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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kingpaul" data-source="post: 2008841" data-attributes="member: 1477">I was one of those anxiously awaiting this product.  I thoroughly enjoyed, but could not quite give it 5 stars...if there were half-stars, it would have received a 4.5.  Alas, I did not find it warranted a 5, so gave it a 4.  Overall, I thought the book was well laid out, both organizationally and aestetically.  The artwork was the best I've seen in a PDF publication; I hope Monte continues to use those artists.Chapter 1: Alternate classesThis chapter dealt with Monte's  variations on the Bard and Sorcerer class.  I loved the Bard re-write.  It now is focused much  ore on music, and their spells are also musically oriented, and are called spellsongs.  The bardic spells are broken into 3 levels: spellnotes, spellchords and spellmelodies.  The interesting twist on this is that 5 spellnotes make a spellchord and 3 spellchords make a spellmelody, meaning the Bard can swap out numerous lesser spellsongs for greater, or vice versa.  My only gripe here is the Music domain that was included...its granted power gives +1 caster level on all spells with a verbal componenet, which, if I'm not mistaken, is all spells.The sorcerer did not see much of a change.  The hit die went up by 1 increment, spells known increased somewhat, spells/day stayed the same, skill points went up by 2, got Diplomacy and Gather Information as class skills and the spell list was trimmed down a bit to reflect the fact that they aren't as "bookish" as the wizard is.  Personally, I would have liked to see the stat the casting is based off of moved to CON instead of CHA, but that's just me.  All in all, not much of a change.Chapter 2: FeatsThis was interesting collection of feats ten in all.  Five of the feats can be solely used by the variant Bard, as they enhance their spellsong capabilities.  Four were Eldritch feats, which require high stat scores to use.  The last one gave the ability to create Soul Magic spells, but more on this later.Chapter 3: Prestige classesDiplomancer - a skilled diplomat who uses their abilities and enchantment spells in their role as a diplomatEldritch Warrior - a different type of arcane warrior.  This PrC does not cast spells as others do, but instead has spell-like abilitiesKnight of the Chord - another arcane warrior type, but geared to the Bard variantSong Mage - this PrC reminds of the Loremaster from the DMG, but geared towards the variant Bard.  As such, they use music to enhance their abilities, for the believe that music lies at the heart of creation.Chapter 4: Soul MagicThis was a very interesting chapter, based on an intriguing concept...sentient spells.  Creation of these spells takes something out of the caster, like all item creation.  However, the caster can not use the spell they've created.  The example that I liked the most out of this was an outsider who was impriosoned, and created one of these sentient spells to get the next arcanist who passes to cast the spell, thereby freeing them.  These spells take time, gold and XP to create.  I can't wait to spring this on my players.Chapter 5: SpellsongsThis chapter is devoted to building out the variant Bard's available spellsongs.Chapter 6: SpellsLike BoEM, this book has brand new spells.  I won't go into detail on all the spells that were here, but I did enjoy the chapter.  My favorite spells were Gestalt (merging two creatures into one being for a time) and Squamous Pulse (reduces natural armor of target by half and inflicts a d6/point of natural armor that the target had).Chapter 7: Magic ItemsBy far, magic items are my favorite thing, and the first I look at.  Monte presents new types of abilities to imbue weapons and armor with.  The favorite for any warrior/mage would be armor of Superior Spellcasting, which reduces the arcane spell failure to 0.  However, this armor requires a wish as a prereq, so it ain't gonna be cheap!  For the Bard, there is the Harp Bow.  Not only is it a harp, but it doubles as a +1 shortbow.  Monte introduces a new type of AC bonus, insight, with his Helm of Alacrity.  For those min/maxers, you now can get an AC bonus of 28  (+8 armor, +5 luck, +5 deflection, +5 natural armor and +5 insight) off of 1 piece of magical equipment.Chapter 8: MonstersFour new monsters are included: 2 different arcane angles, an eye golem and the unholy riven.  The arcane angels were once members of the celestial court, but exiled themselves when they began to pursue arcane knowledge.  The eye golem is a construct that doesn't move, created to be a guardian.  The unholy riven was once a goodly-aligned arcane spellcaster who used magic to evil ends.  The shift caused them to turn to the unholy riven, a creature that feeds off of magic.  Protect your magic items and spellcasters when these are about.OGC contentNormally, I don't have much to comment on when people mark their items as OGC, PI or plain copyright.  However, there is one thing that bugs me in this book.  All feats were declared open, yet the Soul Magic chapter is closed.  How you are to use an open feat when what it does is closed is beyond me.</blockquote>

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