School of Evocation, published as part of Fantasy Flight Games' Legends & Lairs series, was the second in what appeared to have the potential of being a full line covering all eight schools of magic. But no other School Of ___ books have appeared since this one came out in March 2003, which is too bad as I would have liked to see some of the lesser-covered schools explored in more detail.
School of Illusion came out slightly earlier, and School of Evocation follows the exact same format as that one. The book's authorship is credited to four writers: Mark Chance, Lysle Kapp, "Lizard" and Kevin Wilson. Artwork was handled by Ed Cox, Britt Martin, Joseph Querio and Patricio Soler. This product was released under the 3.0 rules. Proofreading looks pretty good though the biggest mistake I found is that on p. 27, the SRD spells Ice Storm and Wall of Ice are listed as dealing acid damage.
The Introduction lays out eight subschools called 'disciplines' within the school of Evocation: acid, cold, electricity, energy construct, fire, force, light, and sonic. Only energy construct is new; it's close to force but it's more about creating useful things out of energy rather than blasting stuff, making it the most subtle discipline within a decidedly non-subtle school of magic! A few SRD evocation spells get retconned into the energy construct discipline, but that comes later in the book.
The Devoted Evoker is a full 20-level core class for a character who wants to totally specialize in evocation. Again since this book's format is almost a carbon copy of School Of Illusion, if you know the Devoted Illusionist from there you'll know the deal here: the Devoted Evoker gives up access to all other schools of magic in exchange for heightened evocation powers. In campaign worlds that emphasize the raw primal forces of magic, this could be a particularly useful class. I thought it was a little odd how the flavour text concerning characteristics and background really play up Devoted Evokers as having been downtrodden and tormented in their formative years, turning to evocation to fight back and avenge that torment. Surely there are other reasons why a character would want to become a highly specialized evoker?
For the next fifteen pages there are eight Prestige Classes, each matched to a discipline. They are: Arcane Architect (the energy construct discipline), Guardian Of The Flame (fire discipline), Illuminator (light), Maestro of Dissonance (sonic), Order of Akmon (force), Spark (electricity), Unmaker (acid) and Wintermage (cold). For the most part they're pretty much what you'd expect: enhancement bonuses to spells cast from your discipline, resistance to damage of your discipline's type, that kind of thing.
Next there are five new Feats: Concentrate Spell (a metamagic feat that helps punch through energy resistance), Energy Familiar, Enhanced Resistance, Evocation Library (giving you access to all spells from your discipline) and Opposed Spell (same feat as appeared in School Of Illusion).
Visual Guide to Evocations: again, as School Of Illusion had, this is a chart matching a spell's damage type to its discipline. Seems like seven pages of filler; a two-column list would have been almost as useful and taken up half the space. It doesn't help that the list finishes in the middle of a page, but the chart carries all the way down to the bottom, even though it's blank. It's in this section that some of the SRD evocation spells get retconned into the energy construct discipline, mostly the Bigby's ___ Hand series and Leomund's Tiny Hut (though Wizards IP restrictions leaves them cut down to simply __ Hand and Tiny Hut).
Now we get to Spells, there are 60 in total and they shore up a lot of gaps in the SRD core list of spells for each energy type. So a mage specialized in, say, acid now has a spell at every level to cast from the acid discipline. Predictably, a lot of them are about delivering damage of the discipline's energy type. But there are a few exceptions, including: Ride The Lightning which grants the caster a limited form of mobility (a lot of old Metallica tune titles make for good spell names)... Flamecage which lets you imprison a creature in a cell made of fire... and Mystic Tools, a nifty energy construct spell that lets you make temporary objects out of energy, from simple tools to just about anything the caster can manage with the appropriate Craft check.
New Equipment continues to follow the same pattern as School Of Illusion, offering up some evocation-themed spell foci such as chill crystals for cold, arcane oil for fire, amplifying tubules for sonic, and so on. After a one-page look at an evoker's robe, the final chapter on Magic Items provides six-and-a-half pages of various magic items, including wondrous items such as a globe of corrosive acid, and a pipe which blows bubbles that can trap creatures and objects in them. Two pages for ads and one for the OGL finish out the 64 pages.
School Of Evocation is a decent little addition to the pool of d20 resources for arcane magic, the main draw for me being the new energy construct discipline and the new spells. Those looking to expand their pool of magic that dishes out bucketloads of damage will likely get something out of the spells, while those hoping for more creative applications of energies will be more likely to be disappointed. Those who really want to get into D&D's "big four" elemental properties would also not see this book as a first choice, since fire is the only one of those really covered here. Evocation is known as the school of the flashiest and most powerful offensive spells in D&D, and School Of Evocation, outside of the one new discipline, doesn't exactly do a lot to fight against that notion. For what this book is though, I give it a very solid 3 out of 5.
