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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
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Elements of Magic: Initial thoughts
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<blockquote data-quote="nopantsyet" data-source="post: 547061" data-attributes="member: 3109"><p>I really like this book. Anybody who's not a huge fan of Vancian magic or who wants a change in flavor or mechanic should definitely take a look at this. And for the $7.95 price, it's a great deal.</p><p></p><p>My playtest was a level 5 mage whose spell lists revolved around shadow, earth, rats, and humanoid enchantment, although I never used any of the enchantment spells. I did, however, fire off lots of elemental evocations of earth and shadow. Those earth evocations can really do a number on walls, doors, people...</p><p></p><p>I used the Mage class, not the Black/White, Gray/Red, or Green Mage subtypes, but those look to have alot of potential, especially the gray/red mages which are essentialy mage warriors. They also give alternate ranger, bard, and paladin classes that use this system, but the system is desigend that you can drop this in to any spellcasting class. It does this by providing spellcasting advancement in 1/2 level increments--partial spellcasters advance by 1/2 levels.</p><p></p><p>I have always been a fan of magic point/mana systems over memorization systems, and this one works well. MPs per day seems drawn from the wizard spells-per-day applied to the MP cost by spell level. You get what seems at first like an overly large number of spell lists (20 at lvl5), but once you apply the creature/element type to each list, it is more in line.</p><p></p><p>Being lvl5, I had access to lvl3 spells. Basically, I could have cast lvl1 spells all day, level two spells all morning, and lvl3 spells for a few rounds. Fortunately I had the max number of bonus MPs.</p><p></p><p>Probably my favorite thing is the different shape options for evoke and evoke area. Evoke gives you ray and missile shapes, and Evoke Area gives fan, line, cone, spherical burst, and cylinder. Of course, it freaked out the other PCs (and almost got me killed) when they got caught in a fan that I "had" to use since there were too many creatures for the meatshields to deal with and the rest were barreling down the hall towards me. (Well, that and a certain moral flexibility...)</p><p></p><p>I really like the magical boon system. Taking the light armor boon and wearing leather armor was a lifesaver. I got to do some recon in rat form which was fun and a bit nervous as we were in an inn, and I was afraid of someone seeing me and taking a club to me...what a sad way to die. I never did get the chance to speak with rats, my other boon.</p><p></p><p>What didn't I like? Well, just that it wasn't in print form. I did a two-up two-sided printout, which put it on 24 sheets, but it's just too small and inconvenient to refer to quickly, and you really need to be able to refer with this system. It would be nice if they did a spell list easy print that put one spell list to a page to make reference easier. I really hope Mystic Eye Games is going to do a print version of this soon.</p><p></p><p>This coming Sunday, I'm putting him up a few levels and trying again. Has anybody else tried this out and if so, what did you think of it?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nopantsyet, post: 547061, member: 3109"] I really like this book. Anybody who's not a huge fan of Vancian magic or who wants a change in flavor or mechanic should definitely take a look at this. And for the $7.95 price, it's a great deal. My playtest was a level 5 mage whose spell lists revolved around shadow, earth, rats, and humanoid enchantment, although I never used any of the enchantment spells. I did, however, fire off lots of elemental evocations of earth and shadow. Those earth evocations can really do a number on walls, doors, people... I used the Mage class, not the Black/White, Gray/Red, or Green Mage subtypes, but those look to have alot of potential, especially the gray/red mages which are essentialy mage warriors. They also give alternate ranger, bard, and paladin classes that use this system, but the system is desigend that you can drop this in to any spellcasting class. It does this by providing spellcasting advancement in 1/2 level increments--partial spellcasters advance by 1/2 levels. I have always been a fan of magic point/mana systems over memorization systems, and this one works well. MPs per day seems drawn from the wizard spells-per-day applied to the MP cost by spell level. You get what seems at first like an overly large number of spell lists (20 at lvl5), but once you apply the creature/element type to each list, it is more in line. Being lvl5, I had access to lvl3 spells. Basically, I could have cast lvl1 spells all day, level two spells all morning, and lvl3 spells for a few rounds. Fortunately I had the max number of bonus MPs. Probably my favorite thing is the different shape options for evoke and evoke area. Evoke gives you ray and missile shapes, and Evoke Area gives fan, line, cone, spherical burst, and cylinder. Of course, it freaked out the other PCs (and almost got me killed) when they got caught in a fan that I "had" to use since there were too many creatures for the meatshields to deal with and the rest were barreling down the hall towards me. (Well, that and a certain moral flexibility...) I really like the magical boon system. Taking the light armor boon and wearing leather armor was a lifesaver. I got to do some recon in rat form which was fun and a bit nervous as we were in an inn, and I was afraid of someone seeing me and taking a club to me...what a sad way to die. I never did get the chance to speak with rats, my other boon. What didn't I like? Well, just that it wasn't in print form. I did a two-up two-sided printout, which put it on 24 sheets, but it's just too small and inconvenient to refer to quickly, and you really need to be able to refer with this system. It would be nice if they did a spell list easy print that put one spell list to a page to make reference easier. I really hope Mystic Eye Games is going to do a print version of this soon. This coming Sunday, I'm putting him up a few levels and trying again. Has anybody else tried this out and if so, what did you think of it? [/QUOTE]
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