The Quintessential Sorcerer
By Patrick Younts
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 4017
128 pages, $21.95
After having enjoyed
The Quintessential Drow, I decided to try a couple other books in this series. I had read on various messageboards that
The Quintessential Sorcerer was regarded as a good book in the line, so I thought I'd give that one a read. After having finished reading it, I have to say
The Quintessential Sorcerer is one of the absolute best and one of the absolute worst RPG books I've ever read.
That statement certainly requires some explanation. Without a doubt, looking solely at the sorcerous concepts in the book,
The Quintessential Sorcerer does a fantastic job, one of the best jobs I've ever seen as far as delivering what it promises to do, in spades. On this basis alone, I would certainly rate it a "5 (Superb)." If that's all you're concerned about, then consider
The Quintessential Sorcerer to be a 5-star book and pick it up immediately.
On the other hand, after only one read-through, the cover has come off of my book. This was by no means a fluke, either, as I have heard numerous other people complaining about the same thing. (I knew about the glue-binding problem even before I got
The Quintessential Sorcerer, so I can't really complain about it as much as I could had it happened to me out of the blue. At least I knew what I was getting going in.) I don't know what the problem is here, whether it was just a bad batch of glue or somebody at the bookbinding factory (I hope my ignorance at how these things are produced isn't showing
too badly here) was just screwing around on the job, but I hope Mongoose traces down the problem and precludes its reoccurrence. On this basis,
The Quintessential Sorcerer deserves a "2 (Poor)."
Finally, and I don't want to harp upon this too badly up front, but
The Quintessential Sorcerer has the absolutely worst record of any RPG product I've ever read as far as the quality of the proofreading and editing goes. On the plus side, you can figure everything out yourself with very little (or no) effort. On the down side, if you're an English teacher this book will probably drive you nuts. I'll go into specifics at the end of the review (and feel free to ignore that section), but I'd give
The Quintessential Sorcerer a "1 (Appalling)" rating based solely on its editing and proofreading (or noted lack thereof).
Throw it all together, and what do you get? That's up to you, no doubt; in my opinion, the excellent concepts throughout the entire book give it a very high "4 (Good)" despite its numerous editing flaws and poor bookbinding.
Time to go into specifics. Here's the layout of
The Quintessential Sorcerer:
- Introduction: explaining the "Collector Series" and what you'll find in this book
- Character Concepts: 11 character ideas (2 of which are racially-based), each granting the sorcerer an advantage and disadvantage, plus rules for starting your sorcerer out at a younger-than-normal age
- The Prestige Sorcerer: 7 sorcerer-themed prestige classes
- Tricks of the Trade: blood magic, new uses for existing skills, and rules for using true names in your campaign
- Sorcerer Feats: suggestions for taking the existing feats, plus 13 new feats for sorcerers
- Tools of the Trade: reactive items, 10 magic items, 3 types of mundane equipment, and 6 weapon enhancements
- A Sorcerer's Magic: 14 new spells
- Bonds of Blood: the Ancestor-Touched and Ancestral-Legacy templates
- Song of Blood, Song of Will: replacing spell slots with sorcerous powers
- A Sorcerer's Familiar: 10 new possible familiars, with an alternate familiar progression table
- Ley Lines: threads of arcane energy crisscrossing the world, which enhance a sorcerer's powers while he's within their vicinity
- Strongholds: ideas on building a sorcerer's stronghold
- Designer's Notes: Patrick's notes on why he wrote this book
- Index: 2-page index (very helpful in a 128-page book!)
- Sorcerer Character Sheet: 4-page character sheet for sorcerer PCs
The Quintessential Sorcerer does a simply outstanding job at opening a wide variety of new possibilities for sorcerer PCs, and does so with equal emphasis on making playing sorcerers fun while preventing the unbalanced power escalation so common in rules supplements. I have to hand it to Patrick Younts, despite a predilection for occasionally "overflowery" writing (more on this later), he has a very firm grasp on the d20 rules and an imagination second to none. His writing style is (despite poor grammar) very clear and concise. I'll have to see what else he's written; after having read
The Quintessential Sorcerer, I'd pick up a Patrick Younts book on the strength of his name.
In his "Designer's Notes" section, Patrick states that he wanted a strong feeling of "legacies" tied in with the sorcerer. This concept is the root of the entire book, from many of the Character Concepts and Prestige Classes to the new spells and feats, the concept of a powerful ancestor in the sorcerer's bloodline is a firm foundation upon which the entire book is built.
