paizo.com Recent Reviews of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)paizo.com Recent Reviews of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)2021-11-20T03:28:50Z2021-11-20T03:28:50ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): More Options ! more magic, ... MORE ! (5 stars)Vrischika111https://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2013-05-15T07:31:44Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>flavorful options, powerful options
<br />
classes, archetypes, feats...</p>
<p>while 100% of the boook might not please you, you want this book.</p>
<p>having the choice to build flavorful PC with the right options is priceless (and for this book, you have...)</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>flavorful options, powerful options
<br />
classes, archetypes, feats...</p>
<p>while 100% of the boook might not please you, you want this book.</p>
<p>having the choice to build flavorful PC with the right options is priceless (and for this book, you have...)</p>Vrischika1112013-05-15T07:31:44ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): ultimate magic, rrrrright!!judas 147https://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2013-01-26T18:59:29Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>this book owes its selling rate for the Magus. </p>
<p>lazy feats, some options are good, some others just dotn´
<br />
Archetypes: the best Bladebound Magus
<br />
worst of all: Trapper Ranger</p>
<p>Spellblights: interesting but too complex for a fumble system
<br />
Spellword Casting: at the beginning it looks very nice, then i read it and... is the same spell restriction and opportunities at a expensive cost of time</p>
<p>feats: ok those are feats </p>
<p>Magic spellbooks: why you dont just paraphrase some words concerning about how to protect the spellbooks with some spells and thats all. maybe a feat or two for scaling this option, besides the spellbooks looks greats.</p>
<p>spells: again, the magus options are great.</p>
<p>my advice for you: buy the book, cut the pages concerned for magus, and dump the rest or Download the pdf at any place you can, print the magus and drop the rest</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>this book owes its selling rate for the Magus. </p>
<p>lazy feats, some options are good, some others just dotn´
<br />
Archetypes: the best Bladebound Magus
<br />
worst of all: Trapper Ranger</p>
<p>Spellblights: interesting but too complex for a fumble system
<br />
Spellword Casting: at the beginning it looks very nice, then i read it and... is the same spell restriction and opportunities at a expensive cost of time</p>
<p>feats: ok those are feats </p>
<p>Magic spellbooks: why you dont just paraphrase some words concerning about how to protect the spellbooks with some spells and thats all. maybe a feat or two for scaling this option, besides the spellbooks looks greats.</p>
<p>spells: again, the magus options are great.</p>
<p>my advice for you: buy the book, cut the pages concerned for magus, and dump the rest or Download the pdf at any place you can, print the magus and drop the rest</p>judas 1472013-01-26T18:59:29ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL) (2 stars)Becketthttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2013-01-26T14:25:55Z<p>While I do not think that either this or Ultimate Combat deserve to be called "Ultimate" anything books (maybe Ultimate Monk), I do think that Ultimate Magic does better cover it's proported theme. In my opinion, Inner Sea Magic did a better job overall, but is sadly setting specific.</p>
<p>On th Divine Side (minus Paladin) this book is extremely, extremely limited. There are a few gems, but most are either placed really far out of reach, or just not worth what you give up for them, and might as well not have been there at all rather than tease.</p>
<p>On the Arcane side, this book is full of material, but severely lacking as well. There is an assortment of random material that just seems like it was left over from other books and tossed in here. The only magical items in this book (exceptionally noticable on the Divine Magic side) are Wizard's Spellbooks, (which of the top of my head, only 3 Classes in the entire game will actually have any use for beyond the sell price). </p>
<p>There are a lot of (would be) nice Feats, except they are specific to a Class, or build, or whose names imply it would be great for somone else besides who it is actually intended. Over all, there are a lot of options, but actually very slim pickings. Overall, it leaves a lot of classes and build out in the cold.</p>
<p>Whereas Ultimate Combat is at best Ultimate Monk, Ultimate Magic is closest to being more appropriate as Ultimate Wizard/Inquisitor, (arguably Classes that did not need more).</p><p>While I do not think that either this or Ultimate Combat deserve to be called "Ultimate" anything books (maybe Ultimate Monk), I do think that Ultimate Magic does better cover it's proported theme. In my opinion, Inner Sea Magic did a better job overall, but is sadly setting specific.</p>
<p>On th Divine Side (minus Paladin) this book is extremely, extremely limited. There are a few gems, but most are either placed really far out of reach, or just not worth what you give up for them, and might as well not have been there at all rather than tease.</p>
<p>On the Arcane side, this book is full of material, but severely lacking as well. There is an assortment of random material that just seems like it was left over from other books and tossed in here. The only magical items in this book (exceptionally noticable on the Divine Magic side) are Wizard's Spellbooks, (which of the top of my head, only 3 Classes in the entire game will actually have any use for beyond the sell price). </p>
<p>There are a lot of (would be) nice Feats, except they are specific to a Class, or build, or whose names imply it would be great for somone else besides who it is actually intended. Over all, there are a lot of options, but actually very slim pickings. Overall, it leaves a lot of classes and build out in the cold.</p>
<p>Whereas Ultimate Combat is at best Ultimate Monk, Ultimate Magic is closest to being more appropriate as Ultimate Wizard/Inquisitor, (arguably Classes that did not need more).</p>Beckett2013-01-26T14:25:55ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): mediocre at best (3 stars)g0atstickshttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2012-08-16T11:15:58Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This book is no Complete Divine or Complete Arcance. I mostl play a cleric and this book does little for me personally. </p>
<p>Yeah, its got some interesting tweaks, but for the price, i dobn't think thy are worth it. </p>
<p>So far I've used 1 feat and the spells from this book. Nothing else. Should've bought the APG.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This book is no Complete Divine or Complete Arcance. I mostl play a cleric and this book does little for me personally. </p>
<p>Yeah, its got some interesting tweaks, but for the price, i dobn't think thy are worth it. </p>
<p>So far I've used 1 feat and the spells from this book. Nothing else. Should've bought the APG.</p>g0atsticks2012-08-16T11:15:58ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): A good product to add to your collection! (5 stars)Andru Watkinshttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2012-08-02T14:59:07Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>After reading through Ultimate Magic, some new mechanics offered in this book can add flavor and fun to an adventure. </p>
<p>The Magus appears to be a class that is fun to play as. You are able to swipe at your enemies with your sword in one hand and with magic in the other. </p>
<p>Spellblights are interesting. These curses can hinder the spellcasters in different ways.</p>
<p>One chapter that I especially liked was the words of power. The concept was a little hard to wrap around but when you understand it fun ensues. I tried out a couple of words of power in an adventure and it was pretty fun. There was a point where I fought a spellcaster who also had words of power and it felt like the two were having a very destructive debate ha!</p>
<p>Overall I enjoyed this product and I recommend this to everybody!</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>After reading through Ultimate Magic, some new mechanics offered in this book can add flavor and fun to an adventure. </p>
<p>The Magus appears to be a class that is fun to play as. You are able to swipe at your enemies with your sword in one hand and with magic in the other. </p>
<p>Spellblights are interesting. These curses can hinder the spellcasters in different ways.</p>
<p>One chapter that I especially liked was the words of power. The concept was a little hard to wrap around but when you understand it fun ensues. I tried out a couple of words of power in an adventure and it was pretty fun. There was a point where I fought a spellcaster who also had words of power and it felt like the two were having a very destructive debate ha!</p>
<p>Overall I enjoyed this product and I recommend this to everybody!</p>Andru Watkins2012-08-02T14:59:07ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Half & Two Thirds (4 stars)Cole Cummingshttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2012-01-23T16:09:04Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I bought this book on Friday, I've decided to use it to make things a little different when the Party heads off into The First World. The Magus will be introduced into the campaign as will the Words of Power casting system. Of course, since the Words of Power have to be chosen at character creation the PCs will not have access to it unless they make new toons.</p>
<p>So far the book is useful. I use the PDF versions and miss the links that the Core Book has. But I do like that, unlike the Core Book, the pages automatically size to fit the window.</p>
<p>This is a good product for a GM that is looking to change things up a little.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I bought this book on Friday, I've decided to use it to make things a little different when the Party heads off into The First World. The Magus will be introduced into the campaign as will the Words of Power casting system. Of course, since the Words of Power have to be chosen at character creation the PCs will not have access to it unless they make new toons.</p>
<p>So far the book is useful. I use the PDF versions and miss the links that the Core Book has. But I do like that, unlike the Core Book, the pages automatically size to fit the window.</p>
<p>This is a good product for a GM that is looking to change things up a little.</p>Cole Cummings2012-01-23T16:09:04ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Some good stuff in here... (4 stars)Mark Knightshttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-12-31T04:26:37Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This book appears to have taken a bad rap. I for one quite like this, from the Magus class, through all the options for any class that is even slightly magical. I actually really liked the words of power idea, though I will never use them in any serious way (perhaps a shamanic npc) and I enjoyed the feats and discussion on magic use.</p>
<p>Really gives magic a good feel in the campaign. Mind you, the book is not an essential addition at all. If you want a fully fleshed out magical campaign though it is a great book.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This book appears to have taken a bad rap. I for one quite like this, from the Magus class, through all the options for any class that is even slightly magical. I actually really liked the words of power idea, though I will never use them in any serious way (perhaps a shamanic npc) and I enjoyed the feats and discussion on magic use.</p>
<p>Really gives magic a good feel in the campaign. Mind you, the book is not an essential addition at all. If you want a fully fleshed out magical campaign though it is a great book.</p>Mark Knights2011-12-31T04:26:37ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Some good mostly poor to bad (2 stars)Thehigher causehttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-12-09T03:17:40Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I thinking the paizo is simply taking the left overs from other books and slapping it to take another bite of the apple. This makes me sad, I hope this doesn't continue.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I thinking the paizo is simply taking the left overs from other books and slapping it to take another bite of the apple. This makes me sad, I hope this doesn't continue.</p>Thehigher cause2011-12-09T03:17:40ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Haters Will Always Hate. A Surprise? (5 stars)Bruunwaldhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-12-08T03:42:18Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>It's hard to take reviews seriously on this board. If you're a longtime lurker or poster, you know well that every additional book Paizo has put out for Pathfinder has from its inception been a bright, shiny target seemingly custom made for the hurled monkey poo of a horde of miserable would-be design "experts." These people were prepared to hate from the outset, so should we be surprised when they rain their hate down on the product once it has been released?</p>
<p>Here is a frank and honest review from somebody who actually does make a side living making games and related accessories, and who doesn't have an axe to grind or a big fat ego to polish.</p>
<p>I love this book. I admit, I don't use all of it. I don't care. What I use, I love. What my players use, they love. Nothing here has yet broken the game. Nothing here is out of whack or out of balance. I make great and memorable NPCs from this material, and I have never been so happy doing so.</p>
<p>This book, as with Advanced Character, and Ultimate Combat, continues what Paizo does best. They zero in on what options were missing, or were cluttered, or required five 3.5 books to accomplish, or that were originally poorly conceived by 3rd parties, and they improve on them and put them all in a nice, clear, tidy reference for me to have all the fun I wanted to have, but never did.</p>
<p>In short, the book provides great fun alternatives, and covers a lot of ground, making the work of a 3rd party designer like me, a whole lot of fun, and accommodating a wide variety of imaginative builds.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>It's hard to take reviews seriously on this board. If you're a longtime lurker or poster, you know well that every additional book Paizo has put out for Pathfinder has from its inception been a bright, shiny target seemingly custom made for the hurled monkey poo of a horde of miserable would-be design "experts." These people were prepared to hate from the outset, so should we be surprised when they rain their hate down on the product once it has been released?</p>
<p>Here is a frank and honest review from somebody who actually does make a side living making games and related accessories, and who doesn't have an axe to grind or a big fat ego to polish.</p>
<p>I love this book. I admit, I don't use all of it. I don't care. What I use, I love. What my players use, they love. Nothing here has yet broken the game. Nothing here is out of whack or out of balance. I make great and memorable NPCs from this material, and I have never been so happy doing so.</p>
<p>This book, as with Advanced Character, and Ultimate Combat, continues what Paizo does best. They zero in on what options were missing, or were cluttered, or required five 3.5 books to accomplish, or that were originally poorly conceived by 3rd parties, and they improve on them and put them all in a nice, clear, tidy reference for me to have all the fun I wanted to have, but never did.</p>
<p>In short, the book provides great fun alternatives, and covers a lot of ground, making the work of a 3rd party designer like me, a whole lot of fun, and accommodating a wide variety of imaginative builds.</p>Bruunwald2011-12-08T03:42:18ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): No gem (2 stars)hogoshahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-11-29T15:13:33Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>As expected, no real gem there. Its chunk full of tweeks and half chewed class specializations.
<br />
Fun for a read. Not much else there.
<br />
Sub-par.
<br />
Nowhere to go but up, Paizo.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>As expected, no real gem there. Its chunk full of tweeks and half chewed class specializations.
<br />
Fun for a read. Not much else there.
<br />
Sub-par.
