[Zenith Games] 101 Spells for the Common Man


Product Discussion

Shadow Lodge

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Why are there so many spells for flinging flame, but none for harvesting crops?

101 Spells for the Common Man brings arcane power back to the people.

Magic isn’t just for adventurers anymore. As the common folk go about their daily business, a select few augment their efforts using magic. No matter how rare magic is in your world, those working folk who possess the gift make good use of the following spells.

While these spells make life easier for the common man, a clever adventurer can find use for them as well. Rob a bank with silenced work, or create a distraction with awaken instruments. Jot down a confession with recorder’s quill or put a guard to sleep with bed-time story. Remove a watery obstacle with expeditious evaporation or track the passage of time with shadowdial. These spells bring life to your world while providing a fun, creative new toolkit for PCs.

Included in 101 Spells for the Common Man:

  • 101 Level 0, 1, and 2 Spells, categorized by class and likely profession.
  • The Arcane Worker, a new NPC class who mixes magic and raw skill to make his way in the world.
  • 8 magical NPCs to inhabit your world, including the arcane artist and town doctor.
  • Spells include abernathy's abacus, illusion of quality, and moneylender's mark, perfect for the successful banker.
  • Boil water, create ice, and fortify wine, an excellent pairing with chefs of all levels.
  • Create soil, locate stock, and scarecrow, turning a single farmer into a one man operation.
  • Bed-time story, schedule, and track child for the parent with too much to manage.
  • Enhance voice, perfect pitch, and game field for entertainers and musicians.

We had 18 writers contribute to this (even more than the Colossal Creatures Bestiary). It's a big one!

Get it now on Paizo, RPGnow, or the Zenith Games blog. Only $3.99!


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As one of the 18, I had some fun with this one - and many of these spells are quite useful for adventurers too, especially if you're creative.

Liberty's Edge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012

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I enjoyed working on this, and I was quite impressed by the ingenuity of all the spells in this PDF.

Contributor

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This was a lot of fun to work on! It's neat how many different ways you could add magic to everyday tasks.


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What a pleasure and experience it was collaborating with so many others to create something together as a team. It was nice being able to share thoughts and ideas knowing you'd have others there to talk you through the steps and share opinions on game theory. That's an incredible feeling; seeing the creativity and imagination of others who enjoy the same things and wish to share and expand the horizons and boundaries of a world and system that means so much to so many.

There are lots of wonderful gems here to spice up the 'common' person's way of life and professions in a magical world where not everyone slings lightning from their fingers or faces the darkness with magic missiles.


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One of my spells is even mentioned in the first post!


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Drejk, and two of mine!!

Anyway, this was a very nice project to work on, and I have to add that the NPC profiles at the end are very interesting!


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I'm planning on including some of these spells in an enemy's spellbook at a later date. This was a blast to work on.


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This was really cool to work on and I'm happy to see three spells of my devising in print for other gamers to enjoy! Makes an old gamer-geek proud!

Castellan's Dungball for the win! Whoot! :)

Paizo Employee

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This one was really fun to work on, creating some more utility for the existing classes (and adding a new one for NPCs). There are so many new cantrips I want to give characters.

Cheers!
Landon


Awesome to see this out in the wild! I'd love to see what people do with some of the work-aday crazy we put into this. : )

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

I always loved to use magics to create unusual NPC lifestyles and wondrous settlemets. This great book has become a perfect opportunity for me to publish some of my ideas. It is really exciting to see spells changing the life in a village or in a city!


I worked with Jeff Gomez, et al, on the “100 Spells for the Common Man” supplement, and I’m really excited about this product. There are some very talented and creative people involved in this, and I’m happy to have been offered the chance to collaborate with them. Don’t hesitate to check it out – it will definitely add a whole new level to your game!


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This is so cool, buying now!


Kobold Cleaver, which spells were yours?


The spells extract pigment, awaken instruments, warp glass, greater warp glass, and pleasing facade (my personal favorite).

I'm still kicking myself that I forgot to include an "undo previous warpings" option with the warp glass spells, though. Talk about obvious in hindsight. One of the ways I envision that spell being used is as a convenient way to shade the windows to say, "Okay, shop's closed now, come back tomorrow!" It's easy to house-rule in, at least!

Shadow Lodge

Saint Bernard wrote:
I lover it. Nice design and great spells. The built in limitations are very nice done. As an example, Euthanize is a very powerful spell but its constraints prevent it from being abused. I can see a 4th level Paladin using it to grant a peaceful and dignified end to someone. These are a nice addition to a world with magic. Limiting the spells to a maximum of 2nd level makes perfect sense, anyone capable developing higher level spells would probably be an adventurer instead of a worker needing the magical help.

Thanks Saint Bernard!

MichaelCullen wrote:

This book provides exactly what is says it does. With plenty of material to justify the price. I look forward to sprinkling many of these spells throughout adventures.

I think of these spells like spice, adding little tastes of flavor to a campaign.

My only disappointment was that I dislike one of the spells. But hey, that's less than 1% right? Five stars.

Thanks for the 5 Star Review Michael!


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While I'd like to write-up a full-bodied review of 101 Spells for the Common Man ... this short one will have to do for now.

This is a 5-Star PDF, folks. As a huge fan of Pathfinder & 3.5 (Paizo, WotC & all reputable 3PPs) spellbook tomes, this is one of the most creative & mechanically-sound 3PP spellbooks I've seen over the years. Ranking right up there with Dave Paul's recent terrain-centric spellbook series over at Rite Publishing.

My players have been diving into this PDF with glee. We currently have a little over 20 of these spells that have already been cast (or written to character spellbooks) at our gaming tables over the last 2 weeks. As a DM, I love how info-packed yet streamlined/concise design of many of the spells. Clever, thoughtful titles, too. Props to Jeff Gomez for bringing all of these talented game designers together into a PDF that's easy to navigate and a lot of fun to read. For you demiurgic types, many of these spells can be subtly optimized for innovative application, too.

Gosh, I wish I had time to list my Top 10 Favorites. But I will definitely say that Pleasing Facade brought me a whiplash smile and totally stroked my inner gothic sensibilities. I've never seen anyone capture The Picture of Dorian Gray in an RPG game mechnanic as elegantly this spell. Bravo!

Shadow Lodge

Crai wrote:

This is a 5-Star PDF, folks. As a huge fan of Pathfinder & 3.5 (Paizo, WotC & all reputable 3PPs) spellbook tomes, this is one of the most creative & mechanically-sound 3PP spellbooks I've seen over the years. Ranking right up there with Dave Paul's recent terrain-centric spellbook series over at Rite Publishing.

That is awesome. Thank you so much! Glad to see it getting use!


Just curious, BZ .... has there been any talk of possibly doing a follow-up spellbook product to this one? Maybe even a different theme for the next batch of 101 Spells?

Thanks again!

Shadow Lodge

Crai wrote:

Just curious, BZ .... has there been any talk of possibly doing a follow-up spellbook product to this one? Maybe even a different theme for the next batch of 101 Spells?

Thanks again!

Definitely! But I've got a few other products to get out before I get started on that (101 Cursed Items, We Be Leshys, etc...)

I'll keep you updated!

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