I think my favorite Character Concept is the Child of Nature, a sort of pseudo-druid empowered by the very force of Nature itself, but each of the Character Concepts has had a great deal of thought put into it, and none seem unbalanced. The only possible problem I foresee is that some players, choosing a concept like the Divine Receptacle (the "chosen one" of a specific deity), might see it as "proof" that their character is much more important than any of the others in the party, and could quite possibly squawk long and loud should their PC ever be slain in an adventure. ("But I'm Hieroneous' Divine Receptacle! He wouldn't have chosen me if I could be slain by a measly kobold!") On the other hand, these Character Concepts are a boon to both player and DM alike, for many of them provide built-in "plot hook generators" for the DM. (The Divine Receptacle, for instance, is often given visions by his god and must follow through on these divine "orders," so the DM doesn't need to worry about how to involve the party in a given adventure.)
The Prestige Classes are similarly well thought out with a good deal of effort put into keeping them balanced. As Patrick notes in the "Prestige Sorcerer" chapter, it's difficult to make a sorcerer prestige class without making it too powerful, since the only class abilities a sorcerer has to play with are his spells and his familiar. Patrick comes up with an excellent balancing mechanism for his sorcerer prestige classes, in that not every PrC level grants a +1 to spellcasting level (as is so common in many arcane spellcaster prestige classes), but those that don't gain a +1 effective caster level. That is, the sorcerer does not gain the extra spell slots he would gain had he gone up a sorcerer level, but he casts the spells he does have (and had from his previous level) as if he
did just gain a sorcerer level. Thus, he might still only be able to cast the same number of
fireballs as he could before, but at least the range is greater and each
fireball does more damage. I really like this as a balancing mechanism, and I think it should become the standard for all spellcasting prestige classes. Also, since sorcerers are so unique from each other (even more so than wizards) in that their spell selection is so limited, each sorcerer is likely to have vastly different spell arsenals. I commend the fact that many of the sorcerer prestige classes have options instead of specific class features at each level. Just as two sorcerers of a given level are bound to have different spells, members of many of the same prestige classes (like the Artillerist, Fey Lord, or Spirit Carver) will have different special abilities. This goes a long way towards keeping each sorcerer unique.
The "true names" rules in the "Tricks of the Trade" chapter, while having a sorcerous feel to them, are perfectly usable in any given campaign, making this book quite useful even to those parties without sorcerers amongst their ranks. I completely agree with Patrick's warning about keeping the frequency of true names low in a campaign, though, as the quest for a true name should be an epic undertaking.
The whole concept of the reactive item is a great one, making it possible for sorcerers to complete on a more equal footing with wizards when it comes to crafting magic items. After all, sorcerers aren't drowning in free Item Creation feats the way wizards are, so a "universal system" allowing for the creation of magic items - whether they be rods, armor, or weapons - is much appreciated. The reactive items have their own limitations (a limited number of charges, for one), but it's nice to see that there are even cool things you can do with an unworked lump of reactive crystal.
The new spells remain true to the "legacy" concept, but this section is where Patrick goes the most overboard with his "overflowery language." I'll say this for Patrick: he has a rich, evocative style about his writing, but there are limits as to how much is a good thing, and in naming many of his spells I feel he goes way across the line. One spell grants the recipient many of the powers of a master vampire; while I would have called it
vampiric attributes or something similar, Patrick chose to go with
A King in Crimson with Eyes of Starless Night. Yes, that's the name of the spell. Other typical offenders are the spells
Awake, Ye Kings of Old (I'd have gone with
spiritwake),
Destiny is My Sword (I'd call it
memorywrack),
I Speak the Will of Kings (or how about just
arcane command?),
Into the Sea of Waking Dreams (I'd use
dreamvision), and
Raindrops Like a Thousand Mirrors (nah, I'll call it
watersight). There is nothing wrong with the spell mechanics or their usefulness or appropriateness for the proper "sorcerous feel," but I'd feel like a pretentious goofball having to say any of them out loud as a player. (Try saying "I cast
A King of Crimson with Eyes of Starless Night upon myself" with a straight face. Couldn't do it, could you?)
