The Book of Eldritch Might III is the third sourcebook for arcane spellcasters published by Monte Cook's imprint, Malhavoc Press.
OGC Designation: Clear but "crippled" - by which I mean that the OGC designation makes effective re-use of much of the Open Content so as to reference the original work impossible. For example, the creature statistics and spell descriptions/statistics are OGC - but the names of the creatures and spells are not. This means that anyone re-using the creatures and/or spells must re-name them - which makes them nearly impossible to locate here (how will I know that what Publisher B called a "Toothy Maw" is called a "Kallendine" here? I won't). While the amount of OGC designated is quite reasonable, this little hitch is a major blot against the book (admittedly, this particular little "twist" in OGC designation is my absolute unfavorite - I'm not just annoyed by it, I completely loathe it, so I'm probably a bit biased). I agree with Jim Butler on this one - if you don't want something in a spell name (e.g., a proper name of a character) to become OGC, then CHANGE THE SPELL NAME, don't designate spell names - or the names of non-unique (by which I mean exactly one of them exists, such as the Tarrasque or the Mithril Golem from CCI) creatures - as Product Identity. Doing so is, to me, the cardinal sin for publishers and instantly is a strike against them that no amount of excellent writing, sound game mechanics, or clever ideas can recoup. Sorry. :-(
First Impressions: The OGC designation really rubbed me the wrong way (could you tell?). It's always the very first thing I go and look at when perusing a book. Well, after getting off on the wrong foot that way, the rest of the book REALLY impressed me. The visual layout is considerably different than the previous two Books of Eldritch Might, but is similar in style to more recent Malhavoc products. The style is clean and professional, and eliminates a lot of the ink-eating visuals from the previous two books in the series... but I liked the "character" of the visual layout of the earlier books. It's not that the new layout is bad - it's very good, but it just doesn't feel quite like it connects with the other books in the series. The written content, as we have come to expect from Monte, is top-notch, though. There are a ton of ideas in here, even if you aren't thrilled with the rules (though I really don't know why you wouldn't be)! If you don't want to buy this as a rules reference book, it still works as an "idea mine" from which to plunder ideas for your campaign. I was impressed from the start at the new and different ideas and locales and though I thought the book faded a little at the end, that might have been my attention span waning.
Initial Annoyances: Well, I've already mentioned the OGC designation and the visual layout "feeling wrong" for a Book of Eldritch Might. That was really about it. Most of the material here was fresh and well-presented, so I had little else to gripe about... except for the Advertisement for the upcoming Book of Hallowed Might in the back. I'm definitely not a fan of advertising of this sort within books. But I just use my version of Acrobat to expunge the page and I'm fine, so it's a really minor quibble.
Content Breakdown:
In a break from previous works in the series, this one is not broken down into chapters of the same type of crunchy stuff (e.g., a chapter for Prestige Classes, a chapter for Feats, a chapter for Spells, a chapter for Monsters, and so on), but rather into chapters based around locales. There are seven chapters in this work, one devoted to each locale. Within each chapter are presented the "Crunchy Bits" relevant to that chapter, meaning that spells, feats, and prestige classes are scattered throughout the book.
The seven locales presented are The Nexus, Bastion of the D'Stradi, The Pool of Glenmasis, Vabrin's Forge, The Vale of Stars, the Tomb of Frozen Dreams, and City Inside the Storm. Each locale (except, obviously, the Nexus itself) is presented as a destination that one can reach from the Nexus, and is also given an alternate presentation for fitting into your standard world. Each has its own theme and the choice of Feats, Spells, Prestige Classes, and other "Crunchy Bits" included with the chapter reflect the theme. I will examine each of these individually.
The Nexus (Themes: Planar Travel, Scrying) - Created by a being known only as the Wandering Architect to create a neutral ground for a pair of gods to battle, the Nexus is the "over-arching" portion of this book that ties together the other parts into one unified whole (and is thus the book is a namesake of the Nexus presented here). The Nexus is described as "a vast complex filled with chambers of gothic archways. Each archway [leads] to a different locale. Each locale [holds] great secrets of arcane power... [the complex was called] the Nexus, for it [is] the place through which all streams of magical power [flows]. No one... knows truly how big the Nexus is. It is a vast maze of round chambers, each with multiple levels—a ground floor and one to four levels of balconies that run the circumference of the room, joined by circular stairs. Each chamber has anywhere from two to a dozen archways that serve as magical gateways to other locales, as well as one to four exits that lead into other similar chambers." The Nexus, then, functions much like the series of Pools in the Chronicles of Narnia series - it is a place with scores of magical doors, all of which lead to locales/worlds unknown. It is "the world between worlds," if you will. This section contains a Feat and a few spells that deal primarily with scrying, though a couple of "planar travel" spells are thrown in (mostly to get to and from the Nexus or duplicate its effects). The spells opens up a lot of nifty options for scrying - from scry blast (a 6th-level spell which allows you to fire a bolt of force that does up to 10d4 force damage to the subject of your scrying) to scry retaliation (if you know you are being scried, this 3rd-lvel spell lets you fire a backlash of energy doing up to 10d6 damage to the scrier) to scry reverse (a 5th-level spell that makes the scried into the scrier and vice versa). A pair of minor magic items are worth mentioning - the scry beacon and the scry disruptor. The beacon makes it easier to scry on an area (think of it as a point man giving a "targeting assist") while the scry disruptor makes scrying more difficult (like a "jamming the scry signal"). The major magic item here is an artifact - Paraden, the Blade of the Nexus - that essentially allows the wielder to dimensional travel in the same manner the Nexus allows. Thus, in addition to having the Nexus itself, this chapter provides crunchy bits to spice up the currently drab process of scrying and attacking (after all, it's more fun - and safer for your villains - to have a bolt of energy to zap the character out of nowhere - repeatedly - than to have his opponent scry, teleport in, hit him with spells, and teleport out).
