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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 2009724" data-attributes="member: 2013">The Book of Eldritch Might II is  the second sourcebook for arcane spellcasters published by Monte Cook's imprint, Malhavoc Press. OGC Designation: Pretty good.  I criticized the designation in the BoEM I but this one is much more clear, delineating certain sections and/or chapters as OGC.  The OGC designation seems to cover about 1/3 of the book.First Impressions: After the runaway hit Book of Eldritch Magic, what could Monte do for an encore?  Well, how about re-design two of the three major arcane spellcasting classes?  How about a few more Feats and Prestige Classes (staples of any new supplement, it seems)?  These were hit and miss.  I really enjoyed the section on Soul Magic - just as the One Ring "wants to be found," we have spells that "want to be cast."  This can be a really cool and insidious and a bit spooky addition to a campaign.  It ws probably my favorite section in the book.  The major reason to get this book if you're looking for new ideas are for the alternate sorcerer and the Soul Magic sections - the remainder is simply more Feats, Prestige Classes, Spell, Magic Items, and Monsters (not necessarily bad, but dangerous because just about everyone else does these too).Initial Annoyances: The variant bard.  While Monte made some ingenious rules changes for the bard (I liked the concept of spellsongs), I have to agree with Psion - in the final analysis, the variant basically reshuffles the bard's abilities but adds very little to them - and in wrapping the abilities into three levels of music (instead of seven spell levels), it's hard to strike a balance where lower-level bards aren't as powerful as slightly higher level bards because with just three "power levels" it takes a lot more time to get the ability to acquire "higher power" stuff from the "next level up."  Granularity is important to separate power levels and the variant bard does not have granularity.  OTOH, it does make it MUCH easier to have multiple bards cooperating to produce effects.Content Breakdown: Right from the start, the BoEM2 gets the new variant classes out of the way.  The bard and the sorcerer are re-vamped here.  Bards lose their spells and their bardic music ability but instead have spellsongs - these are split into three varieties: spellnotes, spellchords, and spellmelodies.  They do get 6 skill points per level and a few extra abilities (such as Evasion and Improved Evasion), but on the whole, I worry that this bard may be even weaker (that's right, weaker) than the PHB bard.  By tying all of the bard's abilities to spellsongs, and by noting that a silence spell is like an anti-magic field to spellsongs, Monte presents us with a bard that can be crippled with one low-level spell (silence).  At least the "old" bard could use some of his spells (with the Silent Spell Feat) in such a predicament.  OTOH, this bard is more flexible, able to split a spellchord into spellnotes or combine spellnotes into a spellchord.  Furthermore, multiple bards can each contribute a spellnote or two to cast a spellchord, making cooperative casting among new bards easy.  Ultimately, though, the bard just gets his abilities reorganized without getting anything brand new.  I had hoped for much better - this was disappointing.The variant sorcerer, on the other hand, was a much better treatment - sorcerers get their spells known and spell slots reorganized to allow them to gain new levels of spells at the same time as their wizardly counterparts (rather than a level later).  However, the sorcerer also gets a revised spell list to reflect their "on the fly" flexibility and combat utility compared to a wizard.  Some spells are shed entirely (mostly of the slow diviniation variety).  The spell list is similar to the original sorcerer, but with enough differences to be worth a look.  This may not be terribly original, but it is a good idea in that it recognizes some of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the sorcerer's spontaneous casting method and attempts to correct abuses.  The downside is that the sorcer becomes more of a "combat mage" and loses considerable flexibility.Chapter two brings us more Feats - ten, to be exact.  Five of these are feats to enhance spellsongs, four are Eldritch (Metamagic) Feats, and one is an Item Creation Feat.  The spellsong feats are essentially metamagic Feats applied to the spellsong mechanic for new bards.  The Eldritch Feats tend to deal with dispels - one (Lace Spell: Resistant) makes it harder to dispel a spell you cast, one (Spellripper) essentially grants a free use of "dispel magic" against spells on any target hit by an offensive spell, and one (Unravel) is a lesser version of spellripper that shuts down a spell your opponent may have during the instant the spell hits before restoring it (e.g., hitting a target under the influence of the Protection from Elements: Fire spell with an Unravel-Laced fireball means the target is affected as though he does not have the Protection from Elements spell going when hit, though the spell otherwise continues to function normally).  