<br />
Nowhere to go but up, Paizo.</p>hogosha2011-11-29T15:13:33ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): not impressed at all (1 star)Calamarihttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-09-08T19:13:37Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Except for the section in Chapter One on profession archetypes, there is nothing in this book that I couldn't live without.</p>
<p>IMHO, the Magus class was poorly thought out and the Words of Power are a needless complication. The lack of usefulness in this book will make me think twice before purchasing other titles in this line.</p>
<p>I was hoping for new clerical domains, new (non-elemental) wizard spells, more options for existing classes, etc.... The fact that I didn't get those things disappoints me.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Except for the section in Chapter One on profession archetypes, there is nothing in this book that I couldn't live without.</p>
<p>IMHO, the Magus class was poorly thought out and the Words of Power are a needless complication. The lack of usefulness in this book will make me think twice before purchasing other titles in this line.</p>
<p>I was hoping for new clerical domains, new (non-elemental) wizard spells, more options for existing classes, etc.... The fact that I didn't get those things disappoints me.</p>Calamari2011-09-08T19:13:37ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Smite your foes in new and exciting ways... (4 stars)Foghammerhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-24T04:26:10Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This book expands on the power of casters, obviously. I'm in the camp that puts casters at the top of the food chain already, so I feel like some of the boosts were unnecessary. Also, I wanted a swarm-shifter druid and didn't get it, so I'm still a little sore about that.</p>
<p>But still, there is so much awesome in this book I can barely remember all of it. I am a huge fan of Paizo's archetypes, and they delivered in spades with this book. I'm particularly fond of the Crossblooded and Wildblooded Sorcerer, and the Summoner archetypes.</p>
<p>This book also introduces several awesome feats, like the chain that grants you sorcerer bloodline powers. This floored me, because it makes a lot of sense that there could be people out there with bloodlines that just don't have innate arcane talents.</p>
<p>Then there's the Magus. A lot of people wish it had a full base attack bonus, but I think it's perfect as is. The blend of casting and melee combat through Spell Combat and Spellstrike is a slick concept, one that pulled me off the fence when I wasn't sure that the game needed the Magus when it had the Eldritch Knight.</p>
<p>I was unimpressed with the Words of Power, but I think that had more to do with my lack of interest in arcane casters in general, so I feel as if I'm being unfair to judge it. The changes made from the playtest seem solid, and the concept is sound.</p>
<p>As with my Ultimate Combat review, the archetypes alone make this book worth it for me. Overall, I give it four stars, only losing a star for two reasons: 1) I don't think casters needed a whole book of new toys and 2) cantrips got cut for space. I think a few higher level spells could have been tossed out instead, but that's just me.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This book expands on the power of casters, obviously. I'm in the camp that puts casters at the top of the food chain already, so I feel like some of the boosts were unnecessary. Also, I wanted a swarm-shifter druid and didn't get it, so I'm still a little sore about that.</p>
<p>But still, there is so much awesome in this book I can barely remember all of it. I am a huge fan of Paizo's archetypes, and they delivered in spades with this book. I'm particularly fond of the Crossblooded and Wildblooded Sorcerer, and the Summoner archetypes.</p>
<p>This book also introduces several awesome feats, like the chain that grants you sorcerer bloodline powers. This floored me, because it makes a lot of sense that there could be people out there with bloodlines that just don't have innate arcane talents.</p>
<p>Then there's the Magus. A lot of people wish it had a full base attack bonus, but I think it's perfect as is. The blend of casting and melee combat through Spell Combat and Spellstrike is a slick concept, one that pulled me off the fence when I wasn't sure that the game needed the Magus when it had the Eldritch Knight.</p>
<p>I was unimpressed with the Words of Power, but I think that had more to do with my lack of interest in arcane casters in general, so I feel as if I'm being unfair to judge it. The changes made from the playtest seem solid, and the concept is sound.</p>
<p>As with my Ultimate Combat review, the archetypes alone make this book worth it for me. Overall, I give it four stars, only losing a star for two reasons: 1) I don't think casters needed a whole book of new toys and 2) cantrips got cut for space. I think a few higher level spells could have been tossed out instead, but that's just me.</p>Foghammer2011-08-24T04:26:10ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): game ruining book (1 star)Keasarhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-24T04:21:27Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I am pretty much done with buying any more rule books for pathfinder. It is almost a crying shame that all the balancing in the core book is being destroyed by these rushed and un tested rule books. This book I had to ban from my home Legacy of Fire Campaign. So many broken things. Next campaign I will probably use the core book only. I know paizo needs to make money but come on. It is turning into a major turn off.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I am pretty much done with buying any more rule books for pathfinder. It is almost a crying shame that all the balancing in the core book is being destroyed by these rushed and un tested rule books. This book I had to ban from my home Legacy of Fire Campaign. So many broken things. Next campaign I will probably use the core book only. I know paizo needs to make money but come on. It is turning into a major turn off.</p>Keasar2011-08-24T04:21:27ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Beautiful book to enhance your PFRPG Magic (5 stars)Joseph Wilsonhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-24T01:33:42Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Ultimate Magic has everything that I want from a book by that title for my Pathfinder game. Beautifully enhancing the magical aspects of the game, this book offers everything from a wonderfully realized new base class (the figher-mage styled Magus); to a plethora of flavorful archetypes for all of the Pathfinder core/base classes; to feats and spells; to new magical subsystems such as spell duels, binding outsiders, and more… And all of this is done in the typical, ultra-high-quality manner that Paizo has come to be known for. Certainly a wonderful supplement to sit alongside the Advanced Player’s Guide and Ultimate Combat.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Ultimate Magic has everything that I want from a book by that title for my Pathfinder game. Beautifully enhancing the magical aspects of the game, this book offers everything from a wonderfully realized new base class (the figher-mage styled Magus); to a plethora of flavorful archetypes for all of the Pathfinder core/base classes; to feats and spells; to new magical subsystems such as spell duels, binding outsiders, and more… And all of this is done in the typical, ultra-high-quality manner that Paizo has come to be known for. Certainly a wonderful supplement to sit alongside the Advanced Player’s Guide and Ultimate Combat.</p>Joseph Wilson2011-08-24T01:33:42ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): If you like the magus, it's a no brainer (5 stars)DragonBelowhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-21T18:34:07Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Archetypes and the new Magus class are worth the price of admission by themselves. The rest is just gravy, good kind of gravy.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Archetypes and the new Magus class are worth the price of admission by themselves. The rest is just gravy, good kind of gravy.</p>DragonBelow2011-08-21T18:34:07ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): This book is a disappointment (1 star)Shivokhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-21T16:43:27Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>What I thought would have been an awesome addition to my RPG Library turns out to have fallen flat.</p>
<p>Some of the options here are just flat-out unbalanced in comparion to base classes.</p>
<p>The words of power was pretty much incomprehensable.</p>
<p>lots of editing issues. </p>
<p>Paizo your putting out too much, too fast without proper playtesting. </p>
<p>You're a great company lets not lose sight of that.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>What I thought would have been an awesome addition to my RPG Library turns out to have fallen flat.</p>
<p>Some of the options here are just flat-out unbalanced in comparion to base classes.</p>
<p>The words of power was pretty much incomprehensable.</p>
<p>lots of editing issues. </p>
<p>Paizo your putting out too much, too fast without proper playtesting. </p>
<p>You're a great company lets not lose sight of that.</p>Shivok2011-08-21T16:43:27ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): A solid book of options (4 stars)Olwenhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-20T15:13:50Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Whilst it's true this book obviously had a difficult birth that led to some editorial mistakes, errors, and typos, it remains a good book of options that open up a lot of possibilities with more archetypes (which are numerous and flavorsome), feats, spells, etc. Obvious issues can easily be dealt with by the GM.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Whilst it's true this book obviously had a difficult birth that led to some editorial mistakes, errors, and typos, it remains a good book of options that open up a lot of possibilities with more archetypes (which are numerous and flavorsome), feats, spells, etc. Obvious issues can easily be dealt with by the GM.</p>Olwen2011-08-20T15:13:50ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Ultimate Magic (4 stars)Xaaon of Xen'Drikhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-19T21:00:38Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>While there still needs to be some updates regarding FAQs, there are issues, but I feel it's a better book than some obviously. I have written a full review on my blog. </p>
<p><a href="http://epicrpgblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/wednesday-review-ultimate-magic-part-1.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ultimate Magic Part 1</a></p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>While there still needs to be some updates regarding FAQs, there are issues, but I feel it's a better book than some obviously. I have written a full review on my blog. </p>
<p><a href="http://epicrpgblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/wednesday-review-ultimate-magic-part-1.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ultimate Magic Part 1</a></p>Xaaon of Xen'Drik2011-08-19T21:00:38ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): This is the only RPG book that I have ever returned (1 star)Zeuyhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-19T06:20:50Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>If I could give this book 0 stars, I would have. Other then the artwork, there was very little in this book that I would use without heavily homebrewing it first.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>If I could give this book 0 stars, I would have. Other then the artwork, there was very little in this book that I would use without heavily homebrewing it first.</p>Zeuy2011-08-19T06:20:50ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Excellent artwork, missed opportunity (1 star)Charles Evans 25https://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-08-03T13:47:45Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p><span class=messageboard-ooc>(version 4.0 of this review)</span>
<br />
The artwork in this book is gorgeous. The cover and the preview blog art of Alaznist duelling Karzoug are good examples of what this book has to offer in this department. </p>
<p>Sadly this is where I run out of nice things I can find to say about this book. As the large quantity of errata and FAQs either dealt with or still awaiting attention suggest the text of this book is in places highly muddled and/or confusing, besides lacking in clarity. </p>
<p>I have nicknamed my hardcover copy of this book <i>The Necronomicon: The Bulmahn Edition</i> and archived it somewhere deep and dark.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p><span class=messageboard-ooc>(version 4.0 of this review)</span>
<br />
The artwork in this book is gorgeous. The cover and the preview blog art of Alaznist duelling Karzoug are good examples of what this book has to offer in this department. </p>
<p>Sadly this is where I run out of nice things I can find to say about this book. As the large quantity of errata and FAQs either dealt with or still awaiting attention suggest the text of this book is in places highly muddled and/or confusing, besides lacking in clarity. </p>
<p>I have nicknamed my hardcover copy of this book <i>The Necronomicon: The Bulmahn Edition</i> and archived it somewhere deep and dark.</p>Charles Evans 252011-08-03T13:47:45ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): A good book to have for me (4 stars)Vojtech Pribylhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-07-07T15:01:09Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Definitely it's a fun book to have. It has a lot of situational options, but I didn't expect a book full of things that I can use anytime anywhere. After all whether an option will be useful or not should be just as easy to determine as finding out whether a choice of goblinoids as your favoured enemy will be. It does a nice job covering some corner cases and still provides some solid general options. I don't regret investing to a hardcover copy</p>
<p>Archetypes are generally solid, some more suitable for specific theme compaigns, some less. This is an advanced book after all. Nothing oviously overpowering though.</p>
<p>Mastering Magic chapter is a jumble of things and all can come handy... some of them will definitely appear in my compaigns.
<br />
Spellblights are nice thing to keep in my sleeve for the occasion when we're playing in a world, where magic is treacherous and dangerous to trifle with.
<br />
Spell duels on the other hand would nicely complement an adventure in Nex or Haluraa, where high magic culture is maintained. I'd also like to try the dueling counter as a replacement for regular counterspells in game to make spell battles more interesting.
<br />
Outsider binding is another thing that needed more detail and here it comes. Services of hell shouldn't come too cheap after all.
<br />
I'm not too excited about constructs (weird for a Battletech design freak), but new familiars and premade spellbooks are lovely. Choosing all spells for higher level wizards can be a pain. Designing new spells is certainly not a thing I plan to do anytime soon, but it could be good to have some basic guidelines. Overall i don't particularly care for this, but it's not a thing to scoff at.</p>
<p>Feats... are feats, I won't pass any judgements here, hopefully the antagonize lapsus will be ammended, but otherwise I'm fine o far.</p>
<p>I plan to try the Words of Power out but as a fan of the Vancian style casting I'll probably stay there. An occasional change could be welcome.</p>
<p>Finally - Some spells caught my eye, but otherwise my general oppinion is about the same as with the feats. I'll have to judge on case by case basis when I see them in action.</p>
<p>It may not reach the APG heights, but it's very good.</p>
<p>•Awaits Ultimate Combat•</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Definitely it's a fun book to have. It has a lot of situational options, but I didn't expect a book full of things that I can use anytime anywhere. After all whether an option will be useful or not should be just as easy to determine as finding out whether a choice of goblinoids as your favoured enemy will be. It does a nice job covering some corner cases and still provides some solid general options. I don't regret investing to a hardcover copy</p>
<p>Archetypes are generally solid, some more suitable for specific theme compaigns, some less. This is an advanced book after all. Nothing oviously overpowering though.</p>
<p>Mastering Magic chapter is a jumble of things and all can come handy... some of them will definitely appear in my compaigns.
<br />
Spellblights are nice thing to keep in my sleeve for the occasion when we're playing in a world, where magic is treacherous and dangerous to trifle with.
<br />
Spell duels on the other hand would nicely complement an adventure in Nex or Haluraa, where high magic culture is maintained. I'd also like to try the dueling counter as a replacement for regular counterspells in game to make spell battles more interesting.
<br />
Outsider binding is another thing that needed more detail and here it comes. Services of hell shouldn't come too cheap after all.
<br />
I'm not too excited about constructs (weird for a Battletech design freak), but new familiars and premade spellbooks are lovely. Choosing all spells for higher level wizards can be a pain. Designing new spells is certainly not a thing I plan to do anytime soon, but it could be good to have some basic guidelines. Overall i don't particularly care for this, but it's not a thing to scoff at.</p>
<p>Feats... are feats, I won't pass any judgements here, hopefully the antagonize lapsus will be ammended, but otherwise I'm fine o far.</p>
<p>I plan to try the Words of Power out but as a fan of the Vancian style casting I'll probably stay there. An occasional change could be welcome.</p>
<p>Finally - Some spells caught my eye, but otherwise my general oppinion is about the same as with the feats. I'll have to judge on case by case basis when I see them in action.</p>
<p>It may not reach the APG heights, but it's very good.</p>
<p>•Awaits Ultimate Combat•</p>Vojtech Pribyl2011-07-07T15:01:09ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Full of fun options -as expected (4 stars)chridshttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-07-06T18:46:03Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I'm the grumpy DM who thinks all new things are unbalanced!!! No wait, I am not. Full of lots options, some interesting and others not. Personally have no interest in Words of Power, but YMMV. Really love archetypes and there's plenty of interesting ones in here. Like the variant channeling. New spells always welcome. Really like the Magus, as a spellsword is always a cool concept in my book.</p>
<p>PAIZO WHY DID YOU FORCE ME TO BUY THIS!!!! wait, you didn't. But I am glad I did. Keep up the good work.</p>
<p>-1 star for a "fair" share of editing issues</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I'm the grumpy DM who thinks all new things are unbalanced!!! No wait, I am not. Full of lots options, some interesting and others not. Personally have no interest in Words of Power, but YMMV. Really love archetypes and there's plenty of interesting ones in here. Like the variant channeling. New spells always welcome. Really like the Magus, as a spellsword is always a cool concept in my book.</p>
<p>PAIZO WHY DID YOU FORCE ME TO BUY THIS!!!! wait, you didn't. But I am glad I did. Keep up the good work.</p>
<p>-1 star for a "fair" share of editing issues</p>chrids2011-07-06T18:46:03ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Great book with some issues. (4 stars)Thiago Cardozohttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-07-06T18:28:05Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Once more Paizo has shown both creativity and boldness in their offerings. The Magus is a great addition to the number of classes offered in the Core Rulebook and in the APG. It is fun, different and well balanced. Many interesting ideas are introduced, such as the bardic masterpieces and the words of power. Many great new archetypes, spells and feats. There are options pertaining to different parts of the power level spectrum, making the book useful both in high and low-powered games, doubling as a great DM toolset.
<br />
The book does have some problems, costing it a star in the rating. The editing seems to be significantly worse than in the APG. Some of the options offered do not seem to have been considered in actual gameplay. The greatest offender is the Antagonize feat which creates some wacky situations when used. Some spell descriptions appear to be wrong.
<br />
Despite these problems i consider this a solid buy.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Once more Paizo has shown both creativity and boldness in their offerings. The Magus is a great addition to the number of classes offered in the Core Rulebook and in the APG. It is fun, different and well balanced. Many interesting ideas are introduced, such as the bardic masterpieces and the words of power. Many great new archetypes, spells and feats. There are options pertaining to different parts of the power level spectrum, making the book useful both in high and low-powered games, doubling as a great DM toolset.
<br />
The book does have some problems, costing it a star in the rating. The editing seems to be significantly worse than in the APG. Some of the options offered do not seem to have been considered in actual gameplay. The greatest offender is the Antagonize feat which creates some wacky situations when used. Some spell descriptions appear to be wrong.
<br />
Despite these problems i consider this a solid buy.</p>Thiago Cardozo2011-07-06T18:28:05ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): The arms race begins... (1 star)Rigglerhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-07-06T16:23:10Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I'm a bit shocked that Paizo would release a product full of imbalanced options. Was there anyone in the office who said these options are not balanced with the rest of the game? Were they ignored? This book makes greatly doubt Paizo was the company I thought they were. It is banned for use at my game table. I don't have the time nor inclination to re-edit a book I paid 40.00 for to make spell levels correct based on their descriptions or figure out what they should be; or to redesign new classes so that they don't overpower others. Very disappointed. I bought this book blindly based on Paizo's reputation. I will be reviewing future crunch books before deciding to purchase from now on. Very disappointed.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I'm a bit shocked that Paizo would release a product full of imbalanced options. Was there anyone in the office who said these options are not balanced with the rest of the game? Were they ignored? This book makes greatly doubt Paizo was the company I thought they were. It is banned for use at my game table. I don't have the time nor inclination to re-edit a book I paid 40.00 for to make spell levels correct based on their descriptions or figure out what they should be; or to redesign new classes so that they don't overpower others. Very disappointed. I bought this book blindly based on Paizo's reputation. I will be reviewing future crunch books before deciding to purchase from now on. Very disappointed.</p>Riggler2011-07-06T16:23:10ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Too much too fast (2 stars)The equalizerhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-07-03T05:57:38Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>The main beef I had was with the alchemist and magus. Alchemists are supposedly primitive scientists/herbalists. In this however, they gain all kinds of bombs and discoveries. Their "alchemical created specialties can be stolen but cannot be used by anyone other than themselves." One heck of a failsafe but complete b@@$@$+s. They gain reistance to poison faster than an assassin. Apply poison as a swift which makes them even better at that than an assassin or ninja. Bombs which do fair amount more than alchemist fire since its 1d6+Int and their Int would be high since its the basis for their abilities. True ressurection at level 16 which is a level earlier than the cleric. Also considering the fact they cast up to level 6 spells but can cast a level 9 spell is laughable. This resurrection potion can also be drunk by them and it functions as a contingency effect since it'll bring them back to life should they perish. Feels like a combination of cleric/wizard assassin but is better than each in certain select areas of the other three classes. There are other factors but these are the main crux of it.</p>
<p>On to the magus. At first levelhe can enhance his weapon and the bonus goes up with levels. This isn't a problem but the enhancing weapon ability is drawn from some mystical arcane pool which doesn't take up casting a spell when doing this. Later on, more abilities can be created from this pool which also increases as the magus level increases. A desperate attempt to get around the limitations spellcasters have of only so many spells per day. This coupled with the fact they can cast later in medium and heavy armor at no penalty is ludicrous. If it was just in light armor, it would be believable. They also qualify for fighter feats despite having no levels in fighter. What was originally fighter specific now applies to them. There is more but that about spells the main part of it.</p>
<p>All in all, a book which has introduced classes which gain too much too quickly and tries desperately to tear down the limitations of other classes then mix them all in together. With the alchemist its assassin/wizard/cleric. With the magus its ninja/wizard/fighter.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>The main beef I had was with the alchemist and magus. Alchemists are supposedly primitive scientists/herbalists. In this however, they gain all kinds of bombs and discoveries. Their "alchemical created specialties can be stolen but cannot be used by anyone other than themselves." One heck of a failsafe but complete b@@$@$+s. They gain reistance to poison faster than an assassin. Apply poison as a swift which makes them even better at that than an assassin or ninja. Bombs which do fair amount more than alchemist fire since its 1d6+Int and their Int would be high since its the basis for their abilities. True ressurection at level 16 which is a level earlier than the cleric. Also considering the fact they cast up to level 6 spells but can cast a level 9 spell is laughable. This resurrection potion can also be drunk by them and it functions as a contingency effect since it'll bring them back to life should they perish. Feels like a combination of cleric/wizard assassin but is better than each in certain select areas of the other three classes. There are other factors but these are the main crux of it.</p>
<p>On to the magus. At first levelhe can enhance his weapon and the bonus goes up with levels. This isn't a problem but the enhancing weapon ability is drawn from some mystical arcane pool which doesn't take up casting a spell when doing this. Later on, more abilities can be created from this pool which also increases as the magus level increases. A desperate attempt to get around the limitations spellcasters have of only so many spells per day. This coupled with the fact they can cast later in medium and heavy armor at no penalty is ludicrous. If it was just in light armor, it would be believable. They also qualify for fighter feats despite having no levels in fighter. What was originally fighter specific now applies to them. There is more but that about spells the main part of it.</p>
<p>All in all, a book which has introduced classes which gain too much too quickly and tries desperately to tear down the limitations of other classes then mix them all in together. With the alchemist its assassin/wizard/cleric. With the magus its ninja/wizard/fighter.</p>The equalizer2011-07-03T05:57:38ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Ultimate meh.. (3 stars)Ævuxhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-19T09:15:44Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>At first I was extremely excited about ultimate magic. I was hoping for some new racial bonuses like in APG, or perhaps a racial template for Anthropomorphic animals. Hell, I was hoping that Anthropomorphic animal would have allowed you to really have an anthro, and not just rip all the cool things animals can do from them.</p>
<p>As i started reading more and more, I kept finding little irky things, such as the Geshia or dragon shaman. The scroll master was pretty irky too. </p>
<p>Cause while these things had flavor, most of it was meh at best, as the flavor they were suppose to create missed the mark or could just be easily done through roleplaying. In the cae of the scroll master, it had so much more it could have done, provided it was on something like the magus. </p>
<p>But the most irksome thing is the constant "reminder" that this content isn't all just for the players. The DM could use the geshia archetype. But seriously.. if the DM was using it, the DM didn't need the archetype in the first place. </p>
<p>Then so much of the book is used up on stupid things. Like the new ranger and monk things, and most of the paladin, wasn't truthfully that magical. Most of it in fact was pretty mundane. </p>
<p>Then magic items. There is NO magical items in this book, unless you really wanna make a golem, which the pages for that get lost petty easily in the second chapter. Beyond the large collection of new familiars, and spell duel things.. </p>
<p>Then the words of magic. Its bloody hard to figure out what it is trying to say here, would have been a bit helpful to show off a couple of combonations and possibly make it easier to figure out which words are which. </p>
<p>All in all, its a nice book, but common... There was far too much mundane, boring options in a book that was suppose to be ultimate magics.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>At first I was extremely excited about ultimate magic. I was hoping for some new racial bonuses like in APG, or perhaps a racial template for Anthropomorphic animals. Hell, I was hoping that Anthropomorphic animal would have allowed you to really have an anthro, and not just rip all the cool things animals can do from them.</p>
<p>As i started reading more and more, I kept finding little irky things, such as the Geshia or dragon shaman. The scroll master was pretty irky too. </p>
<p>Cause while these things had flavor, most of it was meh at best, as the flavor they were suppose to create missed the mark or could just be easily done through roleplaying. In the cae of the scroll master, it had so much more it could have done, provided it was on something like the magus. </p>
<p>But the most irksome thing is the constant "reminder" that this content isn't all just for the players. The DM could use the geshia archetype. But seriously.. if the DM was using it, the DM didn't need the archetype in the first place. </p>
<p>Then so much of the book is used up on stupid things. Like the new ranger and monk things, and most of the paladin, wasn't truthfully that magical. Most of it in fact was pretty mundane. </p>
<p>Then magic items. There is NO magical items in this book, unless you really wanna make a golem, which the pages for that get lost petty easily in the second chapter. Beyond the large collection of new familiars, and spell duel things.. </p>
<p>Then the words of magic. Its bloody hard to figure out what it is trying to say here, would have been a bit helpful to show off a couple of combonations and possibly make it easier to figure out which words are which. </p>
<p>All in all, its a nice book, but common... There was far too much mundane, boring options in a book that was suppose to be ultimate magics.</p>Ævux2011-06-19T09:15:44ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): The low-water mark of the RPG line. (2 stars)Apethaehttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-17T00:39:20Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I picked up UM from my local bookseller hoping to find a new Paizo contribution on par with their excellent APG release - easily one of my top 5 purchases in 20 years of gaming. Unfortunately, no streak can go on forever, and Ultimate Magic really falls off the mark on a number of levels.