The Bastion of the D'Straadi (Focus: Combat) deals with a time-honored concept - the brave outpost holding back an endless army of demons streaming from a portal that cannot be closed. It introduces a few new demons and gives some ideas on tactics that demons might use in combat. Of The D'Straadi Dancer deserves a special call-out - just like hezrou and other malific foes did in previous editions, the Dancer gains special abilities by completing various dances (either alone or in groups). The D'Straadi Annihilator can gout forth energy-draining liquid (a VERY nasty ability as they can spread it around on the ground as a "trap" to drain levels and/or limit landbound combatants' mobility with the threat of energy drains). The Feats are concerned mostly with combat and with eliminating some of the collateral damage - the idea of "reverse metamagic Feats" that lower a spell's effective level has been around for some time (such as in the Netbook of Feats) but this is the first time (that I know of) that a professional d20 publisher has used the concept - Precise Touch converts an area spell into a touch spell, and lowers the spell's effective level by one (so a touch fireball is a 2nd-level spell that does 1d6 fire damage per caster level up to a maximum of 10d6 to a single target). Battle Touch lets you "hold the charge" on a touch spell for all of your iterative attacks in a single round (instead of just the first) and Deflection to Attraction "reverses" a creature's deflection bonus to AC (the target loses its deflection bonus to AC and the attacker gets a +3 bonus to hit). This may be slightly broken - it can be done once per character level per day - that can add up to a lot of uses in environments where the PCs are not under constant assault. The magic items (including new weapon and armor abilities) are very combat-oriented and the spells tend to fall under three categories, all combat-related: the damage dealing variety, the protection (either by AC bonus or anti-spell) variety, or the weapon-affecting (either enhancing or deflecting) variety. One spell that brought a smile to my face was Vicious Summons, which I think I will call "Rabid Tasmanian Devil Placed in His Trousers" IMC. This 5th-level spell summons a fiendish dire weasel (as the summon monster IV spell) but with one difference - the weasel is summoned with its teeth already sunk into the target (as though it had successfully bitten the target). Man, can I see my players freaking out! *evil grin*
The Pool of Glenmasis (Themes: Fey, Minor Magic Items, Nonviolence) is a strange area in that it is an area in which no permanent damage can be inflicted on creatures - all but forcing non-violence. This area amounts to a small bazaar where characters can find new magical trinkets and knowledge. The problem is, you have to play by the (usually highly annoying) "rules of the game" set by the fey here - they're not here to rip you off, but they are here to make you the butt of a joke! Spells in this chapter include minor spells to freshen your personal appearance, power a vehicle, copy a scroll, and so on - everything here is more of the "utility" or "annoyance" variety rather than the "big meganuke spell" stuff. Similar minor enhancements exist for weapons and armor. They are so minor, in fact, that Monte introduces the concept of +1/2 enhancements - enhancements not "good enough" to merit a full plus. My new favorite +1 enhancement? A combo of two +1/2 enhancements - Roguefriend (gives +1d6 sneak attack damage that stacks with a character's existign sneak attack damage) and Champion Detecting (tells you what foe in your line of sight has the highest CR - but not what that CR is - so you know who to run away from LOL).
Much has been said about Vabrin's Forge (Theme: Intelligent Weapons), so I'll just touch on it briefly. This chapter is the "intelligent/levelling weapons chapter." Unfortunately (in my book) this is where the vast majority of the advertised "over 90 Feats" are and they are available only to intelligent items. It's a great idea, but I really wouldn't include these in the Feat count. The rules (as we should expect from Monte's track record) really are top-notch. Intelligent items are now just as complex and detailed as PCs - and get cool abilities of their own to boot! In case you're wondering, items get a Cleric's BAB, have all good saves, and have a spell-like ability progression table out to 9th-level spells and get bonus spells based on Wisdom. It's probably the best "twist" I've seen for letting intelligent weapons advance. For advancing non-intelligent items, there are other ways to go, but this is a great way of letting items "grow" with adventurers.
