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More Magic and Mayhem adds what is missing from the WoW RPG, a few new spells from the game, a lot of steampunk technology , many magic items, and new feats plus some new classes and prestige classes from the game. The book comes in five chapters: Spell slingers and gear grinders; Enchantments, runes, and brews; Power Overwhelming; So Shiny!; and Things that Go Boom in the Night. More Magic and Mayhem was licensed by Blizzard Entertainment, inc.
Chapter 1 -- Spell Slingers and Gear Grinders introduces the Spell casting classes for use in the WoW RPG or just any d20 RPG, including Pathfinder -- with some modification. There is one path for the Arcanist -- called an inscriber. In Pathfinder, this path can be converted into a new base class or a specialist wizard type. A character who is an inscriber works with magic in runes, signs, and symbols. In the WoW world, rune magic is natural magic, and an inscriber is capable of harnessing the power of the natural world through mystic symbology. If you play Palladium the RPG (2nd Edition is my memories) then the Inscriber is analogous to the diabolist class in the Palladium RPG. Humans, Forsaken, High Elves, and Blood Elves are naturally attracted to the path, although I would expect goblins of the Khazan cartel and the Worgen of Gilneas might have some interest. The spell list is very scant compared to a traditional wizard, but this is more than made up in the description of runes, signs, and symbols that have their own unique powers.
The next healer path is a Witch Doctor. Designed for barbarian cultures, the Witch Doctor in the WoW universe is usually associated with the trolls of Azeroth. The Witch Doctor uses voodoo or some other tribal magic, and depends on mojo and potions as a way to cast spells. In play in my present campaign, the Witch Doctor NPC villain used his mojo to put the party to sleep and to escape by turning to gaseous form. Otherwise, the Witch Doctor uses the Shaman spell list.
After this is the new base class, Runemaster. If the diabolist is a wizard, scholarly type -- then the Runemaster is more like a Tattooed man from RIFTS Atlantis, with some minor differences. The Runemaster is a mystic who uses the natural power of the planet of Azeroth to empower his runes. Among the WoW races, Runemasters are seen among the Tauren and the Orcs, with Worgen, Night Elves, and Dwarves coming up the rear. The class uses the cleric's base attack bonus, lending some weight to their martial abilities.
After that you get some interesting prestige classes.
* The Argent Dawn Templar -- Described as devoted followers of the Holy Light, this is obviously a priest and paladin oriented PrC. The Argent Dawn is devoted to destroying the Undead. Although most of the Argent Dawn is made up of warriors and advised by priests and mages, these are the holy warriors of the order. They have a few special powers pertaining to their order and the destruction of the Undead Scourge. With Tauren joining the ranks of Paladins in the MMO game, a Tauren Argent Dawn Templar would be very powerful indeed.
* Enchanter -- With what the Enchanting profession does in the MMO, I am happy that they made it a PRC. The Enchanter "destroys" items in order to enchant an item with special properties. Although the Item Creation Feats are great, Enchanters are worth their weight in gold in the WoW RPG.
* Ley Walker -- This PrC is so weighted to Arcane classes by its name it's no brainer. What is uncanny is that whether the designers knew it or not, if some one had a RIFTS D20 RPG going on, they just had to copy this PRC from More Magic and Mayhem in order to present Ley Line Walkers in RIFTS. That is how uncanny the class is. On Azeroth, the Ley Walker does nearly everything the Ley Line Walker O.C.C. does in Rifts.
* Steam Warrior -- Steampunked combat oriented engineer. Mad Scientists from Deadlands meets World of Warcraft, except without the goofy lab coat but with the goggles. This PrC is weighted to the Tinker class (which is analogous to a Mad Scientist in Deadlands, but represents the Engineer profession in the MMO). According to the book, only Dwarves, Humans, Gnomes, and Goblins of the Khazan Cartel are the most likely to become this type of combat engineer.
FEATS: There is a section on feats in the chapter. The major addition are Rune Feats, which help inscribers and rune masters master their runes. Also included are Alchemist feats, which aid the alchemist (who has craft: alchemist) to make their potions. There is a feat called Greater Spell Specialization (that's OGC, THANK GOD!!), and Spell Specialization. A spellbreaker feat, and a feat to use steam vehicles. There are other feats as well, but those are the best.
Chapter 2.
* Alchemy. The writers have done a very good job of expanding the Alchemy profession with new items, potions, and salves to make! For this reason alone, this part of the book is worth it. ESPECIALLY if you are playing an Alchemist from Pathfinder. MOST ESPECIALLY!!
