EZG reviews 1001 spells (1010, really!)
Hej everybody!
The following is the culmination of A LOT of sweat both on the side of the author and on the side of your humble reviewer – Rite Publishing has released a total of 1010 spells over 10 pdfs and compiled them into one massive book. Today, I’ll first give you the overview-review of the compilation and then provide ALL the reviews, if you want to read the details!
Let’s go!
1001 Spells
This pdf is 291 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of advertisement and 1 page SRD, leaving a whopping 285 pages of content!
The compilation starts off with very extensive lists of the spells – the vast array of excellent spells provided so far by the 101-series. I did reviews for all of them, so my individual scores were:
101 3rd level spells: 3.5 stars
101 5th level spells: 4.5 stars
101 7th level spells: 4.5 stars
101 8th level spells: 4.5 stars
Apart from the content from the individual files, we also get additional content: the APG and UM get full support with Alchemist formulae, Inquisitor spells, Summoner spells and Witch spells and yes, even Magus spell-lists, providing a great support for the new classes and making sure they also get their share of the pie.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are excellent, I didn’t notice any significant amount of hick-ups – quite a feat for a book of this length. Layout adheres to RiP’s old, rune-covered b/w-2-column standard and the artworks are stock and mostly repeated from the series, although I actually did notice some pieces I couldn’t recall encountering in the individual pdfs.
The pdf comes with extensive bookmarks, which is a necessity for a book of this length. Content-wise, the vast majority of these spells rocks and the added APG-support and UM-support as well as the hero-lab support provided make sure that this vast tome retains its usefulness.
However, that’s also where a part of my criticism falls: While spell-lists for the new classes are included, the entries of the individual spells don’t feature this information (i.e. they only read clr, sor/wiz etc.), which is a pity. While I realize that including this information in the spell-lists would have been a tremendous amount of work, I would have loved to see it nevertheless, as it would have felt like it integrated the support for the new books instead of adding it via appendices. The additional Hero-lab support, for everyone using the software, is awesome. By the way: If you have purchased all individual 10 101-spells pdfs, you can get this compilation for free by shooting an e-mail @ Rite Publishing – stellar support for the customers! So, how to rate this one? While the minor gripe I had is unfortunate, you still get more than 1000 spells for less than 20 bucks. Now if that is not an awesome bang-for-buck ratio, I don’t know what is. Add to that the high individual scores the component pdfs garnered from me and I’ll settle for a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 – excellent, almost perfect compendium of spells at an unbeatable price for the vast amount of content provided.
Want the details? Ok!
101 0-level spells
This pdf is 24 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages advertisements, leaving 19 pages for 101 o-level spells. Let’s dive in!
After three pages of spell-lists, we get to the spells. The spells are:
– Alter Taste (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Changes taste, but not after the spell is cast.
– Animate Tools (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Accomplishes mundane tasks with your craft or profession skill
– Antagonize Wound(Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Deal 2 points of damage by touching a wound, 1 on a successful save.
– Askew Balance (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Let creature fall prone on a failed fort save. Not sure whether this shouldn’t be a CMD-check on the target’s side, but oh well.
– Awaken (Sor/Wiz): Wake up target as if slapped.
– Balance Weapon (Clr, Sor/Wiz): +1 enhancement bonus to weapon, does not count as magical.
– Bash (Sor/Wiz): Next melee attack gains +2 to atk and reduces miss chance by concealment 10%
– Blossom (Brd, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Lets flowers blossom.
– Bone Spurs (Sor/Wiz): Deals 1d6 damage, but creature targeted gains +1 damage to grapple, natural & unarmed attacks
– Canny Effort (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Next skill check gets +2 insight bonus
– Capture Alive (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Nonmagical melee damage is converted into nonlethal damage.
– Cauterize (Sor/Wiz): Deals one point of damage, but stops bleed.
– Ceremonial Servant (Clr, Drd): Shadowy servant helps with ceremonies.
– Clandestine Conversation (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Makes conversation between 2 creatures private.
– Clean (Sor/Wiz): Clean dirt.
– Cleanse of Alcohol (Brd, Clr, Sor/Wiz): Negates effects of alcohol. I don’t like this spell, especially not at this level. It could possibly ruin too many good adventure set-ups and makes e.g. drunks in-game look like idiots.
– Cloth Armor (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Use cloth to improvise padded armor.
– Conjurer’s Toolbelt (Sor/Wiz): Conjure a tool for your use.
– Countervailing (Clr, Drd): Temporarily reverses detrimental effects of other spells. E.g. -6 to Str would become +3. I think this spell is grossly overpowered, especially for level 0, and should be disallowed.
-Crack (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Deal 1d3 DR and hardness-ignoring damage to an object, construct or undead creature.
– Create Snow (Drd): Create some snow.
– Crystal Symbol (Clr, Drd): Make a ranged touch attack for 1d3 divine damage.
– Dark Baubles (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Lets an object cast a dark shadow, granting a bonus to stealth.
– Dawdle (Sor/Wiz): -4 to Ini and -1 to reflex saves.
– Daze Animal (Drd, Rgr 1): Daze an animal with 4 or lesser HD.
– Decrypt (Brd, Sor/Wiz): +5 to decipher encrypted message.
– Detect Charm (Brd, Clr, Pal 1, Sor/Wiz): Detect charm spells.
– Detune (Brd): Detune instrument, imposing a -4 to perform.
– Dim (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Halves light strength.
– Discern Health (Clr, Drd): Detects HP, negative conditions etc. in subsequent rounds. Due to the HP- and whether someone is drained etc. info, I don’t like this spell. I just don’t like metagamey stuff like that.
– Disorienting Quake (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Target is shaken for one round and may fall prone.
– Divining Rod (Drd, Rgr 1): Find water, shelter or grown food.
– Drench (Drd): Deal 1 point nonlethal damage and extinguish small fires.
– Elemental Sample (Sor/Wiz): Creates a small piece of the given element for a short time.
– Encrypt (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Code a message.
– Eyes of the Augur (Clr, Sor/Wiz): +10 to spellcraft to identify spells. That is a bif bonus for level 0. I would have went with +5.
– Glimmer of Hope (Brd, Clr, Drd): Adds +10% to the chance of the target stabilizing once it drops to negative HP.
– Gnome’s Gold (Sor/Wiz): Impose -1 per 2 caster levels on appraise checks for the given item.
– Guardian Mote (Sor/Wiz): Mote absorbs 1d3 damage on the next attack that hits you.
– Guide Vessel (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Guide vessels with simple commands. Only simple movements work.
– Heaven’s Teardrop (Clr, Drd): Deal 1 bludgeoning and 1 fire damage on a ranged attack.
– Idyllic Sleep (Sor/Wiz): Sleep well in terrible conditions.
– Infuse Weapon (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Choose an energy: Deal +1 damage of the chosen energy with your weapon.
– Iounic Transportation: Lets object orbit your head like an Ioun stone.
– Irksome Weapon (Sor/Wiz): Weapon punishes for provoking attacks of opportunity.
– Layer of Ice (Brd, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Target gets 1 cold damage, but also fire resistance 5.
– Light my Fire (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Start a fire when materials are there.
– Lightning Sand (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Entangle enemies.
– Lightsight (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Ignore penalties for light blindness.
– Long-range Weapon (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Increase range increment of ranged weapon by 50% for one attack.
– Low Blow (Brd, Clr, Sor/Wiz): 1 point bludgeoning damage and 1 round sickened.