"Song of Blood, Song of Will" is perhaps my favorite chapter in the whole book, as it takes sorcerer uniqueness to a whole new level. The concept is a simple one: a sorcerer has the ability to permanently devote a spell slot to power a specific change within his body, whether it be the ability to instantaneously determine the exact number of a specific item ("there are 1,217 coins in that chest"), or
detect magic and
read magic at will, or to use any spell of the same school (and appropriate level) to counterspell an enemy's spell. If there's one thing sorcerers have plenty of it's spell slots (compared to wizards), and even the 0-level powers are well worth losing the spell slot. In fact, some of these are to me the most useful; sure, the ability to change your eye color at will may not have many combat uses (although it can grant a bonus to Intimidate checks - imagine confronting a sorcerer whose eyes suddenly burn like red flames), but how often does a sorcerer wish he had just one more cantrip slot during a typical campaign? Most of the time (in my experience, anyway), few if any 0-level spell slots ever get used once the sorcerer's gained a level or two.
New familiars are always welcome, and Patrick takes an impressive shortcut by "converting" his new familiars from existing animals. Rather than giving space-wasting stats for an armadillo, for example, he has us use a badger's stats with a burrow speed of 20 ft., a +2 natural armor bonus, a 13 Dexterity, and without the badger's rage ability. He does start getting a little flowery again, though: "A sorcerer's familiar is truly a part of him and he could no more live without it than he could without his heart." Unless there are some missing rules in
The Quintessential Sorcerer, there's nothing to back up the concept that a sorcerer dies if his familiar is ever slain. (Good thing, too, because that would be a pretty stupid rule!) Another problem area: I suspect that the experience point cost to grant a sorcerer's familiar the Superior Quickness special ability is 200 xp, not 20 xp as listed. Also, I find it perfectly acceptable that a familiar could learn to read and speak all of the languages its master can, but I find it odd that granting your familiar the Speech ability automatically grants it fluency in even more languages than you know! The book fails to provide any rationale for this unusual circumstance.
The "ley lines" rules work well, although I personally would dread having to figure out the ley line map for my entire game world ahead of time. Patrick gives some useful advice on the subject, but especially since ley lines can be used as
teleport grids that allow transport solely along one node to the next in the "grid," I can imagine that having the whole world's ley line network figured out ahead of time would almost be a requirement. It's a very cool idea, but one I probably wouldn't use without a whole lot of prep time (probably immediately before starting a campaign). Also, I noticed that creating magic items within a minor node requires an expenditure of only 1/25th the base price in experience points. This is the standard xp cost given in the
DMG; since it only costs 1/35th of the base price within a major node, I suspect that the minor node's xp cost was probably supposed to be 1/30th the base price.
However, even ignoring (for now) the editorial and proofreading glitches prevalent throughout the book, there were a few items that caught my attention as needing some additional work. One of the Character Concepts, the Child of the Elements, has a requirement that "at least half of the spells of each level...must include the descriptor of his attuned element." Frankly, this is not always possible using just the
Player's Handbook and the spells in this book. A fire-based Child of the Elements has no 0-level fire-based spells from which to choose, for instance. While I suppose other supplements might be used to provide the requisite spells (WotC's
Tome and Blood, perhaps, or Mongoose's
Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism), I doubt that this was the desired effect. Also, since a sorcerer's spell repertoire is so small to begin with, I'd be real hesitant to choose
delayed blast fireball if I already knew
fireball, but as a fire-based Child of the Elements I might not have any choice.
Another problem I noticed is that on page 53 there's a reference to the Namesmith Prestige Class, which doesn't appear in the book. Also, the "Reflections of a Beauty Lone Gone" ability on page 100 doesn't seem to work on half-elves. No explanation is given, making me wonder whether it's simply an oversight (it specifically mentions it working on humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, and half-orcs, plus other humanoids at the DM's option). Arcane healing is an ability a sorcerer can gain by giving up a 3rd-level spell slot, allowing other spell slots to be converted to hit points. This is a cool idea, and not overpowered (the sorcerer only gains 1 hp per spell level of the slot he's converting), but no mention is made of 0-level spells. I would tend to believe that a 0-level spell could be converted to half a hit point, so the sorcerer could burn off two cantrips and gain a hit point in return. No mention of this is made, however.
