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I really don’t know how I’ve gone this long without reviewing this book. I’ve known about it for quite some time, and have been using it for the last several weeks in my home game, yet somehow writing a review didn’t occur to me. That oversight ends now.
I think that for everyone who plays a d20 System game, be it Pathfinder, d20 Modern, 3.5, d20 Future or whatnot, that there’s a sense of frustration with how patchwork the system’s exception-based rules are. That is, if you have an idea for a character, you can try to design an appropriate facsimile, but unless it happens to fall within some very specific parameters, there’ll be some aspect of the character creation mechanics that doesn’t quite fit with what you had in mind.
This, of course, leads to one of two things. Either you modify your expectations to fit within what the “class level” structure allows, or you go on a never-ending hunt for splatbooks and third-party supplements in hopes of finding new rules that will let you build exactly what it is you’re looking for.
Have you ever wanted to build a character that can shapeshift into different forms, but isn’t a druid, or even a spellcaster? What about a character that is able to manipulate fire via dancing? Or one whose spellcasting ability is limited by physical ability, rather than “prepared” spells? How many supplements and sourcebooks would you have to comb through to find rules that could let you play those characters? For that matter, how many would have rules to make ALL of those characters, and whatever others you can imagine?
The correct answer is: one. That being Eclipse: The Codex Persona, from Distant Horizons Games.
Weighing in at just over two hundred pages, Eclipse is an OGL supplement that has generously been made available for free. There’s also a page for a pay-for version of the book, which is completely the same as the free version in every way. In essence, the pay-for version is a tip jar, allowing you to pay for the book if you feel so inclined. Given that this book is essentially the same as every other character book ever released, that’s a staggering level of generosity.
The book hits the technical high marks for what’s expected of a PDF: copy-and-paste is enabled, and there are full, nested bookmarks present. Most helpfully, there is a link to the authors’ blog – I’ll mention why this is helpful shortly.
I should take a moment to mention the artwork. Entirely black and white, the artwork seems to be a mixture of stock art and works from the public domain. Moreover, most pieces are given a humorous caption. I say “humorous” because these captions tend to be of the Monty Python variety (in terms of how they read, rather than any specific quotations). For example, the illustration in the section on shapeshifting is of a woman with inhuman hands licking at her fingers. The caption? “Is it cannibalism if I wasn’t human when I ate him?” They’re pretty much all like that, though some are real groaners. As someone who loves making bad jokes (especially puns) I was tickled by these, but they might induce strain due to excessive eye-rolling in other readers. Be warned.
So now, having said all of that, just what IS Eclipse: The Codex Persona?
Simply put, Eclipse is a point-buy method of character generation for the d20 System. It wasn’t the first book to release a point-buy system, nor was it the most popular (thus far), but it is by far the most successful. Let’s get to why.
The book’s first section introduces the fundamentals. Basically, characters get twenty-four Character Points (CP) at each level. These points can be spent on a variety of things, ranging from the basics (Hit Dice, weapon/armor proficiencies, base attack bonuses, save bonuses, and skill points), to spellcasting abilities, to the much more colorful powers in chapter two, with things like damage reduction, the ability to actively block incoming attacks, esoteric means of communication, and so much more.
A review must, of course, gloss over some details, which is a shame since the first two chapter that detail these myriad abilities take up roughly a third of the book. But there’s something more fundamental that must be taken into account. While a large list of abilities that can be purchased is absolutely necessary to any point-buy system, it’s ultimately going to be limited – it has to be, since no single book can possibly list every ability that will ever be thought of in every other sourcebook, right?
Well, not exactly, no.
What makes Eclipse unique is that it gives a method for tailoring EVERYTHING that can be bought with Character Points, allowing you to alter them as necessary to fit with your idea for how they should work. How does it do this, you ask? By utilizing two related concepts: corruption, and specialization.
To be clear, both of these terms are referring to the same basic idea: that by placing some sort of limitation on an ability, you can give it a corresponding increase in another manner OR you can reduce the amount of Character Points the ability costs. The terms “corruption” is used to refer to a comparatively mild limitation, while the term “specialization” refers to a more severe one. It’s by using these abilities to modify the existing powers that you can create virtually limitless abilities.
For example, the Empowerment special ability lets you use your own ability score modifiers and caster level when activating a magic item, up to (3 + Int mod) times per day (sort of like how magic staves are normally). That costs 6 CP. But you could specialize that ability by limiting it to just, say, magic wands. By accepting that degree of limitation, you can choose to either cut the price in half (3 CP), or keep the full price, but remove the “per day” modifier. So when you make a character that’s a self-styled “Master of Wands” – with little actual spellcasting power, but is able to use magic wands far better than most fully-fledged wizards – you can easily distinguish him from other run-of-the-mill wizards and sorcerers.
