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Magic of Arcanis $17.99
Publisher: Paradigm Concepts, Inc.
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by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/27/2006 00:00:00

Magic of Arcanis is a sourcebook from Paradigm Concepts. The zipped file is just below 18 megabytes, with the PDF file it contains weighing in at about 19.5 meg. There is only one PDF file, and it has no way to toggle the text or colors, meaning that there is no printer-friendly version. The product has bookmarks (most, but not all, of which have sub-bookmarks for relevant sections) and a non-hyperlinked table of contents.

The book is 226 pages long, including a front and back cover, credits page, a two-page table of contents, and almost a full page for the OGL. The product?s only full-color art is on the two covers, with all of the interior artwork being black-and-white. Each page has borders along the top (listing what chapter you?re in), and on the side (a Greco-style pillar). While beautiful to look at, printing this book will put a strain on your printer, so the lack of a printer-friendly version hurts here. If you expect you?ll need various parts of this book in physical form, you may be better off with the printed book instead.

Magic of Arcanis is a sourcebook describing and detailing, what else, magic in Paradigm Concept?s world of Arcanis. Note that, because this book is campaign specific, it doesn?t try to present any of its information in a generic fashion. While it?s still certainly possible to mine this book for mechanics and ideas to use in your own campaign setting, you?ll need to remove the Arcanis-specific material by hand. This isn?t something that can be held against the book itself, however, as it doesn?t portray itself otherwise.

The first chapter covers the basic ideas of magic in the world of Arcanis. This fluff-only (descriptive text only) chapter describes the nature of magical energy, the cosmology of the Arcanis campaign, and views on magic held by the common people, as well as by various powerful organizations.

Like the first chapter, the second, The Sanctorum of the Arcane, is pure fluff, with no crunch (game mechanics). This chapter is devoted to the largest (and, to a real degree, only) magic-based faction in the Arcanis world. The Sanctorum of the Arcane is a series of safe-houses working together to protect members (magic users, all) from the Harvesters of Ymandragore, who hunt down and abduct mages. This chapter covers their history, allies, how to join them, example safe houses, and more.

Chapter three is a short chapter covering changes made to base spellcasting classes in Arcanis. This is the first place that we notice the book referring us to the Player?s Guide to Arcanis for additional material. While it doesn?t happen too much, there are other places where Magic of Arcanis refers us to its sister book for information it otherwise assumes we have. Beyond that, the changes detailed here are small, mostly dealing with the gods of Arcanis having no alignment.

Chapter four describes six new base classes (20-level classes), all of which are spellcasters. The Altherian Artificer, Hedge Mage, Shaman, Spellblade, Suromar, and Warder are all magic classes that Arcanis characters can select. Each base class is written up in PHB-style, with additional notes on their relationship with the Sanctorum of the Arcane.

Chapter five covers feats, well over a hundred of which are presented. While some are updated from the Player?s Guide to Arcanis (and other Paradigm Concepts books), most seem to be original. In addition to the ubiquitous general feats, and a strong sampling of item creation and metamagic feats, they also have feats of several other varieties, including bardic tradition feats, bloodline feats, channeling (divine) feats, profession feats, scion feats, soul fragment feats, and spelltouched feats.

Chapter six gives us over forty new prestige classes. These are broken down into three groups: Paths of the Sanctorum, which are prestige classes only high-ranking members of the Sanctorum of the Arcane can teach. Other Paths of Arcane Magic presents a number of different spellcasting prestige classes, which can be picked up outside of the Sanctorum?s teachings. And lastly, Paths of Faith, prestige classes for divine spellcasters.

Chapter seven is a relatively brief chapter on new equipment. The majority of it is alchemical items, tools, or labs/kits. The rest of it is mostly mundane equipment, along with a few specialized weapons (which are items you use in conjunction with other weapons or attacks).

Chapter eight presents new spells. This chapter is quite large, taking up over sixty pages altogether. The spell lists at the beginning are given not just for base classes, but also for the Priest class from the Player?s Guide to Arcanis, and for the new base classes presented here. After this are descriptions for several dozen new spells.

Chapter nine, The Menace of Ymandragore, covers the antagonistic magical nation of Ymandragore. This nation sends out secretive, subtle raiding parties (called Harvesters) into the rest of the world to kidnap arcane spellcasters, though for what is a closely-guarded secret of theirs. This chapter gives the percent-chances of being noticed by Harvesters if you can use arcane magic. It then gives a few Harvester-specific feats, prestige classes, and spells. The chapter closes out with a few monsters they make, describing a new creature type: Bio-Construct.

Chapter ten covers the plane known only as Dreamtime. While this is the plane that (presumably) mortals touch when they sleep, the plane?s exact nature isn?t very well understood. This chapter barely two pages long, covers the basics of Dreamtime?s laws and how characters operate there.

Appendix one is titled Constructs of Arcanis. However, the opening line notes that this is really a preview of an upcoming book, Born of Nightmares: Monsters of Arcanis. Most of this appendix covers Clockwork Constructs, which can be built by members of the Altherian Artificer base class. In addition to monster stats, several upgrades that can be purchased for the clockwork construct are also given. A handful of other constructs rounds out this appendix.

The final appendix, barely more than a page, covers fetishes. Fetishes are a new kind of magic item (with an item creation feat in chapter five). Relatively low-powered magic items, only a small sampling of fetishes is given here.

All in all, Magic of Arcanis is an extremely strong sourcebook. Even if you don?t play on the world of Arcanis, you?ll find a lot to cherry-pick from here. And if you do game in an Arcanis Campaign, this book offers a mind-boggling wealth of options. In truth, the only downsides to this book are from a technical standpoint. Printing even a small portion of this book may give your printer a hard time, and with a file this massive, the lack of a printer-friendly version really hurts. The bookmarks are good, and for the most part cover sub-sections of chapters well, but given the wealth of feats and spells, I can?t help but wonder if they couldn?t have bookmarked each individual feat or spell to eliminate the massive amounts of clicking you?ll otherwise do.

Technical details aside, Magic of Arcanis is equal to anything you?ll find from any other company, and exceeds the majority of the competition. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This book offered a diverse amount of material, all of which was excellently designed. Even if you don't play an Arcanis campaign, there is something for you here.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Lack of a printer-friendly version is quite a blow in regards to a book this large. Also, bookmarks to each individual feat and spell would have been helpful in navigating the file.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the review, I am pleased that you enjoyed the read. Being novices to the PDF market, a printer-friendly version didn't occur to us. We will see about such versions for our products once the crush of prep for the summer convention season subsides.
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