Finally, here's a puzzling section: in describing how long fortune telling takes, we are told "you may wish to default to one hour minus the reader's Wisdom or Intelligence bonus, whichever is higher." However, this begs the question: In what? Minutes? That doesn't seem right - a fortune teller with an 18 Intelligence (+4 bonus) is only four minutes faster than one with a 10 (no bonus) in both Wisdom and Intelligence? I'd recommend taking the relevant bonus, multiplying it by 10 minutes, and then subtracting it from an hour. This makes your 18 Intelligence fortune teller able to do in 20 minutes what an average fortune teller takes an hour to accomplish.
I'm breaking with my tradition of discussing the artwork first with this review. Let me state here that the cover, like those before it in the "Collector Series," is simply a fake-leather look (which carries over to the front and back inside covers). The interior artwork consists of 50 black and white illustrations by 7 different artists. Perhaps in way of making up for the lack of cover art, these pictures are for the most part above average, with a few exceptional pieces scattered throughout. I especially enjoyed the cute baby elf sorcerer on page 58. For those of you curious as to whether the traditional Mongoose "nipple art" is present, I'll reassure you by pointing out the bare-breasted female centaur on page 64 and the female sorcerer with one of the most unusual styles of clothing I've ever seen on page 67. Oddly enough, all three pictures were by Eric Bergeron. The Character Concept and Prestige Class chapters all have pictures done by the same artist (whose work is unsigned, so I can't name names) who illustrated the similar sections in
The Quintessential Drow. Here his characters are much more related to the concept or prestige class in question - for the most part, in any case. (The Elven Willspeaker, supposedly "the ultimate expression of elven greatness," sure looks a lot more like a female human than a female elf!) I also liked the flying sorcerer silhouetted in front of the sun on page 44.
I can heartily recommend
The Quintessential Sorcerer for anyone whose only concern in a d20 book is excellent material. In fact, if the quality of the ideas is all you care about, feel free to stop reading this review at this point, because I'm now going to get all nitpicky about the numerous editorial and proofreading gaffes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Still with me? Then either you - like me - are bothered by improper grammar usage, incorrect spelling, and messed-up formatting in a professional-level gaming accessory, or you just can't help yourself and want to see just how really bad it is. I'm going to the trouble to list all of these mistakes not out of a fiendish desire to besmirch Mongoose Publishing's good name - quite the contrary, if you look over my review list, you'll see that so far all of the books I've reviewed have been Mongoose books, and I've given them high marks overall. (Mongoose Publishing's one of my favorite d20 companies, and I really enjoy the majority of what they put out.) I was just
astounded by the overall poor proofreading and editorial quality in this book, and I hope that by airing these problems in such a matter I might if nothing else shame Mongoose into getting their act in gear. (To his credit, Mongoose head honcho Matthew Sprange has already stated that he's aware of the editorial problems in recent releases and has already hired an additional full-time editor to hopefully alleviate these problems.) Still, this may hopefully be an abject lesson to proofreader Ian Barstow and editor Richard Neale, who in my mind both failed in their duties in catching the mistakes that follow. I don't know how much of this was originated by Patrick Younts himself, but that's mostly immaterial: the writer's job is to provide the gems; the proofreader and editor are in charge of polishing them up. Patrick did a great job in providing the gems, but the polishing job was excruciatingly bad.
While Mongoose - as a British company - uses British rules for spelling and punctuation (they use apostrophes for quotation marks, for example), I as an American have gotten used to "reading British" and am not pointing out any "mistakes" in the list below that are really just the British style of doing things. However, I am going to convert to the American standard in the following list, using American spellings and putting quotes between these (") rather than these (').
The Quintessential Hall of Proofreading Shame
- p.11: "An oracle is one blessed or cursed, with the ability to see the threads which weave the tapestry of the future." This is an excellent example of Patrick's evocative writing, but that comma after the word "cursed" does not belong there.
- p. 11: "with commons and kings alike" should be "with commoners and kings alike"
- p. 13: In the "Summoner" section, there should be a blank line separating the first and second paragraphs.
- p. 13: "a sorcerer who's magic centers around the ability to summon and command monsters" should be "a sorcerer whose magic centers around..." Pay close attention to this one, as it is the single most common error in the whole book. It's apparently not a British thing, either, because they use "whose" correctly in several instances. Just for fun, I'll start counting how many times this particular error is made by putting the number in square brackets. This is "who's/whose" error number [1].
- p. 13: "servant's" should be "servants'" as they're talking about more than one
- p. 13: "long period of morning" should be "long period of mourning, as the topic in question is the death of a sorcerer's summoned creature
- p. 13: There is no period at the end of the last sentence in the "Roleplaying" section.