– Magic Spike, Lesser (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Decrease DCs of enemies spells or spell-like abilities by 1.
– Mishap (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Make a caster level check and select a scroll mishap.
– Omen Casting (Sor/Wiz): Next spell you cast on the target gets +1 DC.
– Overlook (Brd, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Makes object easier to hide.
– Pants (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Lets targets pants drop.
– Parry Strike (Sor/Wiz): Gain +2 to AC against the next melee attack, whether it hits you or not.
– Parry Shot (Sor/Wiz): Gain +2 to AC against the next ranged attack, whether it hits you or not.
– Pause (Brd, Sor/Wiz): -4 to Ini
– Phantasmal Tripwire (Sor/Wiz): Tripwire potentially trips enemy, dealing nonlethal damage.
– Pointer (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Lightbeam from finger to show stuff, can be used to amuse felines.
– Putrefy Food and Drink (Clr, Drd): Spoils food and drink.
– Quicken Stride (Brd, Drd, Sor/Wiz): +5 ft movement rate.
– Quill (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Conjures up a quill.
– Ray of Mercy (Sor/Wiz): Deal 1d4 nonlethal damage.
– Resistance to Fear (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): +2 morale bonus against fear.
– Restlessness (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Prevents target from sleeping for 24 hours.
– Rigged Coin (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Coin always lands on the same side.
– Sand in your Eyes (Sor/Wiz): Deals 1 point slashing damage and blinds target for 1 round.
– Seeker (Sor/Wiz): Next ranged attack gains +2 to atk and reduces miss chance by concealment 10%.
– Shadow Snag (Sor/Wiz): Snag shadow to entangle foe.
– Shelve(Brd, Clr, Sor/Wiz): Correctly shelve item.
– Shield open Flame (Drd, Sor/Wiz): Helps against wind.
– Sickening Smell (Clr, Drd): Sicken targets.
– Sign of Discovery (Brd, Clr, Sor/Wiz): +2 to next Knowledge, Sense Motive or Perceptions check.
– Signal (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Signal can be heard in 1000 ft.
– Simple Bed (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Create a simple bed in e.g. nature.
– Slapping Hand (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Ranged touch to slap enemy for 1 damage.
– Smoke Image (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Create image from smoke.
– Song of Serenity (Brd): Negate fatigue of an ally.
– Spider’s Thread (Sor/Wiz): Create a rope and anchor it e.g. to the ceiling. Now that is just damn cool.
– Spook Animal (Brd, Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Frighten animals.
– Stonesense (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Gain stonecunning. If you have it, +5 to Perception.
– Subconscious Aggression (Sor/Wiz): If atarget has rolled a natural 1 on an attack, he must reroll and potentially hit an ally.
– Summarize (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Summarize up to 250 pages.
– Summon Nature’s minor Ally (Drd): Summons tiny or diminutive animal of 1/2 HD or less.
– Thicken (Clr, Drd): Increase hardness by 10% up to 50%.
– Thorn of Light (Drd): Deal 1 point magical slashing damage on a ranged touch.
– Timer (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Audible alarm after set time. Cool one.
– Touch of Fascination (Sor/Wiz): Target is fascinated for the duration.
– Touch of Fatigue (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Target is fatigued, but can save again.
– Touch of Lethargy (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Target gains the staggered condition.
– Touch of Torment (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Creature touched gains -1 to atk, skills and ability checks.
– Trifling Image (Brd, Sor/Wiz): Very small immobile illusion.
– Tripline (Sor/Wiz): Creates a tripwire to let enemies fall.
– Ultrasonic Nodes (Brd, Sor/Wiz): 1d3 sonic damage on a ranged touch attack.
– Unarm Foe (Sor/Wiz): Disarm foes via CMB vs CMD on distance.
– Unruly Bolt (Sor/Wiz): Deal 1d2 random energy on a ranged touch attack. Damage lingers at higher levels.
– Unseen Attendant (Brd): Unseen servants grooms you.
– Virulence (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz 1): -2 to saves against disease and poison while the spell lasts.
– Wooden Club (Drd, Sor/Wiz): Create a wooden club.
Conclusion:
Editing is top-notch, I didn’t notice any typos. Formatting adheres to the two-column standard and the b/w-artwork is nice. I was VERY curious about this file, as I considered 0-level spells, especially designing 101, a serious challenge. While I didn’t like some and hate Cleanse of Alcohol, I loved others and can say that this pdf is an EXCELLENT addition to any campaign – spellcasters at lower levels are often rather boring to play and this pdf seriously helps with this old problem. Thus my final verdicts for this installment of the 101-series will be 5 stars. Well done!
101 1st level spells
This pdf is 28 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1page SRD and 2 pages of ads, leaving 23 pages for 101 spells.
The pdf kicks off with a one-page introduction to the series.
The spell-lists take up 3 pages.
The spells are:
-Adjust: Resize clothes, armor etc.
-Alter Liquid: Turn Water to Ale
-Alter Poison Damage Type: Change e.g. Str-damage to Dex-damage in a poison.
-Animate Element: Animate an element as a small elemental
-Animate Skeleton: Self-explanatory
-Animate Tattoo: Lets your tattoo attack at your normal range
-Animate Wood: Animate wooden object as an animate object
-Astute Fighting: Grants competence-bonus to BAB depending on the level of the caster
-Awesome Strike: Imbue your blows with the power to knock an enemy back and knock him prone
-Bee Sting: minor damage and possibly minor con-damage
-Bleeding Wounds: lets the enemy bleed from wounds he receives
-Blossoming Footsteps: Creates plants for usage with other spells and just plain looks cool
-Borrow Skill: Borrow Skill from another character for 1 round
-Breathtwist: Change the energy of a breath weapon
-Briefly Visible: Cancel Invisibility for a short period
-Brimstone: Throw a glowing stone with acrid smoke to damage your foes
-Brilliant Arc: Electric Arc damages enemies and has minor secondary bolts
-Clarity of Faith: Bonus to Knowledge (Religion)
-Clarity of Thought: +4 to Concentration
-Clear Conscience: Lose 1 min/level of memories prior to casting this spell. Awesome idea!
-Cock’s Crow: Awaken sleepers
-Contingent Minor Healing: Contingency 1-point healing, minor damage to undead
-Color: Permanently alter the color of a creature or object
-Contrariness: -10 to Diplomacy
-Crop Circle: Use incorporeal scythes to cut crops and enemies
-Curse of Ineptitude: 50% failure to do stuff for one round (OP imho)
-Cutting Flame: Basically a way to cut through inanimate objects, this spell could be the safecracker’s best friend
-Deep Shadows: Increase concealing properties of shadows
-Discerning Eye: Determines exact monetary value of one item
-Dispel Magic, lesser: As Dispel Magic, but the max bonus is +5. (I’ve been using this spell in my home campaign for years and designed it just like the people at RiP did!)
-Distract: Flat-foot an opponent
-Divine Beacon: When the target is within range, the caster knows any negative conditions on it
-Down and Out: +10 to the next CMB to disarm or trip
-Draw on Faith: Scaling Bonus up to +5 to either one attack roll, a save or check in the next minute.
