Kingdoms of Kalamar: Player's Handbook

[Elder-Basilisk]

Of course with int enhancing items and stat increases, most if not all wizards will have int bonusses that enable them to gain a spell of the highest level they can cast at any particular time. 24 int isn't out of line for a 14th level wizard. Nor is a 28 int for a 17th level wizard. That makes Miser With Magic strictly superior to Extra Slot since it is effectively at the highest level of castable spell. And unlike extra slot it scales (with int which scales with items and levels) and may be used for multiple lower level spells.

By the time a wizard is able to take the feat (7th level), the wizard can expect to have a spellcraft check of at least +14 which makes the check automatic for spells of up to second level and almost automatic for higher level spells. As the wizard increases in level, the check will become automatic for all spells he can cast since the DC (2x spell level) scales at a rate equal to the rate of maxed spellcraft skill but the wizards int bonus will also increase.

Furthermore, it permits a wizard to effectively become a sorcerors with more flexible known spells with regard to low level spells--preparing one of each spell known at first and second level and then simply casting them multiple times.

It's only for a total combined number of spell levels equal to your int bonus per day. Therefore it's a feat that is very useful at low levels, but the spellcraft check offsets this. Then when you get to high levels and the spell check becomes trivial, the feat is much less useful because that small amount of extra power isn't really as great a benefit as some other more scalable feats provide.

 

[Mistwell]

Here is my review, for what it is worth.

First off, for those who hadn't noticed, this is not your run of the mill OGL book. This one has the seal of approval of WOTC, just as Forgotten Realms does. So it will be easier to persuade your DM to allow the use of some of the stuff in this book, than say the quintessential books.

Divine casters - a ton of new stuff. I really liked the Channeled Abilities section. It adds both an interesting role playing aspect to divine casters, as well as neat new abilities that seemed fairly balanced, though some consistency in duration and DC's would have been nice. Similarly I liked the Temple Rank section, with powers and duties for temple membership. And finally, the domains section was excellent, and making the former Prestige Domains into just additional normal domains makes good sense (the prestige domain system introduced in Defender's of the Faith never really worked for me). Why they didn't finish the job and include 100% of the FR domains I do not know, since they seemed determined to include domains from all authorized WOTC products.

The feats section is massive, though I was disappointed by the amount of stuff that was repetitive of former products (though the combined official feats and spells lists in the appendix was a fantastic idea, and I was particularly happy they referenced dragon magazine feats and spells there). There were plenty of new, interesting feats here however. Enough has been said about balance with one of the metamagic feats (though I do not think it is quite as off-balance as most do). The rest are fairly well balanced.

I was very unimpressed with the Prestige Class section. Virtually all of these seemed like good NPC's, but rotten PC classes to take. The new base classes were similarly uninspiring, with Shaman being so close to Druid as to be almost not worth a second thought, and Spellsinger seeming damn close to Sorcerer as well (though I admit to not reading it very carefully, so far). A few of the other base classes looked interesting, but I have not had a good chance to read through them yet. In particular the Infiltrator and Brigand look good, and the Basiran Dancer does not.

The races section was fairly solid. Hobgoblins (and the half-Hob version) do deserve their own section, and get it here. Some of the more powerful races from FR that had level adjustments have been dumbed down to get rid of the adjustments (like Dark Elves instead of Drow), yet make them playable from 1st level still, which is a nice option. I like the combined Gnome section, but was disappointed the full Dragon Magazine inclusion of river gnome and arcane gnome were not there. In addition, some of the derivative races seemed to be missing core-race abilities, without explanation.

The magic items section is solid, but short. In particular I liked the Bracelet of Attunement and Bracelet of Secrets, which give a +1 DC to spells cast by the wearer for Divine and Arcane casters, respectively, for not much money. I can see these being added to spell-focus folk quickly.

The skills section seems fairly weak to me, as far as brand new skills. With the exception of Pantomime, the entire section is either new uses for old skills, or new Knowledge, Craft, Profession, or Speak Language skills. Now not to say that some of those are not fun (particularly Craft: Poisonmaking, and some of the Knowledge combat-oriented skills), I just expected some more entirely new skills, rather than expanded old skills. However, the new applications, and development on these three areas of skills, is useful.

The Equipment wasn't bad. I like the Alchemical Mixtures, Herbal Mixtures, and Poisons sections (and on a related note, the new diseases were a useful addition as well). The slaves section seemed unnecessary, and the new weapons, armor, and ammo were acceptable, but not thrilling, and quite short.

The Fighting Schools section is a nice role playing touch, though probably will be used more often for DMs in a Kalamar setting than PC's not in a Kalamar setting (however the vast majority of this book is useful for folks playing in any setting). On a related note, the new combat options are a nice addition, though I wish there were more than just the 4 new options. I'm definitely going to try a Throw maneuver next time I find myself with the advantage in a grapple.

The spells section was also well done, though again I was disappointed by the number of repeat spells from other official non-PHB supplements. Still, plenty of new spells to make me happy here, and again that combined appendix is quite useful. Scalable spells are also an interesting addition here, and make sense.

Organizationally, I was very disappointed. This book needed better editing. The decisions on splitting sections up were pretty rotten at times. Here is one of several examples: if you want to see what your converted greyhawk cleric can do with this book, here is what you may need to do: 1) Find your current God on a chart in one place, and track that to the equivalent Kalamar God. 2) Now go find that Kalamar god, in another chart, and look up their domains. 3) Now go find the domain section, and look up those domains. 4) Want to know the cannons of the church for your new god? That's another section. 5) Want to know about Temple Ranks for your new temple? Another separate section. 6) Decided to take the channel energy feat and want to know what Channeled Abilities your new church knows about? Yet another section. All of this should have been in the chapter titled Religion, and we should have had one big chart for all of it. I understand the desire to follow the PHB format, but when you start adding in this much new religion-oriented stuff, that system breaks down.

