Behind the Spells: Compendium offers three great ways to add some pizazz to your game.

First, each spell includes details behind where the spell came from. Everyone has heard of Tensor, but who recalls Nephar Poratis? Would you ever guess that prestidigitation was the precursor for "a catastrophic orgy of destruction"? These tidbits are great fluff to add depth to any campaign world.

Each spell also comes with some spell secrets. Spell secrets introduce a way for spellcasters to tweak castings (by beating a Spellcraft DC) to achieve different effects. Some of these are kind of cheesy but most of them are pretty cool. Spell secrets add a new dimension to the game without being overpowering or making other aspects obsolete.

Finally, there are variant spells and magic items that round out the book's features. Some of these are pretty useful - any party without a cleric must learn stall and I really like the blastbow.

Herewith a spell collection with a difference. Rather than the usual new spells (although there are a few), this work looks at the core spells of Dungeons and Dragons in a new light. In the Introduction, the author explains both how the series came to be and some of what he has tried to do with it: looking at familiar spells with an eye to how they might be used, and seeking to write about their background. Cross-referencing with earlier editions of D&D suggested how spells might have been developed by various mages over time; and the 'narrator' is the alter-ego of an ancient gold dragon, sharing his wisdom with curious seekers after magical knowledge.

As the first chapter, What's It All About, explains, each of the 36 spells covered has been given a chapter to itself in which firstly the background to the creation of the spell is given, replete with the sort of information which would fascinate anyone interested in the academic study of spells and spellcasting. Then there's a section of spell secrets detailing variants of the spell, and a section of related research which contains wholly-new but related spells and associated magic items. The idea behind spell secrets is simple: that by making small alterations to the way in which a standard spell is cast, the mage can unlease subtly different effects although the spell remains recognisably a fireball for example, it might be possible to make it cause sonic damage as well as burning, or make an enemy's fireball suffer premature detonation. Most spell secrets are recorded in spellbooks by the wizards who thought of them, but inspiration can come in many forms and even the spellcasters who don't normally work from books might record their thoughts.

In game, this book should be in the library of any serious mage or magic college worthy of the name; in the real world it's well worth having in yours!

These pdfs were one of my favorites, I could not wait for the next one to come out. But if you missed the originals, you can now get the compendium and there is added content for those of us that allready have all the pdfs, plus it is nice to have everything in one book.

If you have never read one of these, each one discuses the origin of a common spell, showing how it was first researched and created. Each entry also includes variant versions of the spell, an occational magic item or monster tied to the story. Oh and several of the stories tie together with each other, which does stand out more with all them together in one book.