-Earth Charger: Grant mount +4 and trample-damage
-Energy Missile: Shoot missiles of an energy type
-Energy Weapon: Sheathes weapon in energy type, dealing more damage
-Escape Grapple: +5 to check to escape a grapple
-Flashy Defense: Gain DR 1/ or Resistance 5, depending on the attack
-Foul Flesh: Makes own flesh nauseating for enemy bite attacks
-Foe’s Measure:: Learn class or creature type along with level and HD. Disguised creatures are exempt. While the disguise-clause is nice, I don’t like metagamey spells.
-Flank Shield: Prevents being flanked, unless flanked by a rogue with 4 lvls more than caster
-Glamour: +5 to Diplomacy and Bluff
-Gloomlight: Lets creatures with darkvision see in color
Guilt: Force enemy to think about past misdeed
-Harden: Increase objects hardness by half or +1.
-Heat Lightning: Lightning that may dazzle and set on fire
-Hesitation: Reduce initiative count of enemy by caster level
-Hey of the Bull’s Eye: This spell makes it 20% possible for a missed attack to hit. Quite powerful for a 1st level spell.
-Hex Weapon: Succeed a Will-save or drop weapon
-Hidden Shelter: Magically create shelter that is hidden by your Stealth-check
-Ice Arm: Gain touch attack and minor ability to resist Fire
-Id Seizure: Affected creature can take only move actions
-Ignore: Make creature suffer -5 penalty to perception
-Illuminated Weapon: Disrupt undead enemies hit by the weapon and give them a penalty
-Inflict Pain: Deal non-lethal damage
-Invisible Familiar: Self-explanatory
-Inspired Initiative: +2 on next Ini-check
-Keen Senses: Gain/expand low-light vision
-Lash Fey: Damage Fey with Iron
-Malicious Intent: Penalize saving throws and a school of magic
-Mental Sentinel: Enhanced perception and Initiative
-Minor Lasting Image: Very small immobile illusion
-Missteps: -10 ft. movement and -2 to Dex
-Mistsight: See through fog
-Overcompensation: Lets weapon grow to the size that barely makes it wieldable
-Pearl of Brilliance: damage and dazzle foe, especially powerful against undead
-Peephole: Create a peephole
-Pins and Needles: Distract enemy, minor penalty, hampers spellcasting
-Poison Weapon: Adds weak poison to weapon
-Potent Weapon: grants weapon bane quality
-Precipitate: Conjure rain, sleet or snow, depending on the temperature
-Pressure Spray: use a blast of water to knock enemies back and quench fires
-Quill Skin: Damages constricting or swallowing creatures
-Reactive Armor: +2 to AC, can be cast as immediate action
-Righteous Strike: +1 to attack and damage and bypass all DR for one strike. (Paladinspell and as such limited and not op)
-Sacred Watch: Mental image of subject and whether it is in danger but not where it is
-Scentless: Suppress scent-trail
-Second Change: Retry a saving throw
-Self-loading bolts: Bolts targeted load themselves
-Shadow Hands: More subtle variation of burning hands
-Shadow Weapon: Conjure quasi-real weapon
-Share Sacrifice: Target heals half current HP damage, you gain the same amount of damage
-Skill Lore: Scaling insight bonus to skill
-Songstrike: Sonic damage
-Sonic Dart: Ranged touch attack sonic damage
-Soul Beacon: Bolster against Undead, but can easily be seen
-Spikes of the Locust Tree: Bolster unarmed strikes and makes unarmed attacks against target painful
-Stunning Note: Stun enemy
-Supernatural Ward: +4 on saving throws against supernatural effects
-Summon Weapon: Self-explanatory
-Sword Shock: Lets electricity damage target from held items, possibly causing him to drop them
-Torchbearer: Similar to an Unseen Servant, this spell conjures a creature to shed light
-True Shield: +20 Ac against the next attack With 1hour/level, the duration of this spell is MUCH too long.
-Tunnel: Gain burrow speed
-Undetectable Poison: Mask the presence of poisons
-Unspeakable Tongue: Subject speaks gibberish, but still can cast spells
-Valiant Resolve: Subject gains DR 10/non-lethal
-Ward, lesser: Create either a blast ward or a spell ward of up to 1st level
-White Noise: Target object hinders both sight and sound
-Wind Churn: Inflict Air (never knew this damage type existed…does it?) damage on enemies, force flying creatures that fail the save to land or fall.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any typos. This b/w book follows the standard-two-column-layout and the artwork is ok – it’s a combination of stock art and Joe Calkin’s work. Before I go on any further, let me say that the 3.5.-glut has made me very, very wary on which spells I’ll introduce to my game. Combine that with a rather skeptical approach to even more spells and you’ll get this review. Most of the spells actually, as I’m happy to report, are not per se stronger than similar spells from the Core rules. Where the book truly shines, though, is with spells like “Torchbearer” and “Undetectable Poison”, spells that make me think “Why hasn’t anyone made them before?”. Unfortunately there are also some spells like “True Shield” that are in my opinion not perfectly balanced. The above example has a duration that simply is too long. Some of the skill-bonus/penalty spells felt a bit like filler to me, but these are few and far between. On the other hand, though, many spells scale with levels and thus stay useful beyond the first level. What’s my final verdict, then?
Due to my minor points of criticism, I won’t rate this a perfect 5-stars but rather, I’ll rate this 4 stars: Good buy for the low price, but there is still room for improvement.
This pdf is 30 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 26 pages for the spells and comes with a printer-friendly extra version, so let’s take a closer look at the spells, shall we?
After 4 pages of spell-lists, we are introduced to the new spells. Adhering to my usual format, I’ll mention spells that caught my eye, be it positively or negatively and comment on them to hopefully give you a good overview of the content herein. The first spell that I really enjoyed is “Arboreal Archer” – you imbue a tree with limited intelligence and instruct it to e.g. fire volleys of acorns, branches etc. at enemies – that’s one staple of fantasy literature I always wanted druids to be able to do – cool. On the mechanical side, we get curses that counter e.g. “Cat’S Grace”, “Bull Strength” etc., finally introducing debuffs for the most common buffing spells at low levels. “Confront Outsider” is a bit problematic for me – I am one of the DMs whose campaigns are focused on research and thus, true names of outsiders are carefully kept secrets. This paladin spell grants a bonus to the paladin by forcing a confrontation with an outsider and forcing it to reveal its true name. While the spell is not bad in any way, I personally won’t be able to use it due to the amount of mythology on true names I established. I just wanted to mention this in case you’re like me – it won’t detract from my final verdict.
“Damage Loins”, a magical kick to the groin, is sure to see a lot of use in my campaign, if only for the humorous potential. “Delude Divination” is a godsend for beleaguered GMs who suffer from PCs with a lot of detect spells. “Destabilize Magic” is once again a cool spell for those chaos mages among you – detract 10 from magic DCs and add 1d20 -fun and risky! “Examine Coffin”, a spell that let’s you glance into a coffin MIGHT be a true time-saver, but might also deprive you of the iconic coffin-burst scene – I’m torn on this one. “Fall up” on the other hand is another spell that just screams “utilize me in creative ways”. Nice! “Exploding Critical” adds some force damage to criticals – while not a bad spell, I consider it boring. The same holds true for “Force Club”. “Memory Crystal” lets you deposit a memory in a crystal – story-telling gold. On a rules-side, I think conjuring and undead-devouring yellow slime as per the “Necrophage”-spell should also be accessible to druids.”Ride Winds” is another iconic addition. “Righteous Armor” lets you summon your armor, which I consider quite lame, as “Rolling Boulder”, which lets you conjure a ball of elemental earth to roll over your enemies. “Silent Ray” is simply a ray dealing sonic damage and “Stone burst” is also rather bland. On the other hand, there is a “Support beam”-spell my players will never leave home without – escaping from collapsing dungeons is just too cool.