The third chapter of the book builds on this, exploring what it calls “paths and powers.” These are, largely, more of the same, but where the first two chapters presented individual abilities that were largely unconnected, the various sections in chapter three showcase powers that have various sub-abilities. For example, channeling is the basic “turn/rebuke undead” power that clerics have. Here, however, not only can you manipulate how powerfully and how often you can channel positive or negative energy, you can do so much more. Beyond things like not needing a holy symbol, you can convert the energy into spell effects, turn or rebuke other types of creatures, grant bonuses to magic weapons, animate corpses, and so much more.
Many of the new abilities presented in chapter three are different systems for using magic. Skill-based magic systems, for example, have multiple different presentations here. So are low-level psychic powers, high-level direct manipulations of magic, mystical artistry, eldritch connections to a land you rule, and even divine ascension, among others.
Chapter four concerns itself solely with epic-level magic. This may seem very specific, but with the various ways to manipulate spellcasting (did I mention the metamagic theorems in chapter two?), it becomes something of a practical concern…depending on the sort of campaign you run. The spells here don’t use, surprisingly, any kind of new system of magic. Rather, they still use spell levels, ranging from level ten spells all the way up through level twenty-four.
It’s in chapter five that we move away from mechanics and more towards how to utilize what’s in the book. There’s a section for players here, and a section for GMs. The player section largely discusses the type of character you want to build, which is more helpful than it sounds when you can build pretty much anything you want. For GMs, the advice is even more practical – any role-playing game system can be abused by problem players, and in an open system like Eclipse, this requires a more proactive GM. Issues of deciding ahead of time what powers (and combinations of powers) should be disallowed are dealt with, in addition to suggestions and advice for what to do if a character goes out of control. Some templates and sample epic-level monsters help to round out the GMs tools.
A few appendices close out the book. There’s a quick example of chakras, presented as an in-game reason for disallowing certain power combinations. The second and third appendix take standard 3.5 and d20 Modern classes and show how they’d be built in Eclipse, along with how to take standard feats using Eclipse abilities. Some helpful worksheets are the last thing given.
If you’ve read this far, you probably have a pretty good sense that I’m a big fan of Eclipse. The author says in the foreword that none of his players want to use any other character-building options besides what’s here, and having gotten a chance to use the book in my own game, I can completely understand why. Why go back to digging through various books to hodge-podge together a character that resembles what you wanted to make, when you can use one book to put together exactly the PC you really want to play?
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Eclipse is a book against which no criticism can be leveled. The biggest critique that can be said of the book is that it’s horribly lacking where examples are concerned. This is no small complaint, as the system is a fairly complex one to understand, especially if you’re expecting more of the fairly rigid class-level structure from standard d20 games. There are numerous points where a helpful example would go a long way towards making things clearer.
To be fair, the book does have examples for some sections, but these are few and far between. The system is, I believe, fairly intuitive…but only after you’ve made a significant investment in understanding exactly what it’s offering and how it goes about doing it. Luckily, there’s a remedy for this: remember the authors’ blog that I mentioned earlier? It has a plethora of sample characters and items built with Eclipse (including my favorite articles on how to build 100% Pathfinder-compatible characters using the book), and more than fills the need for examples of what can be done with Eclipse.
It’s also important to keep Eclipse’s limits in mind. The book allows for many options in building characters, and while this often brushes up against many other parts of the d20 System, there are some that it doesn’t replace. For example, there are many different ways to manipulate the skill system with the powers here, but the system itself is independent of Eclipse (which is why it works with d20 Modern skills, 3.5 skills, Pathfinder skills, etc.). There are different ways to build magic items, but magic items themselves aren’t dealt with here (though relics, which are similar, are). Eclipse is a powerful character generator, but it’s not a complete replacement for your d20 game of choice.
My understanding is that Eclipse is so named because it “eclipses” all other character-building options in the d20 System, and I can honestly say that it does. Think of every fictional character you’ve ever read, watched, or heard about; you can make them all here. You may still need to increase the amount of levels necessary to do it, but it can be done. The Codex Persona is exactly what it promises, and is still completely compatible with whatever d20 game you’re playing, to boot. So put on your protective eyewear and look into the Eclipse.
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The useful: a list and descriptions of possible developments on a character, which a player could draw from.
The useless: opens with some kind of points-by-level thing for applying distinctions and demerits, to be layered on top of the already convoluted d20 "character build" nonsense.
