Encyclopaedia Arcane: Conjuration

[John Cooper]

Encyclopaedia Arcane: Conjuration
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP1016
August Hahn
64 pages, $14.95

The 16th in the popular "Encyclopaedia Arcane" line takes a look at conjuration. As it states in the introduction this is a big task, as the field of conjuration is potentially limitless, allowing just about anything to be called forth out of nothing.

The cover, by renowned fantasy artist Larry Elmore, depicts a female human conjurer amid billowing clouds at her feet, looking at a scroll of arcane writing with a dagger in hand. Despite Elmore's frequent penchant for skimpy outfits on his female figures, this conjurer is modestly dressed.

Unfortunately, the interior artwork - 30 pieces in all, each black and white - does not always follow the restraint of the cover. While many pieces are quite well-done (I find I enjoy Phil Renne's style the most of those represented), some of the artists (in particular Patricio Soler) seem to be under the impression that this is Encyclopaedia Arcane: Exotic Lingerie Fashions. I know some people prefer their sorceresses scantily clad, and I'm all for it when it's called for, but this just seems like pandering to the lowest common denominator. (On the other hand, if Mongoose ever comes out with The Slayer's Guide to Succubi, they should keep Patricio in mind.) Again, I see that some of the artwork has been specially made for the book (there are two Renne pieces that illustrate scenes from some of the fiction that intertwines with the game material in the book, although inexplicably they're on pages 56 and 8, while the fiction they complement begins on page 3), whereas much of the artwork seems "generic fantasy," and not even specifically geared toward conjuration (particularly Patricio's "pin-up chicks").

The inside front covers are given to a list of new conjuration spells and feats and an advertisement for Dragon and Dungeon magazines. It looks like the "inside back cover ad" is becoming a new standard for Mongoose books.

Conjuration is split up into the following sections:

• Introduction: describing the purpose of the "Encyclopaedia Arcane" line and following with a page-long bit of fiction (this particular story is picked up at several different points throughout the work)
• Conjuration - An Overview: focusing on the differences between summoning, calling, and creation, as well as the types of arcane spellcasters drawn to conjuration
• Reaching Beyond the Veil: "tricks of the trade - new magic circle options, minor and major creation, compensating for forbidden schools of magic, and four new prestige classes
• 16 new Conjuration Feats
• 35 new Conjuration Spells
• 15 new Magical Items
• Help For Games Masters: dealing with the near-infinite scope of conjuration possibilities in your game
• Designer's Notes: the author's views on why he wrote this book and what he hoped to accomplish in doing so
• Rules Summary: a reprint of the four new prestige class level charts

Another excellent job at the proofreading, this time by Ian Barstow (although a couple mistakes manage to get by him ("populous" vs. "populace" right there on page 2). The page layout is very nice, with fiction in shaded boxes to set it apart from the meat of the text. I really enjoy August Hahn's writing style: very polished, very straightforward. He also does an excellent job at explaining things within the context of the game - for example, I'd always kind of wondered why summoned monsters couldn't summon monsters themselves (in previous editions of the game, you could summon a pit fiend and then he'd summon another and so on, daisy-chaining a small pit fiend army into existence). Sure, I knew the behind-the-scenes reason (cascading summons like that would throw off game balance), but August wraps up the fact that summoned monsters dissipate when "killed" into his explanation for why they can't summon monsters themselves: summoned creatures manifest a sort of "astral body" on the plane they are summoned to, and this astral body is not sufficiently attuned to the new plane to allow the creature to use its innate summoning powers. Autumn's answer is concise, fits the facts, and relies completely upon pre-existing "facts" about the game world environment. Excellent job.