“Utter Failure” is a cool one-trick pony spell against PCs. “Web shelter” is another cool idea, especially when e.g. under water and lends itself to some nice ideas by the PCs.
Conclusion:
Editing is top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Both formatting and layout adhere to the tried-and-true two-column b/w-standard and the artworks are ok. The spells were mostly great, with some truly exceptional and very iconic ones in between. However, I also felt that there are more spells that felt like filler than in other 101-installments. While still being a great book, e.g. 6th or 0-level feels better to me and subsequently my final verdict will be 4 stars – a good selection of new spells to add to your campaign.
This pdf is 29 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 25 pages for the spells and comes with a printer-friendly extra version, so let’s take a closer look at the spells!
After 4 pages of spell-lists, we get the spells, but before I get to them, I’ll elaborate a bit – scarcely a spell level has this influence on gaming. 3rd level. Fireball and Lightning Bolt. Dispel Magic. And I haven’t even delved into the curative magic. 3rd level spells have always been a milestone in my games – players suddenly can tackle larger groups, hold their own better against mages and so on. Subsequently, some of the most important and iconic spells can be found at this level and it’s hard, very hard to design valid alternatives. Does this file succeed? I’ll try to highlight some spells, both positive and negative, that caught my eye in order to give you a good overview of what to expect from this installment of the 101-spells-series.
“Accelerate Decay” is a spell that damages ancient creatures like vampires usually up to 10d6 damage, 20d6 to particularly ancient creatures and suppresses their fast healing for 24 hours. While only applicable to rare creatures, I think that no 3rd level spell should deal that much damage AND suppress the enemies primary means of recovery. “Airsphere” on the other hand is a spell I sorely missed in 3.5 and sees the return of a sphere of breathable air. However, I also have a problem with this spell – it automatically counter dragon’s breath (which dispels it, but still). That means that a great wyrm breath can be negated by a 3rd level spell. Not going to happen in my campaign. “Blinding Ash” is a cool twist on obscuring mist with a bit of damage added. In the “Chilling Mist”-spell, which is a cool idea, there seems to be a discrepancy between fluff and crunch, making it hard to use. “Counterattack” lets you hit back at full BAB any time an opponent makes a melee attack against you. If you use a gish-class, this spell might be gold, but DMs ought to take heed – in some encounters this can be very powerful. “Curse of Capturing” transforms all damage the target deals to non-lethal. A great way to annoy players of the Belkar-mindset. “Curse of Item Rebellion” curses an item, turning e.g. a +3 sword into a -3 one etc.. Sorry, I don’t like this particular curse – I lacks the “insult TO injury”-component I look for in curses. rather, it’s only an insult. “Filch” is a great trickster spell that teleports unattended items either to you or a location in range you can designate. “Force Marbles” are also a great idea for iconic escapes and cool climbing helper. “Secret Speech” conceals messages in regular speech, which makes for some really nasty ideas. “Summon Firearm” lets you conjure your personal crossbow/firearm, locked and loaded, to you. It feels a bit weak for 3rd level. I should probably note that fans of the often-neglected water magic get several nice spells that deal non-lethal damage and control the terrain.
Conclusion:
Editing is ok, I didn’t notice typos or glitches, but the spell “Chilling Mist” suffers from some formatting/editing problems. Layout adheres to the tried and true rite publishing two-column standard and the b/w-artwork is ok. I get that competing with easily some of the most iconic spells is hard, but in contrast to the other 101-books, I felt that this one was rather feeling uninspired – there are several deal x damage + minor effect z-spells in here, when the space would have been better suited for some non-combative or creative spells that deal with terrain control or even other spells – after all, we already have some of the most iconic combat spells, haven’t we? All in all, this one felt like the weakest installment of the 101 series, my final verdict will be 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the purpose of this platform.
101 4th level spells
This pdf is 32 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages advertisements, leaving 27 pages for the 101 spells. So let’s dive in!
After 4 pages of spell-lists, the new spells are introduced.
4th level has always been a peculiar one for my players and me: With dispel magic and the classic battle-spells like fireball and lightning bolt, 3rd level spells have traditionally been the ones my players anticipated. 4th level on the other hand…has almost always been one of the spell-levels that still has some spells left when the party rests. Subsequently, my players have not been too stoked about this level and thus, I’m hoping for this book to change that. Let’s take a look whether it succeeds and which spells catch my eye, positive and negative.
Among the 101 spells were several that caught my eye, and I’ll endeavor to give you some of the cool concepts contained herein: “Borrow Limb” lets you temporarily use an additional severed limb – creepy, cool, I love it. “Chaotic Blast” is a hasardeurs/chaos mages battle spell and extremely versatile. “Dying Vengeance” is a nice curse for bards.”Fold” temporarily folds you into one square, making this an extremely cool plot/infiltration spell. “Foresight of the Just Warrior” is the first of several extremely cool paladin spells that caught my eye – it is feat-dependant, i.e. it can only be cast if you have power attack, but always makes your attack use the ideal amount of atk/damage exchange. “Hand of Time” speeds time for magic effects, essentially ending them faster – unfortunately also the beneficial ones. For all the people who want their paladin to become martyrs and make their character’s ultimate sacrifice meaningful, we get “Last Act”, which gives you one last round, even when you’re dead, and “True Sacrifice”, which sacrifices your life to resurrect another one. There were also some spells I didn’t care too much for: “Boorishness” drops charisma of a foe to 1, essentially being a “save-or-suck”-spell for bards and sorcerors. “Sonic Blast” is a cone that deals sonic damage and just felt like filler. “Stomach Bloom” lets the target vomit up acid, damaging both him and an adjacent enemy. The damage is evenly divided between both. However, I’m not entirely sure, whether the target receives all the damage when there’s no-one in vomiting range.”Zone of Mishap” potentially makes casters fizzle a lot, but from the description I’m not entirely sure whether the caster is exempt from the spells effect or whether he has to check against his own spell.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any mistakes. The pdf is extensively bookmarked and layout adheres to the two-column-RiP-standard. The b/w-artworks are ok, though I’ve seen more beautiful ones in RiP-books. The quality of the crunch is top and I liked more spells than I didn’t. 4th level becomes much more interesting thanks to this book and especially paladins get a LOT of awesome spells, though I would have loved to see the feat-concept further evolved. In spite of my praise, though, e.g. the 0- or 9th level installments felt a bit more imaginative to me. Thus, I’ll settle for a final verdict of 4 stars – a good book of spells that helps casters make 4th level spells just as exciting as 3rd ones.
101 5th level spells
This pdf is 32 pages long, 1page front cover, 1page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages advertisements, leaving 27 pages for 101 spells, so let’s dive in!
After 3 pages of spell-lists we get the 101 spells. 5th level has traditionally been a level that made magic complex – abjurations, layered defenses and the first spells one can consider higher arcana – iconic. Instead of milling through all the spells, I’m going to tell you about the ones that grabbed my attention, positive or negative. Let’s go! On the “cool-idea-side” we get “fell tree”, which drops a tree on your opponents. Hilarious and kinda cool! “Flatten” makes you 2d, essentially opening a lot of creative potential for players to shine and use the spell in unconventional ways, especially in infiltrations. “Pain Circuit” is a mechanically interesting spell – It opens up a conduct between you and your foe, making the foe experience your ailments and damages. My other favorite spell, though, has to be “Voice of Memories” – you can replace memories of the targets, change them etc. Story-writing gold for the GM and cool tactics for PCs, especially if they’ve screwed a given adventure up.
