Stone Anvil Creations presents "Spell Effect Patterns: Cantrips & Orisons"

[StoneAnvil]

Stone Anvil Creations, (www.stoneanvil.com), a new d20 company, is proud to re-release its initial offering of Spell Effect Patterns (SEPs), in a package that contains all 0-lvl spells in the Dungeons & Dragons(TM) game. This product, entitled Cantrips & Orisons(TM), is comprised of 5 class sets of Spell Effect Patterns, printouts usable in miniature play that represent spell effects. Included are 12 Cleric and 13 Druid Orisons, and 12 Bard and 16 Wizard / Sorcerer Cantrips, for a total of 53 Spell Effect Patterns.

Features:

**Full-color, artistically-designed, and made for use with miniatures - cool!
**Includes SPELL CARDS for every spell, making sorting and building spell decks easy
**Color-coded – each is outlined in a color of its school of magic – a handy mnemonic device
**Made to Scale -1 inch = 5 feet, the scale for almost all D&D miniature campaigns
**Info-packed - Consult important spell information on the SEP while you use it!
**Customizable – players can cut out the patterns to best utilize them during play
**Durable - can be printed on cardstock and/or laminated for greater durability
**Markable - If laminated, can be written on using dry- or wet-erase markers.
**Spellbook Alternative – The patterns and cards can be used as an alternative to a spellbook, and in most instances, referencing the Player’s Handbook.
**SEPs include patterns for different caster levels – for example, a Ray of Frost cast by a 1st level caster is 5 inches (25 feet range), whereas the same spell cast by a 2nd-3rd caster is 6 inches (range of 30 feet).
**Each pattern has the full System Reference Document spell stat block and spell description included for your reference.

Benefits:

**Smoothes the flow of combat by presenting a visual representation, aiding the DM and players to better comprehend and remember a spell’s effects.
**Creates exciting visual spellcasting.
**Allows quicker calculation of where a spell effect happens, and who or what is affected
**Speeds play by minimizing lookups in reference books.
**Enhances the use of miniatures.

You can find it now on www.rpgnow.com.
It sells for $5.00 for all 53 patterns and spell cards.

For more information, including a FREE PREVIEW, check out the website below:

www.stoneanvil.com / Contact@stoneanvil.com

Future products include all remaining spells plus other goodies – check the website for current offerings! There is a Freebie section too!

If you are a gaming industry professional, and would like to receive the product FREE, please send an email to sacaffil@stoneanvil.com . All we ask is that you write a review in exchange for the freebie SEPs.

*** Our Buyer Policy: Once a product is purchased and registered, you will receive upgrades to the product free of charge for the life of the product. In order to make sure that you get the best product possible, we will register you in a database, and send you any upgrades to the products you've already bought. In this way, you will always have the best product we produce. Since this product is the only of its kind in the marketplace, we anticipate making improvements to it after customer playtesting and feedback.

 

[Blacksad]

I think this should be in the d20 Publisher forum, instead of d20 system Games.

Nonetheless a question, are you considering one big package with all spell-level. As it is for all 10 spell-level it would cost $50, so I think that it is way too much to price the 0-level spell paterns at $5, especially for a PDF.

 

[StoneAnvil]

Product Value

To date, the creation of Cantrips & Orisons has taken over 100+ personhours.

To create ALL spell effects and offer them for $10 is simply not worth the time invested, unless I could be guaranteed a certain number of sales.

As any d20 publisher knows, with a company of 1.5 people there has been tremendous time and energy expended on creating products. I also maintain the website, and do marketing. I'd have to charge more for the products if I hired help.

If you support SEP: Cantrips & Orisons, there will be continued creation of the SEPs to use in your game for a low price.

I understand consumers want a low-priced product, but hey! we in the d20 business work very hard to produce quality products. I'd hope that gamers would support one another. If this is a product you'd like to see developed further (especially into the higher level spell range), please make an investment in my time.
I'm not here to make a profit, just to get compensated fairly for what I'm doing in my spare time - which is filling a void out there in the market, and trying to help my fellow gamers enjoy their game.

Read our lifelong buyer policy (www.stoneanvil.com) - so far, buyers have had the opportunity for 3 upgrades to the initial release. That *IS* worth the money!!!

 

[StoneAnvil]

I'm not ruling out...

lowering the price either.

We in the gaming industry know that things get easier the more you do them.

If creation of SEPs for future products become easier, that will be reflected in the price.

Please read our lifelong Buyer policy - it's a kind of a subscription to FREE upgrades for the entire life of the product.

www.stoneanvil.com

 

[Blacksad]

Market Research?

I've looked at the preview, as I see it those paterns wouldn't help me: the most problematic part of area of effect is to know if a square which is partially covered by a circle is affected or not.

The DMG clarify some of those, but not all. The light and burning hand preview are to scale but they do not tell me which square are affected, and in the case of burning hand do not cover diagonal casting.

If you improve those, have you considered a deal with a magazine to provide a floppy or CD-rom with the spell paterns? It might allow you to reduce the big cost of the product (especially considering that dragon/dungeon magazine plans to do some spell paterns).

 

[Darkness]

I think this should be in the d20 Publisher forum, instead of d20 system Games.

That's my take on it as well.

Moved.

 

[StoneAnvil]

Area of effect uncertainty

Where did you hear that Dungeon and Dragon plan on doing some spell patterns?

As for diagonal casting, that deserves some thought. A caster can theoretically choose any angle at which to cast the spell.
Should burning hands have 12 patterns, one for each "hour" on a clock as it were? I say rotate the pattern, and make your judgment. Burning hands is one of the few spells with an anomalous area of effect, and requires a judgment no matter how the pattern is designed.

On page 69 in the DMG, the burning hands grid show the caster "between squares", which no character is theoretically allowed to be. And, apparently you may not cast it on the diagonal, or at least they don't show you how it could be done.

Some guidelines to determine whether or not something is affected could be the following:

If more than 1/2 the 5' square a character/creature resides in is covered by the effect, the character/creature *is* affected.

If less than 1/2, but at least 1/4 of the square is covered, a saving throw could be given for a spell that normally has none, and a +2 or even +4 bonus could be a circumstance bonus to the saving throw, if the spell already allows one.

If less than 1/4 of the square is covered, the character or creature is unaffected.

Those are simple, easy to remember rules for the anomalous area of effect spell like burning hands.

For other spells, the reason why a grid was not printed on the SEPs is because the caster may not choose to aim the spell that direction, rendering the grid useless as a reference point. But grids can be useful if one is sticking to only vertical/horizontal and diagonal castings.

I'll consider adding a grid to future SEPs, so gamers can have a choice of how to have their spellcasting adjucated. If GMs are limiting casting to only vertical/horizontal and diagonal castings of spells, then the existing SEPs can be implemented that way, by drawing a grid on them.

Thanks.

 

[HellHound]

Dragon included a 20 ft radius pattern, layed out in 1 inch squares instead of a circle, in issue 301.

This was epcifically a fireball pattern, but it ALSO included a list of what other spells (with 20 ft radius burst) it would work well with.

 

[EarthsShadow]

Well, when I am someday able to purchase this item from you guys I will be purchasing it. It's a great idea and its about time somebody has done it. I am sure it will be taking you a while to do most of the spells for all the spell levels, but I think it will be worth it.

Thanks.