paizo.com Recent Reviews of Strange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDFpaizo.com Recent Reviews of Strange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF2015-05-18T18:16:15Z2015-05-18T18:16:15ZStrange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF: Breaking the Mold (5 stars)Wraithguardhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9dz8?Strange-Magic-Ethermagic-Composition-and-Truemagic2015-10-30T05:54:35Z<p><b>Strange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>EZG has provided a wonderful in-depth review of this product, so I will keep it short and sweet.</p>
<p>Ethermagic- With a base class or archetype to fill just about any role in the party, this system gives you nearly limitless options for building characters that utilize a fast replenishing but easy to burn resource. Of course, for the GMs that love throwing something creepy at their players, there is an archetype for that too.</p>
<p>Composition- Bard doesn't fit you for a singing caster? No worries, this has you covered. From singing to break-dancing (seriously) this will provide you with the resources to build the musical maestro of your dreams.</p>
<p>Truenaming- This was a favorite of mine from 3.5E, in concept at least. This provides a familiar approach to the concept, but with the balance to make it enjoyable. If you are like me, you have probably had a day where you wish reality would bend to your word. With this, at least you can live that through a character.</p><p><b>Strange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>EZG has provided a wonderful in-depth review of this product, so I will keep it short and sweet.</p>
<p>Ethermagic- With a base class or archetype to fill just about any role in the party, this system gives you nearly limitless options for building characters that utilize a fast replenishing but easy to burn resource. Of course, for the GMs that love throwing something creepy at their players, there is an archetype for that too.</p>
<p>Composition- Bard doesn't fit you for a singing caster? No worries, this has you covered. From singing to break-dancing (seriously) this will provide you with the resources to build the musical maestro of your dreams.</p>
<p>Truenaming- This was a favorite of mine from 3.5E, in concept at least. This provides a familiar approach to the concept, but with the balance to make it enjoyable. If you are like me, you have probably had a day where you wish reality would bend to your word. With this, at least you can live that through a character.</p>Wraithguard2015-10-30T05:54:35ZStrange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF (4 stars)Rednalhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9dz8?Strange-Magic-Ethermagic-Composition-and-Truemagic2015-10-15T00:06:48Z<p>Strange Magic is an... INTERESTING... collection of classes and powers. While others (•Cough•EZG•Cough•) have done an excellent job explaining things in full, I'd just like to give my perspective on the three classes.</p>
<p>First of all, this book supports variety. It's not just one caster build that you'd ever be going for - there's 9 classes, 23 archetypes, and 5 prestige classes in this book, offering plenty of options for players even if two or more people are using the same system.</p>
<p>Second... this book supports variety. In a different way. Strange Magic is •flavorful•. From poking holes in reality to literally apologizing to the universe every morning because you keep messing with it, these classes and powers are packed with personality. Whether or not that's a good thing is largely a matter of personal opinion - but what it really boils down to is that you don't play a Strange Magic class because you're looking for the most optimized build imaginable, you play it because you thought something like "I want to play a Breakdancer who can dance enemies into submission." (That's a thing in this book.)</p>
<p>Strange Magic is NOT archetypal Tolkien-ish swords-and-fantasy. It's stranger than that, and best suited for high-magic worlds (or, for Truenaming, maybe just individual characters who are specifically rather rare/unique in the setting). </p>
<p>Basically, Strange Magic supports ideas, and the reason to buy this book is if the classes within actually sound fun to you. Now, not everyone will like these ideas or want to play them, and that's fine - but they are pretty fun, and I'm looking forward to using them in some of my own games.</p>
<p>Overall, I give the product a 4/5. I actually prefer a little bit less flavor in the abilities/mechanics of a class (I like to have players decide the fluff for themselves), but this remains a solid, interesting book for tables that permit 3PP material. By no means is it a bad book, but you SHOULD have an idea of how you're going to use it before you buy it, hence my rating. EZG's in-depth explanations of each subsystem are something you should definitely review prior to purchase.</p>
