Incantations from the Other Side: Spirit Magic (PFRPG) PDF

For those interested, I've posted my review of this book.

Short version: I liked it. A lot.

I have been seriously considering this. Maybe in August when I should have some spare cash I can check it out.

I have been seriously considering this. Maybe in August when I should have some spare cash I can check it out.

I posted my review of it, as well. This is totally worth it if you want to put a system of magic in your game that everyone can utilize. ZSP did a great job of providing three flavors of incantations to work with here.

I'm looking to post a review of their latest pdf sometime this week.

-Ben.

I love incantations, and it was well written, but at the same time, I almost felt that there was some too specific information in some of the write ups that made me feel a bit more compelled to either adopt conceits into my campaign to work with the concepts or to work on how to "genericize" the more specific content.

That and it does move a bit away from the original concept of "do something in ritual form to create something similar to an existing spell effect" to performing rituals that do stuff that don't map to existing spell effects exactly, which, while cool, makes it harder to judge how well something like this will fit the flavor of a campaign.

I don't want to sound negative, because its actually really well written, and maybe if I was creating a campaign world from the ground up I'd use this as part of the groundwork, but I'm not sure I want to try and make it fit into my Golarion campaign, for example, and I would have felt the same way back in my days of running Forgotten Realms.

How many pages is this?

How many pages is this?

Incantations from the Other Side: Spirit Magic is a perfect resource for players wanting to add a little danger to their characters or for game masters needing that extra something for their game world. This 38-page, high-quality, full-color, web-optimized pdf is compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and contains 20 dangerous new incantations, 36 new spirits, a sample arcane lodge, and a new disease.

*points*

I love incantations, and it was well written, but at the same time, I almost felt that there was some too specific information in some of the write ups that made me feel a bit more compelled to either adopt conceits into my campaign to work with the concepts or to work on how to "genericize" the more specific content.

Let me help! :)

The text assumes the presence of a "spirit world," but as provided, that world was built into a "black box" as much as possible, so there's minimal interaction with your chosen game world. At its base level, there's no "in" or "out" of it without your, the GM's, say so. The only interaction with it is through the incantations (unless you choose otherwise). This was intentional so as to have a minimal impact on everything else.

That said, if you are uncomfortable with the idea of a "spirit world" in your world or if it really doesn't fit, what can you do? So I gave it some thought...

Vodou: Pared down, the loa are merely "messengers of the gods." As an alternative to what's presented in Incantations from the Other Side, the loa could be a new race of outsiders or a specialized station of angels/devils/et al. that function as heralds to the gods, conduits to divinity. They don't typically leave their own god's homeplane (or perhaps they all live in a centralized plane/city call Lavilokan, mentioned in the text), and the incantations are then similar to more specialized contact other plane spells.

Middle World: As presented, this is really just a re-imagining of the fey. These incantations could simply be pacts made with actual fey, hiding in the corners of the Material Plane or just across the thin barrier to whatever version of Otherworld or Faerie Realms you're using.

Arcanum: The starry patrons could be various "lords of abomination" currently blocked off from direct contact because they're locked within distant Lovecraftian realms of madness or they exist in galaxies on the other side of the universe. What is witnessed within the summoning circle is merely their dark projection. (But now they know of your existence and on on their way for real!)

Hope that helps give you some ideas on how this material can be used in your own game!

Is this a stand alone product? Do I need "Incantations in Theory/Practice" to use this?

You don't need it, but it is an awesome pairing. You'll want to get In Theory and Practice after getting this one as it goes into more detail about incantations and even gives guidelines for making up your own. Plus it has awesome artwork by the mighty James Keegan.

How similar/different is this from "Secrets of Pact Magic" and the Binder from Tome of Magic?

How similar/different is this from "Secrets of Pact Magic" and the Binder from Tome of Magic?

I'm not familiar with either of those products, but this book (and the other incantation book from Zombie Sky Press) deals exclusively with incantations. Incantations were first described in the 3.5e Unearthed Arcana, and these two products update the rules to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and expand on them in extremely flavorful ways.

This is absolutely nothing like Secrets of Pact Magic/the Tome of Magic binder.

Both of those introduced new classes with abilities that allowed for them to, as a class-based effect, bind with a spirit - granting them specific effects depending on what spirit they chose.

Incantations from the Other Side deals with incantations; ritual magic that requires a series of successful skill checks to cast, and can be thus cast by anyone, regardless of class.

This is absolutely nothing like Secrets of Pact Magic/the Tome of Magic binder.

Both of those introduced new classes with abilities that allowed for them to, as a class-based effect, bind with a spirit - granting them specific effects depending on what spirit they chose.

Incantations from the Other Side deals with incantations; ritual magic that requires a series of successful skill checks to cast, and can be thus cast by anyone, regardless of class.

Got a review you may find useful over here: RPG Aggression

Alzrius wrote:

This is absolutely nothing like Secrets of Pact Magic/the Tome of Magic binder.

Both of those introduced new classes with abilities that allowed for them to, as a class-based effect, bind with a spirit - granting them specific effects depending on what spirit they chose.

Incantations from the Other Side deals with incantations; ritual magic that requires a series of successful skill checks to cast, and can be thus cast by anyone, regardless of class.

Got a review you may find useful over here: RPG Aggression

Thanks, but I've got my own over here: RPGNow.

;)

Is this a stand alone product? Do I need "Incantations in Theory/Practice" to use this?

If you're already familiar with what incantations are from 3.5E, then this is stand-alone. If you're not, you can easily get up to speed by checking them out in the 3.5E SRD. Or you can pick up Incantations in Theory and Practice.

Incantations in Theory and Practice just smooths out the edges of the system, making it fully compatible with Pathfinder (and incantations nearly were 100% compatible already)--although it does expand how they can be used. However, those new rules were not used in Incantations from the Other Side.

How similar/different is this from "Secrets of Pact Magic" and the Binder from Tome of Magic?

As others have said, this material has nothing to do with the binder class or pact magic. Though Incantations from the Other Side talks about "pacts," it is not a reference to the "pact magic" of the binder class. This book uses a different mechanic--incantations, which are potentially available to any class.

That said, there is a level of thematic similarity. Just as the binder makes pacts with "vestiges" as a class ability, the incantations in this book allow characters to make pacts with "spirits." Vestiges and spirits are thematically very similar. In fact, I think these incantations would make a very interesting addition to any binder. They would greatly expand the ways that a binder could interact with the spirits/vestiges without interrupting the class's own mechanic. And other characters could help out and interact with the binder's world. Through the binder's normal pact use, the character may form a special bond with those spirits/vestiges of a given "type"--for instance, the Vodou, Middle Word, or Arcanum systems presented in the book--or the character may even have the ability to interact with more than one.

In short, I think there's a ton of potential in blending these incantations with the binder class. I may have to try that in my own game.

Thanks to Scott sending me a coupon, this review can now also be found on DTRPG!

Has anyone used this with the new Pat Magic book from Radiance House? It seems from the description that these would work well together.