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But I was interested enough (and enough of an Exalted fan) to take it off the shelf once it arrived there and look through it. And that was it, I was hooked. The Book of 3 Circles was arguably the best supplement Exalted had, certainly the best softcover IMHO. And Savant & Sorcerer blows it out of the water. It's not perfect... but it's very very good.
For obvious reasons, I'll be comparing the two books quite a lot in this review, so let's get started:
The Good
Magical Theory - This section complements the corresponding section of Bo3C rather than replaces it IMHO. It's an excellent how-to for having characters learn sorcery and covers differing approaches in the Second Age both to teaching and to who is likely to be taught do it.
Artifacts - The old artifact creation rules were way too vague. Obviously there has to be a lot of latitude for storytellers, but this chapter gives some much needed structure to the in- and out-of-game mechanics. It also has some useful background material - factory-cathedrals, the Five Magical Materials and where to find them.
Manses & Hearthstones - More about building and modifying manses than the huge list of hearthstones we got in Bo3C, S&S caters more towards Dragon-blooded in this field, reasonable given how many Manses they control.
Summoning - Something that didn't appear in Bo3C was any detail on summoning. The spells for it were in the core rules and that was it... but not any more. Thirty pages, the second longest chapter in the book, describes the positions of the summoners, the summoned, and the rest of creation on this practise. It also explains why Malfeas is such a shoddy prison - why do demons escape with such monotonus regularity?
Warstriders - In Bo3C these got tucked away at the back, not so much an afterthought as a 'we'll just sneak them in and hope no one objects'. Well no one did and this time they get twice as much space at the back. This replaces the old appendix seamlessly and gives far more detail and a wider range of equipment for them.
The Bad
Spells - Given all the new material some stuff obviously had to go. In Bo3C spells got three chapters spread across 50 pages - here they get one chapter 44 pages long. 55 spells from Bo3C don't appear, 77 do (including one that moves from Celestial to Terrestrial Circle). Fifteen new spells appear, at least two of which fill gaps in the selection - a spell of Demon banishment and a Solar level attack that'll rock the pillars of heaven - or at least punch a hole in the gates of Yu Shan.
I'm sorry to lose the spells of course but to be fair, something had to go and the spells featured get new and revised write-ups. The Celestial Circle is largely intact and if we lose almost half the Terrestrial Circle then at least that's where the bulk of the new spells in this and other supplements fall. The Solar Circle was admittedly gutted, losing 15 out of 19 spells - but realistically they almost never got used anyway.
Size - At 160 pages S&S is one of the biggest softcover supplements for Exalted - the same length as The Outcastes and surpassed only by Time of Tumult. Given the increase (from 128 pages in Bo3C), there are a few disappointing omissions. Since Bo3C is going out of print, telling the tale of Brigid would have been appropriate - perhaps as opening fiction? In fact the whole magical theory chapter complements Bo3C far more than it replaces it.
And how about Necromancy, for example - sure, the Terrestrials can't use it but all the Celestial Exalted have the potential to be necromancers and it's not like Abyssals can't be sorcerers. Equal rights for the deadies!
If S&S had been as long as Time of Tumult (176 pages) then they could have inserted up to 4 pages for Brigid, expanded the summoning chapter by a couple of pages to cover ghost summoning, and added up to 10 pages on necromancy - the Solar Circle gets 5 pages of spells so that much Necromancy (for the 3 circles of that) and 5 pages tagged on to the magical theory would have covered it.
Yes, I'm greedy. But isn't this the logial place to tell us more about Necromancy?
The Ugly
About the only thing I'll slam the presentation for is the front cover - the layout is the standard Exalted, which works fine and the artwork ranges from fair to good (the tarot-style is nifty and there are some very dynamic pictures). But the cover art doesn't look good to me - it's a nice painting technically but the sorceress looks like Emma Frost dressing up as Naga the White Serpent... isn't she cold?
Come back Adam Warren, all is forgiven...
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