I’ve also noticed two spells I didn’t care for: “Chastise” penalizes the enemy and deals non-lethal damage. If you’ve read some of my reviews, you’ll notice that I’d usually love spells like that, offering to catch enemies alive. However, this spell actually gets the [evil]-descriptor. I get the “dealing unnecessary pain is evil”-argumentation, but this spell does not feel inherently evil, but could be arguably used for a plethora of “good” (e.g. NONLETHAL) ways. That’s an easily corrected nitpick of mine, though. Of all the spells in the book, I felt that one was severely overpowered: “Spell Grounding”. When within range of any rays and chain-spells (such as chain lightning), it is automatically drawn to you and is negated. I think the spell should only work for spells of level 5 or lower or at least offer an opposed caster-level check. That’s about it with negatives, though. The only other negative thing I could say, is that there is a typo in the “Phantasmal Nymph”-spell, mentioning lich instead of nymph, an oversight from copying from the other cool phantasmal spell, “Phantasmal Lich”.
Conclusion:
Editing is good, I only noticed one typo. Formatting and layout adhere to the b/w two-column standard by RiP. The file is extensively bookmarked and offers some very cool and imaginative spells for you. The b/w-artworks are also fine. Most of the spells rock, but I wasn’t absolutely blown out of the water as e.g. with the 0-level spells. Due to my minor gripes with two of the spells and the aforementioned difference in coolness (at least from my point of view), I’ll settle for a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.
101 6th level spells
This pdf is 35 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages advertisements, leaving 30 pages for the 101 spells. Let’s check them out!
6th level. The last level accessible to non-primary casters. An iconic level, a level that e.g. should offer a lot of nice stuff to e.g. the bard. Does it deliver? We’ll see!
After 3 pages of spell-lists, we are introduced to the new 101 spells. I’ll be following my format for these reviews, i.e. I’m going to tell you which spells I fancied and which ones I didn’t like and try to give you a good overview of what you can expect from this installment of the 101-series.
All right, the first spell I loved, was “Aid Item”, which gives an item 3 charges that can be used to activate the item faster. One of my absolute favorites in the book is “Bestow Major Curse”, which offers a whopping selection of 14 (!!) new curses in one spell! By the way, have I mentioned that there are several other, really cool curse-like, permanent spells? The enchanters and practitioners of subtle magic like bards get some completely AWESOME spells – “Buried Suggestion” puts a suggestion into the target that cannot be detected until it is triggered. The bard’s “Dance of Nakedness” does not make the target naked, but negates its items – however, the bard must keep moving AND stay close to the target – powerful, exciting and takes a seldom-seen mechanical edge to the spell.
“Divide and Conquer” makes you a swarm of 300 tiny versions of yourself – damn cool. Fans of clerics get cool spells like “Excommunicate”, “Exile” and similar spells that focus on their role not only as divine warriors, but also as spiritual and moral leaders. There are also some spells that would make the chaos magic-fans and hasardeurs among you cackle with glee – I know I did: “Bouncing Boom” is a ball of changing energy – ever wanted to kill your enemies with an elemental bouncy ball? Glorious! There are also new scrying spells like “Scryingjack” that lets you take control of hostile scrying attempts and finally a spell to counter “Find the Path”. There are also cool plotspells like “Kiss of Death” – kiss an enemy and get the ability to kill them in the next 12 hours – great idea to subvert parties and trick PCs. Spells I didn’t like…well. Ähem. Sorry. This time, I didn’t notice any balance problems, there is not a single filler spell in this book.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting is top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to the two-column standard and the b/w-artwork of this installment is cool. Furthermore, I liked the spells. ALL of them. They are cool, imaginative and I’ve just given you a small taste of the great spells herein. Even in the good 101-spells-series, this one stands out as an excellent, supremely cool book of spells. I’ll rate this a full 5 stars. If you like spells, go ahead and check this out.
101 7th level spells
This pdf is 34 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 30 pages for the spells, so let’s take a closer look at the spells, shall we?
7th level is traditionally the level that introduces what I like to call “High Magic”, i.e. spells that only specialists, primary casters, can cast and subsequently I expect something beyond useful or cool spells, but rather magic that clearly distinguishes the caster as a master of his craft.
In accordance with my format for 101-spell-reviews, I’ll once again mention select spells which I considered cool and ones I didn’t like, hopefully providing a nice overview of the book.
After 3 pages of spell-lists we get the spells, so let’s check them out! The first spell I found that I really liked is a debuff/buff-spell called “Calculated Anger”, which grants barbarian-like rage bonuses to allies and penalizes the enemies with uncontrollable anger. “Consume Item” destroys magic items via touch and grants you temporary HP – your PCs will hate this spell and I love it! One of the coolest spells in the book, though, has to be “Copycat”: You can replicate a spell of 6th level or lower cast by before by any caster in the encounter it is cast, complete with variable casting times dependant on the casting time of the original spell.
Once again, the series also features some nice curse-spells: “Bestow Greater Curse” felt rather uninspired – especially in direct contrast with the “Scourge”-curse (also in this book): While the latter comes with great sample curses, the former is only a bland set of penalties. “Curse Greater Ability” is a spell that, while not bad per se, I didn’t like: It prevents a foe from using one ability. While not bad, it is dependent on meta-game-knowledge and subsequently not my cup of tea. One of the cool spells, fluff-wise, is “Dragon’s Teeth Warriors”, creating clay golems from dragon’s teeth planted in the ground. “Earth and Fire” also rocks – it deals damage AND modifies effects in the area of the spell, adding e.g. bludgeoning damage to fire spells. Awesome idea, I would have loved to see more like that. “Explosive Dispel” is also nice – dispel and damage in one fell swoop.
For the dragon-fans, there is “Flames of the Dragon’s Fury”, a spell that grants you a fear-aura, natural armor and the ability to use draconic breath (which shortens the spell’s duration) – great and iconic spell! “Ward of Vaults” and “Haunted Grounds” are also nice spells, making locations more hostile to intruders and offering several nice ideas. When I read “Monstrous Lore”, I thought I’d hate the spell: It tells the players the abilities of a monster via its parts or scat. However, it only delivers the names of the abilities, not what they do, potentially giving the DM some leeway. “Rage of the Red Dragon” is a good example for a wasted chance – it’s just a combination of “Form of the Dragon I” and “Rage”. Especially in contrast to the “Flames of the Dragon’s Fury”-spell, this felt rather bland. For the rather sadistic guys like yours truly, there’s also a great spell “Mass Unstable Form” temporarily polymorphs the victims into living, amorphous blobs. The best spell, though, has to be “Steal the Painful Memory”, which removes a certain event from the collective knowledge of a large area, but also creates a piece of evidence – once the evidence is destroyed, the knowledge returns to the people. AWESOME!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I only noticed one glitch, not enough to detract from the final score. Layout adheres to the classic b/w-two-column standard and the artworks are ok. On a design note, there are almost no spells I didn’t like and I gave some examples of cool spells. However, in contrast to e.g. 6th, 9th and 0-level, I didn’t notice that many “OMG-HOW-COOL”-spells. Thus, my final verdict will be 4.5 stars.