<p>—-</p>
<p>Misc. Notes:</p>
<p>-There are a few small errors in the book (although that's true for a tome of any size, and not a factor in my score above). For example, "Atrophy the Mind" is on the Blast Ethermagic description list, but doesn't seem to be explained in full. There's a Body equivalent that's easy enough to adapt, but that error should've been fixed somehow. The editing is fairly good on the whole, though - the text is easily readable and in two columns for most of the book, which is how it should be.</p>
<p>-The classes aren't difficult to learn, but you WILL need to actually read the class and understand how it works before you build your character. Strange Magic classes are definitely "plan ahead" types - which, if you enjoy theorycrafting your character, is a good thing! But seriously, know what your options are BEFORE you build.</p>
<p>-Iconics of various levels are included, and serve as an excellent reference for what a Strange Magic character with several levels under their belt might look like. They also serve as drag-and-drop NPCs that GMs can use to introduce the powers to the setting.</p><p>Strange Magic is an... INTERESTING... collection of classes and powers. While others (•Cough•EZG•Cough•) have done an excellent job explaining things in full, I'd just like to give my perspective on the three classes.</p>
<p>First of all, this book supports variety. It's not just one caster build that you'd ever be going for - there's 9 classes, 23 archetypes, and 5 prestige classes in this book, offering plenty of options for players even if two or more people are using the same system.</p>
<p>Second... this book supports variety. In a different way. Strange Magic is •flavorful•. From poking holes in reality to literally apologizing to the universe every morning because you keep messing with it, these classes and powers are packed with personality. Whether or not that's a good thing is largely a matter of personal opinion - but what it really boils down to is that you don't play a Strange Magic class because you're looking for the most optimized build imaginable, you play it because you thought something like "I want to play a Breakdancer who can dance enemies into submission." (That's a thing in this book.)</p>
<p>Strange Magic is NOT archetypal Tolkien-ish swords-and-fantasy. It's stranger than that, and best suited for high-magic worlds (or, for Truenaming, maybe just individual characters who are specifically rather rare/unique in the setting). </p>
<p>Basically, Strange Magic supports ideas, and the reason to buy this book is if the classes within actually sound fun to you. Now, not everyone will like these ideas or want to play them, and that's fine - but they are pretty fun, and I'm looking forward to using them in some of my own games.</p>
<p>Overall, I give the product a 4/5. I actually prefer a little bit less flavor in the abilities/mechanics of a class (I like to have players decide the fluff for themselves), but this remains a solid, interesting book for tables that permit 3PP material. By no means is it a bad book, but you SHOULD have an idea of how you're going to use it before you buy it, hence my rating. EZG's in-depth explanations of each subsystem are something you should definitely review prior to purchase.</p>
<p>—-</p>
<p>Misc. Notes:</p>
<p>-There are a few small errors in the book (although that's true for a tome of any size, and not a factor in my score above). For example, "Atrophy the Mind" is on the Blast Ethermagic description list, but doesn't seem to be explained in full. There's a Body equivalent that's easy enough to adapt, but that error should've been fixed somehow. The editing is fairly good on the whole, though - the text is easily readable and in two columns for most of the book, which is how it should be.</p>
<p>-The classes aren't difficult to learn, but you WILL need to actually read the class and understand how it works before you build your character. Strange Magic classes are definitely "plan ahead" types - which, if you enjoy theorycrafting your character, is a good thing! But seriously, know what your options are BEFORE you build.</p>
<p>-Iconics of various levels are included, and serve as an excellent reference for what a Strange Magic character with several levels under their belt might look like. They also serve as drag-and-drop NPCs that GMs can use to introduce the powers to the setting.</p>Rednal2015-10-15T00:06:48ZStrange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF: An Endzeitgeist.com articleEndzeitgeisthttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9dz8?Strange-Magic-Ethermagic-Composition-and-Truemagic2015-08-07T07:52:01Z<p><b>Strange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>The following text will deviate a bit from my usual reviews. This is a massive 333 page book, 1 page front cover, 2 pages ToC, 1 page editorial/thank you, 1 page SRD, 1 page backer list, leaving this as a massive 327 page monster.</p>