This sort of thing should emerge in play, and I was looking for some kind of framework for these sorts of in-play things to feed back on the character thereafter. I have my own ideas along this line, and wanted to see how it was done here.
Nice choice of illustrations. Not quite worth the price.
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I really like the options in this book, both for personal items and for location-based items. The items that affect whole communities are a great idea, one that helps supports rp'ing a character deeply involved with their society/neighborhood.
The explanations, examples, and comparisons with SRD material is excellent. They make it crystal clear how to use the options given, what is possible, and what kind of divergence from the Core-Rulebooks-game one can expect.
I can't say enough good things about this. The writing is excellent, and occasionally humorous. The presentation is clean and easily understood. The rules are easily amenable to mix'n'match as desired. Many, many new options are provided for those interested in magic items.
One of my most satisfying purchases!
Plus, it is shareware, so one can go through the entire product before deciding on a purchase.
Anyone interested in magic items should certainly take a look - magic crafters especially!
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I really like the options in this book, both for personal items and for location-based items. The items that affect whole communities are a great idea, one that helps supports rp'ing a character deeply involved with their society/neighborhood.
The explanations, examples, and comparisons with SRD material is excellent. They make it crystal clear how to use the options given, what is possible, and what kind of divergence from the Core-Rulebooks-game one can expect.
I can't say enough good things about this. The writing is excellent, and occasionally humorous. The presentation is clean and easily understood. The rules are easily amenable to mix'n'match as desired. Many, many new options are provided for those interested in magic items.
One of my most satisfying purchases!
Plus, it is shareware, so one can go through the entire product before deciding on a purchase.
Anyone interested in magic items should certainly take a look - magic crafters especially!
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For quite some years I refused to play d20 system games. The prestige-classes, the convoluted rules and feat-based exceptions, the general idea of new classes being made as a one-upmanship of existing classes, and the third-party stuff that just broke the game – all combined to put a foul taste in my mouth as soon as d20 was mentioned.
Then along came Eclipse: The Codex Persona (E:CP). A point-buy character creation system for d20/OGL. It is totally flexible and with a bit of work you can create any character-concept you would like right from level one. It's clear that the Distant Horizon Games' designers have done their testing and the comments through-out the product show it. They pull no punches in letting you know it can be abused, and as they say, if your players are making fireball-throwing wizards for a grim and gritty rogue game then the problem is not the game-system. Unlike mainstream d20 products who seem to pretend it can’t happen E:CP shows you examples of broken builds so you can get a good idea of what not to do and what to look out for when new players pick up the book and make characters.
E:CP’s point-buy works on the basis of one feat is 6 character points. A PC has about 24cp per level, and starts with 48cp. E:CP considers characters to have 3 levels prior to level-1 (-2, -1, 0). It expands on the idea of abilities and feats with Corruptions and Specializations: basically they are ways to alter the feat/ability to either be increased in effect (eg. Specialized for double-effect), or reduced in utility (eg. Specialized only to be used in a thunderstorm). The cost either alteration (specialization or corruption) increases or reduces the cost of the ability based on its application.
At first E:CP is a bit difficult to understand. There’s a few points of understanding that are implied and not stated as clearly as I would like. The scope of what is a corruption versus what is a specialization takes a fair bit of reading to get used to. On top of this the magic-progression descriptions are a little clunky in how they function, and combined with Base Caster Levels really could use a clean-up for clairty. A more straight-forward, step-by-step, description could be better for dullards like me but I got there in the end.
As the designers rightly say you need a strong concept before you can make a character. Since point-buy can be like a massive market with near limitless choices you can get into a rut trying to finish spending the last few character points. That’s why a clear concept, with abilities and why the character has them, is so necessary.
Eclipse: the Codex Persona has returned me to the fold of d20 gaming. Without it I would still be out in the wilderness of the less popular systems. I strongly recommend getting this excellent piece of OGL work and trying it out. As they say in "How Do I Use This Product?”:
"We’ve play-tested, pushed, prodded, and pulled every corner of this system. And it works. None of our players are willing to play d20 with any other system anymore – and we think it would be cruel to try and make them."
Get the sharware version and when you’re converted go back and drop the $9.95 and get Eclipse II: Libram Arcana for more examples and goodies. Totally worth it.
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Ideas and options for alternate magic systems in d20. Lots of great ideas here and can be used as a tool kit, options or just a way to give characters a different feel.
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Like the other books from Distant Horizon, LHF modifies, or replaces, the standard d20 rules. In this case it is for a setting but everything can be adapted, or used whole cloth, for your use. It starts with character motivations, backgrounds that provides minor bonuses and variant races.