<br />
I would recommend picking up the PDF copy if you can afford a little indulgence for the book's high points: the magus class, the new alchemist & druid archetypes, a few nuggets of inspired genius among the feats and spells, the new oracle mysteries, paladin oaths, and... that's about it. It's a shame that these options may languish by mere association with this product, because many of them are excellent additions to the game.</p>
<p>Other than these high points, though, this book suffers from some serious quality shortfalls. The tight, thoroughly considered execution of the APG is glaringly absent among UM's pages - many feats and powers are broadly open to abuse or obtuse/vague to the point of uselessness, and whole archetypes are essentially unusable because they are basically half-finished. Large sections of the book - particularly chapter 2 - are devoted to the expansion of highly niche or circumstantial systems that seem extremely unlikely to crop up in the average campaign. They have a place in a book such as this, certainly, but their inclusion rankles when more important sections seem to have suffered from severe neglect and lack of attention to detail. The writing falls into an amateurish and uncharacteristically (for Paizo) unpolished tone at points, and there are lots of loose ends left hanging throughout. These are vagaries that GMs considering using UM will have to resolve for themselves before much of this book is play-ready, and not in the usual good 'a GM should be free to shape the game in the way they want' way that's become part of the Paizo ethos - more in the 'we forgot to finish that thought before going to print' vein.</p>
<p><b>Gamemasters</b> - there is meat here, particularly for designing compelling challenges and adversaries for your players, but you'll have to pick and comb through the text carefully to find the payoffs and prune away or supplement the half-baked sections. <b>Players</b> - don't read this book expecting every little bit of it to fit seamlessly into your GM's campaign, because frankly much of it is broken or unusable.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I picked up UM from my local bookseller hoping to find a new Paizo contribution on par with their excellent APG release - easily one of my top 5 purchases in 20 years of gaming. Unfortunately, no streak can go on forever, and Ultimate Magic really falls off the mark on a number of levels.
<br />
I would recommend picking up the PDF copy if you can afford a little indulgence for the book's high points: the magus class, the new alchemist & druid archetypes, a few nuggets of inspired genius among the feats and spells, the new oracle mysteries, paladin oaths, and... that's about it. It's a shame that these options may languish by mere association with this product, because many of them are excellent additions to the game.</p>
<p>Other than these high points, though, this book suffers from some serious quality shortfalls. The tight, thoroughly considered execution of the APG is glaringly absent among UM's pages - many feats and powers are broadly open to abuse or obtuse/vague to the point of uselessness, and whole archetypes are essentially unusable because they are basically half-finished. Large sections of the book - particularly chapter 2 - are devoted to the expansion of highly niche or circumstantial systems that seem extremely unlikely to crop up in the average campaign. They have a place in a book such as this, certainly, but their inclusion rankles when more important sections seem to have suffered from severe neglect and lack of attention to detail. The writing falls into an amateurish and uncharacteristically (for Paizo) unpolished tone at points, and there are lots of loose ends left hanging throughout. These are vagaries that GMs considering using UM will have to resolve for themselves before much of this book is play-ready, and not in the usual good 'a GM should be free to shape the game in the way they want' way that's become part of the Paizo ethos - more in the 'we forgot to finish that thought before going to print' vein.</p>
<p><b>Gamemasters</b> - there is meat here, particularly for designing compelling challenges and adversaries for your players, but you'll have to pick and comb through the text carefully to find the payoffs and prune away or supplement the half-baked sections. <b>Players</b> - don't read this book expecting every little bit of it to fit seamlessly into your GM's campaign, because frankly much of it is broken or unusable.</p>Apethae2011-06-17T00:39:20ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): A few errors, but overall a compelling book for both Players and Gamemasters (5 stars)Alizorhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-14T17:38:02Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>If possible, I would give this book a 4.5 star review, but I’m bumping it up to 5. Unlike the Advanced Player’s Guide, I view this book as a mixed DM and Player hardcover book. There are plenty of archetypes, spells, and options for both a player and DM.</p>
<p>For players, the Magus is a wonderful class that, after the playtest period, was balanced and brought to near perfection. The addition of a few archetypes for Magus in the same book as the base class was also a very welcome surprise. A few spells also brought in some holes in some classes spell lists (like water/ice spells for clerics). Other player options such as Saurian Shaman, Bardic masterpieces, and cleric variant channeling I have already seen use in PFS organized play and enjoyed the flavor that was brought into the game from it.</p>
<p>For DMs, the meat of the book comes in Chapter 2 and Chapter 4, where items such as spell dueling, creating spells, and words of power are brought it. Words of Power are not something that I personally would use, but it enables a DM to create a magic system for his world that has a large amount of flavor different from the normal D&D magical system. In addition most items from Chapter 2 won’t be used extensively, but having rules written out for a spell duel <b>is</b> useful for that time that you need it. Other options that won’t come up often, but are still great tools for DMs in Chapter 2 are the Spellblights, Binding rules, building spells, and building/modifying construct rules. Players could dabble in these things as well, but the real gem is that it gives DMs tools to do more “magical” things within their campaigns.</p>
<p>For both players and DMs the Appendix also gives a nice quick update/support on some older spells and familiar rules that will clarify and bring things up to date.</p>
<p>While there <b>are</b> some editing mistakes in the book, and there will most definitely be an errata coming in to correct those, I think most reviews are focusing on the few glaring errors and forgetting that as a whole, the book is well written. DMs exist for a reason, and they’ll be able to sort out any editing problems in the interim until the final answer is given by Paizo with an official errata. In the end, if the price is too expensive for the hardcover, I fully recommend buying the PDF of this product today, and getting the hardcover after the next errata if it bothers you enough. You will always be able to download the most recent PDF with changes from Paizo.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>If possible, I would give this book a 4.5 star review, but I’m bumping it up to 5. Unlike the Advanced Player’s Guide, I view this book as a mixed DM and Player hardcover book. There are plenty of archetypes, spells, and options for both a player and DM.</p>
<p>For players, the Magus is a wonderful class that, after the playtest period, was balanced and brought to near perfection. The addition of a few archetypes for Magus in the same book as the base class was also a very welcome surprise. A few spells also brought in some holes in some classes spell lists (like water/ice spells for clerics). Other player options such as Saurian Shaman, Bardic masterpieces, and cleric variant channeling I have already seen use in PFS organized play and enjoyed the flavor that was brought into the game from it.</p>
<p>For DMs, the meat of the book comes in Chapter 2 and Chapter 4, where items such as spell dueling, creating spells, and words of power are brought it. Words of Power are not something that I personally would use, but it enables a DM to create a magic system for his world that has a large amount of flavor different from the normal D&D magical system. In addition most items from Chapter 2 won’t be used extensively, but having rules written out for a spell duel <b>is</b> useful for that time that you need it. Other options that won’t come up often, but are still great tools for DMs in Chapter 2 are the Spellblights, Binding rules, building spells, and building/modifying construct rules. Players could dabble in these things as well, but the real gem is that it gives DMs tools to do more “magical” things within their campaigns.</p>
<p>For both players and DMs the Appendix also gives a nice quick update/support on some older spells and familiar rules that will clarify and bring things up to date.</p>
<p>While there <b>are</b> some editing mistakes in the book, and there will most definitely be an errata coming in to correct those, I think most reviews are focusing on the few glaring errors and forgetting that as a whole, the book is well written. DMs exist for a reason, and they’ll be able to sort out any editing problems in the interim until the final answer is given by Paizo with an official errata. In the end, if the price is too expensive for the hardcover, I fully recommend buying the PDF of this product today, and getting the hardcover after the next errata if it bothers you enough. You will always be able to download the most recent PDF with changes from Paizo.</p>Alizor2011-06-14T17:38:02ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Terrible Editing, Again (1 star)Inferonhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-13T18:36:41Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>For yet another book, Paizo seems to not have ran a book through editing.</p>
<p>Perhaps I'm not in a position where I can understand everything that has to go on while writing a splat-book, but I genuinely believe that if hired to look over this book, that anyone off the street could correct 90% of the errors bound herein in a day. I suppose that's too much to ask.</p>
<p>So for anyone thinking about purchasing this book, I'd advise saving your money; don't buy the first printing. If you want to buy it, wait for the second printing. Hopefully by that time they'll fix the typos. If you're not phased by terrible editing, I'd advise you to read the other reviews.</p>
<p>As for me, after giving them multiple chances, I'll never buy a first printing Paizo product again, at least until I hear that they've finally raised their standard.</p>
<p>I mean adopted one.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>For yet another book, Paizo seems to not have ran a book through editing.</p>
<p>Perhaps I'm not in a position where I can understand everything that has to go on while writing a splat-book, but I genuinely believe that if hired to look over this book, that anyone off the street could correct 90% of the errors bound herein in a day. I suppose that's too much to ask.</p>
<p>So for anyone thinking about purchasing this book, I'd advise saving your money; don't buy the first printing. If you want to buy it, wait for the second printing. Hopefully by that time they'll fix the typos. If you're not phased by terrible editing, I'd advise you to read the other reviews.</p>
<p>As for me, after giving them multiple chances, I'll never buy a first printing Paizo product again, at least until I hear that they've finally raised their standard.</p>
<p>I mean adopted one.</p>Inferon2011-06-13T18:36:41ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Not Perfect But... (5 stars)Gebbyhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-13T00:34:06Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I think this book is pretty good, maybe not on the level of Core or APG, but I was comparing it to the Complete Series for 3.5. I was disappointed with no Prestige Classes as I'm one that thinks Archtypes are great but can't replace all PrC's. Not having magic items didn't bother me at all as there are magic items in tons of books. I won't get into details as that has been covered extensively, just wanted to give a 5 star as I think UM is getting knocked down alot because of how good The Core and APG are.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I think this book is pretty good, maybe not on the level of Core or APG, but I was comparing it to the Complete Series for 3.5. I was disappointed with no Prestige Classes as I'm one that thinks Archtypes are great but can't replace all PrC's. Not having magic items didn't bother me at all as there are magic items in tons of books. I won't get into details as that has been covered extensively, just wanted to give a 5 star as I think UM is getting knocked down alot because of how good The Core and APG are.</p>Gebby2011-06-13T00:34:06ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): The Ultimate Review Part 1: Ultimate Magic (4 stars)Alexander Augunashttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-13T00:31:25Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>In the first of their two-part "Ultimate" series, Paizo hands out presents to all of the good little priests and mages.But did those boys and girls get the goods, or will they have to suffer coal for Charistmas? Let's find out!</p>
<p><b>The Magus and its Archetypes</b>
<br />
Not going to lie here, folks, but I am heavily biased in this part. I absolutely LOVE spellswords, and the Magus and its support in this book delivers in every possible way. While this class easily beats out the Eldritch Knight at low levels, their skills become a subject of heavy debate in the mid to late game. Yup, the class is so good that it gives the old Martial Spellcaster class a run for its money. In my opinion, the book is worth it just for the Magus alone, but there is PLENTY of good stuff in this book. {10/10}</p>
<p><b>Base Class Archetypes</b>
<br />
This section is a little bit hazy. There are some really powerful, awesome archetypes here. The Magus ones are especially awesome. Some of the options are a little lackluster, and the level of support for each class varies heavily; for example, Bards got Masterpieces, Wizards got Arcane Discoveries, Clerics got Alternate Channel Energies, Inquisitors got Inquisitions. However, other classes got a lot less (Paladin only got one Archetype, though it is extremely flexible and they can use alternate channel energies and inquisitions), while some classes got completely shafted (the Sorcerer only got four new Bloodlines, one 'real' archetype, and one faux archetype that only gives a lackluster "subdomain" mechanic to the older bloodlines). This section has a lot of cool concepts. In true SPLAT book fashion, there isn't anything that is game-breakingly good, but the sheer lack of inventive ideas for the Sorcerer in this department is depressing. {7/10. I'm a Sorcerer player. Sorry.}</p>
<p><b>Spellblights</b>
<br />
Spellblights are special diseases and such that a GM can inflict on their players for doing things like losing a spell due to a failed Concentration check or from suffering form Arcane Spell Failure. Its a completely optional system that rocks in every way. Its blights are fun and flavorful, and really add a sense of risk to magic; especially if you can find good ways to implement them. Its definitely a system that is more for the GM; I recommend that GMs set their own conditions for spellblights to occur to make magic more interesting. I don't mean to suggest the current rules are poorly implemented; they aren't. This is a system that, however, is screaming for campaign setting customization, and is therefore sweet. {10/10)</p>
<p><b>Binding Magic</b>
<br />
I love the Tome of Magic's binder classes. Not going to lie. As of now, I'm in the process of refluffing and rebalancing the class for my Pathfinder campaign. I squealed when I saw the name of the chapter and then cried when I realized what it was actually about. This entire chapter offers additional rules for implementing the Planar Aly spell. That's it. Its an interesting concept, but it takes up an entire section of the book, and its mostly for fluff. The bonuses to your Planar Ally check are small (+2) to the point where one wonders if it will ever impact your games. It's a great resource for players who want to ooze fluff in their roleplaying, but it really feels like too much effort went into this section. One can only wish that the Sorcerer received this much attention. {4/10}</p>
<p><b>Construct Adaptations</b>
<br />
This chapter informs a spellcaster on how to upgrade and better equip the constructs they build. This chapter is cool, not going to lie, but it does not feel like it works in this section. It implies that ALL constructs are magical in nature; well what if you run a steam punk campaign? I didn't think my car ran on magic (though at the prices gas stations charge these days, one has to wonder). You can argue the ice golems are definitely magical in nature, but then I ask you, "why are you shoving beakers of alchemical fire into your ice golem?" I could understand why this was here if there was never intent to print another Bestiary every again, but lo! Bestiary 3 was announced TODAY. This would have worked better in there, instead of hogging up whatever fun things could have been given to the Sorcerer. {5/10. This section is cool, but it doesn't fit the book.}</p>
<p><b>Feats</b>
<br />
The feat section is very hit or miss. There are some awesome options and some terrible options. Some options look a little overpowered (for example, I'd be okay with Antagonize if it let my mage target the antagonizer with a spell instead of forcing them to charge into melee a la Spongebob Squarepants) while others seem redundant (Prodigy, why are you in a magical book? All of these guys could just Greater Creation your goods into existence). Overall, though, this is a good addition to the current setup of Pathfinder feats. {7/10}</p>
<p><b>Premade Spellbooks</b>
<br />
I think this was where the magic items would have gone, but spellbooks take up so much room. This is invaluable to any DM who gives out spellbooks as a reward. Players (especially non-wizards or magi) won't care. Even Wizards and Magi might not care because they'd be sad if they saw the same premade spell books over and over again. The biggest problem with this section is that it references spells that either had their names changed or were scrapped from the book; no offense Paizo, but you may want to lash your editors or something. :) {5/10}</p>
<p><b>Words of Power</b>
<br />
The words of power is a new spellcasting system that appears in Ultimate Magic. In a nutshell, you take syllables and combine them into powerful spell effects. The goal of the system that it is extremely flexible in how it creates spells, but it cannot mimic the sheer situtationalness of some of the Core spells. The system is strong, and there are many effects that cannot be duplicated as normal spells within the situation (+4 armor and +2 to three stats comes to mind as being awesome). It is a book-heavy system and is stronger in the hands of prepared casters, who can know all of the syllables. However, it is a cool and unique system for anyone wanting to play a Wordcaster (Tome of Magic) that actually works. {8/10}</p>
<p><b>Spells</b>
<br />
You can't call a Pathfinder Book "Ultimate Magic" without having some spells in it, and boy do Paizo come through on this book. Unlike the Advanced Player's Guide, which has many "scroll/wand spells" but few really good ones, Ultimate Magic has something for everyone. It has spells that affect aging, spells that deal damage as a swift action, spells that heal, spells that harm, it really fills in the spellcasting gaps quite well. While I am still hoping for new spells in Ultimate Combat, if no new spells were printed for a year, at least you can be glad with what Paizo gives us in this book. {10/10} </p>