101 8th level spells
This pdf is 34 pages long 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages of advertisements, leaving 29 pages for 101 8th level spells. Let’s dive in!
After 3 pages of spell-lists, we get to the 101 spells. I pasted the spells from the list and added information for which classes the spells were designed. The spells are:
– Anger of the Spirit (Drd): You inflict a terrible curse.
– Baleful Object (Sor/Wiz): Causes an object to deliver a
virulent curse.
– Basilisk Gaze (Drd, Sor/Wiz): Gaze attack turns victims to stone.
– Bastion of Pure Magic (Sor/Wiz): Create a bubble of ‘live magic’ in a ‘dead magic’ or antimagic area.
– Blackburst (Sor/Wiz): Globe of blackness sickens, deals 1d6/level cold/negative energy damage (max. 25d6).
– Blank Face (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Remove a subject’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth
-Burn Out (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz) : You create an area of dead magic.
– Call Down the Thunder (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): You call down two columns of intense thunder, damaging and deafening your foes.
– Chaotic Visions (Sor/Wiz): Random images distract targets, concealing reality from them and nauseating them.
– Chaos Unleashed (Clr 9, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Create a permanent field of unbridled chaos.
– Charm Contagion (Sor/Wiz): Subjects sing your praises to others, charming them in turn. Might potentially upset a campaign. Should be limited to very few or only one caster.
– Construct Form (Sor/Wiz): You gain many properties of a construct.
– Crippling Ray (Sor/Wiz): Ray reduces target’s highest physical ability score by your caster level.
– Curse of Languishing Death (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Victim suffers 1d6 points of Constitution damage/day.
– Curse of Undeath (Clr, Sor/Wiz): When target dies, he will rise as an undead.
– Curse Unto Generations (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Curses a man’s brothers and sons or a woman’s sisters and daughters for four generations.
-Deity’s Form (Clr): Channel a deity’s power through caster’s body.
– Deity’s Sign (Clr): Reveals a deity’s presence on the battlefield dazing unbelievers and empowering believers.
– Deluge (Drd, Sor/Wiz): Heavy rains stun and confuse foes.
– Discern Defenses (Sor/Wiz): You learn the equipment, active spell effects, special defenses, special attacks, and special qualities of a single creature.
– Dispel Magic Field (Sor/Wiz): You create an area of effect dispel magic field which allows you to dispel active spells as well as counter spells targeted at you for the duration of the spell. (Swift)
– Dispel Physical Barrier (Drd, Sor/Wiz): You cause 100hp damage/level to a non-living physical barrier you touch.
– Drowning Poison (Drd, Sor/Wiz 9): Target’s lungs are filled with a contact poison.
– Dweomer Nova (Sor/Wiz): Your spellcasting abilities increase for a short time.
– Earth Barrier, Greater (Clr 9, Drd): A swirling barrier of boulders and granite slates deflects attacks, deals damage to your attackers.
– Echoing Script (Sor/Wiz): Reading text inflicts echopraxia and echolalia.
– Encase in Ice (Sor/Wiz): Entraps target in block of ice.
-Enspelled Weapon (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Caster’s weapon has touchattack spell stored within it, inflicting the spell with each strike.
– Entropic Torrent (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz): Deals 1d8 damage/level and destroys objects in area.
– Escape Route (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Create a path to freedom that possibly cuts off or damages pursuers. (Swift)
– Evil Twin (Sor/Wiz): Creates a hostile twin.
– Faking the Dead (Sor/Wiz): Creates illusion of your death/destruction and renders you undetectable.
– Fiendish Infestation (Sor/Wiz): Summons fiendish rot grubs inside each target’s skin.
– Fiery Bombardment (Sor/Wiz): Deals 1d8 per level points of damage, half fire and half concussion, at great distances.
– Final Reward (Clr, Drd): Sends the spirit of the target on to the afterlife.
– Fivefold Exile (Sor/Wiz): Sends up to five targets to another plane and place them in stasis temporarily.
– Forewarning (Sor/Wiz): Target gains an insight bonus equal to your caster level on two saves or to its AC or CMD vs. two attacks.
– Globe of Electricity (Sor/Wiz): Electricity surrounds caster and allows caster to shoot small bolts of lightning.
-Godsblood (Clr): Vial of holy water is enchanted with various effects.
– Gravitational Crush (Sor/Wiz): Gravity increases, possibly crushing those in the area.
– Guardian Dragon (Sor/Wiz): Creates an invisible dragon that guards you.
– Heightened Senses (Sor/Wiz): Subject gains darkvision, blindsense, keen senses, scent and +10 bonus to Perception checks.
– Hellish Appearance (Clr 9, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Caster gains gaze attack that deals 1 point of Str, Dex, and Con/3 levels.
– Id Assassin (Sor/Wiz): Waking nightmare confuses, deals wisdom damage and deals nonlethal damage to one living creature.
– Inside Out (Sor/Wiz): Turn targets inside out, causing 1d6 points of damage per caster level, frightening creatures within 30 feet.
– Iron Maiden (Sor/Wiz): Armor impales the target inside.
– Khan’s Command (Sor/Wiz): Forces creature to come to your location.
– Magnetic Wall (Sor/Wiz): Creates a wall of iron that is also magnetic, pulling metal objects toward it.
– Manacles of Suppression (Sor/Wiz): Target is grappled by unbreakable chains of antimagic.
– Mark of Insight, Greater (Sor/Wiz): Subject has +5 to one chosen saving throw plus other power.
– Mark of Secrets, Greater (Sor/Wiz): Subject has +5 to one chosen skill plus other power.
– Massive Devastation (Sor/Wiz): All within 10-foot/level radius suffer 1d6 points of acid, fire, electrical, and sonic damage/level, plus special effects.
– Meteorite (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): You drop a piece of celestial matter on a foe dealing 1d6/level to the foe and half that to all others in the area.
– Minions of Death (Sor/Wiz): Slay many creatures and animate them as undead warriors and servants.
– Mirrored Oracle (Clr, Sor/Wiz): The touched creature receives an insight bonus that he can apply in nearly any manner he wants.
– Mists of Ecstasy (Clr): All creatures within these mists helplessly revel in pleasure.
– Nature’s Cocoon (Drd): Target is imprisoned forever in a location, or dead subject is reincarnated and teleported.
– Perilous Weapons (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Target’s manufactured or natural weapons gain the perilous weapon special quality.
– Phantasmal Demilich (Sor/Wiz): Fearsome illusion renders the subject helpless or deals 7d6 damage.
– Phantasmal Roper (Sor/Wiz): Fearsome illusion drains 6d6 Strength or deals 7d6 damage.
– Phantasmal Shoggoth (Sor/Wiz): Fearsome illusion confuses you, deals wisdom damage, lashes you, constricts you, engulfs you or deals 7d6 damage.
– Phase Explosion (Sor/Wiz): Passes through non-living matter, dealing 1d6 points of damage per level.
– Pocket Arborea (Drd): Extradimensional paradise provides secure haven, food, and water.
– Power Word Pain (Sor/Wiz): Causes a creature to collapse and writhe with pain.
– Power Word Rage (Sor/Wiz): All affected creatures immediately fly into a murderous frenzy.
– Prismatic Chain (Sor/Wiz): Target suffers from all colors of a prismatic spray, and nearby targets are struck as per a prismatic spray.