The Item Creation Feat, Create Soul Magic Spell, allows you to (surprise) create Soul Magic Spells (see below for more information).Chapter three brings us a serving of prestige classes - the diplomancer, the eldritch warrior, the knight of the chord, and the song mage.  The diplomancer's powers revolve around subtle persuasiveness and grant bonuses to enchantment and language-dependent spells they use, while providing them with some immunity from "flashy" evocation effects.  The eldritch warrior's powers center around casting spells through his weapons and magically enhancing his weapons and armor, granting them bonuses in combat - a fighter/sorcerer combination.  The knight of the chord focuses more on using bardic abilities through his weapons and armor and is a hybrid fighter/bard.  The song mage was, I felt, the coolest of the classes, and basically provides a bard with many new options relative to song and sound - things like "song as sustenance" where the song mage can mitigate the need for food bring a new dimension to the bard-ish classes.Chapter four was the highlight for me - Soul Magic.  Simply put, these are scrolls (not always found on scrolls, necessarily, but can be found in runes, symbols, and other such things) that WANT to be cast - and force a spellcaster who sees them to cast them (not always with control of the effects, but at no cost to the caster).  I won't spoil it by going further - suffice to say that it can be really Cthulhu-esque for the party to be adventuring and come across strange writings - and as the sorcerer studies the writings, he begins chanting an incantation against his will, his eyes wide open as great power courses through him to cause an effect far beyond his own capabilities.Spellsongs are next - basically, these are spells changed slightly in format for the variant bard.    This is followed up by some new spells for sorcerers - I liked Disintegration Field (finally, a spell that allows me to create a perfect garbage disposal by disintegrating everything that enters an area).  Gestalt, which fuses two creatures together, is a very interesting spell, but could cause some logistical nightmares if used on PCs - all the more reason to use it!  Knavescour, which protects items by hitting anyone who touches them without permission with a blast of acid, is a nasty one.  Loved it.  There are some less than great spells, though.  The various "Call of" spells struck me as rather, well, blah.  These force a creature to steal the nearest item or to go home or come to you - with an unlimited range, I'm seriously concernted about balance here.  I wasn't thrilled with Animate Necrosis either - you animate the dead tissue in the wound of a living creature so it forms a tendril and attacks them, attempting to strangle them? It's just not my thing.  Squamous Pulse (reduces a creature's natural Armor Bonus by half and deals a number of d6 in damage equal to its natural armor bonus to the creature) also struck me as quite broken without a costly material component or XP component.  It is particularly silly to envision against constructs and the like, since it is supposed to cause a creature's hide to burst and hemmorrhage - I just don't see a construct doing that.We get a chapter devoted to magic items - while these are all solid, (and includes the seemingly mandatory "harp-bow" for bards), most of these are not too inspiring to me.  In the artifacts section, we are introduced to the book's namesake, the Book of Eldritch Might.  This artifact is a great boon to arcane spellcasters (wizards more than sorcerers), as it can magically copy random spells into spellbooks.  In addition, studying it can provide a +4 insight bonus on Knowledge (arcane) and Spellcraft checks... and it can be used to duplicate a Bard's Knowledge ability (albeit with some coaxing in the form of a Diplomacy check).Finally, a short "throw-in" of celestials dedicated to magic (more so than law or goodness) is added, along with the Eye Golem (an eye-on-a-stick) and Unholy Riven (a magic-eating creature).  The celestials seemed out of place - these are supposed to be the embodiments of goodness, not of magic!  They needed a different name.Presentation: Much improved from the BoEM - the graphics continue to be good, the layout is nice, and many of the problems I had with the BoEM are fixed in the BoEM2.  It makes use of the PDF Bookmarking feature, Chapters are well-organized, and the book has a better-organized feel to it.Conclusion: It's good but not superb.  While the sorcerer was a welcome re-write, the bard was less so.  I do have a little bit of a problem that so much of the book (including the spellsongs) were simply re-writes of existing material (bardic spells and abilities put into different terms).  The section of Soul Magic was excellent.  The creatures and magic items were nothing special.  Outside of the spells mentioned above, the spells are excellent, a notch above the BoEM.  It's a solid book, even with some of the weak points discussed.  Because of the great amount of rewriting rather than contribution of original material, I knocked it down a peg - the original material is a high 4.  I wavered about whether to give this a high 3 or a low 4, but I think it deserves a low 4.--The Sigil November 22, 2002</blockquote>

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