Player's Guide to Wizards, Bards, & Sorcerers

[Nightfall]

*smirks* Yeah I have to say this is also why I like the setting. Wizardry and Sorcery have some COOLNESS factors for their origins.

 

[Nightfall]

Some more info has come to light! Thanks especially to Cylock for his help.

1) Wizard Traditions: Calastian Battle Mages, Society of Immortals, Necromancers of Hollowfaust etc.

Each group has a brief description, current leadership, base of operations, how to become a member, arcane motifs (you can customize how your spells look), favored feats, favored skills, favored spells.

2) Libraries and Academies: Volumes of Lore (including a random table of 100 sample books complete with cool names like 'Unraveling Albadian Ice Magic'), Spellbook Dweomers and Traps, a varient rule on Spellbook Alternatives like spellstaves, tattooing, and runes.

3) Bardic traditions: Blades of the North, Brotherhood of the Lamp, Chorus of the Banshee etc.

4) Philosophies on bardic magic: including varient rules on how noise levels affect magic, composition and performance, bardic enchantment.

5) Epics of the Scarred Lands: I loved this section because it describes sample epics and songs common to the land. Take these, make modifications, and use them as treasures to be found in your world. Example: 'Of Mithral and Blood' is an epic poem that your bard can recite while casting some common spells (it provides a list of good spells to use with each epic).

6) Sorcerous traditions: the sorcerors of the Scarred Lands seem to be tied to the Titans (those who fought the Gods in the world's history) so this section describes the different 'cultures' of sorcerors. The Bloodtrail, Cult of the Eighth Eye, The Preservers of Life etc.

7) The basics of sorcery: How does it manifest in players--some ideas on how to play them etc.

8) The Ways of Lore: 60 pages of new feats, prestige classes, spells and equipment. Some nice feats include 'Pied Piper,' 'Arcane Trinity' Elemental Focus, and Ghost Spell

prestige classes which caught my attention are: Adept of Flame, Demonologist, and Master Cabalist ("wizards who seek to exploit the pacts and laws that bind gods and their servents to the Scarred Lands")

Like I said in my earlier post, once you read these books, you'll look at the PHB's 'wizard' or 'fireball' and think how boring these sound in comparison to the colorful setting Sword and Sorcery has conjured up with these works.

Gee... what sounds more interesting, casting 'Children of the Serpent Mother' or 'Grease' hmmm...

The Blessed of Mesos is a prestige class which describes them as the "children" of the Titan Mesos. They are hunted and persecuted across the Scarred Lands, but they themselves know they are the "pinnacle of an arcanist's development, unlocking and using the energies of thier birthright"

While I can't post direct information from the book, I will say that you have to be a 7th level Sorceror before you qualify and the powers are:

Meta-sorcery: metamagic doesn't increase casting time
Legacy of Blood: gains extra Spells Known
Unravel Sorcery: may unravel arcane magic (improved counterspelling)
Devourer's Devotion: gains an Arcane Devourer as a pet
Reclaim Sorcery: may suck arcane energy from others and siphon it into sorcery. bwahahhahahaha ;-)

Oh, did I happen to mention that at several points, the authors put a description on "how to use X in other campaigns" Making the books easily compatible with other worlds.

 

[Nightfall]

Hey guys. At 8:03 EST pm, this thread got a...BUMP!

 

[Harlock]

Thanks for the bump, Nightfall, otherwise I would have missed that most excellent tease for this PG. Children of Mesos sound frelling terrific! I cannot wait (but have to actually, well, for about a month anyway) to get this and the other PG, as well a CCr and my 3.5 books. Sounds most enlightening for a Scarred Lands devottee.

PS, Nightfall, I may email you a file, so don't delete it, it's not a virus.

 

[Nightfall]

1. Har, I never delete your emails. At least not until AFTER I've read and responded to them.

2: Glad the bump was helpful. (Btw it's BLESSED of Mesos, not Child. )

 

[tabrumj]

I absolutely loved PGWBS, back about six months ago when I aquired the word docs for it I started using a good number of the rules(having the editor of the book in your gaming group is nice). Immediatly the spell book rules and several of the feats made their way into my game, mostly the scion feat, arcane trinity and mentor. More than just the rules though I really enjoyed the setting stuff.

As soon as I could I started working in the bardic epics into my game using them to add background color. I also really enjoyed the sections on sorcerors, I thought it did an excellent job of showing how the worshipers of the Titans could differ from each other. Both the Wizards and the Bards section were really great providing takes on my two favorite classes that were truly inspired.

 

[Nightfall]

Jeff,

Thanks for the input. Btw any favorite spells that you got to see perhaps?

 

[SSS-Druid]

By the way, I owe Nightfall and several other great folks a grovelsome apology. Somehow, their names were left out of the Additional Contributors credits for the PG:WBS.

I will be making another post on this in order to clarify it, but let me apologize right off the bat here, Blaine.

 

[Nightfall]

Just as long as I still get my contributor's/author's copy Joe, I'll be happy. But thanks in any case. Besides I don't feel bad about being left off in that one as I would if it were the PG: Rangers and Rogues.

 

[Nightfall]

PIMP ehr Bump! Hey I at least waited a day or two.