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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jaldaen" data-source="post: 469820" data-attributes="member: 214">Well... I don't have my copies yet, but I felt that Gamewyrd deserved some comments on his review and so I've posted them on the ENWorld reviews page with his review and I figured I'd post them here for those who prefer not to click to another page ;-)Gamewyrd Writes:"At times Smoke and Mirrors reminded me of an academic paper but never so much as to put me to sleep in the way that real academic papers are likely to do. The choice of language is responsible for this association and it seems to be a deliberate strategy by the author, Joseph Miller, as he tries (and succeeds in part) in casting the book as an actual treatise on Illusionary magic."I'm glad I did not put you to sleep with the academic tone of the book... and it was indeed a deliberate strategy on my part as the term "Encyclopaedia Arcane" just seems to call out for an academic touch ;-)"This last quirk doesn’t sit quite well with me. You’re a specialist illusionist mage – you’re really on the ball when it comes to all things illusionary - further more, you’re so good that you’ve specialised even further into a particular brand of illusionary magic so why on earth are you more likely to fall sucker to an illusionary prank than some Bard? I see where the author wanted to go with this and I don’t object to it, I just think the plan falls short of success and needs tweaking to make it work. "Very astute observations... as you state above both of these different schools of illusionism are quite different in their philosophical outlook. As such I made the design decision to make them divergent paths, but as you point out the path penalties might not work for everyone... as such here is one possible alternative to the above:Instead of the above mentioned path benefits/penalties include the following:Orthodox Background: +1 caster level and +2 bonus to Will saves for one of the following types of illusion: figment, glamer, pattern, or phantasm.Choose one of the following schools of magic to become a prohibited school: Abjuration, Conjuration, Evocation, or Transmutation.Unorthodox Background: +1 caster level and +2 bonus to Will saves for shadow spells.Choose two of the following schools of magic (or portions thereof) to become prohibited schools: Abjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Illusion (Non-Shadow Illusion Spells), or Necromancy.Hope that this might be a good alternative for you to use and please make comments or suggestions."For each of the Orthodox Illusionist Path, the Unorthodox Illusionist Path and the Unaligned Illusionist Path there are sections on interesting uses for skills, new feats and lots more new spells. Uses for skills, at this point, are often regurgitated regurgitation but tucked away in the three doses of it are a few semi-precious gems. Illusionary powers tie in nicely with many skills. What about wrapping an important lock in an illusion as a sure fire way of making it a lot harder for some cheeky bugger rogue to pick? There are between a half-dozen and a dozen new feats for each of the paths too. A small number of these new feats are from the dreaded "Improved" feat factory but there good enough feats in the three sections to balance the scale and call it a score draw."The skill sections were a tough call (as there are similar effects for each skill, yet not quite exactly the same). I thought that for clarity's sake having them separated into different chapters would at least allow the players and GMs to know exactly what they had access to b/c the paths have separate and defined chapters.As for the dreaded "Improved" feat factory... I do admit that as time has passed I have grown wary of them as well... though in my defense this book was written before I felt that way ;-)"There are a surprising number of new spells and if you just flick through the pages quickly you might not notice how they’re slyly stacked. Many of the new spells are available on levels 1 through to 9, in a more powerful form with each level advance. You might see a spell like "Crafted Image (Figment) I-IX" and that means there are nine levels of the crafted image spell. Typically the spell will explain what it does and then a summary table points out the benefits of knowing a higher level and better version of the spell. Crafted Image (Figment) I is only able to create a "fine" sized image whereas the level IX version of the spell is capable of working on the "colossal" scale. Occasionally you’ll find a I-IX style spell which is even more terse and it’ll say something along the lines of "as phantasmal conjuration only this spell mimics spells from the wizard school of Evocation". It is slightly off-putting to see spells condensed to this at first, it lacks the flavour and flare of some brand spanking new spell that knocks your socks off. Then, on the second thought, the benefit of being able to pack the spells in like this becomes more attractive. Again, I’d call this a score draw. It does this three times though and if I’m sticking with my sporting analogy then it’s worth pointing out that three draws is worth a win. (Er, in some sports!) "I really wanted to pack in as much as possible into the spell chapters and as such I decided that mechanics and "scalable" spells would be key and that although I love flavor text in my spells I also realized the more flavor text the less spells I could give the reader...In hockey 3 draws is worth a win and a half... so I'll take that ;-)"When you’re finally through reading through all the new spells you’ll find the prestige classes. What can I say? I either point out all of these prestige classes are detail through ten levels and how rare that is in a Mongoose book or I’ll slyly draw your attention to the fact that you seem to need to be a gorgeous and half naked woman in order to be a prestigious illusionist. Actually that’s not a requirement per say but its certainly something the artist has latched on to. As a liberal European I’m blasé about all such artwork so I’ll talk about the actual prestige classes instead. The Figmentist really need as much explaining as the Glamourer. Both of these prestige classes take their particular illusionary focus and come up with suitable class abilities for them. The Mind Reaver and Hypnotist prestige classes have rather scary powers, more so the Hypnotist than the Mind Reaver though. The Shadow Walker and Unaligned Master are there to play directly to the Unorthodox Illusionary Path and the Unaligned Illusionary Path in turn and are quite successful at it too."This is where you have a leg up on me... I am still waiting for my book ;-( and have yet to see the "gorgeous and half naked" art that accompanies the PrC... alas I was hoping a gnome or two would make it into the PrC section, but than again... perhaps it is best that they did not as I'd hate to see a "half naked" gnome... ;-)I am glad however that you enjoyed the PrCs in spite of the art... as I said in the Designer's Notes... I know that I could always do better and feel that I have done so in my next EA... Familiars."The book finishes with a collection of quality magic items and weapons. Actually the final pages are for the designer’s notes (which I always find helpful) and the rule summary tables (which everyone should find helpful)."Did they include the Easter Egg for ENWorld in the book? Man not having this book is killing me..."In a way Smoke and Mirrors is a good name for the book. At a glance there doesn’t seem to be much of interest in it but on a second and longer look at it you’ll find it’s packed with new stuff. If the goal of every Encyclopaedia Arcane is to make the spell school covered by it seem attractive and tempting to the players (and GMs) then EA: Illusionism succeeds easily."I thank you for your review and I look forward to hearing further comments on this and future books.Cheers!Joseph Miller</blockquote>

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