Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and Truename Magic (D&D Supplement) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Tome of Magic may very well be the most significant supplement to come along for Dungeons & Dragons in many years. This book isn't about just giving gamers new spell-casting classes and spells, this is about a whole new way of looking at magic. Specifically, it introduces three new, and very different forms of magic designed to enhance the fantasy flavor of any campaign.

The first new form of magic introduces pact magic. The power behind pact magic are beings...mortals, demons, angels, and even deities, who have passed on from their native planes and are now existing in a sort of void, where their wills were too strong to move onto their final resting place. The new class called binders can make pacts with these beings to gain powers and abilities, merging their own souls with those of the "vestiges" of these powerful beings. Binders have a D8 for their hit points and can, through experience, make pacts with more than one of these vestiges at a time. Like a magic user, the Binder can change which vestiges they make pacts with on a daily basis, as they see fit and the abilities only last as long as the pact lasts, each time requiring a check to see if the entity can exert their will on the player. Binders do not have to pray for these spells and abilities or memorize them from a book as wizards do...they simply have them once the pact is entered into. Examples of these vestiges include Acerak the lich, whose name long-time players will recall from the module Tomb of Horrors. And then there is Focalor, Prince of Tears who may have been a powerful angel and can grant powers such as an aura of sadness and a lightning strike.

The Binder class includes, as do all of the new magic types, five prestige classes which include the powerful Anima-Mage and the Witch Slayers. In addition the Pact Magic section includes 19 new feats, new magic items, monsters, pact magic organizations, as well as mini-adventures designed for the class that can easily be incorporated into any campaign.

Next up is Shadow magic. Shadow Magic Users call upon and control the magic derived from the elemental plane of shadow, and while the introduction to the class is a bit muddled, this is quite a potent class, made up of primarily humans and half-elves. The class can be any alignment but should typically be evil or neutral with good aligned characters being very rare. These D6 classes learn what is called "mysteries" as opposed to spells but think of them as essentially the same thing. Like wizards, they progress over various levels with the number of new mysteries they can learn and utilize and a table of progression is included. In all, the book includes 68 shadow magic spells/mysteries such as the potent Shadow Surge spell which will kill the target if they fail their saving throw and immediately bring them back to life under the control of the caster for one round per level, at the end of which the target dies for good. It also includes five prestige classes, and again new monsters, magic items, and feats.

Last, and I think most intriguing, is Truename Magic. We've often heard over the years about true names of powerful beings such as Demons and Devils and how learning their truename can give a person control over the being. The book takes this several steps further, offering truename as a sort of quasi-language. Virtually everything has a true name whether it is a living being or an inanimate object. Further more, words and phrases have truenames, things like "sharpen", "Destroy" or "Vanish". Once you learn the truenames you can gain mastery over them and it essentially becomes magic. But this is no easy task. As pointed out in the book, truenames, especially those of powerful creatures like demons, are very long and have their unique inflections in the pronunciation. Only a correctly pronounced truename will work to grant the Truename Mage power. For this reason, he or she spends much time pouring over tomes of lore to research and learn these truenames. Thus, rather than spells they learn "utterances" which are basically vocal only spells. The Tome of magic includes approximately 100 of these utterances/spells. As with the other new classes, this section has five new prestige classes, and also new feats, magic items and monsters. Again, a few short mini-adventures are included. Each section also covers information for both the player and DM about how to play these new classes and how they interact with other classes.

If the book has one minor weakness it is that there are no appendices or even an index in the back to help sort all this new information. It would have been nice to have the experience and spell progression tables all in one section. That said, Tome of Magic is a fantastic new supplement that is sure to impress D & D fans.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Having been inspired by the positive reviews this book received, I ran out to pick one up first chance I got. I spent hours pouring over it, and have come to a few disappointing conclusions.

The three new base classes presented in this book (Binder, Shadowmancer and Truenamer) are lackluster at best.

The Binder seems interesting, but because of his unpredictablity, he can go from overpowered one day to all-but-useless the next, depending on which vestiges he binds himself to. A binder who lucks out on his binding checks (resulting in bad pacts) can find himself being drawn in several different directions in even a mundane situation. Disobeying any of the vestiges' wishes results in a cumulative -1 penalty to all rolls for each vestige offended and each time they are offended.

