Blight Magic

[Messageboard Golem]

Does the very land hold a life force that can be sucked dry, just as a vampire drains blood from his victims? There is an ancient art that is resurfacing. A terrible lore that allows spell casters, both Arcane and Divine to rape the land of its very life to fuel their magic. Blight Magic, it is called and it is a quick and terrible road to power. Many have justified the use of such magic, pointing out that farmers take from the land to feed the people, homes have need of the land to be built, and trees are cut down to provide warmth in the winter! Is this so very different? The answer can only be seen in the practitioners, who suffer over time from a corruption that only and evil power can bring.

 

[GameWyrd]

I like the idea of Blight Magic; a ritual that sucks the very essence of life from the land and turns it into fuel for magic. I like Mystic Eye too, they've been good those of us who like to stray from the typical high fantasy (known fondly as cheese fantasy by some) and try something with a bit more grit. Mystic Eye sells the Blight Magic system a little short when they suggest its best suited for High Fantasy games where magic is plentiful and common and not so well suited for Low Fantasy games where magic is rare. I think the Blight Magic ability to drain energy from the land to earn additional spell slots would be a wonderful way to deal with magic in a Low Fantasy setting where it was the only way to manifest spell slots at all.

The introductory section of the book suggests that it was written primarily as a type of magic to use as a villain to the player characters but admits that it is also a wickedly tempting balancing act to see players attempt. There's the caution that Blight Magic is not suited to neither the novice player nor GM and I agree, although I'll admit with a wry smile that just by saying that it tempts a few more people to buy the book. I do not so readily agree with the slippery slope of corruption though. I think it's too easy to buy off or delay levels of ill effect. I know some players who would see damage dealing talons or a permanent aura of fear around their character as a boon to pay points for and not some terrible price associated with dealing in dark magic. I suspect this sort of player will be one who is naturally attracted to the idea of having a go at playing a Blight Magic wielding mage. Mind you, there is a range of other penalties that the Blight user may encounter and this includes the crippling Charisma loss for sorcerers and bards. In the end the size and scale of the rewards and costs of Blight Magic is something that any GM can and should play with.

Blight Magic is a 56-paged book and the descriptions of how the magic works takes the first 12 pages. Chapter Three introduces the Blighted Familiar and I suspect if I was writing the book that would have been something I would have forgotten about entirely. In order to earn your Blighted Familiar you must kill your current Familiar in a ritual. The assumption is then that if you don't already have a Familiar then you can't get a Blighted Familiar. There's no character class "Blight Mage" which gives you the inherent right to a Blight Familiar. The Blight Familiar is as powerful as its Blight Magic heritage supposes it should be. Although the presence of the Familiar is likely to increase the rate of corruption, addiction, madness and decay the Blight Magic wielding spell-slinger is likely to experience it strikes me very much as further evidence of the form of magic being suitable for carefully controlled villain NPCs and not player characters.

The forth chapter quickly runs through those character classes which qualify as possible Blight Magic users - and they are both arcane and divine magic users. The chapter also briefly studies common races on how and if they might take to this dark art. The chapter is unremarkable except for the "½ orc" reference which currently wears the badge of "most lazy d20 reference ever".

There's a collection of interesting prestige classes in the book. The closest to the "Blight Mage" is the Dirge Lord (Blighted Master) but even this fellow isn't capable of crafting a Blighted Familiar for himself unless his core character class previously got him one. There are some nice touches in here though; The Disciples of Fell as Blight corrupted treants who struggle against the corruption and as you can imagine they have to be very careful when they're destroying patches of plant life to fuel their Blight Rituals and then try and heal the area afterwards. There's also a matching set of anti-Blight prestige classes and this sits well with me. Most of the prestige classes reach up to level ten so that's another bonus. Here in this chapter, on page 26, you'll find a picture of a Blight Teletubbie sitting on a rock; the evil of this magic knows no limits!

There's a list of powerful Blight Magic based feats - including the Blight Magic feat that is the prerequisite for your villain's (or unfortunate player character) descent into Blight Magic in the first place. The spells come with the suggestion that they're not available until the mage has begun to experience some penalties on their corruption role and so this helps to ensure that they remain the exclusive preserve a Blight Magic Ritual using character. They're not of the type "Blight Magic" and instead fall into the usual Evocation, Necromancy, Transmutation, etc, etc range of other arcane magic. I see why it's done; it would be pretty hard not to have "Blighted Dead" as anything other than a necromantic spell.