The second chapter is where the meat of the book begins. Variant classes that can be signifincantly different from those in the SRD. The cleric, ranger and wizard are almost completely rewritten, the paladin is no longer a class but rather a calling in life with a divine boost, the monk is no longer a class but rather traditions that other classes can use and the fighter gets a boost. Clerics are not warrior priests and cast spontaneous spells. Rangers get (multiple) totem spirits that modify their spell list. Wizards have to spend cash each time they cast a spell and magic can have minor side effects.
Then there are three prestige classes. Dark Disciples gain power from lower powers, Fey-Brethern ally with chaos (fey aren't remotely human in the setting), and Merrin Crusaders are human warriors far beyond the basic fighter.
The druid and sorcerer have the most significant changes. They have a d12 hit die because they need to burn hit points for casting spells. Their method of spellcasting is different from clerics and wizards. They have much more freeform magic in the form of spellweaves. These are catagories that contain spells with effects that aren't set in stone like those in the SRD. One example is those sorcerers who can tap positive divine sources via the Holy Magic, a spellweave that contains the spells armor of light, awesome wrath, benediction, exorcism, hearten, open the way, prophecy and white light. To cast a spell, the sorcerer picks one of the spells and then suggests an effect. The DM says yes or no and in either case, some damage is taken (i.e. trying to cast beyond one's ability causes damage). A druid spellweave, Water Magic, as animation, tide of blood, polar current and tincture of alchemy. This allows the creation of life as well as manipulating water in its various forms.
Spellweaving is an interesting way to allow freeform magic. It isn't truely freeform so many of the headaches that come from having such power simply don't come into play.
The fourth chapter (three is the spellweaves) describes feats and weapon and armor proficiencies (something added in the class variants). Starter feats must be taken at first level. They are powerful but come with drawbacks.
Skills make up the fifth chapter. Most are what you expect but there are a couple that are different. Warcraft replaces BAB and ritual magic allows for freeform magic that is limited in a completely different way from spellweaves. Where spellweaves are generally quick to cast (round or less), rituals can take minutes to a decade or more. They require resources and, for higher level effects, special items. In some ways these are similar to incantations from Unearthed Arcana (and Urban Arcana) but they have nothing like seeds. There are lots of rules, suggestions and examples, 9 pages in all.
The sixth chapter examines magic within society. The wealth level templates and charms and talisments were also placed in The Practical Enchanter but there is more to creating charms and talisments in this book. The chapter ends with talents (a much shorter version than that in The Practical Enchanter), a way of providing magical powers to all characters.
The seventh chapter is legal information.
This book is as well written as the others from DHG and provides a lot of variants that could be useful to you. To me, it sits next to their other books as a 5 star product.
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My earlier review:
A poster on the ENWorld forums recommended this to me after I expressed a desire for point-buy systems.
I checked it out and found it a bit too wrapped up in D&D conventions (class skills were mentioned), still having a "progression" base for some of its elements (apparently you bought your spell progression rather than individual spells and levels), and not entirely dedicated to a "build your own" approach (the "companion" ability simply mentioned using existing progressions).
I don't think it's a document for fulling branching out into point-buy from standard d20, but it might be useful to those who want a system for building their own classes.
UPDATE: After taking more time to look at this product I admit what I said before was hasty and ill-thought. While I can't say it's perfect — and it's certainly a lot to learn and work with, more than some people may be willing to put up with — it's definitely trying.
What makes it feel clunky at first is that rather than try to design a point-buy system that stands on its own the designers stick to backwards compatability with 3.0 and 3.5 D&D as well as d20 Modern, and then add further options. The entire work becomes a toolkit. A full toolkit, which you can choose from to suit your desired play experience. It's just staggering the amount of options available, one should really just download it — especially since it's free — and see for themselves.
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I've had this book for a while, but found it to be so far-reaching that I experienced trepidation about actually using it in a game. I just couldn't anticipate how my players might exploit it or use it to create custom spells that went far beyond what I could adjudicate on the fly. However, I've just found my first use for it, and it's great.
I needed a system for curses -- for people too weak to retaliate against aggressors through normal combat. And as I went looking for a good PDF, I remembered this book. The system for laying down a curse turns out to be wonderfully done. It empowers the weak without overpowering clerics & wizards (who are already powerful). However, clerics & wizards can certainly use the system. It's also great for how it cleverly puts a game mechanic behind all those curses you've read in fairy tales.
For example, I wanted a curse such as, "May your appearance be as ugly as your black heart!" And with that curse, I would hope the enemy would be disfigured or lose charisma or grow horns or... something bad. And it turns out that something open-ended like that is exactly right for this curse system. You figure out who it affects, how powerful of an effect you hope for, how long it should last, apply some modifiers, and poof, you have a curse.
