Sometimes, all you need to have fun with a class for another few months is a few new ideas to tinker around with. Class Expansions is a series of lightweight supplements for The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game that takes a base class and offers alternative class features that, handily enough, each fit on one page or less.
Following in this vein, Class Expansions: Love for the Universalist introduces four new Universalist focused schools that work to dispel the Universalist's current status as the choice for wizards who flunked out of magic school.
Arcane Researcher
Focused Research - Researching new spells becomes cheaper and faster as you level.
Inventor's Recall - You can prepare spells you invented without having them written down.
Optimization through Familiarity - Spells you invent get +1 to their DCs when you cast them.
Beastbonded Arcanist
Spellmarked Familiar - You can inscribe a limited number of spells onto your familiar, thus making it a backup spellbook.
Familiar Assistance - Your familiar gets bonuses to Aid Other checks targeting you.
Improved Empathy - Your awareness of your familiar makes it so you and your familiar cannot be flanked unless you both are flanked.
Bookbonded Arcanist
Dear Spellbook - Your spellbook is your arcane bond, has infinite pages, but can only cast a spell written in it as your bonus spell.
Spellbook Security - You get bonuses to the spells sepia snake sigil and explosive runes when they are cast on your spellbook.
Acquire Spellbook - You can cause your spellbook to materialize in your hand from wherever it lay.
Spellweaver
Artful Incantations - You add your Dex modifier to your Spellcraft DCs to identify your spells.
Insightful Gestures - If you take a full-round action to cast a spell, it gets +1 to its caster level.
Artful Gestures - Your insightful gestures also adds +1 to the DC.
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Class Expansions – Love for the Universalist by Interjection Games is a short product of 4 pages that introduces the idea of expanding the choices that a Universalist Wizard might have. Many of the other schools of magic have gotten additional treatment in other source books, like Ultimate Magic or the Advanced Player’s Guide, but the Universalist has had just one option. This offering aims to rectify that deficiency.
The product has four pages, one for the front cover and one for the OGL designation, leaving two pages of content and two Universalist options per page. In the core rule book, the Universalist appears to have gotten a bit of short shrift and this product I think acknowledges this.
Each set of options for the Universalist gives them three options, one which replaces the hand of the apprentice ability, one which replaces the metamagic mastery and one which replaces the bonus spell options. Like anything in the game there are tradeoffs.
The four Universalist options are the Arcane Researcher, the Beastbonded Arcanist, the Bookbonded Arcanist and the Spellweaver. Each option starts off with as short introductory paragraph to lay the foundation for what each option might mean for the character taking the option.
The first option is the Arcane Researcher. This option allows the wizard to be more efficient about researching new spells by reducing the time and cost of doing so. The second change allows photographic recall of those spells researched by the caster without need of a spellbook and finally because you researched these new spells you add a DC modifier to the spells.
I think this option is interesting for a couple of reasons and really this comes down to play style and what your DM allows and how they treat personally researched spells and what sources are used. Does the DM treat everything outside of the Core Rulebook as something you can personally research or 3PP material or something you make up on your own? I’ve only had one that “allowed” you to research new spells that were from some other source other than the core rulebooks being used. I think this option is interesting, but depending upon your play style may be more viable in some groups than others.
The second is Beastbonded Arcanist and here you are leveraging your familiar as a kind of living limited spellbook. The second benefit is gaining a bonus to the Aid Other and finally a bonus that limits your ability to be flanked or flat-footed. Now personally I have never been a big fan of the whole familiar idea even though it is a very familiar trope in fantasy literature and what not. Familiars seem to always to be sort of out there and forgotten more often than not by the players. But, certainly for the player that takes advantage of the familiar option it provides a new way to leverage their capabilities.
The third is the Bookbonded Arcanist . This option enhances your options for your personal spellbook giving you the opportunity to treat your spellbook as your arcane bonded item. The second option is increasing the security of the spellbook making it more difficult for looters or more difficult to damage and then finally if you have left your spellbook behind or someone has made off with it, and seemingly as a function of the arcane bond, you can summon your spellbook to you. For this, I suddenly have images of the movie Hocus Pocus and Bette Midler opening the window to their old house and calling out “Oh book…where are you?” and trying to bring it back. It seems like DM’s that target the spellbooks of casters, this might be a nice option and give the wizard some spellbook security.
The fourth option is the Spellweaver and for some reason I’m not sure why, this option resonates with me more than the others. This could be because of the Spellweaver class offered by Misfit Games (an excellent option, I think), or maybe just growing up watching various magic shows including Bill Bixby and the magic shows he used to host on TV. I’m showing my age with this one. The wizard gets to add his Dexterity modifier to the Spellcraft DC as their first option followed by the option to increase the casting time of a spell in exchange for increasing the caster level of the spell usable a number of times equal to half your Intelligence Modifier and then finally the ability to just increase the DC of the spell based on your Dexterity modifier.
