Battle Magic
Mongoose's Encyclopaedia Arcane series presents new options for spellcasting characters in d20 fantasy games. Prior volumes in this series include Necromancy, Demonology, Chaos Magic, and Constructs.
Battle Magic: The Eldritch Storm introduces a new type of arcane spellcaster for d20 fantasy games that specializes in wreaking havoc on the battlefield.
A First Look
Battle Magic is a 64-page, perfect bound softcover book priced at $14.95.
The cover is color and depicts a wizard amidst some battlements hurling destructive spells at troops in the distance.
The interior is black and white. The interior art varies in quality from mediocre to good. The best works are by such excellent frequent Mongoose artists as Danilo Moretti, Andrew Jordan, Eric Lofgren, Rick Otey, and Stephen Shepard.
The interior layout is typical for Mongoose. The typeface of the body text is modest, though the header text is a little large.
A Deeper Look
The central edifice in Battle Magic is the Battle Guilds. The Battle Guilds are essentially mercenary guilds that practice a unique form of destructive magic and employ specialized spellcasters called battle mages and eldritch warriors.
In game terms, these spellcaster types are prestige classes. Both of them will create a significant alteration in the way that the spellcaster practices magic. Regardless of the type of arcane spellcaster that the character was before joining the guild, once the character picks up a level in one of these classes, he casts spells as a sorcerer but advances in spells per day as per the wizard's list.
In addition, both of these classes lose most or all of their known spells and learn spells from the so-called Book of War. The Book of War is a common spellbook used by the Battle Guilds. It uses some existing d20 System spells (such as fireball and cone of cold), but includes several new spells introduced here. Battle mages and eldritch warriors can choose to retain one spell of each level from their prior class in place of a spell from the Book of War, but this is frowned upon by the Battle Guilds.
A battle mage's central abilities are linked spells and braided spells.
The linked spells ability is gained at 3rd level. If the mage selects a sequence of spells of increasing level, he can designate them as a linked spell and weave the somantic and material components of the spells together. Every third spell of the chain is cast as a free action.
The braided spell ability is gained at 5th level. With it, the battle mage can expend the same amount of time and spell slots as it would take to cast a number of spells and create a braided spell. The braided spell can then be released later, unleashing the effects of all the remaining spells simultaneously. If the caster fails any Concentration check while the braided spell is being held, the spell can be prematurely unleashed.
The battle mage requires a special rune encrusted harness called the mortis harness to cast her spells. If the battle mage casts more than 4 spells of a given level in a day, she stands the chance that the rune burns out for that spell level, which is expensive to replace.
The other prestige class is the eldritch warrior. The eldritch warrior is unlike most other spellcasters in that he can only deliver his spells by hitting an opponent in melee combat by means of his spellblade; it just so happens that he is immune to his own spells (but not that of another eldritch warrior.) The eldritch warrior must then cast the spell and strike with his weapon, which is a serious liability. Further, he does not get good combat abilities (BAB or hp), making him a suboptimal melee combatant. The eldritch warrior depends on an item called a runeweave robe for protection in combat. Again, the spellcasting restriction applies regardless of what arcane spellcasting class the character belonged to before.
The eldritch warrior also gets the linked spell and braided spell abilities of the battle mage, though it is not clear how these abilities mesh with the spellcasting restriction of the eldritch warrior. Normally, a spellblade can hold but one spell, as per the text. If one linked series of spells or a spell braid counts as one spell, the abilities seem very powerful. Otherwise, the abilities seem somewhat weak.
The Book of War, as mentioned, introduces a variety of new spells for use in the game. These spells are the sort that are invariably combat oriented. Many are traditional attack spells though some are a bit different. New area of effect conventions are introduced, such as spiral and continuous stream. Many of the new spells have expensive material components to offset their value in combat.
Both of the classes require the ability to cast 5th level arcane spells prior to entry. Thus to be a formal member of the battle guild, a character must be at least 10th level. Further, the section on induction the battle guild states that at least 5 battle mages cast a 9th level spell for the potential inductee to identify. Battle guilds seem to be bristling with high level arcane spellcasters. This could cause a problem for a GM who isn't running a very high fantasy game; these kinds of characters blow the doors off of the demographic assumptions in the DMG.
In addition to the new spells, battle guilds have a number of tricks in their arsenals. One of these is the battle golem. War golems have many of the normal characteristics of golems such as immunity to magic, and can be instructed to attack enemies and ignored, or it can be directed by battle mages. This last use is very potent, since a battle mage may direct spells through the war golem at a distance.
Unfortunately, some details seem to be missing on the operation of war golem. It is implied that battle mages take damage while directing battle golems, but this doesn't seem to be spelled out how this is done. The mortis harness earlier states that multiple "wand slots" are used in controlling a golem, but it never states how many. Also, it is implied that a battle mage may take damage while directing a war golem, but exactly how this works isn't clear until you read a the feat later that improves the situation.
There are other items in the magic item section as well. Many of these interface with the mortis harness. One example is the focus rod. The focus rod lets the user enhance their spells with metamagic feats at a reduces cost. However, the cost of these items is linear with the slot cost which probably makes them much cheaper than they should be; compare the metamagic rods in Tome & Blood.
Conclusion
I think in one respect Battle Magic is exemplary. The prestige classes presented herein aren't as bare-bones as many on the market. Their organization and means of operating are fully explained and justified.
Battle mages are scary entities. They wield a lot of arcane power. The author tries to offset this with the mortis harness, the cost of the spells, and limiting the spells of the battle magic. Big picture, I do think that limits the battle mage. However, these accommodations may not satisfy many GMs and I think there will be a shift in the campaign tone even if you do accept them (which is fine if that is what you want.) Further, the compromises could make the concept of battle magic much more stifling for players as well.
At the very least, I don't think battle magic is an easy fit into a standard campaign. It seems to me like most battle mages would spend most of the adventure as a wallflower, but then quickly end dangerous encounters when warranted. However, it could be fun if the GM embraces the battle mage approach and perhaps even makes an "all battle guild" group doing missions. Another good use would be for the GM to cast them as villains, scary in their own right if directly confronted, but with some distinct limitations that clever players can use to defeat them.
-Alan D. Kohler
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