<p><b>Score and Final Thoughts</b>
<br />
Not everything in this book is for everyone. As the Advanced Player's Guide. This book is fluffy as you can get without making it Golarion specific; I have to admit that even the parts I did not like were very enjoyable to read. {Fluff 10/10} Where this book takes a strong hit to the groin is in the grammar department. There are a LOT of errors in this book; the premade spellbook, and there are a lot of what forum trolls like to call "Copy/Paste Fails." One of the best one haunts the Pip of the book, the Sorcerer, where a bloodline for Earth Genies grants the ability to teleport to the Plane of Water (instead of the plane of earth, which was clearly the intent based on the other genie bloodlines). Overall, this is an excellent book, but there are some illogical choices (why aren't the monster building rules in the bestiary?), bad editing, and unequal support for the spellcasting classes (I will pray for you, oh Sorcerer. Let's look at the total score, below: </p>
<p>Magus: 10/10
<br />
Base Class Support: 7/10
<br />
Spellblights: 10/10
<br />
Planar Binding: 4/10
<br />
Construct Upgrading: 5/10
<br />
Feats: 7/10
<br />
Words of Power: 8/10
<br />
Spells: 10/10
<br />
Fluff: 10/10
<br />
Style and Grammar: 5/10
<br />
Total: 76/100 = 76% = 3.8 Stars = 4 Stars</p>
<p>EDIT 9/19/2011: After further playing with Ultimate Magic, I've decided to revise my scoring of it slightly. As a GM, I</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>In the first of their two-part "Ultimate" series, Paizo hands out presents to all of the good little priests and mages.But did those boys and girls get the goods, or will they have to suffer coal for Charistmas? Let's find out!</p>
<p><b>The Magus and its Archetypes</b>
<br />
Not going to lie here, folks, but I am heavily biased in this part. I absolutely LOVE spellswords, and the Magus and its support in this book delivers in every possible way. While this class easily beats out the Eldritch Knight at low levels, their skills become a subject of heavy debate in the mid to late game. Yup, the class is so good that it gives the old Martial Spellcaster class a run for its money. In my opinion, the book is worth it just for the Magus alone, but there is PLENTY of good stuff in this book. {10/10}</p>
<p><b>Base Class Archetypes</b>
<br />
This section is a little bit hazy. There are some really powerful, awesome archetypes here. The Magus ones are especially awesome. Some of the options are a little lackluster, and the level of support for each class varies heavily; for example, Bards got Masterpieces, Wizards got Arcane Discoveries, Clerics got Alternate Channel Energies, Inquisitors got Inquisitions. However, other classes got a lot less (Paladin only got one Archetype, though it is extremely flexible and they can use alternate channel energies and inquisitions), while some classes got completely shafted (the Sorcerer only got four new Bloodlines, one 'real' archetype, and one faux archetype that only gives a lackluster "subdomain" mechanic to the older bloodlines). This section has a lot of cool concepts. In true SPLAT book fashion, there isn't anything that is game-breakingly good, but the sheer lack of inventive ideas for the Sorcerer in this department is depressing. {7/10. I'm a Sorcerer player. Sorry.}</p>
<p><b>Spellblights</b>
<br />
Spellblights are special diseases and such that a GM can inflict on their players for doing things like losing a spell due to a failed Concentration check or from suffering form Arcane Spell Failure. Its a completely optional system that rocks in every way. Its blights are fun and flavorful, and really add a sense of risk to magic; especially if you can find good ways to implement them. Its definitely a system that is more for the GM; I recommend that GMs set their own conditions for spellblights to occur to make magic more interesting. I don't mean to suggest the current rules are poorly implemented; they aren't. This is a system that, however, is screaming for campaign setting customization, and is therefore sweet. {10/10)</p>
<p><b>Binding Magic</b>
<br />
I love the Tome of Magic's binder classes. Not going to lie. As of now, I'm in the process of refluffing and rebalancing the class for my Pathfinder campaign. I squealed when I saw the name of the chapter and then cried when I realized what it was actually about. This entire chapter offers additional rules for implementing the Planar Aly spell. That's it. Its an interesting concept, but it takes up an entire section of the book, and its mostly for fluff. The bonuses to your Planar Ally check are small (+2) to the point where one wonders if it will ever impact your games. It's a great resource for players who want to ooze fluff in their roleplaying, but it really feels like too much effort went into this section. One can only wish that the Sorcerer received this much attention. {4/10}</p>
<p><b>Construct Adaptations</b>
<br />
This chapter informs a spellcaster on how to upgrade and better equip the constructs they build. This chapter is cool, not going to lie, but it does not feel like it works in this section. It implies that ALL constructs are magical in nature; well what if you run a steam punk campaign? I didn't think my car ran on magic (though at the prices gas stations charge these days, one has to wonder). You can argue the ice golems are definitely magical in nature, but then I ask you, "why are you shoving beakers of alchemical fire into your ice golem?" I could understand why this was here if there was never intent to print another Bestiary every again, but lo! Bestiary 3 was announced TODAY. This would have worked better in there, instead of hogging up whatever fun things could have been given to the Sorcerer. {5/10. This section is cool, but it doesn't fit the book.}</p>
<p><b>Feats</b>
<br />
The feat section is very hit or miss. There are some awesome options and some terrible options. Some options look a little overpowered (for example, I'd be okay with Antagonize if it let my mage target the antagonizer with a spell instead of forcing them to charge into melee a la Spongebob Squarepants) while others seem redundant (Prodigy, why are you in a magical book? All of these guys could just Greater Creation your goods into existence). Overall, though, this is a good addition to the current setup of Pathfinder feats. {7/10}</p>
<p><b>Premade Spellbooks</b>
<br />
I think this was where the magic items would have gone, but spellbooks take up so much room. This is invaluable to any DM who gives out spellbooks as a reward. Players (especially non-wizards or magi) won't care. Even Wizards and Magi might not care because they'd be sad if they saw the same premade spell books over and over again. The biggest problem with this section is that it references spells that either had their names changed or were scrapped from the book; no offense Paizo, but you may want to lash your editors or something. :) {5/10}</p>
<p><b>Words of Power</b>
<br />
The words of power is a new spellcasting system that appears in Ultimate Magic. In a nutshell, you take syllables and combine them into powerful spell effects. The goal of the system that it is extremely flexible in how it creates spells, but it cannot mimic the sheer situtationalness of some of the Core spells. The system is strong, and there are many effects that cannot be duplicated as normal spells within the situation (+4 armor and +2 to three stats comes to mind as being awesome). It is a book-heavy system and is stronger in the hands of prepared casters, who can know all of the syllables. However, it is a cool and unique system for anyone wanting to play a Wordcaster (Tome of Magic) that actually works. {8/10}</p>
<p><b>Spells</b>
<br />
You can't call a Pathfinder Book "Ultimate Magic" without having some spells in it, and boy do Paizo come through on this book. Unlike the Advanced Player's Guide, which has many "scroll/wand spells" but few really good ones, Ultimate Magic has something for everyone. It has spells that affect aging, spells that deal damage as a swift action, spells that heal, spells that harm, it really fills in the spellcasting gaps quite well. While I am still hoping for new spells in Ultimate Combat, if no new spells were printed for a year, at least you can be glad with what Paizo gives us in this book. {10/10} </p>
<p><b>Score and Final Thoughts</b>
<br />
Not everything in this book is for everyone. As the Advanced Player's Guide. This book is fluffy as you can get without making it Golarion specific; I have to admit that even the parts I did not like were very enjoyable to read. {Fluff 10/10} Where this book takes a strong hit to the groin is in the grammar department. There are a LOT of errors in this book; the premade spellbook, and there are a lot of what forum trolls like to call "Copy/Paste Fails." One of the best one haunts the Pip of the book, the Sorcerer, where a bloodline for Earth Genies grants the ability to teleport to the Plane of Water (instead of the plane of earth, which was clearly the intent based on the other genie bloodlines). Overall, this is an excellent book, but there are some illogical choices (why aren't the monster building rules in the bestiary?), bad editing, and unequal support for the spellcasting classes (I will pray for you, oh Sorcerer. Let's look at the total score, below: </p>
<p>Magus: 10/10
<br />
Base Class Support: 7/10
<br />
Spellblights: 10/10
<br />
Planar Binding: 4/10
<br />
Construct Upgrading: 5/10
<br />
Feats: 7/10
<br />
Words of Power: 8/10
<br />
Spells: 10/10
<br />
Fluff: 10/10
<br />
Style and Grammar: 5/10
<br />
Total: 76/100 = 76% = 3.8 Stars = 4 Stars</p>
<p>EDIT 9/19/2011: After further playing with Ultimate Magic, I've decided to revise my scoring of it slightly. As a GM, I</p>Alexander Augunas2011-06-13T00:31:25ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Ultimate Magic: the name says it all.... (5 stars)Talyseonhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-12T21:26:41Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I am truly impressed by how Paizo products are designed for ease of use by novice players. Ultimate Magic is not different: Check my full review: <a href="http://bit.ly/iecfhE" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ultimate Magic</a></p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I am truly impressed by how Paizo products are designed for ease of use by novice players. Ultimate Magic is not different: Check my full review: <a href="http://bit.ly/iecfhE" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ultimate Magic</a></p>Talyseon2011-06-12T21:26:41ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Excellent book, but needed more editing and balancing. (4 stars)Matrixryuhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-09T19:06:12Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>As both a player and a GM, I'm quite happy to have my hands on Ultimate Magic. The Magus class is definitely the star of the book, but there are plenty of other great options such as additional archetypes, feats, spells. One of my players is also using the wordcasting system on his sorcerer, and he is having a field day with it.</p>
<p>However, this book has some major editing issues. Certain Archetypes such as the Sythesist currently aren't usable without GM houserules to determine how exactly its abilities work. Other parts of the book refer to feats or spells that were cut out. There are also some problems with the book inserting powers or abilities that just seem too weak (such as ranger traps). None of this makes the book unusable since a GM can make his own adjustments as necessary, but these problems will still cause headaches.</p>
<p>I'm giving this book four stars because I believe that it will be just fine after Paizo does some erratas for it, but I am annoyed that I am going to have to refer to on online document for information that should have been done right in the first place.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>As both a player and a GM, I'm quite happy to have my hands on Ultimate Magic. The Magus class is definitely the star of the book, but there are plenty of other great options such as additional archetypes, feats, spells. One of my players is also using the wordcasting system on his sorcerer, and he is having a field day with it.</p>
<p>However, this book has some major editing issues. Certain Archetypes such as the Sythesist currently aren't usable without GM houserules to determine how exactly its abilities work. Other parts of the book refer to feats or spells that were cut out. There are also some problems with the book inserting powers or abilities that just seem too weak (such as ranger traps). None of this makes the book unusable since a GM can make his own adjustments as necessary, but these problems will still cause headaches.</p>
<p>I'm giving this book four stars because I believe that it will be just fine after Paizo does some erratas for it, but I am annoyed that I am going to have to refer to on online document for information that should have been done right in the first place.</p>Matrixryu2011-06-09T19:06:12ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Ecelectic Purchase, but worth it (4 stars)elvnswordhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-09T18:20:12Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Pros: ok, number one the Magus class is awesome. It fills a casting spot in my campaigns that is needed, and wasn't even known to BE needed till now. </p>
<p>Red Mage comes to mind...</p>
<p>As for the rest of the book, yes there are few options for fighters, and melee characters as is to be expected in a book on Magic. </p>
<p>Cons: I did not expect the wordcasting section, nor will I be using it. The Alchemist, and Oracle seem to have little support compared to other casting classes.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Pros: ok, number one the Magus class is awesome. It fills a casting spot in my campaigns that is needed, and wasn't even known to BE needed till now. </p>
<p>Red Mage comes to mind...</p>
<p>As for the rest of the book, yes there are few options for fighters, and melee characters as is to be expected in a book on Magic. </p>
<p>Cons: I did not expect the wordcasting section, nor will I be using it. The Alchemist, and Oracle seem to have little support compared to other casting classes.</p>elvnsword2011-06-09T18:20:12ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Not what I was hoping for (2 stars)galvatron42https://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-09T06:19:02Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Its not a bad book. There are some good things in here. Magus class, some of the archetypes and a few feats and spells are really good. The rest just seems too niche for me to get much use out of. The editing is also pretty bad, again. I'm sure the folks at Paizo are super busy and I know they can't catch everything, but the errors are just becoming too much for me. I was hoping for better after the APG in the editing department. This will be the last book that I pre-order. I hope this is not the new standard for Paizo hardcovers.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Its not a bad book. There are some good things in here. Magus class, some of the archetypes and a few feats and spells are really good. The rest just seems too niche for me to get much use out of. The editing is also pretty bad, again. I'm sure the folks at Paizo are super busy and I know they can't catch everything, but the errors are just becoming too much for me. I was hoping for better after the APG in the editing department. This will be the last book that I pre-order. I hope this is not the new standard for Paizo hardcovers.</p>galvatron422011-06-09T06:19:02ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Underwhelming, underwhelming, lemon underwhelming... (2 stars)FallofCamelothttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-08T11:02:54Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Underwhelming is the word. There's some good stuff in there (the magus most particularly) but there is a hefty dollop of meh in there as well.</p>
<p>The problem is a lot of it isn't really exciting or innovative. The APG had six new classes, introduced archetypes, teamwork feats, alternate racial traits and favoured class options. It was clear and well defined.</p>
<p>UM by comparison doesn't really offer anything exciting. The new stuff (Magus notwithstanding) feels more like the optional rules crammed into the back of the APG. With the exception of new familiars, chapter two in it's entirity is basically optional fluff, most of which I won't be using. The archetypes are 10% interesting, 20% OK and 70% massively underwhelming. In addition the new abilities available (such as masterpieces and alternate uses for channelling) just don't get me going.</p>
<p>But the worst thing about the book is the fact that a lot of the options are utterly useless for players. Many of the archetypes are obviously tools for the GM to use. In fact, several of my players have looked through the options for their classes and have said "no, nothing of use there". That should not be the case. It is disappointing to see Paizo creating options that are merely GM plot devices, particularly when Paizo warn prospective writers against this kind of writing during RPG Superstar.</p>
<p>There is some good stuff in here (hence the two star rating) but overall this comes nowhere near the standard established by the APG and Core Rulebook. It's a dropped ball I'm afraid.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Underwhelming is the word. There's some good stuff in there (the magus most particularly) but there is a hefty dollop of meh in there as well.</p>
<p>The problem is a lot of it isn't really exciting or innovative. The APG had six new classes, introduced archetypes, teamwork feats, alternate racial traits and favoured class options. It was clear and well defined.</p>
<p>UM by comparison doesn't really offer anything exciting. The new stuff (Magus notwithstanding) feels more like the optional rules crammed into the back of the APG. With the exception of new familiars, chapter two in it's entirity is basically optional fluff, most of which I won't be using. The archetypes are 10% interesting, 20% OK and 70% massively underwhelming. In addition the new abilities available (such as masterpieces and alternate uses for channelling) just don't get me going.</p>
<p>But the worst thing about the book is the fact that a lot of the options are utterly useless for players. Many of the archetypes are obviously tools for the GM to use. In fact, several of my players have looked through the options for their classes and have said "no, nothing of use there". That should not be the case. It is disappointing to see Paizo creating options that are merely GM plot devices, particularly when Paizo warn prospective writers against this kind of writing during RPG Superstar.</p>
<p>There is some good stuff in here (hence the two star rating) but overall this comes nowhere near the standard established by the APG and Core Rulebook. It's a dropped ball I'm afraid.</p>FallofCamelot2011-06-08T11:02:54ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): So-and-so (2 stars)Kaiyanwanghttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-06-05T01:29:24Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This is my analysis section by section:</p>
<p>Classes:
<br />
Magus: The class and its archetypes are a masterpiece. Solid, balanced, well made. Hexcrafter is particularly interesting. Missing favored class bonuses are the only bad thing. Shame. Thumbs up for the rest.