This section includes all the alchemical concoctions in the Game pre-Burning Crusade. An alchemist can concoct everything from healing draughts to philters to oils to the Philosopher's Stone. While everything is mostly linked to Azeroth, this section is pure gold to the Pathfinder RPG player and GM. Manufique! Blizzard Entertainment ought just talk to Paizo about updating the game just to make this section available in print again. However, the boys at Blizzard might think of other factors than just my suggestion.
* Enchantments.
This section includes all the enchantments pre-Burning Crusade. Well, most of them. The enchantments include armor, melee weapon, shield, glove, bracer, boot, cloak, and helm enchantments.
* The Runic Art. As special as this chapter is, it's so Azeroth specific that it would take a Gamemaster some major work to adapt these runes to their own game world. The section is brilliant, and full of strong rules. There are many different patterns, each linked to a specific place on the Azerothian garden world. They include:
Awareness. Linked to the top of Mount Fairview in the Stonetalon Mountains.
Beast. Linked to the Vale of Beasts in the midst of Ashenvale Forest.
Flame. The rune pattern for this is located deep in the caldera of the Searing Peak in the Redridge Mountains.
Frost. A pattern that has its source in Northrend, in a valley that is of terrible biting cold.
Healing. These patterns are located near a series of hot springs in the country of Mulgore.
Motion. These are found in the windswept canyons of the Badlands.
Restoration. This pattern is found in Moonglade, specifically the Valley of Dulvarinn.
Shielding. The pattern is found near Grim Batol, specifically the Great Bulwarks -- peaks that are like the Grand Tetons.
Stone. The Great Maze is the source of this pattern in the Stone Talon Mountains. The Great Maze is actually a little north of Tarantis, the second desert region of Kalimdor.
Storm. The pattern's source is above Stormwind Keep; the bastion of human power in Azeroth.
Striking. This pattern has its home around Blackrock Spire.
Each pattern has its own set of runes that go with it. Each rune is like a spell with a level keyed to it. These are runes inscribers and runemasters often use.
Spells are the next section. A good number of spells from the Game, pre-Burning Crusade; are included. The spells include paladin and priest blessings, paladin seals, and the Shamanistic totems. It also includes some spells from WoW a Warlock, mage, or necromancer aught to have. Spells like Corruption, Abolish Disease, Blast Wave, blessing of Might, and Curse of Recklessness, Firebolt (second time I saw a spell with that name in print), Flash of Light, Gust of Wind (from the d20 RPG), Healing Stream Totem, and Shadow Bolt are all there along with many others.
Chapter 3: So Shiny includes rules for magic items. All the usual suspects are there, especially WoW specific items and armor sets. Missing, however, are the tier items one could get in the tournaments of the game. Including the [armor] and [weapon] of [animal] properties, the Magister's set, Shadowcraft armor, and the special materials of Azeroth. What is missing is armor sets for all the classes. This section is short for space reasons and contains a lot of material, its just sad that it couldn't include more.
Things that Go Boom in the Night -- this section does include all the Steamtech of the WoW universe. Everything the tinker, engineer, or mad scientist might need to make something interesting. As I said, this chapter is WoW specific, so it will seem a little strange that most of the items would end up in the Deadlands world without a little modification. The same goes for Deadland items. However, what the Engineer can build is all pre-Burning Crusade. You have steam vehicles and steam armor, technological devices, and those special substances and items. Phologiston isn't included in this book, however. The substance and rules to extract or synthesize it are found in the original Magic and Mayhem book.
Well, in conclusion, I liked the book a lot. It isn't a useless book that is full of overpoweredness. Although there is stuff for the power gamer, I've come to believe that the material is well balanced. However, I gave it a style of 3 because of grammatical problems and little nickpicks with the art. The book isn't out to impress you with its style. I gave it a substance rating Meaty or 4 however because, despite being a 200 page book; of all it contains. There are spells missing, and two entire expansions aren't taken into account but there is enough here to have a decent pencil and paper campaign in the World of Warcraft.
Uses in other games: D&D 4th Edition -- Your work is cut out for you in converting this book to powers. However, the only section that is convertible straight out of the box happens to be the Alchemy section. Since Alchemy is a skill, and the rules are based on the use of that skill should make it really easy to use this section right out of the book. As for the rest, there are so many spells that converting them to powers will give you a hammer headache if you expect to do it in one day.
Pathfinder -- This book can be used out of the box for Pathfinder with little modification. The strongest points where you need modification is the Rune spells, since you need to adapt them to your World. Other than that, its clear sailing.
Deadlands (Savage Worlds, d20, and 1st Edition) -- You might find the technological devices to be of interest for the game Deadlands. Of course, you might have to do some modifications (name most likely) for flavor.
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