The Shadowcaster smells like a weak rehash of the Warlock class from Complete Arcane. Much like the Warlock, they gain their "masteries" slowly (1 / level), but unlike a warlock, they do not get unlimited uses of these abilities. In fact, their best abilities they can only use once / day each. Additionally, they lack the Eldretch Blast ability that gave Warlocks an offensive side to their spells, instead getting to choose from buffs, debuffs and a few weak offensive abilities. Keep in mind that these start out only usable once / day, so our first level Shadowmancer can use his only mastery ability once in a day. The use of "Fundamentals" (equivalent to 0th level spells, usable 3 times / day) does not help the situation, as the Shadowmancer starts with only one of those, and gains more of them at the rate of 1 every 4 levels.

Lastly, the Truenamer class is an utter disappointment. Truenames have been mentionned in hushed whispers and vague references for a long time in D&D, and even longer in literature as a whole. When finally we get to see a class that's based off of using Truenames, we find a great disappointment. Every time a Truenamer wishes to use an Utterance (their version of a spell), they must make a Truespeak (new skill) check of DC 15 + (CR x 2) + (2 for each previous time the Truespeaker has used that utterance today). While this seems fine and dandy, remember that when you go up a level, your max ranks in a skill only increases by 1, while the difficulty of uttering a Truename of a like level creature (your ally, for example) increases by 2.

In the end, the Truenamer is fighting a losing battle to be able to use his Utterances as many times a day as he could last level (although each level he gains at least 1 new Utterance). He becomes dependant on his Amulet of the Silver Tongue (a magic item which gives +5 or +10 to his Truespeak checks) to use his Utterances more than a couple times in a day. Additionally, to Utter defensively imposes a penalty on the Truespeak check, rather than requiring a Concentration check. Not only that - it imposes a -5 penalty for EACH creature who is threatening the Truenamer. Put two creatures next to a Truenamer, and his Truespeak DC rises by 10, rendering him effectively useless.

By contrast, the 15 or so spells that arcane or divine spellcasters can use if they take ranks in Truespeak far outstrip the abilities of a Truenamer - someone who has been studying this all his life! Truename Dispel (8th level spell for Wizard/Sorc, Cleric and Druid) allows you to selectively remove any or all magical effects present on a creature by speaking its truename! You are given the name of every effect on them, and asked if you wish to dispel the effect. No saving throw, no caster level check, nothing. Expunge the Supernatural (same level as above) lets you strip a being whose truename you speak of one supernatural ability permanently unless they succeed in a Fortitude save against the effect. You could strip a powerful foe of his damage reduction, or an undead of his energy drain ability. By contrast, no Utterance that a Truenamer learns ever lasts more than 5 rounds (or 10 if he uses Extend Utterance with a +5 to the DC of the Truespeak check), and many only last for one or two rounds.

All in all, I find the information presented in the book to be shoddy and thrown together. Fans have been crying out for the ability to use Truenames for a long time, and if this is the best that Wizards can come up with, I'm sorely disappointed.

The first time someone brought this book to the table, I'll admit that I wasn't immediately impressed by it. However, I thought I saw some potential, so I borrowed it from a friend at work to read over the weekend. I read the whole thing, cover to cover, twice, before Monday.

This book has finally reminded me what it was I loved about D&D when I started playing second edition over a decade ago. Unlike most every other third edition book (and even more so with 3.5), Tome of Magic isn't just a gotta-catch-em-all collection of new feats, spells, magic items, and prestige classes. It is stuffed with truly new, fresh ideas. I had thought that the rules in the Expanded Psionics Handbook were a novel approach to spellcasting in D&D, but the alternate magic systems in Tome of Magic are worlds beyond psionics in scope and style. This book could easily serve as the basis of at least one, if not three or four, whole new campaign settings. Truly different, truly spectacular.

And a special aside for Truename Magic. This system is the way spellcasting in a fantasy setting should be. Lets face it. Spells per day? Choosing spells in the morning when you wake up? Transparently artificial, rediculous, and illogical concepts. Truename magic fixes this and fixes it right, while still being a viable and fun system to use.