August also does an outstanding job at coming up with new material for conjurers to play around with. He creates 13 new magic circle abilities, each with the requisite cost and Spellcraft check. (A possible improvement upon their presentation would have been to list them alphabetically; I saw no particular rhyme or reason in the order in which they were listed.) Of the four prestige classes he comes up with, one - the force mage - is simply fantastic, making me want to run such a PC myself. Basically, a force mage is a combat-themed arcane spellcaster, one wanting to be on the front lines of combat rather than flinging ranged spells from the safety of the party's rear. Spell progression is cut in half, but the force mage gains the ability to cloak himself in an ever-increasing mage armor effect, change elemental-based damage to force damage (which has the bonus of bypassing most elemental protection and affecting incorporeal creatures), and summon forth force-based weapons. The other prestige classes didn't excite me as much - one causes the character to become more and more dragonlike, until he eventually is "reborn" - literally - as a dragon; another is an expert at containment diagrams and dominating creatures; the last is concerned with dealings through a realm of spirits. These are nicely done, but the Dragonchilde seems only periferally related to conjuration.

The new feats are interesting and add some new abilities to a conjurer's bag of tricks. One of them (Planar Birthright) must be chosen at character creation, but the others are all accessible to conjurers of any level. Two of them, Celestial Focus and Fiendish Focus, allow for more powerful summoned creatures at the cost of forever giving up the option of summoning creatures of certain alignments. (I notice that while these two feats are basically mirror images of each other, Celestial Focus has a prerequisite of caster level 3+ that the Fiendish Focus feat does not. I wonder if this is an oversight?) My personal favorite, I think, is Instantaneous Draw, which allows you to teleport any object within 5 feet to your hand as a free action. I could see that coming in very useful! Naturally, these feats are open to any spellcaster, not just those specializing in conjuration.

The new spells are all nicely thought out, although I should point out that even though there are 35 spells listed, 9 of them are the spells bind guardian I-IX and echoing call I-III account for another three. (They could have saved some room by only printing those lines in the spell formats that had changed, instead of stating the components, casting time, range, duration, saving throw, and spell resistance lines over again for each spell, despite the fact that all nine bind guardian spells and all three echoing call spells are identical in those regards.) Still, what remain are nicely done; I especially like apportation, basically a Drawmij's instant summons at a much lower level and without the ridiculously-expensive gem that must be smashed to activate the spell. I also applaud the inclusion of new lower-level power word spells. I always thought there should be more of those, and giving them less powerful effects allows lower-level conjurers to get into the "power word" game that much quicker. I also heartily approve of the concept of "spell hanging." Some of the spells listed here have [Hanging] as a descriptor; these spells can be all-but-cast the first thing in the morning, and then they "hang" - ready to be fully activated with but a single word. It reminds me of some of Roger Zelazny's fantasy novels, as I believe he used similar concepts in his fantasy stories.

The new magic items are interesting as well. I especially enjoyed the bracelet of foe charms - rather like the bracelet of friends, except the charms are actually captured enemies and can be released as a summoned creature for 7 rounds. (After 7 rounds, though, get ready for some eagerly-anticipated vengeance on the part of the "former token!") The theurgical talismans are nice, too, in that they can make summoned creatures more powerful in nine different ways, depending upon the wood used in the talisman's construction.

I always enjoy the "Designer's Notes" section at the end, and this was no different. However, the two pages of reprinted prestige class level charts seem suspiciously like "filler" material to me; I would have preferred those pages be put to use detailing more spells, feats, or magic items (not that there weren't enough of each - I certainly don't feel like I was "shorted" in either department).

Overall, this is a very nicely done book. Unlike some in the "Encyclopaedia Arcane" line, which can get overly convoluted, Conjuration is very easy to use and understand, and best of all everything is completely modular, so you're free to use what rules you like and disregard the others without any difficulties. I definitely plan on using the Force Mage prestige class in my next game. Four stars, easy!

Edit: I just found out (on the Mongoose boards) that August Hahn is male, not female. That'll teach me to assume! Sorry about that, August! I went back through the review and edited your gender.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Conjuration, the art of calling something forth from nothing, is a magic of infinite potential simply from its very nature. To conjure is to reach past the empty spaces of this world and summon whatever the heart desires from beyond.