My only issue with the curses is that they are listed as Necromancy spells, yet somehow commoners are supposed to be able to use them. Here is the paragraph in question: "Curses are easy to lay and difficult to remove. Elderly peasants who couldn’t manage a Ray of Frost can lay them. Dying men, offended parents, and anyone who’s wronged can lay them, even if they’ve never had any magical training." So... if curses are spells and commoners have no spellcasting ability, how's that work? If curses are a special exception, can commoners cast level 9 curse spells? If not, why not? Do they have daily limits as spellcasters do, or not? And what's their saving throw spell DC, considering commoners have no spellcasting stat?
In the end, that hardly bothered me. Curses have a level adjustment modifier if you let the curse eat a certain amount of your XP. So I just decided that commoners who cast curses have their XP eaten in order to get them up to the desired level. And I used charisma as their spellcasting stat.
I wish I knew how the author used curses, though. These issues must have come up.
Even with flaws, I really enjoy the mechanics for curses.
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Hm. The "Reply" button is finally working here... For a very long time indeed it didn't appear on this review for some reason.
First up... The spell templates are for building spells; the specific spell built must be acquired normally. There's no composing spells on the fly there unless you can get them down to level (-1) or below - and spells like that only pop up in a few specific instances - such as curses. .
Commoners (and pretty much anyone else) can lay curses through standard game mechanics;
1) First apply the curse modifiers (for blood relationship, spending XP, etc) to reduce the spell level of the curse you want to inflict to (-1) or below.
2) "Research" it - requiring time and money and having a DC based on the spell level. With a negative spell level, time and money are zero. With no time required, access to a library is moot. With the research checks being instantaneous, you can simply take 20 without expending time.
3) Casting it requires a negative level spell slot - that is to say, something below having no ability to use magic. Anyone with no ability to use magic qualifies.
4) The saving throw DC may default to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma at whim; Everyone has at least no ability to use spells associated with any ability. Ergo the save DC is (10 plus the negative level of the spell plus a caster-chosen attribute modifier).
Sadly, this does mean that - when the commoners curse that evil dark lord - he'll probably laugh it off. Even when he rolls a "1" on his save, he'll just have someone throw "remove curse" on him as soon as he notices - although he might not for some time; most negative-level curses are going to wind up very specific and fairly minor. Truly major curses are thus still reserved for powerful spellcasters. |
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This is a very nice handling of d20 rules that completely does away with the straightjacket of classes and adds a few things that weren't part of the standard rules. The formatting is basic and the art is quite good (too few gaming books use classical sources for pictures). It's not for newbies to the the rule system, but players who understand it will enjoy the flexibility it grants.
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Once you get it into your head that you can make almost any character design with Eclipse, the only problem you have is keeping your players a bit grounded, but really, who cares, its fun - having a by-blow of a greek god adventuring with a somewhat morose vampire (among others) was simply a blast. For those who think its not a true flexible point buy system, read more carefully.
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It’s difficult sometimes to review things on a 1-5 scale. Usually that range is enough to clearly denote just what I think of a product, but very rarely, I’ll read an RPG supplement that makes me wish I had a wider scale. Specifically, there’s a very small group of books, less than half-a-dozen, that I’d give six out of five stars to if I could; The Practical Enchanter is one of those.
A companion volume to Eclipse: The Codex Persona, The Practical Enchanter does not require that you have the former book to use it. Like it’s sister book, The Practical Enchanter is available free for download, along with a pay-for version that is identical – Distant Horizons Games released the pay version purely so gamers who really liked the book could voluntarily pay for it if they felt so inclined. This is an incredibly magnanimous gesture on their part, particularly since I think the book is a steal at twice the price.
The PDF of the book is two hundred forty-two pages long, including the covers, OGL, credits page, editor’s note, and an explanation of the shareware version. The text is OCR and is fully searchable, allowing for cutting and pasting. Full bookmarks are also given, tagging every section and subsection in the book clearly. The table of contents is not hyperlinked, but given that the bookmarks cover everything listed, this isn’t really a problem.
As with many Distant Horizons Games products, the artwork found in the book is all material that has long since entered the public domain. All black and white (save for the covers), everything here is over a century old, at the very least. Given the nature of the pieces used here, they all have a very distinct feeling to them, particularly since they were (presumably) all made as serious art. The detail and rendering on them is exquisite, even if the pictures rarely seem to directly relate to the text on a particular page. Also, unlike Eclipse, none of the pictures have captions. A plain, black border encloses every page, along with alternating listings of the book’s title, and its parent company at the bottom of each page. In short, this is a book that could conceivably be printed out with relatively little difficulty, though if you want the entire thing in physical form, it may be cheaper and more worthwhile to just purchase the print version.