<p>As you may realize upon looking at the cover, I am one of the contributing authors to this massive tome, so yes, in this case I may be considered biased by some of you out there.</p>
<p>It should be noted, though, that this massive book's magic systems have ALL been released (and reviewed!) a LONG time before I had even an inkling I'd be working on this book, much less that I'd be contributing. Coincidentally, I reviewed all the base systems in their original iterations and considered them stellar - if that had not been the case, I quite frankly would not have associated my name with this book and its magic systems.</p>
<p>The excellence was there even before the respective systems were expanded to the n-th degree, with fine-tuning of mechanics, greatly increased amounts of options etc. All 3 systems have in common that they are not simple - they are intended for advanced players that enjoy tinkering with complex classes with moving parts. At the same time, the classes herein very much reward anyone willing to get into their meat with completely unique options.</p>
<p>If you are interested in the respective subsystems in detail, please take a look at my reviews for Ultimate Ethermagic, Ultimate Composition and Ultimate Truenaming.</p>
<p>In case you don't want to read more than 30 pages of my rambling in the respective reviews, here's the tl;dr-gist:</p>
<p>Ethermagic can be considered auto-refreshing, highly customizable mana-bar casting, warlock-style, with glorious fluff, cool versatility and some seriously beautiful mechanics.</p>
<p>Composition Magic is what the bard should have been from the get-go: Take intros, outros, melodies and refrains and weave them together into your very own symphonies of destruction.</p>
<p>Finally, Truename magic needs no conceptual introduction, but unlike its horribly broken brethren from previous editions, the system presented herein works - and I've seen its barebones, exposed numbers, so yes, a true beauty.</p>
<p>All of these three systems have in common that they provide not only flavorful, but downright inspired, unusual alternatives to vancian casting that play in a completely different way. I had been playing with each of the systems for quite a while prior to the KS for Strange Magic and they had become a staple in my games even prior to my involvement with this massive book - not at my insistence, mind you, but at that of my players, who adore this book.</p>
<p>I also still am convinced that even without the content I provided for this massive tome, this would still rank as one of the best crunch-books I have ever read. No hyperbole.</p>
<p>This is what the 3.X Tome of Magic wanted to be, but failed miserably at - while Pact Magic was saved by Alexander Augunas and Dario Nardi, this book instead provides 3 new systems, with each one providing other, unique options beyond the scope of what regular spellcasting does, all while providing an utterly awesome fluff.</p>
<p>So while I am respecting the wishes of some of my readers and followers and will not rate this per se, I still feel very much obliged to devote this article to the book - the addition of lovingly- handcrafted, illustrated NPCs made with these rules just further extends the awesomeness of this book, with unique fighting styles, combos and inspiring backgroundstories. They can be considered the delightful icing on top of the awesome-cake.</p>
<p>Keeping silent about this glorious tome would be a disservice of my task of keeping you up to date regarding the best 3pps have to offer - and even without my humble additions, Bradley Crouch and Jason Linker have delivered true awesomeness herein and deserve to be acknowledged for the achievement that is this book.</p>
<p>I absolutely adore Strange Magic and consider it a contender for my Top Ten of 2015 and abundantly worthy of my seal of approval, which btw. all its constituent parts have received. Since by now, this book is a must-have addition to my game, much like Pact Magic and Psionics, it also receives the EZG Essential tag since my players do not want to ever miss it again.</p>
<p>I sincerely hope you'll check it out, use it and review it - I'd love to hear how other people are using the book's systems.</p>
<p>Finally, let me thank you for reading this. I am aware that posting this can be considered foolhardy, but it remains my sincere hope you'll believe in my integrity -were I anything less than 100% in love with this book, I wouldn't jeopardize my reputation by writing these lines. The matter of the fact is, though, that this •IS• so good, I consider it the antithesis of bland cookie-cutter design - perhaps even a book future editions will pull out to comment on how inspiring it was.</p>
<p>Endzeitgeist out.</p><p><b>Strange Magic: Ethermagic, Composition, and Truemagic (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>The following text will deviate a bit from my usual reviews. This is a massive 333 page book, 1 page front cover, 2 pages ToC, 1 page editorial/thank you, 1 page SRD, 1 page backer list, leaving this as a massive 327 page monster.</p>
