The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=41122.

1001 Spell Cards: 134 Magus Spells is a collection of 134 spells for the Pathfinder Magus base class. These spells are presented in playing card format, essentially making them a utility accessory. Additionally, you are presented with all 134 powers in a single location that is also very easy to read.

1001 Spell Cards: 134 Magus Spells is a very interesting product. I’m not exactly sure where all 134 spells comes from, but judging by the quantity of products listed in the OGL (a reference of where the open content came from), these spells came from all over the place (around 50 if my count is correct). If you want to play a magus and like to have loads of spell options, the utility value of 134 Magus Spells is incredible; you only have to buy the one product (of course, you don’t get whatever options also appear in all those products). Additionally, the cards are color-coded according to their ‘School’. The PDF is organized by spell level, which is indicated in the upper right-hand corner. There’s only one problem, the cards are one-sided and a bit boring.

Aside from its very valuable utility use, the spell cards are a bit drab. With the single-sided design, options are limited and when the text gets long, the font gets small. These aren’t playing cards in a game where the opponents can’t see the back, they’re utility cards that are used as a reference. There’s no reason why the front and back cannot be utilized to allow for a larger font and maybe a more exciting design.

The design is one of simplicity. If you like simplicity, then these are perfect. For me, I’d like to see something a bit more fun so that I would actually want to use the cards and not just write everything down on a note card, making it easier to read (due to font sizes). There’s also the occasion where the space provided wasn’t fully utilized, but the font size was decreased, making it that much more difficult to read. In these cases, it would make sense to fill the available space by adjusting the font size, which also makes it easier to read.

I should note that each card contains a full description of the spell. Rite Publishing didn’t skimp on the content by short-cutting the description, meaning you’ll always know what it is and will never have to reference another product for that description. Again, this adds to the immense utility value, but does little for the visual appeal. There’s no artwork (although I honestly would never expect that from a utility product as the cost would sky-rocket) so plenty of space is given to the description area. Thus, you are given everything you need in one place. If this is all you care about, then you should definitely buy this to make being a magus that much easier.

Some 30 years ago, I painstakingly transcribed every Advanced Dungeons & Dragons spell I could lay my hands on onto 5x3 index cards which I could pull out during play... and now here is much the same concept only far prettier and beautifully laid out ready for use.

Hopefully this is just the first of many sets: here we have 134 magus spells from Bash to X-Ray Vision with all the details you need to cast the spell or, if you are the GM, adjudicate the results. A handy table tells you school, level, components (with any material ones you need listed), casting time, range, effect and what save if any your target may try to make; and then there is a more detailed 'flavour' description that explains what happens when that spell is cast. In most cases, this is all contained on but one side of a standard 'playing card' sized card, occasionally it spills over onto both sides for those spells for which there is a lot of description or options.

Looking at the PDF version, the one thing that is missing is a nice 'back' to print out just to make your spell cards look nicer (I've not seen the actual cards), but it ought not to be too hard to make one. But for beautifully-presented and very useful spell notes, this is definitely the way to go.