The Vale of Stars (Themes: Starlight, Dragons) deals with a castle that was once a center for magical learning shared by humans and dragons. They specialized in "distilling" the essence of starlight and creating things from this semisolid stuff. Eventually, the castle's secrets were lost and powerful spells were placed upon the castle - yet still there are traces of the lost lore - in the form of Liquid Starlight, magical abilities manifesting themselves in the local inhabitants, and spells. Liquid Starlight, while mildly corrosive, can be used as a protectant for items or people. The magical abilities are represented by the Subliminal Spellcasting Feat (which allows spells to be cast with no visual effects and evidence that the spell occured - but the catch is that it takes ten times as long as normal to cast spells). The spells, a legacy of the dragons, are available only to those who take the proper Feat or who are themselves dragons. These spells tend to be a little overpowered for their level (a 2nd-level Draconic Magic spell is about the equal of a 3rd-level spell) but the "cost" of a Feat probably offsets this. A smattering of magic items, either decorated with, pertaining to, or in the likeness of dragons, round out the chapter.
The Tomb of Frozen Dreams (Themes: Lore, Knowledge, and Enchantment) is an area wherein dreams themselves are encased in ice. Dreams can be "released" into a creature who breathes on them, and when they do, have a wide variety of effects - in some ways they are like non-standard potions. Examples of "frozen dreams" that might benefit characters in this manner include the Frozen Dream of Life (allows you can create and control any creature that you have ever seen that has up to your Hit Dice) and the Frozen Dream of Love (heals you of any damage you have sustained to your mental ability scores and restores your lost levels or negative levels as a greater restoration spell). Most of the spells here deal with Cold or Enchantment/Divination stuff (as befits "frozen dreams"). Perhaps the nastiest spell is a 4th level spell, Suppress Lesser - for the duration of the spell, the target spellcaster (who must have a caster level lower than your own) cannot cast spells or use spell completion or spell-trigger magic items. She can use other magic items or spell-like abilities. Similarly, potions and magic items discussed here tend to grant abilities to their users based upon knowledge gained.
The City in the Storm (Themes: Air, Mist, Family) deals (as might be expected from the title) with creatures of air and mist, as well as with family lines and heritage. The City is inhabited by seven important families, descendants of seven heroes from the ancient past of the city. The City is surrounded by near-perpetual storm (navigable only by certain of the new creatures introduced here) and hence largely cut off from the rest of the world. Here, family, honor, and prestige are everything, and because of isolation, violence is the exception, not the rule. The City is well-suited to political intrigue. The spells either deal with creating or controlling air/mist creatures or with bloodlines. Using family ties and spells that strengthen (or weaken) and run along those lines is a classic tradition in fantasy literature that has rarely seen form in game mechanics, and is a welcome addition to the system for me.
Finally, there is a small section entitled "Supplemental Material" which gives guidelines on what spells from the various Books of Eldritch Might can be made permanent, how to convert spells presented in this work into spellsongs for the Variant Bard in the BoEM2, instructions for varying the spells presented in the BoEM3 to fit the variant spell list for the BoEM2's variant sorcerer, and an index of "stuff" in the BoEM3. Given that all the "crunchy bits" are inserted "as you go" this is excellent for helping you quickly find things. This is an excellent little addition and needed since the book was written in the "insert crunchies as you go" style.
Presentation: Visually, it is clean and nice and in the style of recent Malhavoc offerings, though different visually from the previous books in the series. The organization of material is not bad, either - I'm not sure whether I prefer my spells and feats and prestige classes to be grouped into their own chapters, or "sprinkled about" through the text as they are here. The index in the back of the book, listing all of these bits with page references is a huge plus, though - it is as close as you can come to giving one unified chapter of "Crunchy Stuff" while still interspersing the "crunch" throughout the text "as you go." I really can't complain much here.
Conclusion: A superb offering. If not for the "crippling" OGC designation, it would rate a solid five - unfortunately, part of my criteria is "reusability for other publishers" (for the casual gamer, "what value does this have in your library as far as seeing the material again elsewhere?") and the OGC designation deals it a huge blow in this regard. I just can't (or won't, depending on how you look at it) give any book with the "crippling" OGC designation a five because it severely limits reusability - there's just no reason to force others to rename your stuff! Keep the credit for yourself so others can find it in the original! It's free advertising! *Sighs* Sorry, this is just my own personal pet peeve and the only thing that is a "hard and fast" criterion - if you "cripple" your OGC, you handicap yourself in my reviews, and your grading scale goes from 1-5 down to 1-4 immediately. Sorry. I'm extremely peevish that way. It gets a high four, then - and if you don't care about OGC and just want to use this in your own campaign sessions, take this review as a five instead.
--The Sigil
December 11, 2002
