Book of Lost Spells; Opinions?

[j_spencer93]

As a group that loves variety and chooses, we were happy to find a book with so many spells to add to the game. However, I am not the best judge at balance so I am wondering what others have thought of this book?

[Shining Wrath]

Link? Is this a WotC offering?

[j_spencer93]

No, its Necromancer Games. And don't have a link to where you can see it. Except:https://www.froggodgames.com/book-lost-spells
also its on scribd.

[Nifft]

No, its Necromancer Games. And don't have a link to where you can see it. Except:https://www.froggodgames.com/book-lost-spells
also its on scribd.

$45.

Over 700 new spells.

That's a lot of room for regrettable mechanics. (Or maybe that's just my experience with 3rd-party 3.x products.)

[j_spencer93]

actually its $20 as a PDF. Some of the spells seem really specific while others seem really cool. A few worry me with their damage but once again I am not very good at judging spell balance.

[Yagyujubei]

$45.

Over 700 new spells.

That's a lot of room for regrettable mechanics. (Or maybe that's just my experience with 3rd-party 3.x products.)

wow ppl would actually buy that? take a weekend and bring the spells from other editions you want into 5E balance. it's not that difficult.

[j_spencer93]

Actually, I would buy it if i already didn't have access to it thanks to a friend. Also, it has some noteworthy people that worked on it, and a lot of the spells are just older ones brought up to this edition. I do see your point, however, I would rather have something even published by 3rd party as would all of my players.
Actually would like to point out, the spells are supposed to be similar to older spells and a few are obvious what they are copies of. However their naming could possibly be a bit better.

[SharkForce]

depends a lot on the 3rd party. i've heard fairly good things about necromancer games, but haven't personally owned any of their products, so i can't really contribute directly on the specifics, but in general, there are good 3rd party companies and bad 3rd party companies. just the fact that they're 3rd party doesn't tell you much. even author isn't always a sure thing.

[j_spencer93]

Isn't that the truth Sharkforce. Personally Ed Greenwood and Monte Cook are usually good, but sometimes Monte Cook's stuff goes way way off. Honestly, the best 3rd party i have seen for D&D/Pathfinder is dreamscarred press.

[MaxWilson]

Here's the review I wrote over at Enworld when somebody asked about the balance of the spells in the Book of Lost Spells:


Balance is generally comparable to the PHB: there are awesome spells and lame spells. E.g. Air of Nobility is a 3rd level spell which is worse in every way than the PHB 2nd level spell Enhance Ability; we'll say this is kind of like PHB's Witch Bolt. On the other hand, Death Bringer (8th level) can potentially kill every sleeping creature within a 1-mile radius, which is totally rad and about as cool as the PHB's Magic Jar (which can permanently turn a weak and sickly 11th level Necromancer into a robust 135 HP Wearbear who is immune to nonmagical weapons). And then there is at least one brokenly-good spell (Iron Core) which I would nerf in play, just as I've nerfed PHB's Simulacrum. (AD&D-style, simulacrums in my game have only 40-60% of the skills/knowledge/levels of the original, instead of 5E's "full levels but cannot regain spell slots"; however I do allow simulacrums of anything. My players have a scroll of Simulacrum actually but I bet they'll hang on to it indefinitely instead of ever actually using it.)

So anyway, balance IMO is well-done. There are a lot of spells that make me sit back and think, "Wow, that's a cool idea." (All the warlock voodoo spells for instance, like Twig Torture.) Spells like Transparent Steel and Iron Body can permanently alter certain creatures/spells in beneficial ways, which is sort of against the 5E paradigm but sort of not (PHB's Awaken and True Polymorph do the same thing). Since I like that flavor of magic and am used to it from AD&D, I am fine with spells like that IMC--or at least the potential for such spells. As mentioned above, I don't actually allow my players to freely choose those spells. I've handed out a few spells from Lost Spells in treasure and have encouraged my players to spell research, but I don't want them taking it for granted that they can just learn Umbral Images (3rd level version of Mirror Image) when they level up. That's mostly for flavor reasons ("lost spells" are lost) but I also want there to be a cost associated with the good spells, and that cost will be "harder to research." It gives me finer control than a simple binary yes/no.

That's also my explanation BTW for why Fireball is better than most other 3rd level attack spells. Somebody once upon a time put a lot of effort into researching a 3rd level AoE spell with high damage, good range (for a spell), low cost, and a large area of effect targetting a save which is generally weak. It's about as powerful as an average 4th or maybe even 5th level spell (Cone of Cold), but it's 3rd level because somebody wrote it very efficiently, and it was so good that it became very popular and well-known.

[Louro]

That's also my explanation BTW for why Fireball is better than most other 3rd level attack spells. Somebody once upon a time put a lot of effort into researching a 3rd level AoE spell with high damage, good range (for a spell), low cost, and a large area of effect targetting a save which is generally weak. It's about as powerful as an average 4th or maybe even 5th level spell (Cone of Cold), but it's 3rd level because somebody wrote it very efficiently, and it was so good that it became very popular and well-known.

On the other hand you have the ancient "Haste" spell, which despite of being an outrageous good one, it was lost decades ago because nobody was willing to receive its power due to its undesirable side effects. Some ancient tales even tell stories about adventurers killing the party wizard after being hasted.