Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Cooper" data-source="post: 2010797" data-attributes="member: 24255">Encyclopaedia Arcane: Divination - The All-Seeing EyeMongoose Publishing product number MGP1015August Hahn64 pages, $14.95Encyclopaedia Arcane: Divination - The All-Seeing Eye is a pleasant little surprise.  Honestly, divination has always pretty much been the most boring of the school specializations, and I wasn't really expecting much out of the book (although I expected that August Hahn wouldn't disappoint).  However, Divination has turned out to be one of my all-time favorites in the Encyclopaedia Arcane line!The cover is a nicely-done piece by Jon Hodgson, showing a long-haired diviner (kind of a Gypsy-looking individual with a headdress that reminds me of part of a samurai helmet, if that makes any sense) peering into a crystal ball, inside which we can see some poor schmuck of a rogue caught with his hands in the treasure chest.  The only light source is the crystal ball, which casts some eerie-looking shadows on the diviner's face.The inside cover is also a nice work, this time of a "typical" fantasy wizard (a robed human male with a long, gray beard and wild hair) holding a crystal ball over his head.  The crystal ball is shooting out bolts of lightning - granted, not something you'd expect most crystal balls to do, and in fact I imagine the piece was selected merely because the sphere of energy the wizard's holding in his hands could conceivably be a crystal ball (and thus somewhat tied in to divination) rather than because that's necessarily what it's supposed to be.  But it's a nice piece, regardless, although it isn't signed so I can't attribute it to anyone in particular.The interior artwork, 15 black-and-white pieces by 5 different artists, ranges in quality but is overall pretty good.  (No half-naked babes, for one thing - apparently divination isn't an inherently "sexy" field of study.)  I want to comment on one piece in particular: on page 43, whoever signs his work with a rune that looks like "ICO" on its side did a very nice female elf (or half-elf) levitating a large sphere (again, this may or may not be a crystal ball), and I just want to say that the "glowing runes" background effect is just about the coolest thing I've seen in pen-and-ink drawings in a long time.Moving on to the actual written content of the book, we get the following: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Introduction: explaining what the Encyclopaedia Arcane series is all about</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Divination - An Overview: how divination magic works</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Knowing the Unknowable: 5 divination-themed prestige classes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">39 Divination Spells </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">12 Divination Feats  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">21 Magic Items </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Art of Gemsight: new crystal ball options</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Help for Games Masters: working with players (as opposed to against them) to keep divination fun</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Designer's Notes: why the author chose to write about divination</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rules Summary: reprinted tables/lists of new feats, spells, and crystal ball options</li> </ul>First, let me point out the fairly obvious formatting problems: several of the chapter headings were messed up.  Page 44 is the start of the "Divination Feats" chapter, but it's titled "Knowing the Unknowable" (as is the real "Knowing the Unknowable" chapter on pages 9-27).  The "Magic Items" section on pages 48-55 are mistitled "Divination Feats" not only at the beginning of the chapter but also on the top of each page.  These aren't Earth-shattering mistakes, but I'm surprised they weren't caught.As for the specifics in the book, I was amazed at the quality of the work - again, not due to any concerns about the author, but rather the subject matter.  I can't believe that a school as "boring" as divination ended up with 5 such well-thought out and flavorful prestige classes!  The Arcanopath is about as close as you can get to having psionic powers without involving psionics; the Mindshifter "steals" spell-like abilities from others as his mind becomes more and more fractured (I particularly like the fact that the prestige class has several points where the PC can "get out now while he still can" or continue to progress as a Mindshifter, and the hinted-at possible ties to gibbering mouthers); the Savant is a unique approach in that it is a divination prestige class open not only to non-diviners but to non-spellcasters as well; the Seer is the basic "super diviner" (and possibly a little too much of a good thing, considering all of the free goodies he gets without giving up any spellcasting levels); the Witness increases all of her senses to superhuman levels.  Each of these makes for a great character with a unique slant on the whole divination concept, but some do seem to stray a little on the overpowered side.  (The Witness gets buttloads of bonus feats, some of which result in free special qualities as well.)The spells are amazing both in their quantity (39 different spells!) and their range across the level spectrum.  One problem I did notice is that many of them simple state "Range: Close" without giving any specifics.  So, what is it: 25 ft. + 5 ft./level?  10 ft./level?  What?  Similarly, I expected a small handful of magic items, and I got 21!  These also cover the range from single-use potions to a new major artifact.  The new feats also cover a broad spectrum, although again some of these might be just a little bit too powerful.  Aptitude, for example, adds a free 2 extra Skill points at every level.  That's quite a bit of free Skill points over a wizard's career for the cost of just one feat!  I rather liked Precognitive Learning, which allows a character to "store" his unused Skill points until later on in his new level.  (When he finally spends them, they're spent "retroactively" - he had actually spent them when he leveled up after all, but just hadn't needed to use them until now!)  That's a pretty clever way to "bend" a Skill rule but still have it fall clearly in the realm of divination - you just "knew" you'd need those points in that Skill at some point in the near future!I do worry a little bit about the Heightened Sight, Temulous Touch, and Wolfen Boon trio of feats.  If you take all three of them (as you're bound to do eventually if you progress far enough in the Witness prestige class), you also get the Blindsight, Tremorsense, and Scent special qualities as a bonus!  That, I fear, may be just a bit too much.The new crystal ball rules all deal with scrying devices made of other substances than crystal.  My only question is: what do the asterisks in the chart mean?  They're never explained, and it isn't really intuitive.  (At least it isn't for me.)All in all, despite a bit of power-creep in some of the prestige classes and feats, this is a fantastic addition to the Encyclopaedia Arcane series.  With Divination, August Hahn is high up there on my list of favorite Mongoose authors.</blockquote>

Verification