The Blight Monsters and templates chapter is my favourite in the book. Until chapter VII I really hadn't been successfully persuaded that Blight Magic was in itself scary or formidable or anything other than a bit of life essence landscaping in exchange for more power (which in terms of dreadfulness seems to pale in comparison to the likes of necromancy or demonology). It was the Blight Zombies and the Bone Blights that won me over. They have this ability to have an elemental or semi-elemental aspect like dust or magma. Imagine a dust zombie that is able to pour itself through a keyhole or under a door. Imagine a hoard of them. That's the sort of punch I usually expect from Mystic Eye.

There are a few pages at the end of the book that offers up advice and suggestions on how to incorporate Blight Magic and Blight Magic users into your game. There's some fairly meaty stuff in here although I do wonder whether the "Fountains of Blight" section threatens to change the nature of Blight to something slightly different at the last minute. That said; the Fountains of Blight are presented only as a rumour so it seems likely that the author was aware of that possible problem too. More helpful are the summary tables at the back of the book. A smart move, which I'm surprised I've not seen before, is to move the required license text a few pages in and then leave the very last page (which is so easy to turn to) free for these handy tables.

I liked Blight Magic. I had high hopes for Blight Magic but those hopes have only partially been sated, they've been largely satisfied but I'm left with a little more convincing to do. It's just not quite as terrible as I would have liked, nor so addictively self-destructive. The cover art is fantastic, it really does inspire me in the way the dust zombies did but some of the interior art doesn't quite achieve the same success. Blight Magic remains a good book but I think it'll appeal to those players and DMs looking for a solid way to build a bigger and meaner villain rather than to those who are looking for an insidiously powerful and original magic type.

This GameWyrd review is found here.

 

[Mystic Eye]

Hey Sir,

Thanks for posting a review, I just wanted to make one correction. All spellcasters can acquire a blighted familiar if they practice Blight Magic.
If you already have a familair, you must sacrifice it to gain a blighted familiar.
Having the feat of Blight Magic allows both the use of the blight magic ritual and well as the ritual summoning of a blighted familiar. even for a cleric.

 

[GameWyrd]

Oh right. That was one of my biggest whinges - I didn't see how the Blight Familiar made sense if it wasn't a core part of Blight Magic and if it wasn't a core part of Blight Magic then anyone should be able to get one.

I'm too lazy to re-do the whole review but I've upped my rating. I've also copied your comment here to the matching space in GameWyrd's review comments.

 

[Mystic Eye]

Uhm...WOW, thanks, I did not know that would change your view that much. I just wanted to point it out to the readers of this review. Many thanks for the correction. It is appreciated. There will be more on the web for this book soon so watch for it. We will try to get you more satisfied.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Blight Magic is an accessory from Mystic Eye Games detailing the use of an evil form of magic that drains energy from the land to fuel spellcasting.

Its $11.95 for 56 pages, which is fairly average for this size and type of book. Use of space is fairly good, with little wasted space, tight margins and a compact typeface. The internal mono art is weak though the front cover showing a spellcaster twisted by the blight magic is very atmospheric. The quality of writing is average, as is the editing with minor but regular mistakes.

Chapter 1: The Basics Of Blight Magic, gives advice on using the book - the author rails against those who claim roleplaying restrictions should not be used to balance rules advantages, but warns that the power of blight magic can be unbalanced if the GM does not strictly enforce the roleplaying penalties that come with the use of blight magic. Though intended primarily as a book for the GM to use for villainous NPCs, there is nothing stopping a player taking one of the prestige classes offered later in the book with permission from her GM (though her character must be of evil alignment). Blight Magic is a feat that allows a spellcaster to drain energy from the land, either through a lengthy ritual that drains temporary Constitution, or a quick incantation (requiring a Concentration and Knowledge (Arcana) check) with reduced magical energies available. Different land types modify the amount of energy available from the land. The energy gained can be used to cast spells from any selection of levels up to the number of Blight Levels gained (e.g. 10 Blight Levels would allow ten 1st-level spells, or two 3rd-level and two 2nd-level spells, or two 5th-level spells, etc., as long as the caster can cast that level of spell).

Chapter 2: Corruption, details the side effects of using blight magic, called generally Corruption, but including various increasing physical and mental debilitations as the caster progresses in levels. Some means of stopping these side effects is also given, which usually have another side effect, such as permanent Strength drain from a poisoned Brew. A nice touch here is that Charisma is often decreased by these side effects, thus causing Sorcerers and Bards to become more and more reliant on gaining blight magic, as their standard means of spellcasting becomes corrupted. Addiction!