<br />
Alchemist: generally good options.
<br />
Bard: Masterpieces are a good idea. The execution and the use in actual play are sometimes dubious. Archetypes are quite nice, but one is unexplainably bad (Geisha).
<br />
Cleric: variant channeling is a good idea, but as a feat option, in addition to standard channeling. This is underwhelming. The archetype are decent (even if cloistered cleric was better in 3.5, and theologian too is weak in execution). The undead lord is solid. An option for elemental clerics is strongly missing (something like the Stormlord druid).
<br />
Druid: the option bloat starts to kick in, but use the domains as a supplement to the APG options can create well rounded environment-related druid types. Vermin companions are awesome. The lack of a vermin wild shape archetype is indeed surprising and disappointing. Archetypes are overall well made. The Stormlord is particularly intriguing. The Dragon Shaman is really disappointing. There is nothing truly draconic in the Archetype. Better avoid sounding names next time, if not possible introduce balanced true draconic options.
<br />
Inquisitor: inquisitions are nice, but here and there comes out sort of a lack of focus by the author’s part. See as an example Critical Precision of the Torture inquisition. A critical focus character will be likely to choose critical feast: how is this class feature not supposed to synergize with the feat?
<br />
Monk: vows are a great idea, and some of them are nice. The execution of some of them is simply awful, as an example Celibacy and Poverty. The latter is a true missed chance of accomplishing an interesting archetype. The Quinjong archetype is a nice, nice addition to the monk expecially post-APG.
<br />
Oracle: the oracle new Mysteries are interesting and diverse. Flavor choices are very good and well executed. Archetypes are intriguing and inspiring. Well made. Possible problematic combinations are yet to be explored (as an example, the no-save phantom touch and other fear effects. Paizo loves no-save effects, but a great number of them is really troublesome).
<br />
Paladin: Oaths are another example of excellent idea (and with great flavor) often executed quite poorly, unbalanced. Get rid of Aura of Justice for Cleansing Flame is ridiculous. The Wyrm oath capstone is totally dysfunctional. In APG some archetype slowed down the progression of smite evil. One wonders why this solution has not be applied for powers like Loyal Oath. Good options exist (Fiends, Vengeance, Charity as an example).
<br />
Ranger: Traps are a nice addition. Still, the fire themed ones are really weak, and the traps presented are really few. Feels incomplete.
<br />
Sorcerer: new bloodlines are neat, even if the impression given is somewhat scrapping the bottom of the barrel. As with the inquisitor, here and there some lack of focus appears. As an example, how the Accursed bloodline SR capstone is not supposed to be somewhat troublesome for the sorcerer? Cross Blooded and Wild Blooded options are fresh. Nice.
<br />
Summoner: the options are for sure intriguing. The models can be priceless for DMs. My only concerns are about the balance of the Synthesist.
<br />
Witch: the new hexes are overall really intriguing ad well made. Bonus points for quotes from literatures and fairy tales. Some hex should have be better defined mechanically (Scar). New patrons and Archetypes are good.
<br />
Wizard: the arcane discoveries are not a good addition to the game. Most of them are unneeded (True Name), not related to the class (Feral Speech), or break the limitation of the class in a very disturbing manner (Opposition Research, and Fast Study). Metal and wood schools were missing and are warmly welcomed. The Scrollmaster is poorly executed.</p>
<p>Spell Blight: this is a great addition for any campaign, both the gritty and the high magic ones. Well made!
<br />
Duels: circumstantial.
<br />
Binding Outsiders: Exhaustive and useful. Well made.
<br />
Building and modifying constructs: somewhat prone to abuse, but totally, completely awesome.
<br />
Spellbooks: Useful. Could have been nice have guidelines similar to those for magic items. This makes the chapter incomplete.
<br />
Spell guidelines: the chapter is very well made. I strongly suggest to the authors to attempt to follow it.</p>
<p>Feats: Sadly, a lot of feats follow the usual “theme” of the book: apparently intriguing option, but very poorly executed. Most metamagic feats are not worthy, slotting too much. Burning spell is an example. Flaring Spells is ever more weak, if possible. The feat Antagonize is DISCONCERTING. It seems a bad homebrew feat, written by someone with little game experience. Sorcerous Bloodstrike is hilariously weak. Radiant Charge is pure comedy.
<br />
On the flipside, there are feats clashing with assumptions of the game. Thanatopic Spells and Threnodic Spells overcome undead immunities to death effects and mind affecting respectively. This kills diversity and bring oddities on the table. Divine interference is disturbingly odd and clunky.
<br />
There are good feats. Accursed hex and Split Hex for witch are very interesting. Echoing Spell metamagic is even too good. The “extras” ones are useful. The inquisitor ones and the eidolon-summoner interaction ones are nice. Cleric and Druid action economy is greatly improved by Quick Channel and Quick Wildshape. The alchemist implant bomb ones are abuseable but cool. Paladins have hands full: auras and healing class features are greatly improved. </p>
<p>Wordcasting: my opinion is ambivalent on this. I praise Paizo for the innovation, but I fear the system is clunky. A more straightforward approach like the 3.5 invocation spells of the Warlock class could have been better. The implication for worldbuilding and roleplaying are enormous indeed.</p>
<p>Spells: the spell session is very intriguing, and is a mixed bag.
<br />
There are good and/or inspiring spells like Animate Dead, Lesser, very needed for low level undead adventures, intriguing spells like Call Construct, Create Demiplane, which is iconic, a plot device, a reward, an adventure hook with great roleplaying potential, or pure awesome crazy stuff like summoning of monkey swarms.</p>
<p>On the flip side, there are spells like agonize: makes a highly debated spell stronger (but is iconic, so…) Daze, Mass: troublesome: Immune to daze creatures are really rare. Masterwork transformation hits hard once again the worldbuilding. Emotion spells like Miserable Pity become a laughable nonsense if creatures of pure evil like fiends are involved. Terrible Remorse, as many no save effects, is pure madness. Similar effects can be found in spells 4 levels higher. </p>
<p>On the route of odd flavor,: Should Druids Summon an aberration (Summon Froghemoth)? Is make a target devoured by Fleshworm an inquisitor thing? Is a swift action cold blasting spell a clerical thing? The spell list assignation of some spell is disconcerting at best.
<br />
I consider new descriptors as a good addition, since the classification of game elements helps both mechanics and roleplaying of casters.</p>
<p>Overall, I feel Paizo fell short with the book. The quality of rules and flavor is schizophrenic from section to section, with few gems. The book seems rushed, and sometimes not only the power level, but the flavor of elements of the game is damaged. The book can be a decent addition to the library of a PF player or GM, but needs heavy errata. I strongly suggest a greater quality control of rules and errors. I seriously hope this is not the new standard for Paizo.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>This is my analysis section by section:</p>
<p>Classes:
<br />
Magus: The class and its archetypes are a masterpiece. Solid, balanced, well made. Hexcrafter is particularly interesting. Missing favored class bonuses are the only bad thing. Shame. Thumbs up for the rest.
<br />
Alchemist: generally good options.
<br />
Bard: Masterpieces are a good idea. The execution and the use in actual play are sometimes dubious. Archetypes are quite nice, but one is unexplainably bad (Geisha).
<br />
Cleric: variant channeling is a good idea, but as a feat option, in addition to standard channeling. This is underwhelming. The archetype are decent (even if cloistered cleric was better in 3.5, and theologian too is weak in execution). The undead lord is solid. An option for elemental clerics is strongly missing (something like the Stormlord druid).
<br />
Druid: the option bloat starts to kick in, but use the domains as a supplement to the APG options can create well rounded environment-related druid types. Vermin companions are awesome. The lack of a vermin wild shape archetype is indeed surprising and disappointing. Archetypes are overall well made. The Stormlord is particularly intriguing. The Dragon Shaman is really disappointing. There is nothing truly draconic in the Archetype. Better avoid sounding names next time, if not possible introduce balanced true draconic options.
<br />
Inquisitor: inquisitions are nice, but here and there comes out sort of a lack of focus by the author’s part. See as an example Critical Precision of the Torture inquisition. A critical focus character will be likely to choose critical feast: how is this class feature not supposed to synergize with the feat?
<br />
Monk: vows are a great idea, and some of them are nice. The execution of some of them is simply awful, as an example Celibacy and Poverty. The latter is a true missed chance of accomplishing an interesting archetype. The Quinjong archetype is a nice, nice addition to the monk expecially post-APG.
<br />
Oracle: the oracle new Mysteries are interesting and diverse. Flavor choices are very good and well executed. Archetypes are intriguing and inspiring. Well made. Possible problematic combinations are yet to be explored (as an example, the no-save phantom touch and other fear effects. Paizo loves no-save effects, but a great number of them is really troublesome).
<br />
Paladin: Oaths are another example of excellent idea (and with great flavor) often executed quite poorly, unbalanced. Get rid of Aura of Justice for Cleansing Flame is ridiculous. The Wyrm oath capstone is totally dysfunctional. In APG some archetype slowed down the progression of smite evil. One wonders why this solution has not be applied for powers like Loyal Oath. Good options exist (Fiends, Vengeance, Charity as an example).
<br />
Ranger: Traps are a nice addition. Still, the fire themed ones are really weak, and the traps presented are really few. Feels incomplete.
<br />
Sorcerer: new bloodlines are neat, even if the impression given is somewhat scrapping the bottom of the barrel. As with the inquisitor, here and there some lack of focus appears. As an example, how the Accursed bloodline SR capstone is not supposed to be somewhat troublesome for the sorcerer? Cross Blooded and Wild Blooded options are fresh. Nice.
<br />
Summoner: the options are for sure intriguing. The models can be priceless for DMs. My only concerns are about the balance of the Synthesist.
<br />
Witch: the new hexes are overall really intriguing ad well made. Bonus points for quotes from literatures and fairy tales. Some hex should have be better defined mechanically (Scar). New patrons and Archetypes are good.
<br />
Wizard: the arcane discoveries are not a good addition to the game. Most of them are unneeded (True Name), not related to the class (Feral Speech), or break the limitation of the class in a very disturbing manner (Opposition Research, and Fast Study). Metal and wood schools were missing and are warmly welcomed. The Scrollmaster is poorly executed.</p>
<p>Spell Blight: this is a great addition for any campaign, both the gritty and the high magic ones. Well made!
<br />
Duels: circumstantial.
<br />
Binding Outsiders: Exhaustive and useful. Well made.
<br />
Building and modifying constructs: somewhat prone to abuse, but totally, completely awesome.
<br />
Spellbooks: Useful. Could have been nice have guidelines similar to those for magic items. This makes the chapter incomplete.
<br />
Spell guidelines: the chapter is very well made. I strongly suggest to the authors to attempt to follow it.</p>
<p>Feats: Sadly, a lot of feats follow the usual “theme” of the book: apparently intriguing option, but very poorly executed. Most metamagic feats are not worthy, slotting too much. Burning spell is an example. Flaring Spells is ever more weak, if possible. The feat Antagonize is DISCONCERTING. It seems a bad homebrew feat, written by someone with little game experience. Sorcerous Bloodstrike is hilariously weak. Radiant Charge is pure comedy.
<br />
On the flipside, there are feats clashing with assumptions of the game. Thanatopic Spells and Threnodic Spells overcome undead immunities to death effects and mind affecting respectively. This kills diversity and bring oddities on the table. Divine interference is disturbingly odd and clunky.
<br />
There are good feats. Accursed hex and Split Hex for witch are very interesting. Echoing Spell metamagic is even too good. The “extras” ones are useful. The inquisitor ones and the eidolon-summoner interaction ones are nice. Cleric and Druid action economy is greatly improved by Quick Channel and Quick Wildshape. The alchemist implant bomb ones are abuseable but cool. Paladins have hands full: auras and healing class features are greatly improved. </p>
<p>Wordcasting: my opinion is ambivalent on this. I praise Paizo for the innovation, but I fear the system is clunky. A more straightforward approach like the 3.5 invocation spells of the Warlock class could have been better. The implication for worldbuilding and roleplaying are enormous indeed.</p>
<p>Spells: the spell session is very intriguing, and is a mixed bag.
<br />
There are good and/or inspiring spells like Animate Dead, Lesser, very needed for low level undead adventures, intriguing spells like Call Construct, Create Demiplane, which is iconic, a plot device, a reward, an adventure hook with great roleplaying potential, or pure awesome crazy stuff like summoning of monkey swarms.</p>
<p>On the flip side, there are spells like agonize: makes a highly debated spell stronger (but is iconic, so…) Daze, Mass: troublesome: Immune to daze creatures are really rare. Masterwork transformation hits hard once again the worldbuilding. Emotion spells like Miserable Pity become a laughable nonsense if creatures of pure evil like fiends are involved. Terrible Remorse, as many no save effects, is pure madness. Similar effects can be found in spells 4 levels higher. </p>
<p>On the route of odd flavor,: Should Druids Summon an aberration (Summon Froghemoth)? Is make a target devoured by Fleshworm an inquisitor thing? Is a swift action cold blasting spell a clerical thing? The spell list assignation of some spell is disconcerting at best.
<br />
I consider new descriptors as a good addition, since the classification of game elements helps both mechanics and roleplaying of casters.</p>
<p>Overall, I feel Paizo fell short with the book. The quality of rules and flavor is schizophrenic from section to section, with few gems. The book seems rushed, and sometimes not only the power level, but the flavor of elements of the game is damaged. The book can be a decent addition to the library of a PF player or GM, but needs heavy errata. I strongly suggest a greater quality control of rules and errors. I seriously hope this is not the new standard for Paizo.</p>Kaiyanwang2011-06-05T01:29:24ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Mostly for players (2 stars)Valiancehttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-31T00:55:21Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>For players this might be a useful book with many options, but for GM's it really does not offer much worth using. In addition a lot of the stuff that players might wish to use could cause rules issues for the GM to determine how to rule on certain rules problems.
<br />
Overall a rather lackluster book, and i really hope that Ultimate Combat does not follow the same pattern.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>For players this might be a useful book with many options, but for GM's it really does not offer much worth using. In addition a lot of the stuff that players might wish to use could cause rules issues for the GM to determine how to rule on certain rules problems.
<br />
Overall a rather lackluster book, and i really hope that Ultimate Combat does not follow the same pattern.</p>Valiance2011-05-31T00:55:21ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Very good work (4 stars)leo1925https://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-30T09:23:59Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>A quite nice book.
<br />
It has a lot of GREAT things (for example the magus), and a couple of really awful things (vow of poverty monk), but the book in general is a good book and it really helps you customize your spellcasters.
<br />
Sure there are a couple of loopholes in the book that needs closing (yes echoing spell i am looking at you), and there are a few typos in the first print but i am sure that Paizo will fix them as soon as possible.
<br />
All in all the book has several gems and a very few lumps but i really can't <b>not</b> get a book that has the bladebound magus and the qinggong monk in it.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>A quite nice book.
<br />
It has a lot of GREAT things (for example the magus), and a couple of really awful things (vow of poverty monk), but the book in general is a good book and it really helps you customize your spellcasters.
<br />
Sure there are a couple of loopholes in the book that needs closing (yes echoing spell i am looking at you), and there are a few typos in the first print but i am sure that Paizo will fix them as soon as possible.
