The Wargamer

A Mage by Any Other Name?

When Complete Mage first arrived, my very first thought was how it differed from Complete Arcane. Complete Arcane laid the foundation for new classes, prestige classes, spells, magic items, arcane monsters, and material for creating an arcane campaign. So what was so different about Complete Mage?

Complete Mage has some similarities to Complete Arcane in that it offers more of the same: new prestige classes, spells, and arcane items. It also differs, however, in a number of ways. On the first page it begins with an academic discussion of magic’s origins, mechanics, and meaning to spell casters. While Complete Arcane did have an introductory page dedicated to the discussion of magic’s origins, Complete Mage takes that discussion far deeper, and includes a differentiation between arcane and divine magic, a detailed discussion of the various schools of magic, and offers a series of archetypes for arcane casters to consider.

These archetypes are interesting because they aren’t true classes in the strict sense, but rather generalized templates that can be used by any class that employs arcane magic. Most of the templates are focused on pure casting classes, but there are several which include other classes, such as bards. The templates include a general description, personality, strengths and weaknesses, best classes and prestige classes to maximize the archetype, best feats to take, best feats to avoid, and spells that are likely to be the most useful They quickly help players form a generalized map of what a player or DM should focus his character on in order to maximize a role.

Archetypes can range from the offensive Blaster to the repulsive Necromancer to the charming Controller. The idea behind these archetypes is to transcend classes and focus more upon the role of the PC in the party. The Controller is obviously most well-suited to either a wizard of sorcerer, but Complete Arcane does not overlook the fact that bards have some room to work charm spells. With their high charisma score they may be able to effectively be patterned off the Controller archetype, too.

The second chapter also differs from Complete Arcane in that it covers options for various classes that go beyond pure casters. It begins with a discussion of many alternative class features for classes that aren’t primarily casters. These features allow a PC to substitute a standard class ability for another. The alternative abilities usually, though not always, allow for a non-arcane class to adopt or target some arcane feature that they otherwise wouldn’t normally be able to. For instance, the Arcane Hunter alternative class feature allows a Ranger to substitute a favored racial enemy (such as an orc or dragon) with a favored enemy that grants a bonus to any arcane casting creature. The Elemental Companion feature allows druids to take on an elemental as their companion, instead of an animal.

The second part of Chapter Two discusses a number of new feats and introduces the concept of heritage feats, reserve feats, and tactical feats. Heritage feats are based on inherited powers. Examples include Fey Heritage, which grants +3 to a Will Save, or Fiendish Resistance which grants resistance to acid and fire. Reserve feats are more interesting and more complex. They allow a character to use a feat that meets certain requirements, such as memorizing a third level abjuration spell. The interesting twist is that that so long as an appropriate prerequisite spell has been prepared but not yet cast, the reserve feat can be used at will an infinite number of times. In addition, reserve feats do not count as spells in terms of spell resistance, spell failure, or material components, which makes them a very interesting and potent alternative to traditional feats. They may not always have the potency of a pure spell, but the utility of being able to use them frequently and under conditions that normal spells wouldn’t function makes Complete Mage worth its weight in gold pieces. The authors explicitly wrote that these reserve feats were created to allow the adventure party to have fewer interruptions because casters wouldn’t need to rest as frequently to rememorize spells. Any PC using a caster will want to examine these reserve feats closely; they have the potential to be extremely useful.

Lastly there are a few tactical feats which grant bonuses to casting under certain conditions, such as if a successful touch attack is made, then the caster gets +2 to a touch attack during the next round. These are interesting game variants that will be of use for some PCs, depending on their gaming style and archetype.