One final thing that must be noted before examining the book’s specifics is that, similar to how Eclipse had rather silly captions for many of its illustrations, The Practical Enchanter has periodic commentary appearing in its pages from Grod the barbarian, and his compatriots. Very much a stereotype of his chosen profession, Grod banters with fellow characters such as Lute the bard, Guildmage Xanos, EVIL WIZARD (yes, he spells his name in capital letters), and every so often, the book’s editor. While largely humorous, these comments are always relevant to the section of the book they’re in, and sometimes are nicely insightful.
So now that all that’s out of the way, what’s the book actually about? Well, The Practical Enchanter is a magic book for your d20 game. It’s not just a book of new spells, nor does it give an entirely new magic system, but rather straddles the line between those two distinctions, doing a little of both. By its very nature, this makes it mutable, offering different things depending on what you’re looking for. Each of its six chapters is quite different from the others, allowing you to pick what you need as you like.
The first chapter (and in my mind, the best) covers new spells. This isn’t just a random assortment of new spells listed alphabetically, however. Rather, the chapter looks at the types of bonuses/penalties you can get in the d20 system, and analyzes spells that grant (or inflict) those, and provides spells based on that. In many cases, these are spells, but you also often see spell templates – spells whose mechanics are variable, and make the spell level vary depending on what mechanics you choose. Want the spell to be long range and affect a group of people? That’ll drive the level of it up. A sidebar describing how they worked the mechanics accompanies every subsection here, and the chapter is peppered with comments on additional affects that can be applied to any spell for an increase in level (for example, making a spell able to get through a golem’s magic immunity raises its level by +3). By mixing these altogether and treating each result as a different spell, there are thousands upon thousands of combinations possible just from this chapter alone.
The second chapter presents practical variants on spellcasting. Specifically, it concerns itself with methods of spell research, and using the Spellcraft skill to create magical effects. While this may sound dry in theory, the sheer breadth of what the book fleshes out is incredible. With a high enough Spellcraft check, for example, you can theoretically design a new spell instantly as you think of it, rather than taking weeks of costly research.
Chapter three covers new feats. Again, the level of innovation here is quite high, such as a feat that lets you use magic/items that normally shouldn’t work in your campaign world. Roughly only half of the book’s feats are actually detailed in this chapter; the others appear in relevant sections – this chapter lists them and gives a page reference for them, though.
The fourth chapter covers new magic items. These are all “social” magic items, made to make life easier in towns and cities, for the good of the general population, rather than for adventurers to better kill things with. What may make this section a tad bit less appealing for some is that instead of the standard d20 magic item formula (magic aura, caster level, necessary spells and feats, market price), these have their creation information given differently, with a focus on how to create them and how the price was established. Still, these will likely be very useful to someone looking to make their high fantasy world feel more “realistic.”
Chapter five deals with alternative systems. If you don’t have or want magic in your game, this chapter deals with how to turn the book’s new rules and effects into things such as superheroic powers, or cybernetics, among other things. The final chapter covers two kinds of great enchantments, heartstones and wards major. The former is essentially an area with great magic that you can tap into, while the latter is imbuing an area with great magic that it can use itself. Several appendices round out the book, with the first one giving tables of relevant information, and the second being an index of each and every new spell listed alphabetically.
I think that The Practical Enchanter is the single best magic book ever to come out for the d20 system. It’s honest look at the mechanics of magic, and how it uses that to simplify most spells and present myriad new options sets a new level of standards for magic in the game. And that’s without even looking at all the other new materials if offers. Given that it’s available for free, there is absolutely no reason for you not to have downloaded this book already and started using it. The Practical Enchanter has a mind-boggling amount of material to offer your game, so go ahead and put it to use.
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Form first glance, this book looks very useful. The new mechanics are simple, yet effective, IMO. I foresee this book getting used, which is rarity for me and PDF products.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Satisfied
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Paths of Power II: Monstrous Paths is a 106 page pdf product and the second product in the Distant Horizon Games' Paths of Power series. The first product in the series introduces the concepts and mechanics behind magical spell paths, and is a free download from their website. This second product aims to expand on the concept of paths presented in the first book, and includes not only expanded path options, but dozens of new spells. Paths of Power II: Monstrous Paths, contains a lot more than the title suggests in terms of paths, in particular the numerous spells the product contains.