– Prismatic Weapon (Sor/Wiz): You take down a prismatic wall or prismatic sphere and create a weapon that hits with all the effects of a prismatic spray.
– Prison of Stone (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Grasping hands of stone grapple and imprison creatures.
– Prophesy (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Catch images of the future
– Psychic Blast (Sor/Wiz): Creatures in cone suffer 1d6 points of damage/caster level and 1d4 points of Wisdom and Intelligence damage.
– Pure Sight (Sor/Wiz): Duplicates several lesser divinations, allowing caster to switch as a free action.
-Racial Ward (Sor/Wiz): Puts all creatures other than specified type into stasis.
– Ravage Abilities (Clr): You deal 1d6 points of ability damage to all the subject’s ability scores.
– Ride the Lightning (Sor/Wiz): Bolt inflicts 1d6 points of electrical damage/caster level and caster appears where it ends.
– Ring of Fire (Drd, Sor/Wiz): Shimmering violet fire deals 2d6 fire damage within 10 feet, 1d6 damage between 10 and 20 feet.
– Rob the Reaper (Sor/Wiz): Caster sends his soul away to safety rather than die. (Immediate)
– Sacrifice, Immortal (Clr, Drd): Sacrifice ageless creature to confer bonuses to subject.
– Savage Victim (Drd: Perform a successful combat maneuver while wild shaped and deal an additional 1d6 /2 levels plus double your Strength modifier. (Immediate)
– Scourge Foes, Greater (Clr, Drd): Blast of divine power deals 1d8/2 levels damage, deafens foes for 2d4 rounds, and restricts their actions for 1 round. The spell-name-header is missing in my version of the file.
– Seed of Terror (Clr, Sor/Wiz 9): You infect a target with a monster that grows inside it, dealing 3d6 Con damage.
– Shadow Arena (Sor/Wiz): Create a demi-space to partition a battlefield and isolate foes.
-Sky Barge (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Summons a flying barge that carries 400 pounds/level.
– Spectral Gallows (Sor/Wiz): Invisible tentacles encircle the necks of affected creatures.
– Spell Magnet (Sor/Wiz): Target of ray suffers –1 penalty/2 caster levels to saves against magic.
– Spellbore (Sor/Wiz): Force your spell through antimagic areas and effects. (Swift)
– Split Personality (Sor/Wiz): Creates second, opposite personality in target that has control half the time.
– Spore Bloom (Drd): Ranged touch attack deals 1d6/level magical piercing damage and 1d4 points of Constitution drain.
– Storm of Ballista Bolts (Sor/Wiz): Barrage of ballista bolts deals 3d8 to all creatures and objects in a very large area.
– Symbol of Hate (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Like symbol of death, except all creatures become overwhelmed with hate and immediately attack all those around it.
– Teleport Extraction (Sor/Wiz): Teleports part of a creature’s body outside of it.
– Tide of War (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Force creatures to attack nearby friends or foes.
– Timeslip (Sor/Wiz): Change outcome of one action by rerolling any one die.
– Unstoppable Bleakness (Sor/Wiz): 1d3 negative levels to all targets in area dispels death ward.
– Veil of Fiery Meteors (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Orbiting stones defend and can attack.
– Venerable Anointing (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Creature temporarily becomes venerable.
– Vorpal Strike (Sor/Wiz): Your strike may sever an opponent’s head. (Immediate)
– Wall of Reaving (Sor/Wiz): Shimmering plane dispels and suppresses magic.
– Wall of White Water (Clr, Drd, Sor/Wiz): Creates a wall of white water rapids.
– Waves of Infirmity (Clr, Sor/Wiz): A cone inflicts 3d6 Constitution damage.
– Wild Animus (Brd 6, Clr): Animates all inanimate objects in area of effect, which attack the nearest creatures.
– Xenophobic Rage (Clr, Sor/Wiz): Make subjects instantly aggressive to anyone not of their own race.
Conclusion:
Formatting adheres to the two-column standard, the artwork is nice. On the editing side, I noticed some minor glitches, but not many. The most prominent being the one spell-header missing. On the content side, I can say that 8th level has been one of the rather meh-levels for my players, which will change with this book. While not as iconic as the 9th-level installment, this part of the 101-series actually has some VERY cool archmage-level-battlespells that will see A LOT of use in my high-level builds – spellbore particularly is just great. I also liked the curse for future generations and the fake death-spell. Due to not being as mega-iconic, but still being a great file and the minor editing glitches, I’ll settle for a final score of 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
101 9th level spells
This installment of the 101-series is 40 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of advertisements and 1 page SRD, leaving 35 pages of content for the spells.
The pdf kicks off with 3 pages of spell-lists for clerics, druids and Sorcerors/wizards.
9th-level spells. The apex of magical might. The stuff arcane dreams are made of, the signature of the archmages. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time, so let’s take a look at the spells and check out whether they have the iconic potential I expect of 9th-level spells.
The spells are:
-Accursed Rot (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): A plague spell that dispels foils to it and is very hard to cure. Nice.
-Aid Item, Greater (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Grant an item your caster level and special charges that enable you to use it faster.
-Behind the Curtain (Sor/Wiz 9): Get a clear, non-cryptic response from the DM, but be unable to relay it in any way to others without being blasted from reality. AWESOME spell. I usually HATE metagaming spells, but this one has great potential and e.g. explains why powerful figures don’t simply tell everyone about a certain fact/problem.
-Bestow Malediction(Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): A curse of the grandest kind.
-Black Blizzard (Clr 9, Drd 9): You conjure a violent prone-knocking, people-burying sandstorm.
-Blightfire Ray (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Devastating, 5-round lasting Con-draining ray that grants you temporary HP.
-Block and Pit Trap (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Open an extradimensional pit trap and let a block of stone fall on it. Nice idea.
-Blood Protectors (Clr 9): Create up to 5 constructs from your shed blood.
-Boiling Sea (Drd 9): Either boil a large amount of water or conjure forth a devastating geyser.
-Brain Drain (Sor/Wiz 9): Drain Intelligene and drive target insane, use skills of target for a limited amount of time.
-Burbling Blast of the Jabberwock (Drd 9): Sonic damage and permanent confusion.
-Call of the legendary Jewel (Sor/Wiz 9): Force a creature to steal a certain item you crave.
-Call of the Obsidian (Sor/Wiz 9): Force a creature to kill a certain enemy of yours.
-Cast Out (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Permanently banish a creature to another plane, deals damage instead on a successful save.
-Chain Gang (Sor/Wiz 9): Bind a group of people together so that when they leave each others sight, they are teleported back.
-Change the Path (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Bend Reality to change the course of one path.
-Cleansing Light (Clr 9): Deal massive damage and inflict negative conditions on evil creatures.
-Convert Foe (Clr 9): Makes a former enemy your cohort, up to the point of e.g. making a paladin an anti-paladin.
-Curse Community (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Curse a whole community – great idea!
-Curse of the Albatross (Clr 9): Prevent a creature from travelling ever again.
-Curse of the Pyrrhic Victory (Sor/Wiz 9): Go out with a devastating blast.
-Darkest Night of Winter (Drd 9): Spehere of darkness and heavy snowfall negates almost all senses and can counter light spells like prismatic sphere.
-Deadly Tempest (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Conjure a devastating vortex to destroy your foes.
-Defensive Sphere(Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Very powerful sphere makes you practically impervious to harm and attacks for the duration.
