Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer

[Messageboard Golem]

New systems include: Build your own flavoured Sorcerer Subclass, creating Sorcerous magic items, casting with sensory overflow effects instead of somatic and verbal components, racial adjustments to flavour your non-human sorcerer, A new Sorcerous Warrior class and a host of new magically enhanced combat feats to build your own fantasy superhero, alternative spellcasting techniques and more

 

[Selvarin]

Ever since 3e D&D came out I've been puzzled by the sorcerer class--despite its firepower potential
I found it to be more limiting than being a wizard, for obvious reasons (the situation regarding use of metamagic feats, having to wait till 4th level--instead of 3rd--in order to gain access to second-level spells. and so on). In short, it was a class I wanted to utilize but didn't have any idea on how to take it beyond its secondary status. With the release of Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer, I now see some ways in which to do just that.

Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer is a 60-page pdf by Ben Redmond and Nigel McClelland for Malladin's Gate
Press, a company whose interest in the less fashionable classes of the game started with Forgotten Heores: paladin.
The artwork is by Steven Cook, Tony Perna, and James Walton, all of which is B&W (aside from the
front cover) and evokes what I've always imagined the sorcerer should be. A few are almost too close to
being superheroesque, but for the most part they're quite appropriate. The layout is well-done, with
few typographical errors, and it has been separated into three 'books' for better organization.

Book One: Paths of the Gifted starts out with the Eldritch Warrior, a new core class that combines the
BAB of a cleric (albeit with better choice of weapons) with the spells of a sorcerer. Initially I was against the idea but after further reading I find it's a decent class with its own virtues. Like the fighter class, it gains
bonus feats (which are taken from a list found in Chapter 2 of Book 2) but they're Eldritch Warrior feats and
provide for some interesting possibilities. The eldritch warrior has access to 6th level spells maximum, but
this is more than fair.
There's more to Book One than this, of course. Chapter 2 deals with building subclasses and provides a thorough system for doing so, although I haven't got the hang of it yet. One thing I like about it is the idea of thematic lists and 'spell paths'being used for sorcerer variants. If anything, I wish that the core sorcerer had this in place since it would further differentiate them from wizards. Regardless,it's but part of the means by which you can make the sorcerer your own, to give it flavor (and I mean 'flavor' in the good sense). Chapter 3: Races provides racial adjustments for sorcerer characters. The authors suggest you can apply only the bonus, both the bonus and the suggested penalty, or to apply the penalty to all members of that race and apply the bonus only to sorcerers. (In my opinion, I'd just apply the bonus and let it go at that.) Then the chapter goes on to deal with Life Path Prestige Classes, and to be honest this was what I saw in the demo PDF that made me want to get the full PDF. LPPC's are but three levels but this is a good thing because each level provides the character with something worth having (such as elven sorcerers gaining Eldritch Understanding,
which allows one who's taken all three levels to cast spells enhanced by metamagic feats without increasing their casting time to a full round). Overall they're well balanced. Humans are out of luck for they have no LPPC, but that can easily be remedied by creating variant sorcerer classes and linking them to specific regions or cultures. Chapter 4 deals with prestige classes such as the Attuned Sorcerer (my favorite) , Eldritch Agent, Eldritch Trickster, and others. The Enhanced Sorcerer can take a beating better than some (d10) but their sorcerous talents improve at a slower pace (4 caster levels out of 10). My feeling is that it would've been better off having d8 and gaining +1 CL/every other level, but again that is easily handled. For those
who use psionics in their campaign, the Mystic mixes sorcery and psionics into a useful combination.

In the first chapter of Book 2: Methods of Magic we're introduced to new uses for old skills as well as the new Ritual Casting and Resolve skills. Ritual Casting, as noted in FH:S, was first introduced in Rituals and Relics by White Wolf Studios, and while some will like this there are others who will prefer to keep their 3.0/3.5 D&D skills list as tight as possible by using a similar skill for it instead. Chapter 2 deals with feats for the Eldritch Warrior, many of which allow one to expend a spell slot of level X in order to activate the benefit. This is different from the standard fare, although as yet I haven't had a peek at the Quintessential Sorcerer book by Mongoose Publishing so I cannot be certain that others haven't tried it. In any case, feats like Eldritch Blade and Energy Bolt give me pause--and in some ways I think the feats provided edge away from the medieval fantasy flavor and almost towards a fantasy superhero image. Sorry, but a few feats give me that impression (and the illustration on page 36 in that same section doesn't help). Chapter 3 deals with 'origin feats', from Divine Origin to Trauma (Awakened), each providing a certain benefit. Although I'd rather not have it as a feat (instead including it as a bonus feat at first level as part of the sorcerer class), the idea nonetheless has merit and takes things a step further. Chapter 4 and 5 deal with metamagic feats as well as a new set of feats which relate to an alternative to verbal and somatic components known as Sensory Overflow (more on
that in the next book).