With this one, there seems to be some discrepancy between the name of the option and the description. The name of the 13th level feature is Artful Gestures, but the text all refers to Insightful Gestures which is the ability that is gained at 7th level. So that was a little confusing, but the intent of the option comes through.
Now based on what I have said above, it may appear that I didn’t care for this product, however, that isn’t really the case. I think that the fact that the universalist is getting some other interesting options is great and looking at different ways to leverage some of the key tropes of the wizard class, with the spellbooks, the familiars and the gathering of news spells is all interesting, I just think that depending upon the game, the players, and the DM the utility may vary. That being said, I am still going to give this 3.5 stars based on that, but am going to round up to 4. I've also noticed that I may have generated a review that is almost as long as the product!
This little module has some interesting focused arcane schools for universalist wizards.
The first one is the Arcane Researcher, and just this one made me feel I got my dollar's worth. Making it easier for wizards to research spells and giving them useful iconic abilities is pure fun and makes me want to play a bookworm again. It might not be for all tables, but it certainly is a must for games were down time is an important part of sessions. The one nit pick I have with it is this sentence "This ability replaces the fact that specialist wizards get bonus spell slots". I am not sure I agree with this reasoning, since it sort of comes out the blue and does not replace anything the universalist had. It is sort of an attempt to balance the universalist and specilists. I do not think it unbalances the school and it certainly fits the flavor of this focused school. A keeper!
The Beastbonded Arcanist is a nice idea, use your familiar as a spare spellbook. My problem with it is the lack of oomph of the abilities. This potentially iconic focused school is a bit tame. Maybe if the familiar could cast one spell written on it or affect one of the spells written on it in some way this focused school would have interested me more.
The Bookbonded Arcanist is the second iconic focused school for universalist in this module. Your spellbook is your bonded item. Of course! A great idea and the abilities in it are nice. This focused school could have benefited from two or three magical spellbooks. One of the perks of bonded items is that they can be enchanted and new ideas for magical books would have been a great addition.
Finally, the Spellweaver. The perfect focused school for those who have a GM that likes to counter their spells (or vice versa). This focused school is not as iconic as the Arcane Researcher or the Bookbonded Arcanist, but it is a useful and flavorful one. My only issue is that the abilities granted should have been limited to spells with somatic components. Maybe a metamagic feat that lets you add somatic components to spells would have been a good addition too.
All and all, for a dollar this acquisition was worth it. I give it 4.5 stars and recommand it players who like flavorful characters with useful abilities and GMs who might want to surprise their players with new options.
Nice, but shows a lack of experience with the Pathfinder rules
Considering it's size and cost, I can't ding it too much for this but some of the material shows a lack of experience with the Pathfinder rules. For example, the primary ability for the Bookbonded Arcanist is rather flawed.
The granted ability gives you a special spell book with infinite pages (think a Blessed Book, but with no cost reduction). Okay, cool... however, the tradeoff is that you can only use your Universalist spell recall on spells that are scribed into this book, as opposed to some other spell book previously looted (their example, not mine).
Unfortunately, in Pathfinder you already have to cast spells from your own spell book. If you find another Wizard's spell book, you can only cast spells that you have already scribed (with a chance of failure).
On top of that, since your bonded book is your arcane bond, you have to keep it in hand to cast or chance losing the spell.
Finally, you lose Hand of the Apprentice.
In summary, great archetype for GM's that like to mess with spell caster's spell books. Bad archetype for PCs. A standard bonded object wizard is a better choice in almost all ways.
So, the tradeoff isn't really much of a tradeoff at all... it would prevent you from recalling spells from a traveling spell book perhaps.
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let's take a look!
The Universalist Wizard has always been problematic - they have gotten the short end of the stick for quite a long time and this pdf seeks to remedy that via 4 options, all of which come with a short fluffy introduction before getting into the crunchy bits.
The first new option would be the Arcane Researcher: Replacing Hand of the apprentice with the ability to research spells much faster makes for a nice first ability - especially if you e.g. feature categories of spells that require research because they simply are not openly available. Metamagic mastery is replaced with a rather AWESOME ability that will provide a godsend for some wizards - spells the arcane researcher has researched himself can be prepared by him/her without having access to a spellbook. Some nasty surprise for authorities/slavers who thought that keeping the spellbook away would be enough to neutralize the caster... Finally, at 13th level, they get +1 DC for their researched spells.
The Beastbonded Arcanist can inscribe a limited amount of spells on to the hide of his/her familiar, making the familiar a type of backup spellbook. Beyond that, the familiar can aid you for +4 instead of the regular bonus and at higher levels automatically succeed at helping you. At the higher levels, as long as your familiar are with 30 foot and conscious, neither you or your familiar can be flanked/flat-footed. Neat one!
