When
Way of the Witch came out from Citizen Games, I thought “Wow, they've reached a turning point.” The art by Thomas Denmark, the simple but tight layout, and the great cover, were all strong selling points. The price wasn't bad but wasn't great. When I heard about Path of the Magi, I thought, “Ah, good, they're going to continue the trend.” Well, issues happened at Citizen Games and the book found it's way to the Troll Lords who've taken the time to insure that this is 3.5 compliant and is actually printed.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they followed all of the rules. For example, the art. It's not horrible art by any means, but Thomas Denmark's work in the previous book was top notch and gave that book a great feel. The fonts and layout aren't terrible by any measure, but don't have that tight feel that Way of the Witch did, taking up a lot more room.
Lastly, I don't know if it was a branding issue or what, but the red border on the cover here, doesn't help, especially in comparison to Way of the Witch which looks more pleasing to the eyes, despite the great Elmore painting. Upon further looking, it reminds me of a Fast Forward Games cover, which is sure to cause confusion. It's Troll Lords/Citizen Games.
What's worse to me is that they kept the stuff I didn't like about Way of the Witch including the mediocre setting details for Myrra from Citizen Games Hero's Journey adventure modules with their weird naming and no index. They also failed to take out the Open Gaming Content declaration at the start of the book as Troll Lords put one of their own into the book.
Now what's wrong with having the material be in the Myrra setting? Well, first off, perhaps it's not a 'dead' setting, but from the amount of material we've seen for it, it may as well be. Second off, because a good portion of the book deals with the University of the Magus, it forces the GM to convert that material over in terms of background not only for the location and founding of the University, but for the NPC's as well. Why they wouldn't take the time to convert this to their own Erde world I don't know. Now take
Redhurst for a counter where because of it's multi-planar nature, can be used anywhere with little modification.
Another problem I had is the editing. I know that D&D has a history of using the old 1st and 10th level things, but 0th? What the hell is that? Some information is also repeated on a word for word basis at the start, like the editors didn't know if they should leave it in or take it out.
Which brings up a meta-issue. Redhurst is a full color book about schools that includes not a lot of game mechanics, but is well written, ties into a lot of published settings and has a great layout and innovative style as it doesn't follow the typical printed format. Path of the Magi has more mechanics but doesn't hit the ball on other areas that Redhurst covered better like experience points for classes via merits.
The book isn't bad once you look past these issues. It's broken up into ten chapters, each once covering a board area of concern. The history of the University is covered first in the Myrra world. Useful background if you're playing in that setting but otherwise, only good for general notes. These general notes can act as a guideline to how certain areas of study developed and how they now get along. For example, there is a new path, Histromorphy, which is also called mutator, which is not always looked fondly upon as they often take two creatures and merge them via owlbear or try and create all new creatures.
Information on the levels of education a student can have is also useful. For example, a candidate is a 0 level character, a 0 level commoner actually who at the end of his training, becomes a 0th-level wizard.
Of more use is Chapter Two, The Universitae de Magus which provides phsyical descriptions of the various locations scattered about. Like Redhurst, there are no up close and personal detailed maps but rather, broad and quick strokes to paint the landscape. These ranges from the Keter, a green marble tower where classrooms are held, to Yesod, where the staff and students of Astrology work.
Outside of the descriptions, we get a look at the daily live of the mages. This includes proper greetings for your fellows, taboos, titles, holidays and wizard duels. There are no special game rules, just rules of conduct to follow in those duels.
Perhaps most useful to new players and GMs, is the section on typical magic garb. This ranges from robes and cloaks, to lenses and hats. It breaks up the information by gender as well as style.
Chapter Three, Magical Studies, gives the GM and player a good break down of the various ways a character can move on in his teachings. The best part about this section to me is the rules for playing a 0 level wizard by passing a Test of Apprenticeship. You have +1 Will save, spellbook with all 0 level spells, ability to cast two 0 level spells, and one rank in knowledge and spellcraft with some other options depending on your race and intelligence. It's a nice system, harking back to the days of the old Greyhawk hardcover with it's rules for 0 level characters. I would mix the courses of study here with those in Redhurst and use the Redhurst merit rules.
Where this book shines over Redhurst is in the crunch. Chapter Four presents the Magi Prestige Classes. The founding fathers of the university broke magic into several paths of study and these continued to advance with another path eventually being added even as different academy aspects took on their own general importance. The PrCs included here are all ten level PrCs with special requirements relating to the book, acting as a good example of tying a PrC into a setting.
