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Echelon Reference Series: Magus Spells Compiled (3pp+PRD)
Publisher: Echelon Game Design
by Ben K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/01/2016 16:14:46

This is one of the latest products in the Echelon Game Design series of reference works.

The PRD-only version is 168 pages in length, including front and back cover, 4 pages for the OGL at the back of the book, a 5-page index, a table of contents, and a two-page introduction to the Echelon reference series. (That's 13 pages of "not content".) It also repeats the Magus spellcasting information, which, from the point of view of being a reference work, is entirely appropriate, but may not count as "content" as such for some.

The Index, the Table of Contents, and the by-level spell lists pages at the front of the book all include hyperlinks to the text of the spell in question.

The "content" is simple and elegant - all the spells in the PRD that are available to the Magus class. Echelon puts the spell's at-a-glance features (name, school, level, casting time, components, range, target, effect, duration, saving throw, and spell resistance, omitting those that don't apply to a given spell) in a little highlight-box, making it easy at a glance to tell where one ends and another begins. Spell lists are separated by level - all level one spells are listed A-Z before any level two spells.

The standard two-column format is used, and appropriate white-space is left to make the spells legible. A good screen-legible font is used. (I haven't had the opportunity to check the PDF on a mobile device, but it looks like it'd still be sharp.)

There's a few little details here and there - one line of text in the Index is printed through a page-guideline, since otherwise there'd be a widowed entry on the next page, for example, and some spells do list (for instance) "Magus 5" on their Level line, while others omit the Magus entry there. But those are the fiddliest of fiddly details, and by the time your arms-deep in the Magus Spells Compiled document, you're hopefully fairly confident you're looking over the Magus spell list.

With a reference work, a good part of my review boils down to the answer to this question: "If I had a brand-new, never-played-Pathfinder before player who wanted to play a Magus, is this is the preferred format in which I would present their spell list to them? To which my answer is, "Absolutely".

Echelon Game Design has also stated that it's their intention to keep the product-line updated as more material is released, but additional third-party content will "respectfully slow". I can get behind that.

I have slightly more quibbles with this product than it's "pure PRD" cousin. The non-PRD spells aren't noted in the document, which some might have liked. Also, there's no clear source list in the document (although it's noted to include content from Rite Publishing, Purple Duck Games, Rogue Genius Games, the Tome of Horrors Complete, and the Book of Lost Spells), although the OGL makes that a bit tricky. And, there's no "new" content ... but of course there's not, because it's a reference work.

Such small points aren't worth the loss of a "full star" (plus, that'd be punishing ambition - compiling the 3pp spells is a noble goal!), so I'm rounding my 4.5 review up to a 5. The Echelon Reference Series: Magus Spells Compiled is a solid five-star product!

[ Disclosure: I'm an immense fan of Echelon Game Design, and was provided a copy of this .pdf to review. Actually, technically, I was provided a copy, thought it was awesome and asked if I could review it, and was told yes, as long as I included this disclosure. ]



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Echelon Reference Series: Magus Spells Compiled (3pp+PRD)
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the kind review, Ben. One quibble, though: I didn\'t _note_ that this book includes material from certain other books, I used those sources as examples of how I differentiate between like-named items from multiple sources by appending a suffix to the name. This suffix is often an abbreviation for the source or the publisher (for consistency, rather than identifying the source; if I don\'t need to difference the names no suffix is added). Two quibbles. This is the \'3pp+PRD\' version, not the \'PRD-only\'. :)
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Echelon Reference Series: Magus Spells Compiled (PRD-Only)
Publisher: Echelon Game Design
by Ben K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/01/2016 16:12:48

This is one of the latest products in the Echelon Game Design series of reference works.

The PRD-only version is 100 pages in length, including front and back cover, 4 pages for the OGL at the back of the book, a 3-page index, a table of contents, and a two-page introduction to the Echelon reference series. (That's 11 pages of "not content".) It also repeats the Magus spellcasting information, which, from the point of view of being a reference work, is entirely appropriate, but may not count as "content" as such for some.

The Index, the Table of Contents, and the by-level spell lists pages at the front of the book all include hyperlinks to the text of the spell in question.

The "content" is simple and elegant - all the spells in the PRD that are available to the Magus class. Echelon puts the spell's at-a-glance features (name, school, level, casting time, components, range, target, effect, duration, saving throw, and spell resistance, omitting those that don't apply to a given spell) in a little highlight-box, making it easy at a glance to tell where one ends and another begins. Spell lists are separated by level - all level one spells are listed A-Z before any level two spells.

The standard two-column format is used, and appropriate white-space is left to make the spells legible. A good screen-legible font is used. (I haven't had the opportunity to check the PDF on a mobile device, but it looks like it'd still be sharp.)

There's a few little details here and there - one line of text in the Index is printed through a page-guideline, since otherwise there'd be a widowed entry on the next page, for example, and some spells do list (for instance) "Magus 5" on their Level line, while others omit the Magus entry there. But those are the fiddliest of fiddly details, and by the time your arms-deep in the Magus Spells Compiled document, you're hopefully fairly confident you're looking over the Magus spell list.

With a reference work, a good part of my review boils down to the answer to this question: "If I had a brand-new, never-played-Pathfinder before player who wanted to play a Magus, is this is the preferred format in which I would present their spell list to them? To which my answer is, "Absolutely".

Echelon Game Design has also stated that it's their intention to keep the product-line updated as more material is released for the PRD, which is a nice touch.

Any quibbles with the product are minor, and not relevant to the content. The only thing to dislike is that there's no "new" content ... but of course there's not, because it's a reference work.

The Echelon Reference Series: Magus Spells Compiled (PRD-Only) is definitely a five-star product!

[ Disclosure: I'm an immense fan of Echelon Game Design, and was provided a copy of this .pdf to review. Actually, technically, I was provided a copy, thought it was awesome and asked if I could review it, and was told yes, as long as I included this disclosure. ]



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Echelon Reference Series: Magus Spells Compiled (PRD-Only)
Click to show product description

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