The Bookbonded Arcanist gains a spellbook that never runs out of blank pages as a bonded item, but requires bonus spells you have to be inscribed in the pages of the book and not some other spellbook. Furthermore, the bookbonded arcanist may ignore the cost of sepia snake sigil when casting it on the book and the book ignores damage caused by runes on the book itself, rendering it impervious to the deadly security measures you may wish to implement. At higher levels, the arcanist may even teleport the bonded spellbook to the hands of the arcanist - awesome!
The final new option would be the Spellweaver - nimble fingers allow the spellweaver to add his dex-modifier to Spellcraft DCs, increase the casting time to also increase the caster level a limited amount of times per day and later even the DC of your spells.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though there's an instance (Aforementioned Sepia Snake Sigil) of a spell not being properly italicized in the text. Layout adheres to Interjection Games' elegant 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The artworks included are thematically fitting stock-art.
This pdf is interesting in that it FINALLY offers some unique options for universalist wizards - all too long we had no cool distinct options for them and this pdf remedies this short-coming rather well, with especially the Bookbonded Arcanist and the Arcane Researcher feeling VERY wizard-like in style, marrying great crunch with good ideas - and the former WILL be popular at my table, since I'm one of the bastard-DMs that like to target Wizard spellbooks - and drench them, burn them, cut them to pieces - you get the idea. The only one of the options that slightly falls behind its potential is imho the slightly unfortunately named Spellweaver (there's already a skill-based casting-class by Misfit Studios...) - while solid in its approach and featuring an elegant, easy to grasp mechanic, this one feels like it could have used an additional ability, something slightly more distinct.
Since this is complaining at a high level and since this pdf comes with a very fair price-point, I'll settle on a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.
I saw this over on Endzeitgeist.com and was impressed with the product from your review. The first three focused schools in particular seemed inspired and did things that in hindsight seemed obvious things to do.
Sadly, the limitation on the Bookbonded Arcanist ability 'Dear Spellbook' has no little to no actual effect on gameplay.
Quote:
Dear Spellbook, (Su): ... When used to cast your bonus spell for the day, however, the bonus spell must be one inscribed within the bonded spellbook itself and not, say, a separate spellbook looted off of an elf a few weeks back..."
See, there are no rules for casting spells from someone else's spellbook. All spells have to be scribed into your own spellbook. So, unless you're using house rules, this is only a limitation if you have more than one personal spellbook (a travelling spellbook perhaps).
Sadly, the limitation on the Bookbonded Arcanist ability 'Dear Spellbook' has no little to no actual effect on gameplay.
Quote:
Dear Spellbook, (Su): ... When used to cast your bonus spell for the day, however, the bonus spell must be one inscribed within the bonded spellbook itself and not, say, a separate spellbook looted off of an elf a few weeks back..."
See, there are no rules for casting spells from someone else's spellbook. All spells have to be scribed into your own spellbook. So, unless you're using house rules, this is only a limitation if you have more than one personal spellbook (a travelling spellbook perhaps).
Sadly, the limitation on the Bookbonded Arcanist ability 'Dear Spellbook' has no little to no actual effect on gameplay.
Quote:
Dear Spellbook, (Su): ... When used to cast your bonus spell for the day, however, the bonus spell must be one inscribed within the bonded spellbook itself and not, say, a separate spellbook looted off of an elf a few weeks back..."
See, there are no rules for casting spells from someone else's spellbook. All spells have to be scribed into your own spellbook. So, unless you're using house rules, this is only a limitation if you have more than one personal spellbook (a travelling spellbook perhaps).
Edit: Forgot to close quote brackets... :(
Unless I'm mistaken it appears that this ability is saying that the bonus spell has to be inscribed in the bonded spellbook and not another spellbook. The example of a spellbook looted off a corpse, would be a second spellbook of the wizard in question, just a different source. As you said, it's a limitation to one personal spellbook, which is the usual issue of putting all your eggs in one basket. Fine if your GM doesn't target it, but a potential weakness if you do (see bonded object).
Saying it has little to no effect on gameplay is like saying the Arcane Bond object drawbacks have little to no effect on gameplay. Only if your GM is limiting his targets.
Yep, as far as I understood it, the limitation is supposed to make the the bookbonded spellbook the ONE spellbook the wizard primarily uses - as such a potential weakness to exploit for bastard-DMs like your truly.
But the bonus spell ALREADY has to be in the spellcaster's own spell book... as you can only cast spells from another spellbook that are already scribed into your own, and even then, there's no guarantee of success.
I'm not sure that taking an additional disadvantage (you can't have backup, or travelling spell books) on top of the fact that you will need to have the spell book in your hand to cast any spell (thereby increasing the chance that something will happen to it) and that you lose hand of the apprentice is worth a couple of abilities that you don't get until mid level, and a free blessed book that doesn't actually discount the cost of scribing spells.
There's no upside to the player, it's all tradeoffs.