The paths of study include: Astrologer, Histomorpher, Alchemy, Apothecology, Planitician, Field Professor, and Procurer. Like many Wizard PrCs, the GM should carefully read over them as they often offer full advancement in spellcasting with numerous extra abilities. This is a standard problem with Wizard PrCs. Why be a wizard when you can get almost everything you normally do and more? These are very detailed PrCs with wide ranges of abilities that will add a lot of options to a campaign.
The Alchemy Magus for instance, gains secrets of alchemy ranging from using his potions for greater health to slowly gaining resistance to poisons, drugs, and diseases. Each PrC has a lot to offer a campaign, even one that doesn't use the University itself. Take the Astrologer. There is a whole slew of information on readings, and gaining abilities through those readings.
The superior crunch continues with skills and feats. The skills include a wide variety of knowledge skills like Anatomy, Monsters, Undead and Zodiac. Now I've never been fond of using a new skill when an old one can handle it, and I think that several companies have proven that Anatomy is fairly covered by the Healing skill but most of the others look good. More example DC checks with appropriate revealed information would've made the skills easier to quickly implement.
The feats introduce a new type, the Zodiac as well as a few general ones that most mages will want. For general, take Spell Cleave. Yup, if you're spell attack feels that creature it hits, it can strike another within 5 feet of the original. Of course, you can't just have one spell in that chain as there is Improved spell Cleave. This might be too powerful for some campaigns but with a wizard's limited number of spells per day... The Zodiac Signs require you to be born under the sign. The basic signs are wizardry ones where you get small bonuses. The aspects are higher powered versions that grant more power. For example, the Dragon Sign Wizardry gives you a +1 to Will Saves, Dispel and Spell Penetration checks while the Aspect gives you, once per day, an energy resistance against one type of dragon breath, natural armor, and immunity to frightful presence of dragons. Innovative and powerful, not for every campaign.
The section on Magic of the Magic, covered in Chapter Six, was a hit or miss for me. The twelve signs of the Myrra zodiac didn't do anything for me, but those who are into signs can help new players role play using the typical nature of those born under the sign. They're also useful for those who want to take the feats mentioned above.
The section on Histomorphy also has problems. While it's a great idea with three main branches, altering creatures, combining creatures, creating new creatures, it's a fairly vague system. Not good when companies like Mongoose have whole books like
Crossbreeding on the subject and other companies have hit this idea before.
More impressive are the spells. Troll Lords took the time to break the spells down by level, school, and alphabetical, with a summary of each spell, allowing you to flip through two pages and see what spells your character might want. Unfortunately there is only one ninth level spell and no 8th level spells. Bad for an old established campaign. On the other hand, there are a large number of lower level spells that will get more use in the game.
These range from Acid Dart, a 0 level spell that deals 1d3 damage, to Ablative Sphere, a 2nd level spell that provides damage resistance even as it hinders your own attacks. Some of the spells don't look like they've been updated as Power Word Daze is a Conjuration Spell, and most Power Word spells these days fall under Enchantment. Most of the spell though do fit their level and are appropriate for immediate game play.
Chapter Seven, Magic Items and Tools of the Magi, provides new alchemical items, including cost, DC to make, and Craft Skill, as well as Herbal Blams, Brews, all purpose tools, and a few magic items for miscellaneous operations. The mundane equipment is great, ranging from standard equipment that is needed for most laboratory operations like aprons, bellows, brooms, graphite, kiln, printing press, spades, and ceramic vials. The alchemical material gives players more reasons to put points into that skill. My favorite is probably Anti-Petrification, giving a +5 bonus to Fortitude saves against petrification for 1 hour or the Dry Soap which cleans without water. The magic items on the other hand, were a let down. These were things like self sweeping brooms and self-heating kilns. Useful and great for a college, but not great for independent wizards. Where are the rings, rods, staffs, wands, body parts and other great items associated with wizards?
Chapter Eight fills out the Universitae de Magus with sample NPCs. These range form fellow students to professors. Each one has a full, easy to read stat block with full bonuses and details listed out. The good news is that it's easy to read. The bad news is that the format isn't really consistent with itself. For example, why go through the problem of spelling out strength and other stats and listing each on a separate line instead of using a standard stat block, and then for racial abilities, refer the reader to the PHB?
Another area that this book beats Redhurst is in adventuring. Not only are there adventure ideas in chapter nine, eight in all, but there are two sample adventurers, in chapter ten, that include maps and statistics for easy running.
There are parts of the book, especially in the mechanics that I really enjoy. The physical presentation, editing, and layout decisions, especially in places like the NPCs, however, doesn't sit well with me. For me, the product is a solid three, leaning towards a four. If you don't have a ton of books that cover some of the material here like Crossbreeding, or mundane equipment, the book is definitely worth a look. The new spells, feats and PrCs can add a lot to a campaign and the notes on different courses can easily be mixed with other academy studies.