<br />
All in all the book has several gems and a very few lumps but i really can't <b>not</b> get a book that has the bladebound magus and the qinggong monk in it.</p>leo19252011-05-30T09:23:59ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Excellent product (4 stars)Kevin Mackhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-28T10:26:01Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Had this book for a few days now and it is an excellent book although admitadly some things are more situational than others.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Had this book for a few days now and it is an excellent book although admitadly some things are more situational than others.</p>Kevin Mack2011-05-28T10:26:01ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): I feel... robbed. (1 star)Priamonhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-28T05:48:26Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Wow. I mean wow. This book is all about not being innovative. Magus- A+. Good work Paizo. Everything else is pretty terrible. For every gem they printed in the book, there are 3 more lumps of coal right around the corner.
<br />
The class archetypes seem to be all about allowing every class to fulfill every role.
<br />
The entire chapter about binding outsiders, spell duels, spell building, modifying constructs etc is situational at best. Wasted space on pre-generated spellbooks should have been a $2 release for printing purposes, not 6-8 pages in a manual size book.
<br />
Feats- About the only ones worth while are the ones that have "extra"" in the title.
<br />
Words of power. Let me just say that right from the beginning I thought Words of power was a clunky un-needed system. So I skipped that section and didn't let it raise or lower my opinion of the book. I realize that this section, specifically, is more of a "Not my cup of tea" area and others might find genuine enjoyment out of the system.
<br />
Spells. Sigh. Everyone always wants more spells. More options. Well- there comes a point when generating more spells is just bad. The use and need of them becomes exponentially worse. As such the quality of a spell is also worse. Spells are something that should be generated because you GENUINELY have an innovative idea. The spells in this book were not that. They were page fillers, and as such, there really isn't much worth while.
<br />
All in all, this book was a dropped ball. They could have generated the Magus class and alternate features and sold it for $10 soft cover or $5 PDF and they probably would have made more profit and had a product that was easily 200% higher in quality.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Wow. I mean wow. This book is all about not being innovative. Magus- A+. Good work Paizo. Everything else is pretty terrible. For every gem they printed in the book, there are 3 more lumps of coal right around the corner.
<br />
The class archetypes seem to be all about allowing every class to fulfill every role.
<br />
The entire chapter about binding outsiders, spell duels, spell building, modifying constructs etc is situational at best. Wasted space on pre-generated spellbooks should have been a $2 release for printing purposes, not 6-8 pages in a manual size book.
<br />
Feats- About the only ones worth while are the ones that have "extra"" in the title.
<br />
Words of power. Let me just say that right from the beginning I thought Words of power was a clunky un-needed system. So I skipped that section and didn't let it raise or lower my opinion of the book. I realize that this section, specifically, is more of a "Not my cup of tea" area and others might find genuine enjoyment out of the system.
<br />
Spells. Sigh. Everyone always wants more spells. More options. Well- there comes a point when generating more spells is just bad. The use and need of them becomes exponentially worse. As such the quality of a spell is also worse. Spells are something that should be generated because you GENUINELY have an innovative idea. The spells in this book were not that. They were page fillers, and as such, there really isn't much worth while.
<br />
All in all, this book was a dropped ball. They could have generated the Magus class and alternate features and sold it for $10 soft cover or $5 PDF and they probably would have made more profit and had a product that was easily 200% higher in quality.</p>Priamon2011-05-28T05:48:26ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Only good enough for the PDF (3 stars)YuenglingDragonhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-25T05:10:24Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Chapter 1: Spellcasters</p>
<p>The first chapter is also the best. The Magus is nice and there are several very interesting archetypes here. I wish the Ranger had got a bit more of a generous treatment as I think the game could benefit from a class midway between Druid and Ranger but I'll live. If the whole book was of this quality, this book would get 5 stars easily.</p>
<p>Chapter 2: Mastering Magic</p>
<p>But, alas, the whole book is not of the same quality. This chapter is almost entirely horrible. The last section, designing spells, is phenomenal and much needed. Everything else is so very niche that feel like it deserved its own book, a book for people that need to bind outsiders, create and control constructs, and spell duel. Plus, seven pages devoted to premade spell books. How do you combine such advanced stuff and such beginners stuff into one chapter?</p>
<p>Chapter 3: Feats</p>
<p>Pretty good chapter. Paizo took an interesting tack here and made nearly all the feats in here related to class features. There are ways to improve Lay on Hands, Stern Gaze, Familiars, Eidolons, Bloodlines, Hexes and everything else. It's pretty neat. Seems a sort of logical continuation of the archetypes, allowing focus on certain aspects of a character.</p>
<p>Chapter 4: Words</p>
<p>Hrm. I'm not a huge fan of the system. It feels clunky and I'm not sure I could see myself using it, especially when there's a pretty good section on creating/researching new spells.</p>
<p>Chapter 5: Spells</p>
<p>A distressing mix of really niche stuff and really bad stuff with a few gems in there. Some of the stuff is wonderfully flavorful like Arboreal Hammer. Some of the stuff is just terrible like Cold Ice Strike. Cold Ice Strike is just a quickened Cone of Cold but only one level higher. Does it have an expensive material component to make up for this unbalanced blasphemy? No one knows because they forgot to include the component line. And there a number of other spells missing that line, too. That's some really basic information to not include. And then there are spells like Blood Crow Strike and Steal Ki which seem to only exist for the Qinggong Monk.</p>
<p>I was hoping for a bit more variety in the touch spell department, especially in the book in which the Magus was introduced. I was also hoping for a bit more offensive goodies for the Cleric/Oracle but was mostly disappointed.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Chapter 1: Spellcasters</p>
<p>The first chapter is also the best. The Magus is nice and there are several very interesting archetypes here. I wish the Ranger had got a bit more of a generous treatment as I think the game could benefit from a class midway between Druid and Ranger but I'll live. If the whole book was of this quality, this book would get 5 stars easily.</p>
<p>Chapter 2: Mastering Magic</p>
<p>But, alas, the whole book is not of the same quality. This chapter is almost entirely horrible. The last section, designing spells, is phenomenal and much needed. Everything else is so very niche that feel like it deserved its own book, a book for people that need to bind outsiders, create and control constructs, and spell duel. Plus, seven pages devoted to premade spell books. How do you combine such advanced stuff and such beginners stuff into one chapter?</p>
<p>Chapter 3: Feats</p>
<p>Pretty good chapter. Paizo took an interesting tack here and made nearly all the feats in here related to class features. There are ways to improve Lay on Hands, Stern Gaze, Familiars, Eidolons, Bloodlines, Hexes and everything else. It's pretty neat. Seems a sort of logical continuation of the archetypes, allowing focus on certain aspects of a character.</p>
<p>Chapter 4: Words</p>
<p>Hrm. I'm not a huge fan of the system. It feels clunky and I'm not sure I could see myself using it, especially when there's a pretty good section on creating/researching new spells.</p>
<p>Chapter 5: Spells</p>
<p>A distressing mix of really niche stuff and really bad stuff with a few gems in there. Some of the stuff is wonderfully flavorful like Arboreal Hammer. Some of the stuff is just terrible like Cold Ice Strike. Cold Ice Strike is just a quickened Cone of Cold but only one level higher. Does it have an expensive material component to make up for this unbalanced blasphemy? No one knows because they forgot to include the component line. And there a number of other spells missing that line, too. That's some really basic information to not include. And then there are spells like Blood Crow Strike and Steal Ki which seem to only exist for the Qinggong Monk.</p>
<p>I was hoping for a bit more variety in the touch spell department, especially in the book in which the Magus was introduced. I was also hoping for a bit more offensive goodies for the Cleric/Oracle but was mostly disappointed.</p>YuenglingDragon2011-05-25T05:10:24ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Not enough Oracle support (3 stars)ErrantXhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-20T02:02:04Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>A great work, I love the magus class and there are tons of goodies in here for anyone who can utter a cantrip, but what burns me is that there are no new Oracle curses in this book, one of the major reasons I bought it as the description of the book on the website specifically says alternate curses. There are absolutely none. Other than this MAJOR oversight, this is a good book. But come on Paizo, at least deliver on what you advertised for the Oracle.</p>
<p>-X</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>A great work, I love the magus class and there are tons of goodies in here for anyone who can utter a cantrip, but what burns me is that there are no new Oracle curses in this book, one of the major reasons I bought it as the description of the book on the website specifically says alternate curses. There are absolutely none. Other than this MAJOR oversight, this is a good book. But come on Paizo, at least deliver on what you advertised for the Oracle.</p>
<p>-X</p>ErrantX2011-05-20T02:02:04ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Good book with a few problems. (4 stars)Gorbaczhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-18T23:42:08Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Here comes the second PFRPG splatbook after APG, this time focused on magic-using classes. First thing that leads to me knocking a star off right away - 4 classes (Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian, Cavalier) are out of luck here, as no material for them appears in UM (barring a few feats). That wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the news that Ultimate Combat will feature new stuff for ALL classes, meaning that martials get a bit shafted. Nothing major, but had to get that off the chest.</p>
<p>So, the book itself. Here it goes:</p>
<p>CHAPTER 1: Spellcasters</p>
<p>Opens up with Magus, the new base class. Magus is a med-BAB bard spell progression class which matches melee combat with offensive spellcasting. I'm pleased to say that it is very well written. Suggestions from open playtest were included and refined. The class is solid, and even features a few new archetypes (including Bladebound for all Elric fans out there).</p>
<p>Right next are new options for existing classes:</p>
<p>Alchemists made it out like bandits with new discoveries and archetypes. The class was solid in APG and goes firmly better in UM. Tumour familiar and parasitic twin are creepily cool.</p>
<p>Bards get Masterpieces, which are somewhat underwhelming power-wise, and a few new archetypes. Wish they got more, Bards have great potential.</p>
<p>Clerics get variant channelling, which is great if you want to replace the standard healing/damaging for something more flavorful. Several archetypes are present, including the much-demanded Cloistered Cleric. No new domains, sadly.</p>
<p>Druids are in for a treat. New domains, new animal companion and a big bunch of archetypes. Dragon Shamans ahoy! And now yes you can have a Spider companion. Yuck.</p>
<p>Inquisitors have now an option of swapping out the domain for a new feature called, surprise, Inquisitions. They also have a few new archetypes. Solid work here.</p>
<p>Monks get vows which are ... disappointing to say at least. Ironically enough, the book includes a PF version of vow of poverty which, honestly, sucks. The other vows aren't that much better. Monks get only one archetype which is quite good, but not enough to make Monk players happy.</p>
<p>Oracles have five new mysteries and a couple archetypes. No new curses. I'd really love more mysteries, I still lack a few concepts here.</p>
<p>Paladins can now take the Oathbound archetype, which gives them access to several thematic oaths.</p>
<p>Rangers get the Trapper archetype, which is not all that great sadly. Nothing else besides, another class that should rather be looking forward to Ultimate Combat.</p>
<p>Sorcerers - new bloodlines and two archetypes that deal with bloodline mechanics. Nothing dramatic here.</p>
<p>Summoners are another class which went to town for shopping. New base form for Eidolon, new evolutions and new archetypes, including the oft-requested "mass summoner" and my personal fave, the Synthesist. Guyver time!</p>
<p>Witches get a complete package - new hexes, new patrons and new archetypes. Solid expansion of APG material.</p>
<p>Finally, Wizards. Wizards get a single archetype and 2 elemental wizard schools, but the party is at Arcane Discoveries which may replace bonus feats. Some of those are really powerful.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 2: Mastering Magic</p>
<p>Contains new and variant rules. Spellblights are magic-related afflictions which can hinder a spellcaster in new ways. Spell Duels chapter details just that, spellcaster duels. The next section focuses on binding outsiders, another feature that's underdeveloped in core rules. New rules for construct creation and customization are REALLY cool. New familiars are always welcome. Coming up next are sample spellbooks, which are amazingly useful but mired by editing errors that left several spells "orphaned". Finally, the section on spell design offers some insight into just that. Not my cup of tea, but fans of poking inside designer's minds will be happy.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 3: Feats</p>
<p>The compulsory feats chapter is quite large and includes dozens of new ways to customize your character. The feats are mostly in line with Core and APG, a few are somewhat underpowered and a single one (Antagonize) clearly needs better number crunching. A feat called "Die For Your Master" made me chuckle. </p>
<p>CHAPTER 4: Words of Power</p>
<p>This chapter describes the new, alternate magic system based around customized spells made up of power words. I'd love to elaborate on this, but since the concept itself doesn't really interest me, I didn't give this chapter a honest read. You might find it useful if you like experimenting, tho.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 5: Spells</p>
<p>Another obvious addition: new spells. Scores of them, of course. There are several really fun, innovative and clever spells here and I found this chapter a refreshing read. A spell called <i>mad monkeys</i> wins the day for me, nothing beats summoning a swarm of crazed gibbons against your foes.</p>
<p>CONCLUSION</p>
<p>This is a solid splatbook. Much broader than WotC "Complete" splats, with several thematic ideas that draw upon mythology, history and pop culture to liven up your PF game. Yet, three things contribute to knocking off one star:</p>
<p>- the aforementioned lack of love for non-caster classes. I realize the book is called Ultimate Magic, but the caster-martial divide in D&D is well known and one could hope for something to help bridge it.</p>
<p>- quality control is worse than in Core and APG. I don't mind typos, but a couple of things are either badly written (Antagonize), poorly thought out (Monk vows) or victims of editing/development errors (Spellbooks). It's not bad enough to cause discomfort, but it is visible enough to request more tight supervision of future books.</p>
<p>- purely optional content. I'm not a fan of stuff which I will, objectively, never get to use. An entire chapter of UM - Words of Power - is pretty much lost on me and I would much prefer for it to sit in an "Unearthed Arcana" type of book. The spell design chapter is also slightly guilty of this.</p>
<p>I recommend this book, you'll have lots of fun from it and it will enrich your experience no matter if you are a player or GM. But I also recommend Paizo to step up and maintain their quality standards found in other books.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Here comes the second PFRPG splatbook after APG, this time focused on magic-using classes. First thing that leads to me knocking a star off right away - 4 classes (Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian, Cavalier) are out of luck here, as no material for them appears in UM (barring a few feats). That wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the news that Ultimate Combat will feature new stuff for ALL classes, meaning that martials get a bit shafted. Nothing major, but had to get that off the chest.</p>
<p>So, the book itself. Here it goes:</p>
<p>CHAPTER 1: Spellcasters</p>
<p>Opens up with Magus, the new base class. Magus is a med-BAB bard spell progression class which matches melee combat with offensive spellcasting. I'm pleased to say that it is very well written. Suggestions from open playtest were included and refined. The class is solid, and even features a few new archetypes (including Bladebound for all Elric fans out there).</p>
<p>Right next are new options for existing classes:</p>
<p>Alchemists made it out like bandits with new discoveries and archetypes. The class was solid in APG and goes firmly better in UM. Tumour familiar and parasitic twin are creepily cool.</p>
<p>Bards get Masterpieces, which are somewhat underwhelming power-wise, and a few new archetypes. Wish they got more, Bards have great potential.</p>
<p>Clerics get variant channelling, which is great if you want to replace the standard healing/damaging for something more flavorful. Several archetypes are present, including the much-demanded Cloistered Cleric. No new domains, sadly.</p>
<p>Druids are in for a treat. New domains, new animal companion and a big bunch of archetypes. Dragon Shamans ahoy! And now yes you can have a Spider companion. Yuck.</p>
<p>Inquisitors have now an option of swapping out the domain for a new feature called, surprise, Inquisitions. They also have a few new archetypes. Solid work here.</p>
<p>Monks get vows which are ... disappointing to say at least. Ironically enough, the book includes a PF version of vow of poverty which, honestly, sucks. The other vows aren't that much better. Monks get only one archetype which is quite good, but not enough to make Monk players happy.</p>
<p>Oracles have five new mysteries and a couple archetypes. No new curses. I'd really love more mysteries, I still lack a few concepts here.</p>
<p>Paladins can now take the Oathbound archetype, which gives them access to several thematic oaths.</p>
<p>Rangers get the Trapper archetype, which is not all that great sadly. Nothing else besides, another class that should rather be looking forward to Ultimate Combat.</p>
<p>Sorcerers - new bloodlines and two archetypes that deal with bloodline mechanics. Nothing dramatic here.</p>
<p>Summoners are another class which went to town for shopping. New base form for Eidolon, new evolutions and new archetypes, including the oft-requested "mass summoner" and my personal fave, the Synthesist. Guyver time!</p>
<p>Witches get a complete package - new hexes, new patrons and new archetypes. Solid expansion of APG material.</p>
<p>Finally, Wizards. Wizards get a single archetype and 2 elemental wizard schools, but the party is at Arcane Discoveries which may replace bonus feats. Some of those are really powerful.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 2: Mastering Magic</p>
<p>Contains new and variant rules. Spellblights are magic-related afflictions which can hinder a spellcaster in new ways. Spell Duels chapter details just that, spellcaster duels. The next section focuses on binding outsiders, another feature that's underdeveloped in core rules. New rules for construct creation and customization are REALLY cool. New familiars are always welcome. Coming up next are sample spellbooks, which are amazingly useful but mired by editing errors that left several spells "orphaned". Finally, the section on spell design offers some insight into just that. Not my cup of tea, but fans of poking inside designer's minds will be happy.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 3: Feats</p>