This products comes as an archived file containing a screen and print version of the product. A complete set of bookmarks and an extensive table of contents is provided to facilitate finding the information you require. Writing, editing and layout is generally good, although the green background color might not be to everybody's liking. Presentation as a whole is good, and the product comes with a lot of art taken from a variety of classical painting artists (credits given at the end of the pdf to the relevant painters, including Rembrandt van Rijn). While the art is bountiful, it's not always entirely fitting, and has a feel of 'filler' art rather than 'enhancing' art. Overall, though, a solid, but not spectacular, effort on the presentation front.
As mentioned earlier, Paths of Power II expands on the information given in the free Paths of Power pdf. Essentially this means that this is not a standalone product since it contains no details of the previous product. While this can be quickly remedied, it would've been useful if the pdf had at least contained a summary of the mechanics behind paths. In a nutshell, though, paths are themed groupings of spells (generally one or more per spell level) that can be used to replace or enhance the existing d20 magic system. A path wizard, for example, starts his career knowing one or more paths, each with their associated spells, and as he progresses he can learn new paths either as he levels up, or taken as feats. The system allows for very thematic builds, and a lot of flexibility. For the most part, the system conveys the core d20 feel of the various classes well with the paths, and allows them more flavor and theme than your regular wizard or ranger.
Paths take on a variety of different themes, from race and alignment related paths, to personality paths and paths associated with certain creature types, such as undead or monstrous humanoid paths. This product contains a wide selection of different paths, although about two-thirds of the product is taken up by the more than 200 new spells rather than the spell paths. The pdf immediately dives into the details of the spell paths, essentially lists of spells from level 1 to level 9 with summaries, and as mentioned earlier, could've done with a summary of the methods of acquiring paths at the start of the pdf by way of introduction.
The first six chapters of this pdf contain the new paths, and include personality paths (e.g. The Entrepreneur, The Sneak, The Thinker), creature type and subtype paths (e.g. aberrations, aquatic, shapechanger, undead, fey), specific paths for different creatures (e.g. centaur and winter wolf), paths for prestige classes (e.g. assassin path and blackguard path), elder paths (more powerful paths such as the blood sacrifice path and the warmage path) and a number of other random paths (e.g. dispelling path). For those interested in expanding or using the path system, this offers a lot. Even if you're not interested, there are plenty of ideas for the normal gamer to use, such as books containing the various paths, or other ideas. Given the number of new spells presented in this pdf, the paths system is a useful way of introducing new spells, so, for example, characters can use a feat to gain access to new spells from a particular path.
The latter section and indeed the larger section of the pdf contains more than 200 new spells, as well as a small number of new feats (Path Expertise, for example). The spells are all generally good and versatile, although in places the mechanics is dubious and it would've been useful if the spells carried a class designation rather than a level designation only. For example, most spells indicate on that it is a level x spell, rather than specifying if it were useful for a Wizard, Bard, Cleric or any combination thereof. While these spells are naturally for use with the paths system, the pdf would've had some added flexibility with that information included, or at least saved a DM some time in assigning them himself. Within the sheer volume of spells there are good and bad, but given the volume any player or DM is sure to find a lot of useful material to use here.
Overall, Paths of Power is a neat product with a lot of useful material in, whether or not you wish to use the paths system or just mine the product for spells and ideas. The paths system adds interesting thematic elements to a class, but can also easily be used without converting the spells system to paths exclusively. A very useful product.
LIKED: Paths of Power II: Monstrous Paths contains a huge variety of useful spells and spell-related material. The paths concept is expanded and explored in stunning detail, and offers flavorful thematic elements to the gaming experience. A very useful pdf with some interesting material.
DISLIKED: A brief summary of the rules for paths would've been useful to include at the start of the pdf, and the spells could've done with a more complete execution in terms of the core d20 system and assigning certain spells to certain classes only. Here there were a number of editing errors, and some weak/incomplete mechanics, but overall nothing significant or that which cannot be altered with ease.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Satisfied
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Mad Scramble is a sourcebook on initiative systems from Distant Horizons Games. The zipped file is just over 8.5 megabytes in size, and contains two PDFs: the main file, which is 8.6 meg, and the 0.3-megabyte printer-friendly PDF. The main file is 21 pages long, including a page for the front cover, a page for the back cover, half-a-page for the table of contents and credits, a page for the OGL, and a page of ads. The printer-friendly version, by contrast, is 16 pages long, with half-a-page for the table of contents and credits, and a page for the OGL.
The main file has quite a bit of artwork, all of it color. In fact, all of it is classical artwork by a single French painter from the Romantic period. Additionally, each page has a color border along the right, and a grey one along the top of the page. The printer-friendly version, by contrast, has no borders nor pictures (save for the d20 and company logos).
