Well its here. I read it in one sitting. Got my players and just finished a one-off 48 hour game. To keep it simple this book is what every WFRP player has wanted. It ties up all the loose ends from the rulebook (or "Bible" as we know it). It adds to the magic previously described elsewhere (the two Apochryphas or "new testaments").
The actual mechanics of spell-casting have stayed pretty much the same, more detail has been added. Which quite frankly was needed. The background has been handled really well. Some excellent colour text (especially on Alchemy). The book mainly focuses on Magic in the Empire, with the colleges of colour magic getting a lot of attention. Not only that but we also get sections on High Elf, Wood Elf, Skaven and Greenskin magic. Everything a GM needs to really put the fear of robes and flashing lights in his players.
We ran around with some really ridiculously HARD wizards (just for a laugh, I mean you have to really) and spent ages having 8 level 5 wizards, and 1 hedgewizard arguing over who had EI and got to blast the crap out of the big beastie. (Tip:- do not allow that many wizards in your campaign, you can quite quickly wave goodbye to any plot. We went on a quest for the doomstones and even against some really beefed up enemies my players didn't break a sweat. "oh, the monastery is under attack?" 1 round, 49 fireballs later, "hmm. why do we want these crystals again?").
Sadly, its not perfect, but it was never going to be. One of the most annoying problems with the book is that it does not contain a complete listing of every spell. The spells from the "Bible" are still used as the basics and 60 pages(!) of new spells are there, but the listings at the back miss out some spells which are in other books. (some of the Doomstones books et.c.) This in itself is not a major glitch but considering the attention to detail paid to the rest of the book it does seem to be an oversight.
The illustrations are quite good generally, especially the page borders, which are all the same apart from a symbol in the corner which changes from section to section. Some of the artwork is astounding, (Dwarf runesmith). but some of it is just unneccesary. (I mean a reprint of one of the poorer doomstones pictures?). The double page spread of dwarf runes is gorgeous. And the cover itself is lovely. Much better than the computer generated crap Hogshead fobbed off on the Marienburg book and Heart of Chaos.
The background is good and gives the GM a lot of flexibility, especially when dealing with Hedgewizards. Just read it and see, trust me its really good. (If all else fails and your characters are almost unstoppable just trump up some necromancy charges and set the Witch-hunters on them.)
Also the rivalries between colleges is excellent and I am trying to find an explanation of the exploding daffodil incident.
It hints at Dwarf and Skaven sourcebooks which hopefully will see the light of day at some point, but the information provided here and available from other books is more than enough for now.
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