I like this book a lot. If I had my guess as to what Ultimate
Magic 2 would look like, this would be it. More than just a book of
spells Deep Magic supports magic in a lot of different ways.
The first chapter essentially gives spell lists by theme, discussing each with some flavor and providing some spell books that can be found containing the spells. There's also some smackling of rules such as new wizard schools, Ioun Stones, and leylines. This does mean that you wind up having to read the theme before you can find some rules, for example; there isn't a list of arcane discoveries unless you find a sidebar somewhere. This organization may be jarring but it has been a breath of fresh air for me as I tend to pick my spells and options by theme as opposed to sort out and optimize.
The new spells vary in usefulness and brokeness but nothing truly past the Core Rulebook in power per spell level. The spells also support other Kobold Press classes such as the Elven Archer and White Necromancer, which is a pretty big plus if you have those and ignorable if you don't There are also little side bars that give a bit more fluff to the spell themes.
Chapter 3 is a huge pluss for me. Ink magic seems out of place as it looks like it should have been in
Chapter 1, as it doesn't give new rules to the extent of the Glyphs and Runes. The Glyphs and Runes are winners for me by being means for even non-casters to get a touch of magic. Basically you take a feat or two and you get a static bonus and some scaling access to magical effects. Some of these are lifesavers and add quite a bit of fluff if you're running anything involving Norse gods or aboleth.
Chapter 4 introduces Incantations from Zombie Sky Press so if you don't have that its a fun bonus.
Chapter 5 and 6 give bloodlines, archetypes and mysteries. Nothing that special but they support a lot of themes introduced in chapter 1 and look like a lot of fun if you're working a theme.
Chapter 7 has some fluff and rules for undead crafting, familiar stuff and homuculi. I didn't look too deep into this chapter as I felt it didn't add too much that wasn't already achievable in the game. Plus it's a short chapter with just a few bits of crunch to look at.
Lastly there's some NPCs to throw at your players.
Overall I think this massive book is well worth the price. It brings life to a lot of themes that have been neglected and gives a lot to do with the flavor to match. Its more than just a list of options which I appreciate but will be difficult to sort out if you're just looking for those options. I'm giving it five stars despite that and some minor editing mistakes because as a whole this is almost mandatory for cool options for making magic.
You can find this over on Paizo.com here.
Retrospective:
I've seen a lot of comments about a number of the spells in Deep Magic being broken. Which is probably true. There are a number of spells that aren't exactly more troublesome than Core Rulebook spells but they're just as bad which is pretty bad. In using this book I've never noticed. Partially this is because I don't let my players touch the spells unless they come from archetypes or other class options. adding hundreds of new spells is inherently troublesome if the spells are at all exciting, and there are lot of exciting spells, because of the cherry picking they allow. What I usually do with third party spells is leave them for PCs to find in a library or dungeon so that they have a reason to discover things. While martials get some power creep too due to the runes this is still a book of magic and magic is pretty pervasive. This can get extra bad if you allow players to cherry pick spells from this book without offering some kind of martial power creep as well.
For me, this book has been has proven to be as exciting as I thought it would be but lately the use of it has been dwindling. When the Spheres of Power train arrived a lot of people jumped on board and this lead to sharp dislike of spells and spellcasters so sadly I don't really use it anymore. Then I started planning a scifi campaign and it just felt like there was no space for it without arbitrarily overloading players.
The first chapter essentially gives spell lists by theme, discussing each with some flavor and providing some spell books that can be found containing the spells. There's also some smackling of rules such as new wizard schools, Ioun Stones, and leylines. This does mean that you wind up having to read the theme before you can find some rules, for example; there isn't a list of arcane discoveries unless you find a sidebar somewhere. This organization may be jarring but it has been a breath of fresh air for me as I tend to pick my spells and options by theme as opposed to sort out and optimize.
The new spells vary in usefulness and brokeness but nothing truly past the Core Rulebook in power per spell level. The spells also support other Kobold Press classes such as the Elven Archer and White Necromancer, which is a pretty big plus if you have those and ignorable if you don't There are also little side bars that give a bit more fluff to the spell themes.
Chapter 3 is a huge pluss for me. Ink magic seems out of place as it looks like it should have been in
Chapter 1, as it doesn't give new rules to the extent of the Glyphs and Runes. The Glyphs and Runes are winners for me by being means for even non-casters to get a touch of magic. Basically you take a feat or two and you get a static bonus and some scaling access to magical effects. Some of these are lifesavers and add quite a bit of fluff if you're running anything involving Norse gods or aboleth.
Chapter 4 introduces Incantations from Zombie Sky Press so if you don't have that its a fun bonus.
Chapter 5 and 6 give bloodlines, archetypes and mysteries. Nothing that special but they support a lot of themes introduced in chapter 1 and look like a lot of fun if you're working a theme.
Chapter 7 has some fluff and rules for undead crafting, familiar stuff and homuculi. I didn't look too deep into this chapter as I felt it didn't add too much that wasn't already achievable in the game. Plus it's a short chapter with just a few bits of crunch to look at.
Lastly there's some NPCs to throw at your players.
Overall I think this massive book is well worth the price. It brings life to a lot of themes that have been neglected and gives a lot to do with the flavor to match. Its more than just a list of options which I appreciate but will be difficult to sort out if you're just looking for those options. I'm giving it five stars despite that and some minor editing mistakes because as a whole this is almost mandatory for cool options for making magic.
You can find this over on Paizo.com here.
Retrospective:
I've seen a lot of comments about a number of the spells in Deep Magic being broken. Which is probably true. There are a number of spells that aren't exactly more troublesome than Core Rulebook spells but they're just as bad which is pretty bad. In using this book I've never noticed. Partially this is because I don't let my players touch the spells unless they come from archetypes or other class options. adding hundreds of new spells is inherently troublesome if the spells are at all exciting, and there are lot of exciting spells, because of the cherry picking they allow. What I usually do with third party spells is leave them for PCs to find in a library or dungeon so that they have a reason to discover things. While martials get some power creep too due to the runes this is still a book of magic and magic is pretty pervasive. This can get extra bad if you allow players to cherry pick spells from this book without offering some kind of martial power creep as well.
For me, this book has been has proven to be as exciting as I thought it would be but lately the use of it has been dwindling. When the Spheres of Power train arrived a lot of people jumped on board and this lead to sharp dislike of spells and spellcasters so sadly I don't really use it anymore. Then I started planning a scifi campaign and it just felt like there was no space for it without arbitrarily overloading players.
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