<p>The compulsory feats chapter is quite large and includes dozens of new ways to customize your character. The feats are mostly in line with Core and APG, a few are somewhat underpowered and a single one (Antagonize) clearly needs better number crunching. A feat called "Die For Your Master" made me chuckle. </p>
<p>CHAPTER 4: Words of Power</p>
<p>This chapter describes the new, alternate magic system based around customized spells made up of power words. I'd love to elaborate on this, but since the concept itself doesn't really interest me, I didn't give this chapter a honest read. You might find it useful if you like experimenting, tho.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 5: Spells</p>
<p>Another obvious addition: new spells. Scores of them, of course. There are several really fun, innovative and clever spells here and I found this chapter a refreshing read. A spell called <i>mad monkeys</i> wins the day for me, nothing beats summoning a swarm of crazed gibbons against your foes.</p>
<p>CONCLUSION</p>
<p>This is a solid splatbook. Much broader than WotC "Complete" splats, with several thematic ideas that draw upon mythology, history and pop culture to liven up your PF game. Yet, three things contribute to knocking off one star:</p>
<p>- the aforementioned lack of love for non-caster classes. I realize the book is called Ultimate Magic, but the caster-martial divide in D&D is well known and one could hope for something to help bridge it.</p>
<p>- quality control is worse than in Core and APG. I don't mind typos, but a couple of things are either badly written (Antagonize), poorly thought out (Monk vows) or victims of editing/development errors (Spellbooks). It's not bad enough to cause discomfort, but it is visible enough to request more tight supervision of future books.</p>
<p>- purely optional content. I'm not a fan of stuff which I will, objectively, never get to use. An entire chapter of UM - Words of Power - is pretty much lost on me and I would much prefer for it to sit in an "Unearthed Arcana" type of book. The spell design chapter is also slightly guilty of this.</p>
<p>I recommend this book, you'll have lots of fun from it and it will enrich your experience no matter if you are a player or GM. But I also recommend Paizo to step up and maintain their quality standards found in other books.</p>Gorbacz2011-05-18T23:42:08ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): A Mixed Bag (3 stars)Kaushal Avan Spellfirehttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-18T22:32:29Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>There's a lot to say about this book, some of it good, some of it bad. For the most part, I can say that it is a fun book with a lot of interesting archetypes and character ideas, along with a few good feats, cool spells, and thoughtful mechanics. Of course, the exact same points could be made against the book: useless archetypes, pointless feats, silly spells, and bad mechanics.</p>
<p>Ultimate Magic suffers the same problem a lot of supplemental material in 3.5 did, in which the book does not feel as tight design-wise as it otherwise could be, given the incredibly limited application of some of it's contents. Consider the Witch hex "child scent," for example: When are you ever going to need to sniff out children? This feels like a villain-only ability, and even then you could probably give your villain witch a more useful hex. The same goes for the construct modifications. They're neat, but they're not worth it to most spell casters, better used for a dramatic villain fight than an actual player. Or maybe "cartoony" would be a more appropriate description- there's something strikingly reminiscent of Power Rangers that involves the bad guy combining with his robot helper. Also: The geisha Bard archetype. What the heck, man. Tea ceremony, really? It's neat and flavorful, but it breaks flow and forces me as both a player and a GM into that uncanny valley of "yes, I suppose you guys do technically have 10 minutes outside the boss room." I mean, it's not like the dragon's going to eat the princess any time soon, or anything...</p>
<p>Of course, for all the bad ideas there are good ones too. The magus looks like a fun class, albeit he loses out on damage output against classes such as the barbarian or the rogue, but he makes up for it with the versatility of spellcasting (and I absolutely adore the staff magus archetype). I also really like the customization of the Qinggong monk, and think the alternative channeling powers are amazing. However, these traits alone to not make the book great, only good.</p>
<p>Also, this is a nit-pick, but Paizo didn't fix the typo in the vivisectionist archetype for the alchemist. This typo was pointed out when they previewed the archetype, the editors responded to the post, and the mistake still made it into the final printing. Vivisectionists can't benefit from plague bomb because they don't •get• bombs. You think that a company as good as Paizo wouldn't let a mistake like that slip past them after it was brought to their attention.</p>
<p>In conclusion, Ultimate Magic is one of those books which is handy to have around for the additional options, but is by no means a "must buy."</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>There's a lot to say about this book, some of it good, some of it bad. For the most part, I can say that it is a fun book with a lot of interesting archetypes and character ideas, along with a few good feats, cool spells, and thoughtful mechanics. Of course, the exact same points could be made against the book: useless archetypes, pointless feats, silly spells, and bad mechanics.</p>
<p>Ultimate Magic suffers the same problem a lot of supplemental material in 3.5 did, in which the book does not feel as tight design-wise as it otherwise could be, given the incredibly limited application of some of it's contents. Consider the Witch hex "child scent," for example: When are you ever going to need to sniff out children? This feels like a villain-only ability, and even then you could probably give your villain witch a more useful hex. The same goes for the construct modifications. They're neat, but they're not worth it to most spell casters, better used for a dramatic villain fight than an actual player. Or maybe "cartoony" would be a more appropriate description- there's something strikingly reminiscent of Power Rangers that involves the bad guy combining with his robot helper. Also: The geisha Bard archetype. What the heck, man. Tea ceremony, really? It's neat and flavorful, but it breaks flow and forces me as both a player and a GM into that uncanny valley of "yes, I suppose you guys do technically have 10 minutes outside the boss room." I mean, it's not like the dragon's going to eat the princess any time soon, or anything...</p>
<p>Of course, for all the bad ideas there are good ones too. The magus looks like a fun class, albeit he loses out on damage output against classes such as the barbarian or the rogue, but he makes up for it with the versatility of spellcasting (and I absolutely adore the staff magus archetype). I also really like the customization of the Qinggong monk, and think the alternative channeling powers are amazing. However, these traits alone to not make the book great, only good.</p>
<p>Also, this is a nit-pick, but Paizo didn't fix the typo in the vivisectionist archetype for the alchemist. This typo was pointed out when they previewed the archetype, the editors responded to the post, and the mistake still made it into the final printing. Vivisectionists can't benefit from plague bomb because they don't •get• bombs. You think that a company as good as Paizo wouldn't let a mistake like that slip past them after it was brought to their attention.</p>
<p>In conclusion, Ultimate Magic is one of those books which is handy to have around for the additional options, but is by no means a "must buy."</p>Kaushal Avan Spellfire2011-05-18T22:32:29ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Advanced Users Only. (4 stars)LORDNOARhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-18T21:44:40Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>The writers, developers, and designers of Paizo Publishing seem to have done the impossible: de-throne D&D. Yet earning the crown is not enough, one must defend it against the horde of nay-sayers. The best way to do that is with a steady stream of meaningful content. Regardless of anything else, there’s no denying that Pathfinder’s Advanced Player’s Guide follow-up, Ultimate Magic, is exactly that: meaningful. </p>
<p>In interest of disclosure, I did not receive a review copy of this product and this review is strictly about content via the PDF edition. I imagine, however, that the production quality of the hardback edition is on par with excellent standard set forth by other Pathfinder products. </p>
<p>Chapter 1: Spellcasters
<br />
The opening chapter of Ultimate Magic jumps immediately into the nittiest of gritties with new classes, archetypes, and abilities for each of the spellcasters in Pathfinder. It starts off with the newest full-on 20-level base class; The Magus.
<br />
The Magus is quite simply…a sword mage. All the swashbuckling style of a non-heavy fighter with the spellcasting and flexibility of a wizard rolled up into one fun package. For those who tend to favor melee classes the Magus is a great way to break into a magical class. Magi fill nicely into the hybrid class category, though not really enough to fill a vacant spot in the core of any party (the Tank, Healer, Caster dynamic.) The Magus can know any number of spells, though his selection is limited compared to Wizard/Sorcerers, and most of the spells favor combat over utility. It’s also worth noting that the Magus can only cast up to 6th level spells, though he has a fairly high number to cast per day.
<br />
As a fighter, the Magus holds his own, though clearly without the additional feats of the Fighter, range of the Barbarian, or subtlety of the Rogue. The real customization of the Magus comes from the Magus Arcana class feature, which works like the Rogue Talent feature, where upon the Magus learns new tricks and special abilities as he levels.
<br />
What the Magus DOES excel at, however, is fun. The idea of leaping into melee with the monster, stabbing it in the stomach with your flaming burst sword, and then casting Magic Missile in its face is truly one with endless potential
<br />
This reviewer was surprised to see alternatives and archetypes for the Magus, the APG was completely devoid of alternatives for the newly introduced classes, however Paizo seems to be ready for the Magus to enter the fray and reach its full potential with the release of Ultimate Magic.
<br />
The rest of the first chapter deals with alternative and extra solutions for the existing case classes. Every single class that can do anything remotely resembling a spell is represented here including, oddly enough, the Monk.
<br />
Most is what you would expect, more variations on Class Feature X, and lots of archetypes and abilities that grew out of a conversation that started with the line “Wouldn’t it be cool if….” For the most part these alternative class features aren’t game breakers and are aimed at those who really like to explore their class to the fullest. To make a point close to my heart, I am big fan of the Summoner class and while the new eidolon evolutions were disappointing, the variant archetypes were truly mind bending and opened up a world of possibilities I am excited to delve into.
<br />
If you are a fan of stretching your class to the limit, the first chapter alone is worth the price of admission. </p>
<p>Chapter 2: Mastering Magic
<br />
Chapter two of Ultimate Magic delves into more fringe areas of magic use that go beyond the strict “I cast a spell on the goblin” everyday use. This chapter addresses dueling, magical constructs, the care and feeding of outsiders, the downside of magic, and the designing of new spells. Also in this chapter the reader is presented with a plethora of pre-made spellbooks and over a dozen brand new familiars (including one epic hedgehog).
<br />
The concept of Spellblight is introduced into the world of Golarion with Ultimate Magic. Spellblight is a (usually) negative effect or susceptibility a magic user suffers, usually in the form of a curse or some other nastiness. Adventurous role-players will be excited for the challenge provided by spellblight, and overzealous GMs will enjoy the brand new shiny way to smite their PCs.
<br />
The major draw of this chapter for the truly creative types is the section about Designing Spells. This is not to be confused with the Words of Power mechanic we’ll explore later, but this is a sincere, behind-the-curtain look at the process that the Paizo developers use when creating a new spell for play. This section should be carefully explored by both the player and the GM and all the options weighed out before allowing a new spell to be used in a game session. If you do create a new spell, however, be sure to post it on the Paizo boards for all to enjoy.
<br />
This chapter is really for the GM and creative type players who want to test the boundaries of magic in Pathfinder. </p>
<p>Chapter 3: Feats
<br />
This chapter brings you the shining beacons of customization known as feats. There are no new feat types, simply a large array of increasingly circumstantial feats. While there are some that are immediately useful (Additional evolution points, extra cantrips known) and some that are so situational that they almost seem silly (glowing summons or performing in a band.) However, any caster is sure to find at least one feat they will find immediately beneficial. </p>
<p>Chapter 4: Words of Power
<br />
Words of Power is a new mechanic to spellcasting the Pathfinder. The object is simple: instead of learning defined spells, the character learns a whole vocabulary of magic words which can be strung together in near-infinite ways to produce near-infinite effects. Fans of White Wolf’s MAGE will get a kick out of this alternate magic system. While not for the uninitiated or the uncreative, the Words of Power mechanic opens up a whole playground for wrapping your head around the idea of magic. It’s too complicated to explain here, but in the hands of an open-minded player all manner of impressive magical goings-on will be going on. </p>
<p>Chapter 5: Spells
<br />
The closing chapter of Ultimate Magic features a ton of new spells for all casters. Much like the Feats chapter, the number of spells in this chapter managed to find that sweet spot where one doesn’t feel overwhelmed, but certainly doesn’t feel ripped off either. Paizo continues to use the same tried-and-true formatting of “spell blocks” which leave very little room for alternate interpretations which means less time debating and more time playing. All of these are good things.
<br />
On a side note, this is the first book to REALLY get it right when it comes to PDF bookmarking. All of the spells are listed and grouped by alphabet. Twenty-four bookmarks spread across your spells instead of one for the entire spell description section (Core Rulebook) or a different bookmark for each individual spell (APG) </p>
<p>Conclusion
<br />
Ultimate Magic achieves its goals with a truly stylistic approach. These rules are clearly not for everyone. The variations in Ultimate Magic require a higher level of understanding of the Pathfinder rules and are best used by an experienced player. For those who still don’t quite grasp all the facets of their base class, it’s best to leave Ultimate Magic on the shelf for a while. However, if you are a player (or the GM of a player) who loves exploring possibilities and stretching the limits of your imagination, especially when it comes to magic, then you will easily find enough to keep your wheels a-turning for many many play sessions. </p>
<p>(Read more at Geekcentricity.com)</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>The writers, developers, and designers of Paizo Publishing seem to have done the impossible: de-throne D&D. Yet earning the crown is not enough, one must defend it against the horde of nay-sayers. The best way to do that is with a steady stream of meaningful content. Regardless of anything else, there’s no denying that Pathfinder’s Advanced Player’s Guide follow-up, Ultimate Magic, is exactly that: meaningful. </p>
<p>In interest of disclosure, I did not receive a review copy of this product and this review is strictly about content via the PDF edition. I imagine, however, that the production quality of the hardback edition is on par with excellent standard set forth by other Pathfinder products. </p>
<p>Chapter 1: Spellcasters
<br />
The opening chapter of Ultimate Magic jumps immediately into the nittiest of gritties with new classes, archetypes, and abilities for each of the spellcasters in Pathfinder. It starts off with the newest full-on 20-level base class; The Magus.
<br />
The Magus is quite simply…a sword mage. All the swashbuckling style of a non-heavy fighter with the spellcasting and flexibility of a wizard rolled up into one fun package. For those who tend to favor melee classes the Magus is a great way to break into a magical class. Magi fill nicely into the hybrid class category, though not really enough to fill a vacant spot in the core of any party (the Tank, Healer, Caster dynamic.) The Magus can know any number of spells, though his selection is limited compared to Wizard/Sorcerers, and most of the spells favor combat over utility. It’s also worth noting that the Magus can only cast up to 6th level spells, though he has a fairly high number to cast per day.
<br />
As a fighter, the Magus holds his own, though clearly without the additional feats of the Fighter, range of the Barbarian, or subtlety of the Rogue. The real customization of the Magus comes from the Magus Arcana class feature, which works like the Rogue Talent feature, where upon the Magus learns new tricks and special abilities as he levels.
<br />
What the Magus DOES excel at, however, is fun. The idea of leaping into melee with the monster, stabbing it in the stomach with your flaming burst sword, and then casting Magic Missile in its face is truly one with endless potential
<br />
This reviewer was surprised to see alternatives and archetypes for the Magus, the APG was completely devoid of alternatives for the newly introduced classes, however Paizo seems to be ready for the Magus to enter the fray and reach its full potential with the release of Ultimate Magic.
<br />
The rest of the first chapter deals with alternative and extra solutions for the existing case classes. Every single class that can do anything remotely resembling a spell is represented here including, oddly enough, the Monk.
<br />
Most is what you would expect, more variations on Class Feature X, and lots of archetypes and abilities that grew out of a conversation that started with the line “Wouldn’t it be cool if….” For the most part these alternative class features aren’t game breakers and are aimed at those who really like to explore their class to the fullest. To make a point close to my heart, I am big fan of the Summoner class and while the new eidolon evolutions were disappointing, the variant archetypes were truly mind bending and opened up a world of possibilities I am excited to delve into.
<br />
If you are a fan of stretching your class to the limit, the first chapter alone is worth the price of admission. </p>
<p>Chapter 2: Mastering Magic
<br />
Chapter two of Ultimate Magic delves into more fringe areas of magic use that go beyond the strict “I cast a spell on the goblin” everyday use. This chapter addresses dueling, magical constructs, the care and feeding of outsiders, the downside of magic, and the designing of new spells. Also in this chapter the reader is presented with a plethora of pre-made spellbooks and over a dozen brand new familiars (including one epic hedgehog).
<br />
The concept of Spellblight is introduced into the world of Golarion with Ultimate Magic. Spellblight is a (usually) negative effect or susceptibility a magic user suffers, usually in the form of a curse or some other nastiness. Adventurous role-players will be excited for the challenge provided by spellblight, and overzealous GMs will enjoy the brand new shiny way to smite their PCs.
<br />
The major draw of this chapter for the truly creative types is the section about Designing Spells. This is not to be confused with the Words of Power mechanic we’ll explore later, but this is a sincere, behind-the-curtain look at the process that the Paizo developers use when creating a new spell for play. This section should be carefully explored by both the player and the GM and all the options weighed out before allowing a new spell to be used in a game session. If you do create a new spell, however, be sure to post it on the Paizo boards for all to enjoy.