- p.14: "Games masters" should be "Games Masters," as that is the term Mongoose uses (and has always used) for "Dungeon Master." (Incidentally, I think the term "Games Master" is unique to Mongoose - every other d20 company I'm aware of uses "Game Master" or simply "GM.")
- p. 15: "...in fact, priests and members of the nobility will take drastic steps to ensure that a lazy willspeaker finds his motivation, carefully monitor their progress." - that should end with "...carefully monitoring their progress."
- p. 18: "who's magic" should be "whose magic" [2]
- p. 19: "or allied, tribes" should be "or allied tribes" (no comma necessary)
- p. 21: "Games masters" should be "Games Masters"
- p. 21: "arcane duellist" should be "arcane blade" (this is the title of a Prestige Class, which I suspect was renamed at one point)
- p. 23: "and 9th,levels" should be "and 9th levels" (no comma, add a space between the words)
- p. 23: "it's spell level" should be "its spell level"
- p. 24: "see invisibility" should be "see invisibility" (italicize the whole spell name)
- p. 24: "neither the spell's level or casting time" should be "neither the spell's level nor casting time" (remember, it's "either/or" and "neither/nor")
- p. 24: both "duellist" and "duelist" are used; I'm not sure which is correct as far as British spelling rules go, but pick one and stick with it!
- p. 24: "piss white top knot" - since when is piss white? This colorful description is in a fiction blurb, and the character in question definitely has white hair, but I can't for the life of me figure out if "piss" is just an unfortunate typo (of what, I'm not sure) or if nobody involved in this book knows that urine is yellow.
- p. 27: "it's normal spell level" should be "its normal spell level"
- p. 30: "who's memory he is recalling" should be "whose memory he is recalling" [3]
- p. 31: "when the ancestor's take control" should be "when the ancestors take control"
- p. 32: "the Echo of the ancestors" should be "the echo of the ancestors" - this occurs twice on this page
- p. 32: "can, at will dim" should be "can, at will, dim"
- p. 32: "The echo of the ancestors can, at will, dim this inner light at will as a free action, or, once a day per two class levels." (This is the same sentence referenced above, and it's also one of the incorrectly-capitalized "Echo" problems. Also note that "at will" appears twice in the sentence.) The sentence after this one reads "They can also increase it's intensity, allowing him to cause fear in beings of neutral or evil alignments..." I suspect these two sentences should be merged, to get: "The echo of the ancestors can dim this inner light at will as a free action, or, once a day per two class levels, they can also increase its intensity, allowing him to cause fear in beings of neutral or evil alignments..."
- p. 32: "increase it's intensity" should be "increase its intensity" (see above)
- p. 33: "of a fey lord spells" should be "of a fey lord's spells"
- p. 35: "The stillness of the forest in winter, the soft crunch of paws on autumn leaves, the heat of the sun on a kits face in summer and the tickle of dew welling up over a butterfly's cocoon." Very poetic, but this is not a sentence.
- p. 35: "fey touched template" should be "fey-touched template" - yes, picky, I know, but they use the term "fey-touched template" (with the hyphen) throughout the rest of the book
- p. 38: Need to insert a blank line between two paragraphs so they're not squished together
- p. 42: "a sorcerer who's magic" should be "a sorcerer whose magic" [4]
- p. 46: "Targets, which are immune to fear," should be "Targets which are immune to fear" (no commas necessary)
- p.46: "a sorcerer and only a sorcerer, can..." should either be "a sorcerer and only a sorcerer can..." or "a sorcerer, and only a sorcerer, can..." - in other words, it's two commas or none at all
- p.47: "a foretelling even a successful one does not provide..." should either be "a foretelling, even a successful one, does not provide..." or "a foretelling - even a successful one - does not provide..." depending on whether you prefer commas or dashes
- p.48: "get the player's back on track" should be "get the players back on track"
- p. 48: "a compelling, hook" should be "a compelling hook" (no comma needed)
- p. 48: "a high level sorcerer is and should be, possessed..." should be either "a high level sorcerer is, and should be, possessed..." or "a high level sorcerer is and should be possessed..." - again, either two commas or none at all
- p. 50: "giving the characters and their players, some means of actually getting hold of the true name" should be either "giving the characters, and their players, some means of actually getting hold of the true name" or "giving the characters and their players some means of actually getting hold of the true name" - yet again, either two commas or none at all
- p. 50: "can and sometimes do, know true names" should either be "can and sometimes do know true names" (no commas) or "can, and sometimes do, know true names" (two commas)
- p. 51: "A demon lords true name" should be "A demon lord's true name"
- p. 51: "even if the name-seeker where to immediately repeat it" should be "even if the name-seeker were to immediately repeat it"
- p. 52: There's an "[end text]" at the bottom of the page that doesn't belong there. This looks like some kind of formatting comment, as there's a shaded box on that page.