This kind of power cannot be overstated or underestimated. To master conjuration is to never be alone again, to never face a situation without aid. When one can instantly surround himself with protectors, one mage becomes an army on demand.

Historically, conjurers have been often treated with awe, reverence, and mixture of fear and respect. Unfortunately, the best known conjurers have made the school infamous by their choice of called beings. Those who summon the infernal and abyssal beings of the nether realms are only a small subset of this art, but their controversial creatures have burned the image of a hellish sorcerer consorting with demons into the minds of the populace.

While this narrow stereotype is ridiculous, it remains a hurdle for any honest conjurer to overcome. Luckily, the devotees of the conjuration school have a wide variety of sources to aid them in this. The spells of a conjurer have the multiverse to choose from, giving a spellcaster hundreds of options for anything that might come along. It should also never be assumed that conjurers only summon monsters; the magic of conjuration also creates walls, clouds, and inanimate objects.

Conjuration offers yet more; this school can also create magical effects with sheer power and a single word. The power word spells are incredibly powerful and strictly the province of this school.

If a mage can envision a need, conjuration has the power to fulfill it. Conjuration is so diverse, it even incorporates elements of many other schools into its spells. The primary magic of conjuration, the set of summon monster spells, binds the creatures called to the caster’s will so tightly he could send them unflinchingly to their deaths. Magical force, usually the province of evocation, can be called into being by conjurers as well. With this kind of flexibility, the school of conjuration offers incredible potential.

Another source for conjurers is this book. Within these pages, you will find more than two dozen new spells, ten new items of magic and twelve new feats to expand your summoning powers, and the details behind four prestige classes for you to strive for. There is even a selection of new summoning tables for spellcasters who focus on specific alternate planes of reality.

Herein, you will also discover secrets for getting the most from the school’s powerful spells and dealing with the creatures you conjure. Summon up a comfortable chair, sit back, and light a candle. Turn these pages and let them conjure images of powers beyond imagination …

Just keep the cardinal rule of the conjurer in mind. Never call up what you cannot put down.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Conjuration is another in the Encyclopaedia Arcane series from Mongoose Publishing. This one deals with the arcane art of Conjuration.

Conjuration is a 64-page mono softcover product costing $14.95. Layout is standard with previous products in the series, with a wide right-hand margin balanced by a small bottom margin, spaces between paragraphs giving the text a somewhat airy feel and a few small chunks of white space here and there. Art varies both in quality and appropriateness to the text, and features a number of scantily clad women in the feats section for no apparent reason (beyond the obvious). The front cover (an Elmore) seems more in keeping with the tone of the book, illustrating a Conjurer reading from a scroll, her feet wreathed in purple mist. The product is sprinkled with flavour text including some amusing in-character one-way 'conversations' with a condescending lecturer of conjuration in a mage school. Though the text outside the flavour text also occasionally reflects a slightly condescending attitude to the reader, the writing style is intelligent and eloquent. Editing is fairly good with occasional typos here and there.

Chapter 1: Conjuration - An Overview
This chapter looks at the different types of conjuration - summoning, calling, and creation. The chapter ends with a discussion of the personality and motivations of the conjurer, and of the aspects of conjuration that can endanger the conjurer's life - woe betide the conjurer whose unwillingly summoned creatures eventually track him down bent on revenge for disrupting their lives in such a dangerous manner.