Mad Scramble is a product designed to offer options where the d20 system?s initiative mechanics function. Counting the normal d20 initiative method, there are a grand total of a dozen initiative systems presented here. Each initiative system is categorized by when it refreshes; that is, when initiative needs to be rolled again (for example, the standard system is refresh/scene, since you only need to roll initiative again at the next combat encounter). Each initiative system also has a pro and con analysis at the end of its section, and most include variant rules for the system to let you customize it to your liking.
The standard system is the initiative style the d20 system normally uses. Ten variants that can be used with this system are quickly given here, all of them taking up a single page together.
The ?even simpler? system takes less than half-a-page to explain, as it does away with dice altogether and has everyone use their Dexterity score as their initiative score.
The ?minus-10? system uses a different initiative die, but otherwise works normally?except that you get a full series of actions for each ?ten? you can subtract from your initiative score. For example, if your initiative is 26, you make your full actions then. Then you get to do so again at 16, and then again at 6. Five variants for this system are then given.
The ?round robin? initiative system is the simplest, needing less than a quarter-page to explain. Everyone just goes around the table in order, with the only randomness being whether you go clockwise or counter-clockwise.
The ?up for bids? system has everyone?s initiative modifiers be treated as points. These are then secretly bid each round, and when revealed, whoever bid the most goes first, etc. However, you only refreshed your ?initiative points? at every new scene. Six variants for this system are given.
The ?simultaneous? system is the most complex, but also the most realistic. People determine their initiative modifiers, and then take actions, with each action having a ?count? for how long it takes ? if you have any counts left over, you may take further actions. For example, someone who rolled an 11 wants to draw a two-handed weapon. This has a three count, so they may act again at initiative 8. Once initiative 8 arrives, they make a melee attack, which has a one count. At initiative 7, they need to ready their weapon, which also has a three count, so at initiative 4 they may then attack again, etc.
This system has a series of charts breaking down the various actions you can take, and their count for how many segments of initiative it takes to complete them. It also has a general list for types of actions not covered, a section on how dying works in this system, and a list of modified feats. Four variants for this system are then given.
The ?cards? system has you draw from a deck of cards, with your initiative being determined by the type (and possibly suit) of card drawn. The listing of what cards go in what order is given here. Ten variants are then given.
The ?card sequence? system works just like the aforementioned system, but after you draw a card, you immediately draw another. This effectively does away with rounds altogether, as people simply compare what draws they got to determine how many actions a person gets at a time, and what order they go in compared to other people?s actions. One variant is then given for this system.
The ?card hand? system has the GM announce a number of cards to draw. Everyone draws those cards, and gets that many actions per round, with the order determined by the numbers on the cards. However, you may add numbers together to go earlier. For example, if you draw two cards, 2 and a 4 (suit irrelevant), you have two actions taken very late in the round, or you could add them together to go at initiative segment 6, but then you?d only get one action. Five variants for this system are then given.
The ?free-for-all? system gives everyone a certain number of actions (determined how the GM sees fit; a few suggestions are given) they can use. There?s no order of use, and player?s can interrupt each other?s actions with further actions to one-up each other. At some point, however, the GM cuts things off, and everything starts over. Five variants for this system are then given.
The ?pricy? system gives people a certain amount of initiative points. Characters go in order of Dex, and each type of action costs a certain number of points. Characters with a lot of points may be able to take more actions than normal under the standard system this way. Five variants for this system are then given.
The last one, the ?speed rank? system breaks a round into six segments. The more initiative bonus you have, the more segments you can act in every round, according to a handy chart that?s provided. Two variants for this system are then given.
The book closes out with a single page of related material. This page has five new feats for various new systems given here, two new poisons, one new magic item, and one new arcane spell.
All in all, Mad Scramble presents a plethora of new initiative systems that range from ridiculously rigid to complexly loose. However, the majority of these systems seem interesting, and in most cases at least somewhat practical. While some further clarification in some places would have been helpful (in some places, they refer to an ?action? without specifying the type ? do they mean to equate all types of actions, or is that an error?), this was altogether a very interesting array of new options. GMs looking for a literal change of pace for their game would do well to look at Mad Scramble.
LIKED: Not only did this product showcase a dozen different systems for initiative, but it also offered variants on almost all of them! The number of options given here for an initiative system is staggering. And there's even a few feats, poisons, a magic item, and a spell to boot.
DISLIKED: A few of these, such as the "even simpler" system seemed so rigid as to be almost useless. Also, in a few places they talk about taking an "action" during your turn without specifying if that's meant to be a standard action, move action, etc., or if that particular system really is equating all actions.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Satisfied
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