- p. 53: "Most living beings learn their true names, spending their lives in blissful ignorance of the wondrous gift they carry within them." This makes no sense; no doubt it should be "Most living beings never learn their true names, spending their lives in blissful ignorance of the wondrous gift they carry within them."
- p.53: "a being who's true name he knows" should be "a being whose true name he knows" [5]
- p. 53: "a being that's true name he knows" should be "a being whose true name he knows" [6] (true, they use "that's instead of "who's" but the error is the same)
- p. 54: "no matter it's power" should be "no matter its power"
- p. 54: "against the outsider who's true name he possesses" should be "against the outsider whose true name he possesses" [7]
- p. 54: "the outsider who's true name he knows" should be "the outsider whose true name he knows" [8]
- p. 55: "an animal who's true name he knows" should be "an animal whose true name he knows" [9]
- p. 55: "of any animal type who's true name he knows" should be "of any animal type whose true name he knows" [10]
- p. 55: "Like common animals items such as mundane farm equipment, swords, and the like" should be "Like common animals, items such as mundane farm equipment, swords, and the like"
- p. 55: "an object who's true name he knows" should be "an object whose true name he knows" [11]
- p.55: "objects who's true name he knows" should be "objects whose true name he knows" [12]
- p. 55: "Magic items all have there own true names" should be "Magic items all have their own true names"
- p.55: "important static object who's true name he knows" should be "important static object whose true name he knows" [13]
- pp. 55-56: "location who's true name he knows" should be "location whose true name he knows" [14]
- p. 56: "the weapons pulls itself free" should be "the weapon pulls itself free"
- p. 57: "the element who's true name" should be "the element whose true name" [15]
- p. 57: "involving the element who's true name he knows" should be "involving the element whose true name he knows" [16]
- p. 57: "to the element who's true name he knows" should be "to the element whose true name he knows" [17]
- p. 57: The header on this page should be "Tricks of the Trade," not "Sorcerer Feats" (despite the fact there are some true name feats on this page)
- p. 58: "Since the sorcerer does not accrue the extra that his wizard counterpart does" should be "Since the sorcerer does not accrue the extra feats that his wizard counterpart does"
- p. 59: "It's primary benefit" should be "Its primary benefit"
- p. 60: "commensurate with it's usefulness" should be "commensurate with its usefulness"
- p. 60: "While a wizard who selects Maximize Spell at 6th level can begin modifying his 1st level spells after waiting only one level - and has the bonus feats to make up for selecting a feat he cannot initially use. A sorcerer must either suffer through two levels with a feat he cannot use, or..." These two sentences should be connected with a dash replacing the period after the first sentence.
- p. 60: "A sorcerer who's spells" should be "A sorcerer whose spells [18]
- p. 60: "Sorcerers who's spells" should be "Sorcerers whose spells" [19]
- p. 60: "particularly those who's strength lies in" should be "particularly those whose strength lies in" [20]
- p. 60: "it's benefits" should be "its benefits"
- p. 62: "once it cradled, the metamagic effect cannot be altered" should be "once it's cradled..."
- p. 62: "cradled feats and the slots that store them, are expended" should be "cradled feats and the slots that store them are expended" (no comma needed)
- p. 63: The "Way of the Seasons" feat is cut off in mid-sentence.
- p. 64: There's an unneeded carriage return in the middle of the second paragraph of the "Reactive Items" section
- p. 65: "1action" should be "1 action"
- p. 65: "releasing in it as the spell" should be "releasing it as the spell" (no "in")
- p. 68: "must contain 5 charges of true reactive, or 10 charges of lesser reactive material" should be "must contain 5 charges of true reactive or 10 charges of lesser reactive material" (no comma needed)
- p. 70: The second paragraph in the boxed text needs its closing quotation mark.