Chapter 2: Reaching Beyond The Veil
This chapter begins by looking at options for summoning and calling, including variants of calling diagrams that add spell-like effects to the creature called. It goes on to more closely define the requirements of the Craft skill with creation spells - what can and cannot be created, and an alternative system for using Spellcraft checks instead of Craft for creating objects. Further sections discuss summoning and calling creatures to help in construction and business, and advice for players who choose for their wizard to be a specialist conjurer. Four 10-level prestige classes follow:
* Dragonchilde - slowly merges with draconic energies, this PrC takes on the concept of draconic heritage normally applied to sorcerers and applies it as a PrC, only more so - the Dragonchilde begins to take on draconic looks and powerful abilities. Appropriately, this PrC has a high prerequisite (10th level). Continues in spellcaster levels, with average BAB, and good Fort and Will save progressions.
* The Force Mage - this PrC specialises in force energies to create armour and weapons of pure force and substitute force for spells with energy descriptors. Again, the PrC has high prerequisites (e.g. +7 BAB, 5th level arcane spellcaster), average BAB and good Fort and Will save progressions but only increases spellcaster level every 2nd level.
* The Soulbinder - expert in calling diagrams and dealing with planar creatures, per level spellcaster spells per day increases, slow BAB, good Will save progression.
* The Spiritcaller - ability to summon spirits from the plane of death tied to the ethereal plane, BAB and saves as per The Soulbinder, spells per day increase every 2nd level, with possible immortality as a goal at the PrC's final level.

Chapter 3: Conjuration Feats
16 new feats including celestial focus (celestial beings summoned are more powerful, give up being able to summon fiendish/evil creatures), imbued spell (cast two spells one after the other, both effects occur simultaneously, requires four metamagic feats first), and sylvan soul (gain access to summon nature's ally creatures and gain resist nature's lure druid ability).

Chapter 4: Conjuration Spells
35 new spells for the conjuration school, including apportation (this 2nd level spell summons an arcane marked object from a distance to the caster's hand), call darkness (this 3rd level spell summons a freezing darkness from the plane of shadow that damages any caught in it), planar breach (this 9th level spell causes an interdimensional rift to appear which sucks creatures into it, destroying them or flinging them into another plane), and summon familiar (a 1st level spell that can transports a familiar from distance). There are also a number of variants of summoning and power word spells. Two new descriptors are also introduced - Prime (spells with this descriptor can only be cast by corporeal beings on the Material Plane) and Hanging (spells with this descriptor are partially cast at the beginning of the day and can be activated as a free action at any time later in the day).

Chapter 5: Magical Items
15 new magical items including banner of allegiance (imbues summoned monsters with the mark of the spellcaster's sigil and gives them a +1 morale bonus), eternal balm (add this to an item created with minor or major creation to make it permanent), gatereaver (an axe of awesome power that can open planar rifts), and potion of intensity (which boosts the power of any summoned creature whilst the caster is under its influence).

Chapter 6: Help For Games Masters
Keeping track of spells cast per day can be hard enough for a GM, but take into account the knowledge required to keep track of the powers and durations of all the summoned creatures a high-level conjurer can call upon and add to that the favours and payments related to bound creatures and things can get really tricky. This chapter gives a number of suggestions for tracking and controlling conjurer PCs and NPCs as well as thinking carefully about the effects of creation spells on her setting's economics.

The product finishes with the designer's notes and a couple of pages compiling the progression charts for the PrC's.

High Points:
I found the most useful and interesting chapters to be the first and last - these sections put the conjurer in perspective and help the GM to get a better handle on dealing with the complex and possibly unbalancing abilities of the conjurer. It also gives some ideas for using these methods to enhance campaign settings and adventures. The writing style also makes these sections a pleasure to read. A limited number of the PrCs, feats and spells bear more detailed examination such as the Called Companion feat (which allows for development of a planar ally as an intermittent cohort) and the Spiritcaller (whose ambience and roleplaying potential, unusually for the product, outweighs his super-powers).

Low Points:
My main concern about the product is the potential for upsetting game balance that some of the variant rules provide - a lot of space is given over to feats and spells that get round the negative issues surrounding summoning and creation such as controlling called creatures in order to avoid payments, boosting the powers of summoned creatures, allowing spells to be cast as a free action, and making created items permanent. Admittedly, the PrCs and magic items seem mainly designed for high-level use so may not be as overpowered as they first appear.

