Fantasy Flight Games has yet to disappoint me, Spells & Spellcraft is all Kap says. It is a beautiful product, well balanced and a lot of information that is useful.
SPELLS & SPELLCRAFT: The Greatest d20 Rulebook? YES!!!
- Thread starter Kaptain_Kantrip
- Start date
Kaptain_Kantrip
First Post
d20Dwarf said:I just thought I'd say that this review means a lot to me, especially since the good Kaptain said he would never buy anything with my name on it again.
Oops! Never say never, eh?. I did go back and remove that bit from my Skraag rant after I realized you had done other things, LOL. Saying "never" was an overreaction on my part due to the extreme disappointment I had in the product. But I still had no clue you were head honcho at FFG... The writing itself wasn't bad, it was just that it didn't fulfill the perceived promise I saw in the cover--to give me a detailed orc city to run or base adventures in. I was expecting something like a smaller, more insane (land-locked) version of Freeport by orcs, for orcs, loaded with locations and NPCs. It really should have been tweaked a bit and called The Slayer's Guide To Orcs. Then it wouldn't have been such a let-down to me (and I probably wouldn't have bought it as the Slayer's Guides aren't very helpful).
Even so, Spells & Spellcraft is the first of your HC books I've bought. The others simply didn't do it for me (though I commend FFG on its extremely high production values and writing)--Traps & Treachery had too much focus on bizarre, expensive traps (already have Grimtooth's Traps, LOL, and my players hate me for it--adding more from T&T would probably get me killed!) and not enough focus on criminal organizations. Underwater adventures and new races don't do anything for me, either...
But Spells & Spellcraft--while not "perfect" (what ever is?) is just about the best damn book I've ever seen for D&D. Most of the spells weren't that cool, but they really weren't the focus of the book. Expanding the horizons of spellcasting classes in new and creative ways was. And in that, Spells & Spellcraft--to me--is practially indispensable. The book spurs the imagination and takes the game in new and exciting directions. Sure, some of the rules could have (should have) been more detailed (frex: how do you create place magic? XP, GP, caster level, prerequisites, time--what and how much?).
The constructs/golems, "small gods," glyph eggs (magic grenades), familiars, bard/sorcerer variants and feats, libraries, alchemy... these were all golden crunchy goodness. With a bit of extrapolation on the DM and player's parts, the animist cleric variant easily does away with the need for buying Shaman supplements from other companies--the small gods section does a similar job at removing the need to buy Deities & Demigods or Upper Krust's (forthcoming in the year 2227 AD) Worshipper Points System.
I like this. Spells & Spellcraft saves me money by combining juicy aspects of these other books into one low-priced alternative. I'm not buying D&DG now. I'm probably not buying Green Ronin's Shaman book now. FFG saved me $50 (with tax), LOL. The small gods system CAN work for divine ascension--and is much more useful for a wider number of situations and cosmologies than nearly the same number of pages that D&DG devotes to it, IMO. I picked up maybe three of your Legends & Lairs mini-modules before--just for the amazing maps--the writing in most mini-modules (regardless of publisher is usually useless to me), but balk at the $3.99 price tag when AEG (much improved) mini-modules are $1 cheaper. I would say that yours are frequently superior in production quality (at least before AEG got is act together on this series). I bought FFG's Raven Mine (mansion map!), Hidden Vault (dwarven mine) and Fifth Sepulchre (multi-level royal crypts). I used literally NONE of the adventure as written, but the gorgeous maps fueled my imagination and the adventures I ran off them were successful as a result. I would dearly love a book of gorgeous maps (unpopulated but furnished and keyed rooms, perhaps--or maybe just the maps). I bought Atlas' BACKDROPS and was pleased with it, as well as Dark Furies' floorplans pdfs.
Anyway, great job on Spells & Spellcraft!
Kaptain_Kantrip
First Post
Re: Re: Bah, spam
It could work for sinister modern cults! Spells & Spellcraft could also be useful for Call of Cthulhu! Ai, ai, ai or rather, I should say: Ia! Ia! Ia!
hong said:
It could work for sinister modern cults! Spells & Spellcraft could also be useful for Call of Cthulhu! Ai, ai, ai or rather, I should say: Ia! Ia! Ia!
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
Well I'll buy from Krusty cause he's my mate AND he knows me too well. Well that and he's always willing to critique my work when I get an idea. So while I'm happy with what I've read from Spells and Spellcraft, I don't think it will stop me from purchasing MORE stuff from others. Course you know Will, I'm getting Wilderness and Wastelands, but with you having worked on it, SHOULD be even better than I thought or could imagine.
Well that and he's always willing to critique my work when I get an idea. So while I'm happy with what I've read from Spells and Spellcraft, I don't think it will stop me from purchasing MORE stuff from others. Course you know Will, I'm getting Wilderness and Wastelands, but with you having worked on it, SHOULD be even better than I thought or could imagine.Lady Dragon
First Post
Just finished reading spells and spellcraft great bookI got it and deities and demigods on friday sorry I had to read deities first.
The spells are interesting but the rest of the book is everything a spellcaster needs to enhance play.This book expands upon rather than changing the rules or adding strange new ones.This material really belongs in the game.Its the best non-WoTC book since Rokugan and a s useful as Relics and rituals.
The spells are interesting but the rest of the book is everything a spellcaster needs to enhance play.This book expands upon rather than changing the rules or adding strange new ones.This material really belongs in the game.Its the best non-WoTC book since Rokugan and a s useful as Relics and rituals.
Lady Dragon
First Post
The rituals in R&R are about 3 or more casters casting a powerful spell together.In S&S It is about a high level caster and lower level assisants performing extremely complicated and time consuming spells with multiple steps such as dancing and or timing to phases of the moon.So yes a think these two books could be used together if you wanted to make the spells in R&R even harder to cast.There are some definate similarities.
Upper_Krust
Legend
Hi Kaptain!
I appreciate the disdain!
Kaptain_Kantrip said:the small gods section does a similar job at removing the need to buy Deities & Demigods or Upper Krust's (forthcoming in the year 2227 AD) Worshipper Points System.
I appreciate the disdain!
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