- p. 73: "imited wish" should be "limited wish"
- p. 74: "obscure object" should be "obscure object"
- p. 74: "creature who's essence" should be "creature whose essence" [21]
- p. 74: "receives the ability to ability to speak with animals" should be "receives the ability to speak with animals" (delete the repeated words)
- p. 74: "30 ft," should be "30 ft.,"
- p. 77: The header on this page reads "A Sorcerers Magic" instead of "A Sorcerer's Magic" - it needs the apostrophe (all the other headers in this section are fine)
- p. 78: "those who's minds have been opened" should be "those whose minds have been opened" [22]
- p. 79: "the mass of horsemen, who's number is equal to your caster level" should be "the mass of horsemen, whose number is equal to your caster level" [23]
- p. 79: "The dragon's and their breath attacks, are equal in size" should be "The dragons and their breath attacks are equal in size" (This was a multiple-mistake sentence clause, incorporating an italicizing error, incorrect apostrophe usage, and incorrect comma usage!)
- p. 79: "air and water dragon's attacks" should be "air and water dragons' attacks"
- p. 80: "You infect a victim area with clinging necromantic pollen" should be "You infect a victim with clinging necromantic pollen" (no "area")
- p. 81: "( 10d6 maximum)" should be "(10d6 maximum)" (remove the extra space before the "10d6")
- p. 82: "Those who succeed at the first save are see beautiful visions" should be "Those who succeed at the first save see beautiful visions" (no "are" needed)
- p. 83: "to their will saves" should be "to their Will saves"
- p. 84: "wishes or similar magics" should be "wishes or similar magics" ("or" should not be italicized)
- p. 85: There is no period at the end of the first sentence.
- p. 85: There should be a blank line above the "Material Components" paragraph to separate it from the previous paragraph.
- p. 86: "the spell completely the victim's comprehension" should be "the spell completely erases the victim's comprehension" or "the spell completely eradicates the victim's comprehension"
- p. 86: "a victim who's conception of the word" should be "a victim whose conception of the word" [24]
- p. 87: "beings who's magical abilities" should be "beings whose magical abilities" [25]
- p. 87: "the key is not do refuse to allow" should be "the key is not to refuse to allow"
- p. 87: "a player who's sorcerer" should be "a player whose sorcerer" [26]
- p. 87: "one who's character is the descendant of giants" should be "one whose character is the descendant of giants" [27]
- p. 90: "lowlight vision should be Lowlight vision (it's the first word in the bullet)
- p. 90: "to a range of 30'" should be "to a range of 30 ft." (the standard throughout d20 books - including all of Mongoose's previous books - is to use "ft." or spell out the word "feet" rather than using the apostrophe in this context)
- p. 90: "((acid for earth..." should be "(acid for earth..." (drop one of the opening parentheses)
- p. 90: "the element who's power he inherited" should be "the element whose power he inherited" [28]
- p. 93: "list of spell's known" should be "list of spells known"
- p. 94: There should be a blank line between the "Speed" and "AC" paragraphs
- p. 94: "list of spell's known" should be "list of spells known" (this is probably a copy-and-paste error from page 93)
- p. 98: "selected in lieu of knew spells" should be "selected in lieu of new spells
- p. 98: "nor may it be destroyed or by hostile magic" should be "nor may it be destroyed by hostile magic" (get rid of the "or")
- p. 99: "those who's ancestor is a redcap fey" should be "those whose ancestor is a redcap fey" [29]
- p. 99: "non-player character" should be "Non-Player Character"
- p. 100: "non-player character" should be "Non-Player Character"
- p. 102: "dragon mein" should be "Dragon mein" (it's the start of a sentence) - also, I wonder if "mein" should be "mien," or if that's the correct British spelling
- p. 103: "He gains a +4 bonus to all saves against natural and magical poisons and diseases a permanent +1 inherent bonus to any ability score" should be "He gains a +4 bonus to all saves against natural and magical poisons and diseases and a permanent +1 inherent bonus to any ability score"
- p. 103: "a number of spells who's total levels" should be "a number of spells whose total levels" [30]
- p. 105: "as their masters' gain in levels" should be "as their masters gain in levels"
- p. 107: "based off it's own score" should be "based off its own score"
- p. 111: "from single circle of stones in an open field" should be "from a single circle of stones in an open field"
- p. 112: "within the boundaries of a major node" should be "within the boundaries of a minor node" since this is the "Minor Nodes" section (another probable copy-and-paste error)
- p. 112: There should be a blank line separating the first two paragraphs in the "Sorcerer Attunement" section.