Book 3: Powers of the Blood starts off with spell lists (thus tying in with the variant sorcerer rules provided in Book 1). It includes the Functional Sorcerer Spell List, reprinted from the Book of Eldritch Magic II (Malhavoc Press),which is better suited to sorcerers than the sor/wiz list found in the PHB (although by now some alterations will need to be made due to 3.5's release). It goes from there to thematic lists (such as gypsy lore and warrior-mage) to spell paths (which are more limited) to the very focused Single paths lists.
Chapter 2: Overcasting deals with what happens if you use a higher-level spell slot to cast a lower-level spell. The idea of magical backlash is intriduced, with DCs and damage/effects resulting from a failed check. Chapter 3 deals with the aforementioned Sensory Overflow, wherby 'a small amount of magical energy is spelled as the sorcerer casts a spell, producing a wide range of sensory effects' (as stated in the book). The effects range from subtle to obvious (such as a foul stench), Harmful effects can be utilized if one has
any of the Sensory Overflow feats provided in Book 2 (such as causing others around you to bleed under certain conditions, etc.). Chapter 4 of Book 2 deals with alternative spellcasting techniques like Artefact Casting (which temporarily drains some magic from a permanent magic item), or by Ritual Casting, and Chapter 5: Imbued Artefacts discusses a different means for sorcerers (and other spontaneous spellcasters) to
create magic items. It's a fairly short chapter, only 2 pages, but it ties down the basics well enough to where I may use it in my own campaign.

Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer is meant to be a toolkit but, in my opinion, it's better than that. For a PDF game product it has a lot of value packed inside and will add immeasurably to your campaign if you're in the mood to do something with what some see as a second-class wizard. Although I dislike using the word 'flavor', it adds that as well as some color to an overlooked class. This is one of the few PDF's I've purchased that was so useful I wound up printing every single page, just so I could keep it handy as a desk reference. Whether you stick with 3.0 D&D, upgrade to 3.5, or home-brew your D&D, you will want this for your game. Despite some of the artwork looking more 'superhero' than sorcerer, it's only a minor complaint and I give Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer a 5 out of 5. Can't wait to see how Malladin's Gate will handle the Bard when winter rolls around.

 

[GameWyrd]

Okay. To be fair, Malladin’s Gate don’t quite rank as the most famous d20 company but I’ve only heard effusive praise for them from the people in the know. Why? The small company manages to walk that terribly fine line between familiar D&D style fantasy and something a bit different. Their Forgotten Heroes line is a good example of this; it deliberately picks out those less widely supported classes and does something interesting with them. So is this crunch? Yes, but the good sort of crunch. The mechanics here are designed to encourage flavour rich games, providing tailor made classes and working through extrapolations of game workings from the current system. Overcasting is an example of this. Sorcerers can cast a low level spell from a high level spell slot, Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer calls this Overcasting and gives us rules for dealing with the surplus magic energy this ability produces.

Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer is a 61-paged PDF product and it enjoys more illustrations than previous Mallagin’s Gate publications that I’ve looked at. It’s not normally an issue for electronic products where space is plentiful but Sorcerer has a high density, small text. This makes the product lightweight and quicker to download. It’s cheaper to print since there are fewer pages. I wouldn’t want to read the product on a screen smaller than mine (1024x768) since I found myself shuffling my chair closer, scaring the sleeping cat and squinting at the screen. The product begins with a length contents page. This is good and better than a length index page since people reading it on screen want the page numbers at the start of the document. Sorcerer also makes decent use of bookmarks.

We get going with the Eldritch Warrior. The word "eldritch" is used throughout the e-book to describe the magic unique to the sorcerer and it leaves the term "arcane" free to fully describe wizard magic. The Eldritch Warrior is a sorcerer who channels some of their magic energy to enhance and improve themselves but suffer a loss in spell casting ability as a result. If you flick through Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer to examine the artwork then you’d be forgiven for picking up a superhero vibe. This is mainly due to the Eldritch Warrior. If you skip down to the feat chapters you’ll be get easy access to a collection of Eldritch Warrior only feats. These guys can grow claws, decrease their density to become ghost-like, form an exoskeleton of armour and channel elemental powers through their punches or weapons. That sounds superhero to me but it’s not the impression I got from simply reading the core description of the class and that suggests a welcome flexibility.