<p>As you may realize upon looking at the cover, I am one of the contributing authors to this massive tome, so yes, in this case I may be considered biased by some of you out there.</p>
<p>It should be noted, though, that this massive book's magic systems have ALL been released (and reviewed!) a LONG time before I had even an inkling I'd be working on this book, much less that I'd be contributing. Coincidentally, I reviewed all the base systems in their original iterations and considered them stellar - if that had not been the case, I quite frankly would not have associated my name with this book and its magic systems.</p>
<p>The excellence was there even before the respective systems were expanded to the n-th degree, with fine-tuning of mechanics, greatly increased amounts of options etc. All 3 systems have in common that they are not simple - they are intended for advanced players that enjoy tinkering with complex classes with moving parts. At the same time, the classes herein very much reward anyone willing to get into their meat with completely unique options.</p>
<p>If you are interested in the respective subsystems in detail, please take a look at my reviews for Ultimate Ethermagic, Ultimate Composition and Ultimate Truenaming.</p>
<p>In case you don't want to read more than 30 pages of my rambling in the respective reviews, here's the tl;dr-gist:</p>
<p>Ethermagic can be considered auto-refreshing, highly customizable mana-bar casting, warlock-style, with glorious fluff, cool versatility and some seriously beautiful mechanics.</p>
<p>Composition Magic is what the bard should have been from the get-go: Take intros, outros, melodies and refrains and weave them together into your very own symphonies of destruction.</p>
<p>Finally, Truename magic needs no conceptual introduction, but unlike its horribly broken brethren from previous editions, the system presented herein works - and I've seen its barebones, exposed numbers, so yes, a true beauty.</p>
<p>All of these three systems have in common that they provide not only flavorful, but downright inspired, unusual alternatives to vancian casting that play in a completely different way. I had been playing with each of the systems for quite a while prior to the KS for Strange Magic and they had become a staple in my games even prior to my involvement with this massive book - not at my insistence, mind you, but at that of my players, who adore this book.</p>
<p>I also still am convinced that even without the content I provided for this massive tome, this would still rank as one of the best crunch-books I have ever read. No hyperbole.</p>
<p>This is what the 3.X Tome of Magic wanted to be, but failed miserably at - while Pact Magic was saved by Alexander Augunas and Dario Nardi, this book instead provides 3 new systems, with each one providing other, unique options beyond the scope of what regular spellcasting does, all while providing an utterly awesome fluff.</p>
<p>So while I am respecting the wishes of some of my readers and followers and will not rate this per se, I still feel very much obliged to devote this article to the book - the addition of lovingly- handcrafted, illustrated NPCs made with these rules just further extends the awesomeness of this book, with unique fighting styles, combos and inspiring backgroundstories. They can be considered the delightful icing on top of the awesome-cake.</p>
<p>Keeping silent about this glorious tome would be a disservice of my task of keeping you up to date regarding the best 3pps have to offer - and even without my humble additions, Bradley Crouch and Jason Linker have delivered true awesomeness herein and deserve to be acknowledged for the achievement that is this book.</p>
<p>I absolutely adore Strange Magic and consider it a contender for my Top Ten of 2015 and abundantly worthy of my seal of approval, which btw. all its constituent parts have received. Since by now, this book is a must-have addition to my game, much like Pact Magic and Psionics, it also receives the EZG Essential tag since my players do not want to ever miss it again.</p>
<p>I sincerely hope you'll check it out, use it and review it - I'd love to hear how other people are using the book's systems.</p>
<p>Finally, let me thank you for reading this. I am aware that posting this can be considered foolhardy, but it remains my sincere hope you'll believe in my integrity -were I anything less than 100% in love with this book, I wouldn't jeopardize my reputation by writing these lines. The matter of the fact is, though, that this •IS• so good, I consider it the antithesis of bland cookie-cutter design - perhaps even a book future editions will pull out to comment on how inspiring it was.</p>
<p>Endzeitgeist out.</p>Endzeitgeist2015-08-07T07:52:01Z