- p. 112: "see the invisible" should be "see invisible" (no "the")
- p. 112: There is no period at the end of the last sentence in the 5th bullet in the 2nd column.
- p. 113: "sorcerer's can and do choose" should be "sorcerers can and do choose"
- p. 113: "...appropriate for your campaign Your Game Master..." These should be two separate sentences, with a period after the word "campaign."
- p. 113: "Your Game Master, or you as the Game Master" - these should both be "Games Master, in keeping with the Mongoose standard
- p. 114: "If a sorcerer's fortress is indistinguishable from other types of fortresses, than it is not a sorcerer's fortress" should be "If a sorcerer's fortress is indistinguishable from other types of fortresses, then it is not a sorcerer's fortress"
- p. 114: "A sorcerer's fortress should be stuffed floor to ceiling with all manner of magical properties and mystical" should be either "A sorcerer's fortress should be stuffed floor to ceiling with all manner of magical and mystical properties" or "A sorcerer's fortress should be stuffed floor to ceiling with all manner of properties magical and mystical" or "A sorcerer's fortress should be stuffed floor to ceiling with all manner of magical properties and mystical (stick some plural noun here, maybe "enhancements")"
- p. 114: "Don't Forget the Bill" should be in bold, as it's a subject header.
- p. 115: "its owners desire for privacy" should be "its owner's desire for privacy"
- p. 115: "the site of a castle floating unsupported" should be "the sight of a castle floating unsupported"
- p. 115: There should be a blank line between two of the paragraphs in the "Aerial" section.
- p. 115: "those sorcerers who's spells generate and control cold" should be "those sorcerers whose spells generate and control cold" [31]
- p. 116: "a few sorcerer's fortresses" should be "a few sorcerers' fortresses"
- p. 116: "and their will be many" should be "and there will be many"
- p. 116: "Game Master" should be "Games Master" (this error occurs three times on this page!)
- p. 116: "...which of the finished fortress" should be "...of the finished fortress" (no "which" needed)
- p. 116: "for every 2,000 gp. spent on construction" should be "for every 2,000 gp spent on construction" (no period after "gp")
- p. 117: "Gate/Porticulus" should be "Gate/Portcullis" (unless this is some weird British spelling I've never encountered before)
- p. 118: The chart uses the term "Mobile Tapestry," but the text refers to it as a "Phantasmal Map." Apparently this was changed (but not fully) in the editorial revision process.
- p. 120: "a course who's only possible resolution" should be "a course whose only possible resolution" [32]
- p. 120: No quotation marks are needed at the end of the 4th paragraph in the boxed text, as the 5th paragraph picks up with the same speaker.
- p. 120: "Jerusha 'But first..." should be "Jerusha said 'But first..."
- p. 120: At the bottom of the boxed text fiction bit is the lone word "Benefitting" - why is that there? Was that the beginning of a new paragraph that got lost? (It's hard to tell, because that page of story makes very little sense overall.)
- p. 121: There are numerous extra spaces between words all through this page. I'm not going to count them all, but there's quite a bit.
- p. 121: "as their at the end of the book" should be "as they're at the end of the book"
Also, there are multiple instances where commas are used when semicolons are more appropriate (and vice versa), and where spell names are capitalized (or not italicized, or both) in the middle of a sentence. I gave up trying to document all of them (the capitalized spell names can be found on pages 13, 14, 16, 19, and probably several others throughout the book). All in all, I think
The Quintessential Sorcerer is the best evidence to date that many proofreaders and editors working for Mongoose Publishing don't take their jobs very much more seriously than using the spellchecker on their word processing program. If you'll note, most of the errors I noted above wouldn't get caught by a spellchecking program.
When reading through a book I intend to review, I jot down notes of things I want to include on a sheet of legal paper. I've never had to go beyond the back of the first sheet of legal paper with any Mongoose product before; with
The Quintessential Sorcerer I used up two full sheets of legal paper and the front side of a third sheet, mostly on the errors. Since it took me almost twice as long to type up
The Quintessential Hall of Proofreading Shame than it did to type up my normal review, I don't intend to do this ever again. I certainly hope that it won't become necessary in the future.