Subclasses allow themed sorcerer classes. The system suits experienced GMs best since Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer gives us a toolkit of rules to design our own classes and doesn’t settle for giving us ready made examples. The key to the system is the specialisation of spell lists, splitting and prioritising magic by theme, type or flavour. A similar sort of spell list refining worked for the Cultist class in Unearthed Adventurers: Volume I and the comparison is genuinely helpful if you have that other PDF but it must be frustrating if you don’t. If the task of dividing up spells into prioritised and themed lists (ala clerical domains) seems rather daunting (and it is) then pay attention to the small print and note that there are plenty of examples towards the back of the publication.

We’re given racial variations of sorcerers and prestige classes. The sorcerer class is special; it does imply something racial rather than vocational. You have to have magic in your blood one way or another to be a sorcerer. If it’s "in the blood" (a politically incorrect phrase these days) then a gnome sorcerer will be different from an elf sorcerer. The PDF doesn’t make a big issue out of this, it simply runs through the non-human core player character races and offers up a racial bonus and penalty. There are more prestige classes, nine in total. Attuned Sorcerer, Eldritch Agent, Eldritch Agitator, Eldritch Armsman, Eldritch Courtier, Eldritch Trickster, Enhanced Sorcerer, Focused Sorcerer and Mystic. They’re a mix of five and ten level classes. These are "does what it says on the tin" classes. The Eldritch Trickster is one who uses sorcerer/eldritch power for tricks. The Enhanced Sorcerer specialises in channelling their energies inwards to enhance their physical body. If this was a campaign world supplement then I’d rubbish these bland names but given that Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer is world neutral (it’s not one of Maladin’s Gate’s Academy books) these unvarnished names suffice and can be changed by the GM later.

I’ve mentioned the Eldritch Warrior feats already and there are many more feats in the book. The lists of feats begin the "book two" of the three internal books that divide the PDF. There’s an apology here. The Sensory Overflow feats don’t make much sense if you’re reading the book in order because Sensory Overflow isn’t explained until later. They’re simply listed here in order to keep all the feats together and that’s good enough for me. It’s neither the Sensory Overflow feats nor the new Metamagic feats that are the highlight of the chapter for me. That honour lands on the Origin feats. There are two types of origin; descended and awakened. Descended feats must be taken at level one and relate to why you’re a sorcerer. An ancestor was actually a dragon, that’s the typical sorcerer scenario, and the Draconic Origin feat coughs up the additional advantages that bloodline would mean. This issue of bloodline has always been something I could tease D&D over. Anyone can multi-class into a sorcerer and so everyone must be descended from a dragon (or something similar). The Awakened Origin feats are something of a tonic to this ridiculous situation. Some powerful being, cult or cosmic freak might have magically manipulated your character. This event is responsible for the sorcerous potential. Bring on the Manipulated (Awakened) feat. Other awakened feats are applicable for other instances were hitherto impossible sorcerous power was made manifest. They’re game mechanics that actually avoid a plot Deus Ex Machina and this is a superb success.

The last "book" in Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer gives us those welcomed spell lists for sorcerer subclasses. It’s also were Overcasting and Sensory Overflow is explained. High level spell slots must be more powerful than low level ones – or, at least, this is an obvious extrapolation of the system – so there must be magic energy left over when a low level spell is cast from a high level slot. The sorcerer can’t make the spell last longer, throw it further or have it cause more damage and so it’s clear this energy can’t be used that sort of way. With these overcasting rules a sorcerer who makes a successful spellcraft check and risk suffering backlash damage can use this surplus energy to produce an effect from another school of magic. A sorcerer can’t enhance a low level illusion by casting it from a high level slot and so can’t create another illusionary effect with the extra energy; he’ll have to pick an effect from another school. The higher the overcast then the more energy available but trickier the task is. Similarly, the bolder the effect wanted with the extra magic then the higher the spellcraft DC and greater the risk of some magical side effect. Sensory Overflow describes those environmental changes sorcerers produce when they cast magic; glowing eyes, a rush of wind, the smell of sulphur, etc. Glowing eyes are rather a pain if you’re trying to slyly cast magic in the night. Sorcerers can try and master these magical side effects and some evil sorcerers actually manage to train themselves to use this overflow offensively. We’re not quite done since there’s a look at alternative spell casting techniques and some imbued artifacts.

Forgotten Heroes achieves what it set out to do. It gives the Sorcerer class a touch more style and presents interesting options for players and GMs. Subclasses will require a bit of effort from the GM but I think they’re worth it. There’s a lot in this PDF and that’s value for money. The bloodline/heritage theme for sorcerers might be fairly obvious but it’s a good one, it’s one that lends itself well to fantasy roleplaying and this issue of Forgotten Heroes does well to develop on it without needing to lean on it.

* This Forgotten Heroes: Sorcerer review was first published at GameWyrd.