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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9679573" data-attributes="member: 8461">I recently picked up Gannet Games' <a href="https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/126998/Spell-Themes-Lesser?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Spell Themes: Lesser</a> (affiliate link) for PF1 a few days ago, and I'm quite happy with it overall.As the sales page notes, this is a book of "lesser" spells, in that they're all weaker variations of existing spells. Interestingly, the author's introduction notes that the genesis for this product was playing in an E6 Pathfinder game (presumably everyone knows what E6 means, but for those that don't, it's where characters can gain no more than six levels). Specifically, it was noted how most of the cooler magic spells were ruled out by the level cap, and so what you have here is a set of spells which help fix that (though it's worth noting that some of these spells are weaker variations of spells that would still be available even in an E6 game; for instance, lurk unseen is an invisibility spell that's broken if you take any action).Overall, there's a lot of fun ideas here. For instance, there are four dismiss chaos/evil/good/law spells where you can make a touch attack to banish an outsider back to their home plane. Likewise, lesser commune lets you ask a single yes/no question to your deity, while charm creature works like charm monster in that it can beguile any kind of creature (so long as it's not immune to mind-affecting effects), but only if it has an Intelligence of 1 or 2. My favorite has to be forceful barrier, which presents a version of wall of force that's very tough without bordering on nigh-indestructible.Rather amusingly, there were a few spells which the author openly admitted weren't very useful if you weren't playing in an E6 game, such as dispel druid magic, which exists to give druids an (inferior) version of dispel magic, since they wouldn't gain the latter spell until 7th level.Having said all of that, there were still a few issues here. For instance, dispel own magic lets you cancel your own spells...and it's a 2nd-level spell. I'm sorry, but if the only function a spell has is to let me shut off my own spells (something that'd only be useful if the spell wasn't already dismissible), then it shouldn't be more than a cantrip at the absolute most. I'll also note the lack of any class-based spell lists, here.And that last point brings me to my major complaint about the book, which is that the spells here are only presented for the basic spellcasting classes in the Core Rulebook (not including the poor adept NPC class). This product came out in 2014, halfway through the life of PF1, and yet looking at each spell's entry for what classes can cast them, you'd never know that classes like the magus, the alchemist, the summoner, or the witch had been released yet. It's a shame, since these spells lend a lot of iconic functionality to the core spellcasting classes, and players playing those other classes should have a chance to use them as well.Still, in the grand scheme of things that's a relatively minor complaint, and I still recommend giving this book a look.</blockquote>

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