Conclusion:
This product greatly expands the powers of the conjurer, providing a variety of options, particularly for higher levels. The additional rules unfortunately often focus on negating the problems associated with conjuration, which could potentially unbalance a campaign. On the positive side, there is plenty of advice on controlling powerful conjurers, some inspirational writing to kick start PC and NPC conjurers, and useful discussion of the role of conjuration in the campaign.

 

[GameWyrd]

I tend to read supplements twice before attempting to review them. The first time through Encyclopaedia Arcane: Conjuration I thought the book did well enough, it would make the "does what it needs to do" mark and settle about there. Certain things from the book, new types of spells, observations and quirks in the prestige classes, stayed with me through out the day, lingering in the back of my thoughts. The second reading had me revise upwards my impressions of the book. Why? On the first read I saw the glass as half empty, on the second read the glass was half full and so I think its safe to label this supplement as something of a grower.

The usual formula applies here: new spells, prestige classes and feats. Things are a little different though, there is more discussion on the nature of Conjuration magic than is typical and there are certainly no extrapolations from this just for the sake of introducing a new game mechanic. There’s more help for the GM and players too. Conjuration is full of tricky choices; what should the GM do if the players insist on conjuring giant diamonds? Which magic school should be sacrificed if you want to play a specialised conjurer? One suggestion is that you take a level in Sorcerer to get access at spells otherwise... ack, no, bad, bad! Stop it! I suppose the book has to cater to all flavours of roleplaying.

Why can’t a summoned creature be killed? Why can’t a summoned creature summon others? The answer to the latter question is one of game mechanics but I’d love to see some inspirational campaign world answers for it. By Bell, Book and Candle (EA: Conjuration’s moniker) proffers some campaign neutral answers. That’s a good example of how, at first, I saw the glass half empty and was disappointed there wasn’t game meal to be had there. On the second time round, perhaps after the rest of the book had had a chance to impress me, the glass was half full and I saw the safety of a defensively neutral explanation as a strength.

Game meal is the opposite of crunch. It’s always nice to find some game meal in a supplement like an Encyclopaedia Arcane. Give your summoned creature a name, turn it into a NPC and it’ll be an interesting pseudo-player controlled NPC. This is a great idea to push forward. I wonder if anyone’s ever played in a duel world’s campaign where the characters could summon each other from the two different worlds.

All the prestige classes in By Bell, Book and Candle are all 10 level. This is unusual for a Mongoose product but it’s not unwelcome. It was only recently that I was looking at a book from Mongoose Publishing that had clean but decorative class level tables, nice alternative shading, compact but entirely readable. The class level tables in Encyclopaedia Arcane: Conjuration are simple black and white wire frames. Prestige classes are the Dragonchilde, the Force Mage, the Soulbinder, and Spiritcaller. Yes, Dragonchilde really do have dragon blood (but might not know it), the Force Mage specialises in the Force descriptor, Soulbinders summon the tricky stuff and Spiritcallers call spirits. They’re a collection of suitably named classes.

Summoning is a key part of Conjuration and this isn’t forgotten by the book. The extra mechanics offered to support this are potent but simple. Improve the summoning circle and enhance the spell. For an additional spellcraft check and gold pieces cost the conjurer could, for example, summon their creature already enjoying the benefits of an Aid spell. The conjurer could ensure the summoned creature remembers nothing of its encounter. They could grant themselves the ability to invoke a Symbol of Pain once per hour on the captive. I like this system because it adds a little more of the arcane ritual planning back into the summoning.

Feats are ten a penny but there are still some good finds in the feat chapter. What about Wrathful Conjuration? It requires the Barbarian Rage as a class ability and although it reduces the level of the summoning spell it gives the summoned creature the rage ability. You might enjoy a Celestial Focus or scare people with your Fiendish Focus. The other feat to stand out is Blood of the Beast which gives the character a mixed up heritage and allows her to cast spells on their ‘beast type’ (Outsider, for example) that wouldn’t normally affect them.