<br />
This chapter is really for the GM and creative type players who want to test the boundaries of magic in Pathfinder. </p>
<p>Chapter 3: Feats
<br />
This chapter brings you the shining beacons of customization known as feats. There are no new feat types, simply a large array of increasingly circumstantial feats. While there are some that are immediately useful (Additional evolution points, extra cantrips known) and some that are so situational that they almost seem silly (glowing summons or performing in a band.) However, any caster is sure to find at least one feat they will find immediately beneficial. </p>
<p>Chapter 4: Words of Power
<br />
Words of Power is a new mechanic to spellcasting the Pathfinder. The object is simple: instead of learning defined spells, the character learns a whole vocabulary of magic words which can be strung together in near-infinite ways to produce near-infinite effects. Fans of White Wolf’s MAGE will get a kick out of this alternate magic system. While not for the uninitiated or the uncreative, the Words of Power mechanic opens up a whole playground for wrapping your head around the idea of magic. It’s too complicated to explain here, but in the hands of an open-minded player all manner of impressive magical goings-on will be going on. </p>
<p>Chapter 5: Spells
<br />
The closing chapter of Ultimate Magic features a ton of new spells for all casters. Much like the Feats chapter, the number of spells in this chapter managed to find that sweet spot where one doesn’t feel overwhelmed, but certainly doesn’t feel ripped off either. Paizo continues to use the same tried-and-true formatting of “spell blocks” which leave very little room for alternate interpretations which means less time debating and more time playing. All of these are good things.
<br />
On a side note, this is the first book to REALLY get it right when it comes to PDF bookmarking. All of the spells are listed and grouped by alphabet. Twenty-four bookmarks spread across your spells instead of one for the entire spell description section (Core Rulebook) or a different bookmark for each individual spell (APG) </p>
<p>Conclusion
<br />
Ultimate Magic achieves its goals with a truly stylistic approach. These rules are clearly not for everyone. The variations in Ultimate Magic require a higher level of understanding of the Pathfinder rules and are best used by an experienced player. For those who still don’t quite grasp all the facets of their base class, it’s best to leave Ultimate Magic on the shelf for a while. However, if you are a player (or the GM of a player) who loves exploring possibilities and stretching the limits of your imagination, especially when it comes to magic, then you will easily find enough to keep your wheels a-turning for many many play sessions. </p>
<p>(Read more at Geekcentricity.com)</p>LORDNOAR2011-05-18T21:44:40ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Good but not Great (4 stars)Jem'Naihttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-16T18:32:23Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>First off this is my first review of any Paizo pathfinder or any RPG product. </p>
<p>It gets 4 because there are tons of options for all the classes that use magic. Tho I would love to see how the rules would be changed for those using the more primal dragons for Dragon disicple would work. </p>
<p>Alchemist to me should have gotten actual magic Item crafting archtype ie artificeresqe not a rogue with potions to buff himself.</p>
<p>One of my quips is not alot of fire spells for arcane users as I love fire and my gnome alch is pryomanic and had cold eversion so ice spells wouldnt work for him. </p>
<p>Clerics I loved to seen a Priest Archtype sort of like in the Tome of Secerts. </p>
<p>Also like to seen some newer magical items and armor as this is book titled Ultimate magic other then the spell books.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>First off this is my first review of any Paizo pathfinder or any RPG product. </p>
<p>It gets 4 because there are tons of options for all the classes that use magic. Tho I would love to see how the rules would be changed for those using the more primal dragons for Dragon disicple would work. </p>
<p>Alchemist to me should have gotten actual magic Item crafting archtype ie artificeresqe not a rogue with potions to buff himself.</p>
<p>One of my quips is not alot of fire spells for arcane users as I love fire and my gnome alch is pryomanic and had cold eversion so ice spells wouldnt work for him. </p>
<p>Clerics I loved to seen a Priest Archtype sort of like in the Tome of Secerts. </p>
<p>Also like to seen some newer magical items and armor as this is book titled Ultimate magic other then the spell books.</p>Jem'Nai2011-05-16T18:32:23ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Decent Work (3 stars)VedounMarhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-16T06:47:23Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Overall I rate this in the 3 star range.. . worth owning the pdf. Some elements are Very worthwhile, others. . . best left forgotten.
<br />
Magus: Casting is once per day, so I'll never touch it. It does have a spellpoint'esque system for recalling/spontaneously casting spells, which redeems it somewhat.</p>
<p>Masterpieces (Bard): Systemically wonderful. Exchange a Feat OR a Spell in exchange for a new performance ability (or half a feat as Expanded Arcana goes). Creating an illusionary wall through mime is something for the record books, and I've already grabbed the Planar Ally effect for my own bard. </p>
<p>Never built an Inquisitor myself, on my to-do list after reading the SinEater Archetype.</p>
<p>The Monk Vows are neat, but the Qinggong Monk is the real star. Rather then keeping you along a predetermined track, this Archetype allows the player to essentially design their own path. This is how class design should be. As far as I'm concerned this is the Core Monk. . . If only the more Archetypes were like this.</p>
<p>The Paladin got some fun additions with Vows, non-permanent (can be switched up or out based on campaign events) mini-archetypes which add fun flavor. The Fiend one is a good example, where the Paladin has an aura of Dimensional Anchor versus evil outsiders. Made me smile.</p>
<p>When building a Summoner recently I had wished for some spell-like abilities. . . now that they've been introduced I have learned to be more specific in how I worded things. . . I should have wished for SLAs worth taking. 1/day abilities should be excised from the design lexicon to begin with, 1/day 0 level spells? After redacting that goofiness the undead evolution looked neat.</p>
<p>Archetype wise they did a fun job. The BroodMaster allows for multiple small eidolons rather than one big one. Fun. The Master Summoner focuses on the Summon Monster ability of the class rather than the eidolon. Should be fun at later levels especially.</p>
<p>Witches got some fun Hexes. . . unfortunately no fix to their 1/day spellcasting. I enjoy flavor. . . but Some effort at making abilities useful would be appreciated. I'm speaking of "Child-Scent," the ability to smell children. As is, I wouldn't even use it with an NPC. Scent versus a creature type (like the favored enemy of the ranger), or even just handing them Scent. . . either way. The Cook People ability however, perfect as is :). . . Now if only you would correct that 1/day nonsense this class can come out of the NPC box and get used.</p>
<p>After Classes we get some fun'ish rules. Such as the friendly sport "Spell Duel", and the not so friendly SpellBlights (magical curse effects). Additional fluff and crunch on binding outsiders to your megalomaniacal whim. :)</p>
<p>Then comes Construct rules, enhancing those lovely constructs. Now that scarecrow really can get a brain, and the Tin-Man can get the heart. . . bit more gruesome then ol'Baum envisioned though.</p>
<p>Feats range from the good to the not. Most are good. Some aren’t.
<br />
Good feats like Antagonize, the fighter character can force the opponent to him/herself rather than the squishy mage. . . or the Eldritch Heritage chain of feats which grant the benefits of a Sorcerer bloodline to anyone who has the Charisma. An example of Bad is Skeleton Summoner. . . put aside the fact that personalizing your summon list should be default (sans feat) to begin with. . . two feats (Spell Focus: Necromancy and this one) so you can add the skeleton template to the options along with celestial and fiendish. . . a template which generally weakens more then it strengthens: 1/day. . . •blink•. . . so If I want to add some fluff that weakens a spell which is only marginally worthwhile to begin with. . . I spend two feats to do it . . and can only do this 1/day? Consider this feat Redacted.</p>
<p>Then: Words of Power.
<br />
For decades, the game has been bogged down by a poor design choice turned entrenched tradition. 1/day casting. Here was an opportunity to provide options for players more concerned with fun then metagaming how many encounters did the day have in store, thus when would be most min/max appropriate time to use that once per day ability of . . . whatever. Instead they created this. Still reliant on the 1/day or x/day systems currently in play, this system breaks down the various spells elements into a modular bits. The latter being a decent idea. They never got a system for combining words to be smooth, so how much can be combined at any one spell level is a bit nebulous. Benefits of the system are two that I can see. Multiple buff spells in one cast, and lack of expensive material components.
<br />
Some odd things: Why reduce the power of the cure spells. Instead of xd8+CL, it's xd6, with x/day boostable up to the original xd8. Odd.
<br />
Then comes Evocation style Words. Damage is the same, but the target words severely trim down the ranges. Replicating a fireball requires boosting (limited x/day meta word) the spell into a level 5 spell, this to a class of spell which is only marginally worth while to begin with.
<br />
Final problem is that it takes out the flavor of the spellcasters. The various versions of this game have all had some of the best spells flavor-wise. . . worst access to those spells, but awesome spells regardless. This system doesn't fix the access problem (1/day or x/day) and takes Away the one true bright spot of the casting system. . . the top-notch written spells. (I still flip through 2nd ed. stuff to read spell descriptions, happily Paizo continues this tradition) . . . Perhaps rules on how to convert the spells we have into words of power. . . </p>
<p>Final Thoughts:
<br />
Quit with the 1/day crap. Especially if I spend a feat, there should be no 1/day caveats in it.
<br />
If the player already has access to something, either through common sense, skills, or basic rules. . . Don't take it away and put a feat tax on it. If something needs to be clarified or constrained clarify it, don't feat tax it. The system, when originally written, was intended for the DM to be able to say "yes" to player ideas and requests. Want to hide that casting? DC 20 + spell level Sleight of Hand. . . Want to jump over rough terrain as part of a charge. . . Acrobatics. Those are rulings I have done over the years, I stand by them, and they stand today regardless of feat taxes or class abilities that either shouldn't exist. . . or enhance what the player's should be able to do by default.
<br />
There is a lot of material in this book. . . my commentary may seem harsh, but keep in mind I only mentioned a few feats out of a list that spans 4 pages. Likewise, there is a lot of good material worth getting. I recommend buying it, but I also recommend some parts be either redacted or undergo significant revision/rewrite.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>Overall I rate this in the 3 star range.. . worth owning the pdf. Some elements are Very worthwhile, others. . . best left forgotten.
<br />
Magus: Casting is once per day, so I'll never touch it. It does have a spellpoint'esque system for recalling/spontaneously casting spells, which redeems it somewhat.</p>
<p>Masterpieces (Bard): Systemically wonderful. Exchange a Feat OR a Spell in exchange for a new performance ability (or half a feat as Expanded Arcana goes). Creating an illusionary wall through mime is something for the record books, and I've already grabbed the Planar Ally effect for my own bard. </p>
<p>Never built an Inquisitor myself, on my to-do list after reading the SinEater Archetype.</p>
<p>The Monk Vows are neat, but the Qinggong Monk is the real star. Rather then keeping you along a predetermined track, this Archetype allows the player to essentially design their own path. This is how class design should be. As far as I'm concerned this is the Core Monk. . . If only the more Archetypes were like this.</p>
<p>The Paladin got some fun additions with Vows, non-permanent (can be switched up or out based on campaign events) mini-archetypes which add fun flavor. The Fiend one is a good example, where the Paladin has an aura of Dimensional Anchor versus evil outsiders. Made me smile.</p>
<p>When building a Summoner recently I had wished for some spell-like abilities. . . now that they've been introduced I have learned to be more specific in how I worded things. . . I should have wished for SLAs worth taking. 1/day abilities should be excised from the design lexicon to begin with, 1/day 0 level spells? After redacting that goofiness the undead evolution looked neat.</p>
<p>Archetype wise they did a fun job. The BroodMaster allows for multiple small eidolons rather than one big one. Fun. The Master Summoner focuses on the Summon Monster ability of the class rather than the eidolon. Should be fun at later levels especially.</p>
<p>Witches got some fun Hexes. . . unfortunately no fix to their 1/day spellcasting. I enjoy flavor. . . but Some effort at making abilities useful would be appreciated. I'm speaking of "Child-Scent," the ability to smell children. As is, I wouldn't even use it with an NPC. Scent versus a creature type (like the favored enemy of the ranger), or even just handing them Scent. . . either way. The Cook People ability however, perfect as is :). . . Now if only you would correct that 1/day nonsense this class can come out of the NPC box and get used.</p>
<p>After Classes we get some fun'ish rules. Such as the friendly sport "Spell Duel", and the not so friendly SpellBlights (magical curse effects). Additional fluff and crunch on binding outsiders to your megalomaniacal whim. :)</p>
<p>Then comes Construct rules, enhancing those lovely constructs. Now that scarecrow really can get a brain, and the Tin-Man can get the heart. . . bit more gruesome then ol'Baum envisioned though.</p>
<p>Feats range from the good to the not. Most are good. Some aren’t.
<br />
Good feats like Antagonize, the fighter character can force the opponent to him/herself rather than the squishy mage. . . or the Eldritch Heritage chain of feats which grant the benefits of a Sorcerer bloodline to anyone who has the Charisma. An example of Bad is Skeleton Summoner. . . put aside the fact that personalizing your summon list should be default (sans feat) to begin with. . . two feats (Spell Focus: Necromancy and this one) so you can add the skeleton template to the options along with celestial and fiendish. . . a template which generally weakens more then it strengthens: 1/day. . . •blink•. . . so If I want to add some fluff that weakens a spell which is only marginally worthwhile to begin with. . . I spend two feats to do it . . and can only do this 1/day? Consider this feat Redacted.</p>
<p>Then: Words of Power.
<br />
For decades, the game has been bogged down by a poor design choice turned entrenched tradition. 1/day casting. Here was an opportunity to provide options for players more concerned with fun then metagaming how many encounters did the day have in store, thus when would be most min/max appropriate time to use that once per day ability of . . . whatever. Instead they created this. Still reliant on the 1/day or x/day systems currently in play, this system breaks down the various spells elements into a modular bits. The latter being a decent idea. They never got a system for combining words to be smooth, so how much can be combined at any one spell level is a bit nebulous. Benefits of the system are two that I can see. Multiple buff spells in one cast, and lack of expensive material components.
<br />
Some odd things: Why reduce the power of the cure spells. Instead of xd8+CL, it's xd6, with x/day boostable up to the original xd8. Odd.
<br />
Then comes Evocation style Words. Damage is the same, but the target words severely trim down the ranges. Replicating a fireball requires boosting (limited x/day meta word) the spell into a level 5 spell, this to a class of spell which is only marginally worth while to begin with.
<br />
Final problem is that it takes out the flavor of the spellcasters. The various versions of this game have all had some of the best spells flavor-wise. . . worst access to those spells, but awesome spells regardless. This system doesn't fix the access problem (1/day or x/day) and takes Away the one true bright spot of the casting system. . . the top-notch written spells. (I still flip through 2nd ed. stuff to read spell descriptions, happily Paizo continues this tradition) . . . Perhaps rules on how to convert the spells we have into words of power. . . </p>
<p>Final Thoughts:
<br />
Quit with the 1/day crap. Especially if I spend a feat, there should be no 1/day caveats in it.
<br />
If the player already has access to something, either through common sense, skills, or basic rules. . . Don't take it away and put a feat tax on it. If something needs to be clarified or constrained clarify it, don't feat tax it. The system, when originally written, was intended for the DM to be able to say "yes" to player ideas and requests. Want to hide that casting? DC 20 + spell level Sleight of Hand. . . Want to jump over rough terrain as part of a charge. . . Acrobatics. Those are rulings I have done over the years, I stand by them, and they stand today regardless of feat taxes or class abilities that either shouldn't exist. . . or enhance what the player's should be able to do by default.
<br />
There is a lot of material in this book. . . my commentary may seem harsh, but keep in mind I only mentioned a few feats out of a list that spans 4 pages. Likewise, there is a lot of good material worth getting. I recommend buying it, but I also recommend some parts be either redacted or undergo significant revision/rewrite.</p>VedounMar2011-05-16T06:47:23ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL): Another great book from Paizo (3 stars)Dragon78https://paizo.com/products/btpy8k8r?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Magic2011-05-15T02:37:36Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I would have given it 2 1/2 stars but that option wasn't avaliable. Anyway let me start by saying I do like this book, it has many great spells, feats, archtypes and other character options for each class. I didn't like it as much as the APG because it didn't have any magic items, traits, prestige classes, and no racial traits for the magus and for other reasons that are not that important. But my main complaint comes from the words of power wich would have been better given it's own book and left more room for things like crafting rules, more class features, wild magic ,etc. But despite my gripes, I still like this book and recomend it to anyone who likes to play spellcasters or classes with any magical abilities. In conclusion thank you Paizo for another great product.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic (OGL)</b></p><p>I would have given it 2 1/2 stars but that option wasn't avaliable. Anyway let me start by saying I do like this book, it has many great spells, feats, archtypes and other character options for each class. I didn't like it as much as the APG because it didn't have any magic items, traits, prestige classes, and no racial traits for the magus and for other reasons that are not that important. But my main complaint comes from the words of power wich would have been better given it's own book and left more room for things like crafting rules, more class features, wild magic ,etc. But despite my gripes, I still like this book and recomend it to anyone who likes to play spellcasters or classes with any magical abilities. In conclusion thank you Paizo for another great product.</p>Dragon782011-05-15T02:37:36Z