-Defile (Clr 9, Drd 9): Destroy a piece of land, deal damage to people, let them rise as undead and poison water. Includes a quick and dirty mini-template.
-Downdraft (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Force flying creatures, vessels, etc. to the ground.
-Dreamstealer (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Stealing dreams of a target imposes massive, cumulative penalties. VERY cool spell.
-Duplicate(Sor/Wiz 9): Create an exact duplicate of yours under your control.
-Endless Enemies (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Turns EVERYONE against the targets. Nice!
-Engulfing Doom (Sor/Wiz 9): Shrieking maelstrom of negative energy deals damage and expands when it kills foes.
-Entwined Fate (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): While your archenemy is alive, you cannot die. Iconic & cool.
-Eruption (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Volcanic eruption, complete with flow of lava, fire and subsequent PC- death.
-Fist of Raging Energy (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Bigby-like hand-spell that comes in variants for energy-types.
-Fly on the Wall (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Makes an insect a powerful scrying sensor.
-Flying Flaming Corpse, Greater (Sor/Wiz 9): Immolate a target and use it to telekinetically batter foes.
-Form of the Swarm (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Take the form of an insect swarm. Great escape spell.
-Glacial Slide (Clr 9, Drd 9): Slow-moving glacier destroys immovable objects.
-Globe against the Arcane (Clr 9): Antimagic Field for arcane casters.
-Glyph of warding, Superior: Warding glyph that deals a lot of damage.
-Guardian’s Tomb (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): A kind of imprisonment-like spell for people to act as eternal guardians.
-Heart of the Volcano (Drd 9): Teleport target into the heart of a volcano. Ouch.
-Illusory World (Sor/Wiz 9): Superior form of mirage arcana.
-Immortality (Sor/Wiz 9): Makes a target immortal, but comes with a risk.
-Inescapable Shackles (Sor/Wiz 9): Super-force shackles.
-Judgment Day (Clr 9): Very powerful curse that entraps a victim in its former sins.
-Khan’s Sending (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Powerful madness-inducing spell.
-Lash of Sin (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Create a lash attuned to the 7 deadly sins.
-Lifefire Ray (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Minor, but almost unhealable, continuous damage.
-Lord of the City (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Know almost all about a city.
-Maelstrom (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Create a devastating maelstrom.
-Magic Castle(Sor/Wiz 9): Instantly create a magical castle. How cool is that?
-Mark of the Avatar (Clr 9, Drd 9): Enables you to give one creature of your choosing an avatar-like form. Cool one.
-Mark of the Prismatic (Sor/Wiz 9): Either pass prismatic effects once or shoot all 7 effects at once as a ray.
-Meteorite, Superior (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Three months after the casting, an annihilating, terrible meteorite comes down. Great plot-device spell.
-Nigh Indestructible (Sor/Wiz 9): Makes an item almost indestructible.
-Occlude (Clr 9): Disrupt other divine spell-casting.
-One Step beyond (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Stay ahead of divinations.
-Pandemonium (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Force of damaging chaos with several 50%-chances.
-Petrify (Sor/Wiz 9): Wave of petrification.
-Phantasmal Opposition (Sor/Wiz 9): Duplicates try to kill the enemies.
-Phantasmal World (Sor/Wiz 9): Trap foes in a phantasmal world.
-Phoenix from the Ashes (Clr 9): Resurrect a target and transform it into a phoenix.
-Psychic Clone (Sor/Wiz 9): Transform enemies thought pattern into your own.
-Purge Recollection (Sor/Wiz 9): Erase an event from memory.
-Purify (Clr 9, Drd 9): Damage undead and mass-ressurect destroyed undead.
-Rain of Blood (Clr 9): Rain of poisonous blood.
-Ray of Ramming (Sor/Wiz 9): Ram enemies, deal damage, knock them prone etc.
-Reforestation (Drd 9): Mass transform enemies into trees. Creepy.
-Relive (Sor/Wiz 9): lets subject relive past injuries, dealing a lot of damage.
-Resonance (Sor/Wiz 9): Emit a destructive resonance, choose between three resonances.
-Revelation (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Super-detect/analyze spell.
-Ruin Structure (Sor/Wz 9): Destroy a structure.
-Script of the Lost (Sor/Wiz 9): Amnesia-causing script. Cool one.
-Scry Ward (Sor/Wiz 9): Prevents scrying and summons monsters to would-be scryers.
-Shadowy Cohort (Sor/Wiz 9): Create a lethal, shadowy force to help you.
-Shunting Ward (Sor/Wiz 9): Ward a place and send potential interlopers away with greater teleport.
-Signify (Sor/Wiz 9): Duplicate 8th-level or lower divination spells sans material components.
-Silent Ruination (Sor/Wiz 9): Silent destructive pulse.
-Siphon Life (Clr 9): Deal damage and heal you.
-Sphere of Decay (Sor/Wiz 9): Sphere of damage that becomes more destructive each round.
-Spirit of Victory (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): +10 luck bonus to attack rolls, damage, saving throws, checks and AC.
-Splinter Storm (Drd 9): Sphere of deadly splinters.
-Sunfire Tomb (Clr 9, Drd 9): Entomb an enemy in the sun.
-Symbol of Destruction (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Superior form of Symbol of Death.
-Teleport Lair (Sor/Wiz 9): Teleport a whole location.
-Thunderstorm’s Fury (Drd 9): Summon a lightning-storm of terrible power.
-Time Undone (Sor/Wiz 9): Destructive ray that may make past misdeeds of a slain character undone.
-Touch of Divine Insight (Sor/Wiz 9): Learn the name of a deity and thus change spells for divine spells.
-Toxic Breath (Sor/Wiz 9): Gain a terrible acid-based breath weapon.
-Triggered Agent (Sor/Wiz 9): Subtle, triggered chain of suggestions.
-Ultimate Insight (Sor/Wiz 9): Either become a great fighter or create a certain task.
-Undo (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Reverse something that happened last round.
-Unending Torment (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Applies massive penalties to an enemy.
-Unmind (Sor/Wiz 9): Remove the intelligence from a creature, reverting it to instinctive behavior.
-Vials of Wrath (Clr 9): Create up to 7 destructive vials.
-Vorpal Scythe (Sor/Wiz 9): Create a deadly scythe made of force that can behead enemies.
-Wake the Forest Primeval (Drd 9): Super-entangle, enemy-damaging effect.
-Waves of Weakness (Sor/Wiz 9): Deal massive Str-damage.
-Weapon of Death (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Deadly weapon.
-Web of Fate (Sor/Wiz 9): Divide damage among all linked characters.
-Zoanthropy (Sor/Wiz 9): Either makes target rabid or creates the delusion of being a monster.
Conclusion:
Layout adheres to the two-column RiP-standard, editing is good, I only noticed two minor glitches. Formatting is top-notch. I’ve made clear that I expect iconic spells at this level and the pdf delivers – a lot of the spells make you come up with adventure or even campaign ideas and mechanically they are interesting, too – even if you manage your saves, you often will experience minor damage/negative conditions, rendering this file absolutely awesome. If you as a DM need some good ideas, check these spells out – they are not only appropriately cataclysmic, but often downright brilliant. Due to the top-quality content, I’m going to let the two glitches I encountered slip and rate this the full 5 stars – a great purchase.
All right. That’s it for now. Thank you for reading my ramblings – I apologize for the different reviewing styles – I switched them around while working on the series.
Endzeitgeist out.
