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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 2009556" data-attributes="member: 2013">Spells & Spellcraft is something of a "generalist" book that deals with magic (mostly arcane magic) in the d20 system, published by Fantasy Flight Games.Percent of OGC: Around 50% (scattered throughout the book, and there is a considerable amount of rules-crunchy stuff in here)First Impressions: This book covers a ton of ground.  There are (of course) new spells, but the book goes farther than that.  It adds a lot of tools to the spellcaster's toolbox (well, to wizards and sorcerers anyway), but does not detail these tools particularly well.  While the scope of the book is rather broad, the treatment of each individual subject is usually rather shallow, something that I must admit disappointed me.  I feel that would have been better to go into more depth on each topic and either expand the book or split it into two rather than try to cram as many ideas as possible into a single book.  That said, I found that the ideas that were well-developed were almost always very good.Initial Annoyances:  In addition to the uneven depth at which material is covered, I had the vague impression that there was a lot of white space in the book.  Furthermore, the material smacked of being created by several authors independently and was not well-integrated (some portions of the book seemed to cover the same ground in different ways).  Finally, the lack of an index was somewhat annoying.Chapter Breakdown:Chapter 1 is simply a collection of spells, mostly for wizards/sorcerers, but with a few spells for other classes mixed in.  The spells run the gamut from "high-explosive" combat spells to "role-play-conducive" utility spells.  Nothing stuck out immediately as terribly unbalanced except for "pulsing fireball" (which did set off balance alarms in my head - think of a fireball that bursts... then bursts again with less power the following round... then bursts again with even less power... you get the idea), and there weren't any spells that knocked my socks off for originality, but there were definitely some good twists presented.  My favorite was "disruption missile" - a spell that uses positive energy to blast undead creatures.  A nice counterpoint to necromancy spells, IMO.Chapter 2 begins presenting alternate rules for spellcasters.  While most of these were nice and were welcome additions to the system, I couldn't help feeling that this was one of the "shallower" chapters in the book - by which I mean not that the concepts were bad or vapid, but rather that the concepts presented were not explored in nearly the detail they should have been.  The classification of libraries, laboratories, and so forth was nice, but I felt it deserved a little more detail than it got.  Granted, I didn't expect the level of detail found in Ink & Quill, but the rules in this section were sparse at best.  I found "taint and tune" to be almost a complete waste of time... except for the sorcerous "Bloodburn" feat, it's just a "bonus here" with a "penalty there" system.  Nothing really groundbreaking there and, unfortunately, rife for abuse in the hands of the wrong players.  Variants for the bard (such as a juggler) seem to have been added as an afterthought and took me back to the silliness of the Complete Bard's Handbook wherein a bard's abilities could be done through "juggling" or worse (thankfully this book didn't reprise this one) "exceedingly flashy use of weapons."  Come on.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but for me, Bard does not equal "any kind of Entertainer" - rather, Bard equals the classic fantasy archetype of "Minstrel" - someone who uses music and song and a great knowledge of the world to affect people and who truly is a jack of all trades.  Someone who specializes in Performances relying upon manual dexterity (such as juggling) is called an Expert with a Skill Focus in Profession: Juggler.  But I digress.  Finally, there is sthe section on "ceremonies and rituals."  Since Psion put it much better than I can, I hope he won't mind me quoting him... "The game effect of ceremonies seem vague at best, and I don't feel that the ceremonies and rituals dovetail neatly with the system in the same way that the rituals in Relics & Rituals do."  Amen to that.Chapter 3 discusses new types of magic.  Thumbs up to the section on Wards - basically, areas keyed to an item that can be used to activate spells in the area.  More importantly, weaker spells can be activated by non-spellcasters (e.g., a guard could use something like "detect magic" or "detect invisibility" at a city gate).  While Wards are only useful for high-fantasy settings, it struck me that this was the ideal way for political leaders in a fantasy world to harness the magical resources of resident wizards on a full-time basis - while not inconveniencing the wizard himself with full-time work.  I would imagine that most wizards would be amenable to constructing a ward that lets the city watch throw "detect magic" spells and stop by every month to recharge it rather than be stuck sitting in the barracks with a bunch of unwashed and unkempt and uneducated city guardsmen so that he can cast detect magic in person when needed.  Thumbs up to the section on "local" gods - powerful creatures that are worshipped but are not themselves divine.  This makes a wonderful way to implement cults - especially those based around a powerful creature such as a dragon or a powerful fey - by providing a means for clerics of the "cult" to receive spells without having to rationalize which "real" deity is providing those spells.  Thumbs down to the section on Cooperative Magic, which is clunkier than the rules in the earlier publication Relics & Rituals (though I thought the R&R rules were a bit underpowered myself).  Thumbs down on the Theurgist, too - theurgists get their domain spell list expanded (to any domain) but lack domain abilities.  