The new Conjuration spells are all well and good. They’re what you’d expect from a book like this. It’s the new descriptors that catch my attention: Prime and Hanging. Prime spells only work on the Prime plane and must be cast by a corporeal creature. These restrictions are especially interesting, in a game meal sense, when combined with the fact that summoned creatures can’t cat summoning spells. I had bemoaned the fact that Encyclopaedia Arcane: Conjuration didn’t exploit the game mechanics for plot benefits but with this new descriptor they’ve given us both new game balance and further potential campaign world twists. The Hanging domain isn’t as morbid as it sounds. Spells that hang can only be cast just when you replenish you spellslots, either at the prep or regain stage. After being cast they "hang" around until a single word activates them. The weakness here is that they’re especially vulnerable to being dispelled during this stage and if their spell slot is refilled before the day’s out then they’re wasted. The strength is obvious, being able to bring in a powerful game effect with just one word. In Echoing Call we see how this special activation word can be included into a single summon spell as a way to summon (over time) multiple creatures.

By Bell, Book and Candle doesn’t have a wow factor. It has an insidious success though. It’s one of those safe but sound products that does what it needs to do at first glance and that will be able to move forward and mature as the campaign they’re supporting does. Encyclopaedia Arcane: Conjuration might not inspire you to use Conjuration magic in your game – but it doesn’t need to – conjuration make is already there. EA: Conjuration helps you smooth off the rough edges and get the most out of the popular school of magic. In short, it’s hard to go wrong with this latest Encyclopaedia Arcane and it’s easy to do right with it.

This review of Encyclopaedia Arcane: Conjuration was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[SockMonkey]

What can I say about Mongoose's Encyclopedia Arcane guide to Conjuration??? It was AMAZING! from the cover art to the convinient class summeries in the back. The stories in there about the students made me laugh hard. There is an overview of some diferent types of conjurers, which gave me alot of hints and ideas of diferent styles of play. One of the exciting things in the book is the in depth look at a summoners circle, and ways to make it different than some generic circle pro evil. There are 4 new presige classes in the book 2 of which i thought great while the other 2 I my self wouldnt play but I can see the apeal. the first is the "dragonchild" it is intresting but there are a few books out there with this theme, second is the forcemage, the melding of an invoker and a conjurer!! is there any better?? this mage gets to use force effects like super mage armour and green lantern style force attacks!! The soul binder is the next class that i think is totally intresting, he/she is the binder of called beings, he can boost power circles and bend minions to his will. The last is the Spirit Caller, ive always thought this in the realm of the clergy, but Agaust Hahn (the auther) has proven me wrong. This class seems cool but like i said for me the realm of the dead should be in teh hands of clerics. Now the part of the book that really shines is in teh feat section, there are 16 new feats none of which i found too over powering but really bring out aspects of a conjurer/summoner that the basic PHB dont really do. There are 33 new spells. Here is the only part of the bool that made me pause and think "would i let this in my game?" There is a bind guardian spell, that basically casts a perminent monster summon for a small XP componant, this i could see perhaps unbalance things when you bind a djinn to do djinn like things.. now that being said they get all the SR and saves to avoid the effects and you do loose XP in the attempt. My favorite spells in teh book have to be the lower level power word spells, 6 new powerwords lvls 1-6, imagine what you can do with them! I would put them on teh Bard list as well. 15 new magic items from the super powerful artifact level "Gatecrasher" to the minor summoning tokens. Last but not least (especially for the DM) the "How to deal with this book in your game" section. Well how does one deal with an ingeniouse player with preaty much the whole monsterbook and the ability to fabricate anything he really wants? well this book gave me some great ideas and tips to curb that dasterdly tricky player! All in all i would recomend it to players or DM's who want to open up the School of conjuration

Peace,

SockMonkey.

 

[Psion]

Your review is a bit hard to read. A few paragraph breaks would be appropriate.