Chapter 3: The Blighted Familiar, discusses the summoning of a blighted familiar (usually done through sacrificing the current familiar), and the powers of the blighted familiar (including the wonderful 'Fetid Stool' ("yes, that is correct, a nasty load of crap"), 'Putrid Breath', and 'Contagious Infestation').

Chapter 4: Blight Magic And Standard Characters, discusses blight magic in regard to the core spellcasting classes, and core races.

Chapter 5: Prestige Classes, offers six blight magic-related prestige classes:
* The Blighted Druid - a good druid turned bad with the ability to awaken blighted animal companions. 5 level class.
* The Dirge Lord - a master of blight magic, who can feed off others' magic.
* The Disciples Of Fell - blight magic druids with the ability to cleanse the land after draining it. 5 level class.
* The Huntsmen - hunt blight magic users by using various mystical powers to track and combat them.
* The Lords Of Perdition - evil priests who use blight magic to serve their dark gods specialising in various curses.
* The Tears Of Terra - hunters of blight magic users who seek to cure rather than kill their prey.

Chapter 6: Blight Magic Feats And Spells, includes the basic Blight Magic feat that allows the use of blight magic, and various extensions of that feat for use with any of the prestige classes in Chapter 5. Also, 8 new spells related to blight magic.

Chapter 7: Blight Magic Monsters & Templates, offers one monster (a blighted treant called a Treavil) and three templates - Blight Zombies and Bone Blights (blighted skeletons) - both of which take on elemental aspects such as magma, sludge, dust and other more traditional elements - and the Stone Sentinel, a statue animated by an animal spirit, designed to track and kill blight magic users in a certain protected location.

Chapter 8: Integrating Blight Magic: Ideas & Locations, gives some imaginative adventure ideas focused on the prestige classes in Chapter 5, and some simple rules for creating off-the-cuff blight magic using villains.

Conclusion:
GMs should think very carefully before introducing blight magic into their campaigns. With a weak or inexperienced GM, players with blight magic will get out of hand - GMs must strictly enforce the roleplaying penalties (which are fairly serious) to make this playable for a PC. The book recommends using it for villains and this is a safer start if you're keen on the idea. Blight Magic explores its focus thoroughly and imaginatively, and could bring a very different feel to magic in a campaign setting. Reminded me very much of the Defiler in the Dark Sun setting - if you liked the Defiler, you'll probably like this concept too.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Mystic Eye Games - Blight Magic

Although I never bought this when it was in stores, I saw it on RPGnow and decided to take a chance on it. Now I'm kicking myself for not buying the print edition.

Blight Magic, at it's heart, takes the concept of defiler magic from Dark Sun and applies it to the d20 system. Instead of spontaneously defiling the environment when casting defiler magic, a blight caster defiles the environment in a lengthy ritual earlier, granting the caster a 'pool' of blight points that can be spent to prepare additional spells, or to apply metamagic effects to spells. To use this ritual, the caster needs the Blight Magic feat. The additional power of blight magic is countered with an interesting set of mechanical side-effects getting their own chapter - "the corruption". The mechanics involved are a mix of role-playing and mechanical, and result in blight casters getting more and more foul and twisted, suffering stat penalties (especially to Charisma) as they use the blight. The Blight Magic mechanics take up the first 21 pages of the volume.

The prestige classes presented are fairly typical and what one would expect from a supplement of this type, a master of blight magic (the Dirge Lord), a druid class designed to destroy blight, a huntsman who seeks out and slays blight casters, corrupt and diseased clerics, and so on. I was actually surprised there weren't more classes in this section taking advantage of the blight mechanics to use blight points for other purposes than spellcasting.

But the feats give hints to these other powers, in addition to feats that modify spells and control the blight itself, a feat uses blight points for stat boosting in combat. If this mechanic had been explored further, this book could have been a lot meatier and interesting even to non-spellcasters. A small selection of new spells are predictable, but well written, creating blighted zombies and skeletons, balls of pure blight, quickening poisons, and the ability to teleport into blighted areas.

The monsters are a blighted treant, skeletons, zombies and a druidic sentinel that watches for blight magic.

Finally, the book closes with a single page of charts and a simplified blight ritual synopsis for ease of use.

Overall the system is very nicely presented, the graphics are atmospheric (whether or not you like Andy Hopp's style, it is quite appropriate to the text at hand), and the blanace works because it makes blight magic very hazardous for long-term play, but powerful for short-term use (thus beneficial to NPCs but harmful for PCs). However, an NPC spellcaster could be tweked so much using blight magic that his CR may have to be arbitrarily increased to account for the additional power, far beyond that normally afforded by a single feat.

A good product overall, definitely worth the price in PDF format from RPGnow.