Other editing errors were even worse, with one spell in particular citing a list to be found below, with no list to be found at all.

Overall I like the book, and I think it is well worth the $30 I paid. I will get as much, if not more, out of this book than I will out the of the Forgotten Realms book (assuming I play in neither specific setting). I just wish there was a bit more attention paid to editing and final touches. Personally, if I ruled the Kalamar publishing universe, I would put out a KOK PG version 1.1 (instead of just an errata and FAQ), fixing all the rotten editing errors and decisions. Sure, some people would bitch, but I think more people would buy the product (and be happy with it) in the end.

 

[psionotic]

I borrowed the book from a friend of mine, and was pretty disappointed.

The races section basically reprints subraces available in most other books, and includes an alternate hobgoblin and half-hobgoblin. Both of which were disappointing, as I felt they should have gone with the standard MM monster, or rename the race something else.

The variant classes seemed unnecessary, and could have been mostly duplicated with multiclassing or by designing prestige classes.

The feats reprint far too many feats from other sources. Of the new ones, many are either underpowered, or vastly overpowered. (Irresistable Spell and Miser with Magic among others are especially bad)

The Prestige Classes seemed to be better balanced, but rather boring to my tastes.

There are many new spells, none of which were especially interesting. Most of them seemed pretty balanced.

The rest of the book was mainly Kalamar flavor and campaign materials. Gods, equipment, etc. Looked to be well thought out and interesting.

Overall verdict: If you are playing or DMing a Kalamar game, I would give it a lukewarm recommendation. DMs should carefully consider the new crunchies, especially the feats and channeling powers, before allowing them. But if you are not playing or running in Kalamar, avoid this book at all costs.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

wow and here I think miser with magic is underpowered. Sure its better than extra spell, but extra spell sucks. extra spell isn't worth a 1/10 of a feat much less a full feat. If you got a 30 int you get a possible(likely since you will have a good spellcraft) 10 extra spell levels a day. Quite frankly who cares, you get scribe scroll for free as a wizard, scribe some scrolls already it is a much better feat than this. And once you reach the level where you have that 30 int and your spellcraft makes these checks guaranteed you'd have to be a wild spendthrift in amgic too get close too depleating your spell store.

Basically it comes down to 10 extra spell levels a day is nice but not worth a feat.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Too bad I just moved from Sunnyvale. Otherwise I'd offer to play a wizard with Miser With Magic in your campaign and see what you think after that. (It's a bit far for me to travel from Vancouver BC).

The real advantage to it is that said wizard can prepare seven different first level spells and six different second level spells and still be able to cast any of them at least as many times as if he'd used all of his slots to prepare a single spell. And in order to autosucceed succeed with first and second level spells, the wizard only needs +13 to his spellcraft roll. That is easily attainable at 7th level (max ranks +16 int--which is pretty darn low for a 7th level wizard). Consequently, the spellcraft roll, far from being a hindrance to the usefulness of the feat is a mere formality.

This is far better than scribing scrolls as it is free (doesn't cost time, gold, or xp) and can also be used for spells with saving throws--glitterdust, web, etc--or spells with level dependant effects--magic missile, burning hands, protection from arrows, etc--without reducing their effectiveness (which is not true of scrolls).

BTW. IIRC, quite a few people disputed your analysis of the extra slot feat when it first came out.

wow and here I think miser with magic is underpowered. Sure its better than extra spell, but extra spell sucks. extra spell isn't worth a 1/10 of a feat much less a full feat. If you got a 30 int you get a possible(likely since you will have a good spellcraft) 10 extra spell levels a day. Quite frankly who cares, you get scribe scroll for free as a wizard, scribe some scrolls already it is a much better feat than this. And once you reach the level where you have that 30 int and your spellcraft makes these checks guaranteed you'd have to be a wild spendthrift in amgic too get close too depleating your spell store.

Basically it comes down to 10 extra spell levels a day is nice but not worth a feat.

 

[kenjib]

The real advantage to it is that said wizard can prepare seven different first level spells and six different second level spells and still be able to cast any of them at least as many times as if he'd used all of his slots to prepare a single spell.

How do you figure? A 7th level wizard will probably get an extra 3 or 4 spell levels total going with your example of 16 int or bumping it up to 18, which is much less than the total combined spell levels of all his 1st and 2nd level spells available per day (4 first and 3 second, 10 total levels, not including bonus spells for int, which I believe would raise it to 13). It means he can cast a couple of low level spells spontaneously, probably 2 or 3. Then, after he uses those 2 or 3 spells he's stuck with his over-diversified spell selection in 1st and 2nd level spells for the rest of the day.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

also when talking 1st level spells the same thing can be had with some exceptionally cheap pearls of power. Give me 5 1st level pearls of power over this feat any day. and agian when talking low level spells make some scrolls they cheap as dirt when they are low level.

And its too bad you moved from sunnyvale my current gaiming group is not to my satisfaction. And my friends(the only person in the group whois decent) appartment in sunnyvale is where we game.

 

[Mistwell]

According to the errata: "The feat Miser with Magic can be used on a number of spell levels per day equal to the ability score modifier appropriate to the type of spells you cast."

 

[Ghostwind]

Personally, I liked the book in that it presented quite a few things that could be tweaked to fit into any campaign rather than a Kalamar only setting. There are a great deal of spells that I plan to use in my homebrew.