I felt this could be abused and makes the class feel more like a "cleric who would like to be a wizard in armor."  It just didn't suit my tastes at all.  "Place magic" was a nice touch but not all that exciting - it seemed to quantify rules that most DM's would have already Rule 0'd - not exciting, but a slight thumbs up for quantifying things.  I am still undecided about Animists but leaning towards thumbs down... I have a certain dislike of systems that add MORE points to keep track of... between attack bonuses and hit points and spell slots and so on there's already plenty to keep track of in D&D.  Make things drain something that's already in the system, don't add ANOTHER system.Chapter 4 presents more things that a spellcaster can add to his bag of tricks.  This, to me, was the highlight of the book.  A few alchemical items are presented (I liked the treatment of these, for what it's worth - both "game effects" and "background/flavor text" were provided to help show how these items fit into high fantasy) and gives some good rules-crunchy stuff to make "practical alchemy" a little more quantifiable.  The rules are not quite as detailed as Alchemy & Herbalists, but again, I don't expect that level of detail, as A&H is entirely focused on that one single area.  There is a section on building constructs - which I feel was the "weakest link" in this chapter, as it is the least detailed and I found that Mongoose's "Constructs," released at about the same time, was better-suited to the "Build-A-Construct" concept.  There just wasn't enough detail given to constructs here to make the system really "live."  The "magical materials" section was one that I felt really could have been combined with the alchemy stuff or the magical items in the next section, but the presentation *was* solid.  My favorite of these was "wraithspoor" - the "ectoplasmic remains" (my term) that occasionally remain when a wraith is killed can be worked into steel to give an otherwise nonmagical weapon the "ghost touch" property.  Great synthesis of flavor text and game mechanics there.  However, the crown jewel in this section - at least in my opinion - was the section on enhancing a spellcaster's familiar.  By spending XP, a wizard/sorcerer can grant his familiar certain abilities - from Energy Resistance to Flying to Fast Healing - and some of these can be shared with the master if the familiar is within five feet.  I probably could have done without the "Cute" special quality, though (Will save to attack the familiar because, "aw, it's sooooo cute").  Familiars often seem to be seen as "tagalongs" and easy targets if you want to seriously screw a spellcaster.  With these rules, the familiar can become a far more potent and important ally to a spellcaster (especially that familiar that shares its Fast Healing: 1 ability).  Suddenly, familiars are no longer the toad you drag with you for that extra 1 hp per level.  A great addition to the system!  Introducing new types of familiars (parasites - like a leech - and undead familiars) and discussing how people react to familiars (especially the new, "disgusting" ones) is a nice touch, too.Chapter 5 is the requisite section on magic items.  It introduces glyph eggs, which are essentially grenades that throw spells.  Basically, "thrown potions with area effects."  Personal Growth Items are items that "level" with the character.  I am not too thrilled with the rules on this one - I thought the "Levelled Items" mechanics presented in Dragon Magazine (can't recall which issue) were cleaner and better-balanced.  (Of course, both of these systems are adaptations of the Earthdawn system, but that's another discussion entirely).  Of a similar vein are "relics" which are essentially experience-point-activated items that can only be used by those of a certain alignment/faith.  I liked this idea a little bit better... the item that only the truly faithful and truly magnificent (read: with XP to burn) can wield effectively.  To wrap up, the book introduces new magic items.  I still think the "magical materials" should have been placed here, but I guess that's just me.Presentation:  Presentation is nice - this is an attractive, slick hardback, with decent-to-slightly-above-average artwork inside.  I couldn't get the vague feeling that there was an excess of white space out of my head, though, which is especially disappointing considering I felt that a lot of these ideas could go from "fair" to "fantastic" with a little more treatment.Conclusion: This is definitely a mixed bag.  But it's a BIG mixed bag, meaning there is a lot of good stuff to find in here.  Because there is so much, it will not compete with a "specialty" product if you are looking only for a certain subject (e.g., its treatment of Constructs is not as good as Mongoose's "Constructs" book and its treatment of Alchemy is nowhere near that found in "Alchemy & Herbalists") but that's to be expected.  If you are looking for a product that can be used in a lot of different ways, this is probably a good one for you.  There probably should have been more depth in many places, but across the board nothing stuck out as horrible.  If you have the money and/or shelf space for a generalist book of ideas relating to d20 magic that don't require a lot of work to integrate into a campaign, this is a worthy addition to your bookshelf.  If you're looking to bolster your familiar, get this book at once.  If you want rather detailed or rather radical departures from the basic d20 rules, this supplement probably isn't for you.  It gets a rating of "average."  It has a few REALLY good points, but they aren't enough to lift it above the overall feel of "solid, but unspectacular."  And IMO, the "solid, but unspectacular" product is the definition of average.  That said, I can't say I'm unhappy with my purchase.  It's one of the best "average" books out there and is on the absolute borderline of "good."--The SigilOct. 11, 2002</blockquote>

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