Cheiromancer
Adventurer
I just bought Arcane Strife yesterday, and I'm disappointed in it. This is not a fair and balanced review, but I do want to point out some of the things that bothered me.
The spells. There are 200 of them, and that's good, but not all of them are good. Here's some examples:
Age Creature: Allegedly an efficient and non-messy way of getting rid of human warriors. It is 7th level, Fort save negates, effect is to age a single creature by 15-20%. Feeblemind would work ever so much better for the stated purpose. So would stone to flesh or disintegrate.
Ammonia Cloud: Allegedly bane to oozes and jellies. Does a mighty 1d4 points of damage per round to all oozes in a 30 foot radius area. Not very useful if the party's fighters are in melee with said oozes, and if they are not in melee range I would think a fireball would be more apropos. A fairly useless 2nd level spell.
Anti-energy field: 5th level, 10 ft. radius per level emanation. Protects from energy attacks (fire, cold, sonic, etc.). Supposedly designed to protect troops on the battlefield, Problem is, the spell does 1d4 hp of subdual damage per round to living creatures inside the field (and real damage to undead). Fort DC 15 negates, but how many rounds can the average soldier stay on his feet before this "protection" knocks him out? Again, doesn't do what it is supposed to.
Let's jump forward a few pages...
Blackjack. An assassin spell. Enhances a sap so that a successful critical is like a coup de grace, except that the victim is unconscious rather than dead. Given that a sap threatens a critical only on a 20, you can imagine how useful this enhancement is.
I don't want you to think that the book is full of poorly designed, woefully underpowered spells. There are poorly designed, overpowered spells too. My favorite is Freeze Tag. No save, no spell resistance, and you get to designate who is "It". The next creature touched by the target creature is held for 1 round per point of the caster's charisma modifier, then it is "It." In other words, the sorcerer (or bard) casts it on the fighter, who makes a touch attack on the dragon; the party then gets 5 or 6 rounds of free attacks against the dragon. If, by some miracle, the dragon survives, the caster can dismiss the magic at will. More broken than Harm, and only 2nd level.
What else? Occasionally the book lapses in 2nd Edition (or is it first?); Mirror Double refers to the Enchant an Item spell, something which doesn't exist in 3rd edition.
Enough about spells: there are also prestige classes and templates. One prestige class looks promising: the Master of Minor Magics. It gets the spellmeld ability, which allows, say, 5 magic missiles to be crammed into one 5th level spellslot, and unloaded simultaneously against one opponent. 25d4 + 25 with a 5th level spell slot? That's an octuply empowered magic missile, there. Even a pre-errata incantrix can't do that.
Templates: The arcane ghost is basically a ghost, except that arcane ghosts can have a "burning touch" that does 1d4 points of "arcane burn damage." Otherwise it is a word per word duplicate of the Monster Manual Template.
Bah.
This is a short mini-review; I don't have the energy to give an exhaustive list of the book's faults. But there are lots of them. Some good things too; the visual effects accompanying spell casting are very flavorful. And some of the spells look like they might be balanced and useful.
Anyway, if you haven't already bought the book, wait for some reviews to appear on the Reviews page or on the boards; I would definitely urge you to hold off.
The spells. There are 200 of them, and that's good, but not all of them are good. Here's some examples:
Age Creature: Allegedly an efficient and non-messy way of getting rid of human warriors. It is 7th level, Fort save negates, effect is to age a single creature by 15-20%. Feeblemind would work ever so much better for the stated purpose. So would stone to flesh or disintegrate.
Ammonia Cloud: Allegedly bane to oozes and jellies. Does a mighty 1d4 points of damage per round to all oozes in a 30 foot radius area. Not very useful if the party's fighters are in melee with said oozes, and if they are not in melee range I would think a fireball would be more apropos. A fairly useless 2nd level spell.
Anti-energy field: 5th level, 10 ft. radius per level emanation. Protects from energy attacks (fire, cold, sonic, etc.). Supposedly designed to protect troops on the battlefield, Problem is, the spell does 1d4 hp of subdual damage per round to living creatures inside the field (and real damage to undead). Fort DC 15 negates, but how many rounds can the average soldier stay on his feet before this "protection" knocks him out? Again, doesn't do what it is supposed to.
Let's jump forward a few pages...
Blackjack. An assassin spell. Enhances a sap so that a successful critical is like a coup de grace, except that the victim is unconscious rather than dead. Given that a sap threatens a critical only on a 20, you can imagine how useful this enhancement is.
I don't want you to think that the book is full of poorly designed, woefully underpowered spells. There are poorly designed, overpowered spells too. My favorite is Freeze Tag. No save, no spell resistance, and you get to designate who is "It". The next creature touched by the target creature is held for 1 round per point of the caster's charisma modifier, then it is "It." In other words, the sorcerer (or bard) casts it on the fighter, who makes a touch attack on the dragon; the party then gets 5 or 6 rounds of free attacks against the dragon. If, by some miracle, the dragon survives, the caster can dismiss the magic at will. More broken than Harm, and only 2nd level.
What else? Occasionally the book lapses in 2nd Edition (or is it first?); Mirror Double refers to the Enchant an Item spell, something which doesn't exist in 3rd edition.
Enough about spells: there are also prestige classes and templates. One prestige class looks promising: the Master of Minor Magics. It gets the spellmeld ability, which allows, say, 5 magic missiles to be crammed into one 5th level spellslot, and unloaded simultaneously against one opponent. 25d4 + 25 with a 5th level spell slot? That's an octuply empowered magic missile, there. Even a pre-errata incantrix can't do that.
Templates: The arcane ghost is basically a ghost, except that arcane ghosts can have a "burning touch" that does 1d4 points of "arcane burn damage." Otherwise it is a word per word duplicate of the Monster Manual Template.
Bah.
This is a short mini-review; I don't have the energy to give an exhaustive list of the book's faults. But there are lots of them. Some good things too; the visual effects accompanying spell casting are very flavorful. And some of the spells look like they might be balanced and useful.
Anyway, if you haven't already bought the book, wait for some reviews to appear on the Reviews page or on the boards; I would definitely urge you to hold off.
