others who are left with a very limited selection. It's also unclear whether the list is balanced for the original Tome of Horrors or the 3.5 revised Tome of Horrors.
The book concludes with an alphabetic index of spells, and a much smaller index of feats.
Overall I was very pleased with the presentation and selection of spells in the book and would recommend it to DMs or players looking to expand the flavor of magic in a game.
My particular copy of the book has a warped cover which bends inward, and other copies I've seen also carry this noticeable defect.
Chapter One: Using This Book is three pages of advice on how to incorporate the book into a game, but does not refer to the material in the book except one spell name as an example. The advice is regarding spells in general and is not particularly helpful in dissecting the book. Why are there no references to particular spells when the chapter discusses possible problems? In a book of 500 spells, this would have been nice.
Chapter Two: New Feats is five pages of feats, most of which supplement the spell theme of the book and some which are almost out of place. The book is not about these feats, so it's no great disappointment that they're all probably ideas you've seen done elsewhere. Like the spells, these are a grab bag- one head scratcher, Colorize Spell, mentions Leadership "rolls" in a skill context and is not at all consistant between description and benefit. Others simply add to the DC of certain spells or under certain circumstances, such as seasons and phases of the moon.
Chapter Three: Spells is the main body of the book at around 130 pages. It begins with spell lists in the Wizards of the Coast format, broken down by class and by level, with additional separations of Sorcerer/Wizard spells by school and a short description of what each spell does. I was very happy with the way the spell lists were presented, but for the Cleric domains. There are a number of alternate spells for existing domains, but these options are not collected anywhere. Instead the book notes that such spells are marked with an asterisk in their extended description, which means it's impossible to tell at a glance what options there are for someone with the plant domain. The asterisks would have been more useful in the spell lists, where readers will naturally be looking for spells.
The spells themselves subscribe in some ways to Necromancer Games' motto of "first edition feel". Although the book does not call attention to them, many favorite spells from previous editions are among the new spells, and these were my primary reason for buying the book. It's worth noting that many of these spells were culled by WotC for 3rd edition for a reason- that is, under the streamlined rules spells like alter normal fires and protection from undead are no longer particularly useful. With that said, these spells are invaluable for expanding the sometimes methodic flavor of magic in 3E and preserving the feel of previous editions.
Of course, there are many more useful spells in the book for those not particularly nostalgic about sticks to snakes. Every level of every class is covered nicely, and if you're willing to overlook some questionable spells here and there it makes an excellent resource. There are quite a few new high-level spells to add variety to high-powered games, utility spells for making a spellcaster unique, and of course new and inventive ways of blowing things up. Although the summon undead creature lists fill a void left by the unusable lists in Player's Guide to Faerun and Libris Mortis, most of the creatures are drawn from other Necromancer Games books Tome of Horrors I and II. This is good news for folks who own those books, but may leave a bad taste with others who are left with a very limited selection. It's also unclear whether the list is balanced for the original Tome of Horrors or the 3.5 revised Tome of Horrors.
The book concludes with an alphabetic index of spells, and a much smaller index of feats.
Overall I was very pleased with the presentation and selection of spells in the book and would recommend it to DMs or players looking to expand the flavor of magic in a game.
Similar Threads
Enchanted Trinkets Complete
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
December 9 2025 -
June 18 2026 -
October 1 2026
