Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010502" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Duane Nutley, Staff ReviewerSizing Up the TargetBook of Eldritch Might 3: The Nexus is the continuation of Monte Cook’s acclaimed Book of Eldritch Might series by Malhavoc Press. This review will look at the pdf version, which is 98 pages long. Available from RPGnow.com for $11.00. First BloodThis sourcebook follows on the basics of what the previous books contain – lots of new information about arcane magic, those who use it and items that can be created using it. However Book 3 sees a big departure from previous versions in that it links the book through a common theme – a place called the Nexus. The Nexus is a location that contains gateways/portals to other places. There are numerous possibilities of where to go, but the book looks at seven locations and the secrets that can be found at these places. Each chapter gives hints and suggestions on how to get a party to acquire the knowledge in the chapter as well as ways for the party to actually get there. A few adventure hooks and the associated party levels are given as well if GMs are stuck for ideas. Chapter 1 details the Nexus as well as two personages who live where the Nexus is located, both descended from the couple responsible for the Nexus to come into being. Also contains a feat, a couple of magic items, some spells relating to scrying and moving from place to place and a monster that Niveral-Sca (Mistress of Eternity) created to guard the Nexus from unwanted visitors.The second chapter is entitled Bastion of the D’Stradi, but the whole chapter does not deal solely on that subject. The people of Inshabiv have grown warlike in battling a demon horde. So the chapter provides a couple of feats, a number of spells that are more battle inclined and effective against demons, as well as magic items. The demons have created three new demons to counteract against the effectiveness of their opponents in their base of operations, a world they conquered on their warpath of conquest. The magic item I like the best is Devlin’s Ring and is the single most needed magic items for an Arcane Archer.The Pool of Glenmasis, Chapter 3, is an interesting locale and one a GM can play to their advantage if they plan accordingly. The locale is a magical pool in a glade of a forest that many creatures use as a meeting place. The glade is a good place for this as anyone who enters within 100 yards of the pool suffers no lethal damage. This makes it a good place for those of normally different outlooks can meet and negotiate in peace. The pool is a favourite for merchants, especially fey merchants and those wishing to buy magic items or spells at a safe place. This is an excellent place to introduce players to the vagaries of trusting fey at bargaining. A number of new minor magic items are provided here. By minor, I do mean the majority are minor in magic. A number of new armor types are provided and the majority of them are valued at + ½ enhancement bonus. So a suit of armor usually has 2 of these to bring it up to the normal +1 enhancement. More spells are detailed here, the majority of which are useful spells below 3rd level.Chapter 4 is an excellent source of information for GMs looking for intelligent item creation rules. The creator of these items is a twist in himself as well and might prove an interesting encounter for players hearing about the arcanist who creates interesting intelligent magic items. I won’t give away the secret here as players might be reading this review and this will spoil it for the GM. In Vabrin’s Forge, Monte Cook provides well detailed instructions on creating intelligent magic items. Basically he treats them as a class with levels. They gain new spell-like abilities and feats as they gain levels. An item gains levels by the original creator or current owner divesting themselves of experience points and the item gaining these points. A whopping 35 feats are available for items to take. Players may love knowing that Vabrin takes no money for his creations, but they may not like what he takes instead. As well as the intelligent item creation, there are a couple of feats and spells relating to or affecting items.Those who have read Dragon 308 know that this sourcebook contains information on Dragon Magic. Chapter 5, The Vale of Stars, contains this information in an oblique way. The main thrust of this chapter is liquid starlight and its properties. The Dragon Magic is provided if the GM allows the players limited access to Castle Arthanath or by finding a scroll with a spell elsewhere in the campaign world. It is possible to learn Dragon Magic by first learning the feat Dragon Magic. The locale contains a village in which the inhabitants cast magic without even knowing it. This has helped them fend off slavers, intent on enslaving all in the area to mine liquid starlight. Information is provided on this subliminal spellcasting as well as the only prestige class in the sourcebook – the Starlight Mage. The majority of spells in this chapter relate to Dragon Magic, but there are a couple of spells that Starlight Mages know.The Tomb of Frozen Dreams, Chapter 6, contains lots of new spells for arcane lovers. A cabal of wizards reside in the frozen depths here and love their isolation (GMs take note of this as it may prove interesting to see how players overcome this resistance to learn the secrets within). The area gets its name from the fact that nurmerous dreams are frozen in place within the locale. If a certain dream is unfrozen, its secrets can be learnt by the one breathing in the dream. The secret can be an actual memory from the person or the player may gain some new game mechanic that are outlined in the chapter.The last chapter, entitled City in the Storm, is just that – a city, Sanneth, located in the midst of an eternal storm. This provides the best opportunity in giving players the thrill of flying in the middle of a storm. The city does have its problems however, in the form of a new creature, the Thunderkin, a medium sized snake with wings and electricity flowing through its veins, that threatens them constently. The inhabitants use flying creatures called Sohr, envision blind whales with wings, to move around outside of their city. The main benefit of players journeying to Sanneth is for the magical elemental swords that one of the houses is capable of creating, for learning how to make creatures of the mist or for spells relating to families or creatures of the mist.Overall this sourcebook is great if you like new arcane information. The Introduction states that there are 111 spells, 45 feats and 97 different magic items and looking through each chapter, I would believe it! There is an index at the end that lists where to find all the feats, spells and magic items by page number. The only feats not included are the item feats and these aren’t useable by players anyway. The appendix before this is useful for knowing which spells can be permanized and for what cost, from all three Books of Eldricth Might, which spells can be made into spell songs and finally which spells from this tome can be added, removed or adjusted to the variant sorcerer spell list for those that use the variant sorcerer from Book of Eldritch Might 2. The spells are a good mix depending on what type of magic a person focuses on – scrying, battle, mischevious, utilitarian, etc.In all Monte has outdone himself in relation to his previous Books of Eldritch Might. Not only do readers get the arcane goodness they are looking for, but also locales that can become part of an adventure or campaign that their players can go to and experience. Each locale is different – from the war-ravaged world of Inshabiv, the tranquility of the Pool of Glenmasis, the icy depths of the Tomb of Frozen Dreams or to the lofty heights of the City of Storms – players can experience it all.Critical HitsBy linking everything together is a great improvement over previous editions. It is just not a book with crunchy bits, but a sourcebook that can give GMs ideas through the flavour text as well. More spells are always welcome, especially ones I can use as a player.I don’t think I have ever mentioned it before when reviewing a pdf from Malhavoc Press, but each pdf has always been bookmarked and this is definitely a plus when looking for specific information.Critical MissesI didn’t think the artwork was a good as other sourcebooks by Monte Cook. This may not be a big thing for some people, but while reading each page I noticed that my eyes were not focussed on the words but occasionally by the art because it wasn’t to my taste.It is hard to understand what is Product Identity and OGL when reading the disclaimer at the bottom of the Title page. So I am unsure if I can use Dragon Magic or the rules on creating intelligent magic items in an article I am thinking of writing. Earlier editions stated quite explicitly Chapter x is Product Identity or OGL, where as this one is convoluted to understand.Coup de GraceOnce again Monte has written a top notch sourcebook on arcane magic. I sometimes wonder where he gets all these great ideas for spells or magic items, but no matter how much I wonder I just hope he keeps it up. Book of Eldritch Might 3: The Nexus is full of ideas for GMs as well providing new and interesting arcane goodness.To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=454&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

Verification