A very focused study of a classic concept of a family of mystical drugs, looking useful for the chosen system and inspiring for many fantasy games.

Most spellcasting classes in 3.5 have their spells granted to them via an innate connection of some sort. Divine spellcasters receive their spells from their god, sorcerers gain them from their blood connection, and bards…don’t really count. But wizards have to earn their spells, either finding creating new magic themselves in a long, expensive, and dangerous process, or go out and try to locate long-lost spell fragments that they pore over in hopes of deciphering and comprehending. Except, not really. They actually just gain two new spells per level, plus whatever spellbooks and scrolls the DM throws at them. That’s the problem that The Way of the Magus: On Language and Research from Wild Hunt Studio tries to fix.

From a technical standpoint, the PDF has everything it should. Beyond the table of contents, there are full bookmarks with nesting, there’s character-recognition, and copy-and-pasting is enabled. The book’s interior art is fairly sparse, and all black and white, with black and white borders along the sides of each page. There’s no printer-friendly version, but I don’t think this book will really put a strain on anyone’s printer.

Trying to put the “arcane” back in “arcane spellcaster,” On Language and Research is divided up into three sections – the first goes over the question of the languages that magic spells are cast and written in, while the second redefines what it means to research new (and old) spells. The third section doesn’t really count, as it’s just a few pages long and provides examples to illustrate what you can make with the first two sections.

The language section of the book opens, rather oddly, with changes to the read magic spell, since that otherwise makes the majority of this section superfluous. It then talks about how a magical language would be developed, noting (very cogently, I thought) that the spellcasting language is still a language, developed over time by a people(s) and used for communication, and thus each region that has its own language probably has its own language specific for spellcasting. It expounds on this and then lays down rules for how a wizard would go about translating works from one language to another, with the process being longer and more difficult the more foreign the language is – in doing so, the book slightly redefines how the Speak Language skill works, but this isn’t called out anywhere. The last part of this section goes over experimentation, saying that just translating the spell isn’t enough, you have to actually cast it to make sure you translated it right; and if you didn’t, you risk a spell mishap. After all of this, there’s a quick overview summarizing this entire section of the book in just a few paragraphs.

Section two covers a different-but-similar process, that being researching a spell from things like incomplete fragments and tomes of forgotten lore. Normally in 3.5, spells are indivisible units (you’ve never found half of a spell scroll before, have you?), but here partial spells help a wizard make the Knowledge (arcana) checks necessary to researching the complete spell. Further, the book allows wizards to make checks about arcane lore to gain Arcane Research points – the book lays down a number of guidelines for what these points can be spent on, but as mentioned, these are used more as guidelines rather than hard-and-fast rules, and the in-game effect of spending Arcane Research points could have been made clearer (namely, that you’re saying that research you gained from the lore you studied is directly applicable to whatever check you’re spending the AR point on). There’s also a section on how books and materials regarding arcane theory, rather than having specific spells, can help with spell research checks. Of course, there are another few paragraphs at the end of this section that handily summarize the new rules.

Section three lays down several examples of what can be made with this book. Nine interrelated languages are discussed, with a table showing their “family tree.” About a half-dozen new magical books are presented, each discussing what they present, what bonuses they apply to what kinds of checks, and what spells (if any) they have. Finally, there’s an overview of the spellcasting tradition of an example nation, along with a focus on the spells that are common to that culture (essentially, a cultural spell list for wizards).

I really liked what the concepts and ideas the book introduced here, but I wish it had been laid out better. The very first section should not have been how the read magic spell is altered to better fit the rules, since you haven’t yet gone over what the new rules are (and it seems odd to ignore other translation spells, like comprehend languages, since these new rules seem to do away with the boundary between magical and non-magical languages). Likewise, the changes to the Speak Language skill should have been explicitly detailed, perhaps in a sidebar, rather than being inferred from the checks made to translate a spell. It’s these little things that make the book somewhat hard to grasp on the first read-through, which is really a shame because there are some great ideas being discussed in this product. The rules regarding things like Arcane Research points seemed a little hazy in that they functioned more as suggestions than actual rules – I understand this was to allow GMs greater freedom to tailor their use, but not presenting a solid system forces them to do some of this work on their own, rather than making it optional.

In reading this review, one thing about this book should become very clear – the ideas and new rules here aren’t something that can casually be implemented. This is a book that will serve the GM best if he’s planning on mapping languages by region and noting how they’re related to each other, if he plans on making wizards research and translate new spells whenever they want to expand their spellbook, and if he’s going to tailor the wizard spell list by culture of origin. In other words, if you’re just looking for some new feats or magic items for your game, you’ll be disappointed – this book is meant to be used for world-building, and that’s where it works best. Like an old tome of forgotten lore, this book can be a bit difficult to comprehend at times, but it offers considerable riches to those who persevere.

Magic in 3.5 is devoid of a lot of the grittier aspects of sorcery that we often see in classic fantasy tales. Absent is the use of blood sacrifices or dangerous drugs as necessary components to making spells work, or even as additives to give magic an extra boost. On Lotus Magic, part of Wild Hunt Studio's The Way of the Magus line of products, addresses the idea of spell-enhancing drugs, however, and presents several special plants with a thaumaturgical effect.

On Lotus Magic is a fairly short book, being fifteen pages long. Despite this, it has full bookmarks, which is a plus, and has copy and paste enabled. While the book has no illustrations per se, the pages are all gray-green and have stylized plant imagery in the background, which I found makes for very pleasant reading.

The book opens by giving an overview of the lotus flowers, alluding to in-game attitudes that are easily imported to your campaign, such as how the drugs of it are illegal, and are usually used in conjunction with mystery cults that closely guard the secrets of refining the wild flowers into narcotics. Following this, it then goes over the rules for drugs and drug addiction. This is a good thing since, while these rules have been used in other sourcebooks regarding drugs, it’s far and away more convenient to have them reprinted here.

There are five different kinds of lotus flowers, varying by color. Each has a markedly different effect (along with side effect, overdose effect, withdrawal effect, etc.), most of which affects spellcasters and non-spellcasters alike. However, some lotus flowers grant powers to spellcasters that are both awesome and terrible, such as that of the black lotus drug, which allows a spellcaster to memorize a spell far beyond his normal spellcasting limits…though doing so comes with multiple risks of a serious nature. Finally, there’s a page at the end of the book with additional uses of the lotus flowers.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how the book’s writing managed to impress me. The structure of the book is fairly mechanical, with short sections regarding the way the lotus is perceived, versus longer sections describing various aspects of the impact of drug use on a character. However, the way the various lotuses were written really sold me, as it subtly painted a picture regarding why a character would use these and open themselves to the risk. Are you out of spells during a battle? Take some red lotus and regain an expended spell…even better, take several to get multiple spells back. Just be prepared to deal with severe bleeding, possible paralysis, and damage to both your health and sanity if you enter withdrawal. These drugs offer considerable power, but they can extract a very hefty price.

On Lotus Magic ultimately presents some great tools for your character, but doesn’t try to beat you over the head with them. Instead, it quietly lets its potential speak for itself, and the book is far stronger for that. This book presents power that will let your spellcaster carry the day, even if it kills him tomorrow.