I've never really been fond of the idea of a drunken mage, especially stuffs that cater specifically to being drunk. The background story is simple enough but I found it somewhat unrealistic and simplistic for Butterboar (apparently a powerful mage) to have been only a simple tavernkeeper with ties to the underworld. Much more fleshing out is needed. The spells mostly lean towards the lower levels and a couple of them are actually logical and useful. The rest are a bit too comical for my tastes, and doesn't seem to fit the mindset of that Butterboar character.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The addition of a spell list and the simple images was a nice touch. Those new alchemical beers might prove useful.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I actually find the new design change to be rather distasteful. The font was unnecessarily big and made things look inelegant. I usually don't print these ebooks so it was nicer when one page would fit nicely on the screen (landscape format), rather than the half-page now (since it's now in portrait format).<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The ninth book in the series presents new spells that quite useful to those needing to travel. Some of the spells are pretty useful and certainly fills niches. The problem I see is that most of the spells are leaning quite a bit towards to low levels; and I feel that a couple of them should've been at a higher level. Background story is only so-so, with enough things to work on as a hook, but otherwise nothing particularly interesting. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: With some slight tinkering of the spell levels, the spells are actually quite helpful when running a session involving travelling. The addition of the two new items is certainly a bonus.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The cost of the book is missing, likely a badly missed typo. I've also noticed that the editing has been getting worse as one progresses down the series. It's no longer just one or two editing oversights.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

It never occurred to me that a wizard would want to be a mason! Nice idea. The new spells are nicely spread out over the levels. Also, the addition of new metamagic feats for walls is a nice touch.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The new wall spells are perfect for dropping on a party of unsuspecting players...<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the walls don't feel like belong in their stated levels, especially the high-level ones. But it's hard to measure them I guess.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

As all the previous books of the series, a useful background story is provided as a source of adventure hooks with several new spells to try out. This one just didn't really strike me as inspirational.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Some of the desert theme spells would serve PCs and NPCs well. Overall, fits the flavour of the book.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The seventh book in the series feels... plain. I'm not sure if it's just me not liking the ties to genie and the obvious reference to arabian names and such.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

An acceptable background story of a wizard with a love of ray spells who went on to create an academy of wizardry. The spells are nicely spread out across the levels and adds to the variety of spells, providing additional effects.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Interesting spells. Interesting background story (although I find the name of the wizard a bit hard to pronounce).<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Spells and background story. They simply don't mesh. The description of the wizard founder is a nice person, yet some of the spells are obviously evil in nature. How he could've created the spells in the first place is beyond me. Also, I have a hard time believing that an academy of magic can be easily destroyed with a mob with only one single survivor.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

While the idea of drawing power and knowledge from a realm of slumbering or dead mad gods sounds interesting, the way it's presented isn't really that interesting. In fact, the story feels bland and rather unrealistic or believeable. The background story isn't really on par with the previous four books of the series. The spells on the hand, are somewhat useful and explore certain niche spell effects. The spells lean towards the higher levels and are mostly utility spells.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The first three 8th-level spells of the series are all in here. :)<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Despite the author of the book being a dwarven diviner, the fact that only 2 of the 12 new spells are divination spells (with one of them not even having a school...) just feels strange. The madness flavour of the spells sometimes feel a bit tacked on.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Well, let's just say that if you're looking for something of a legacy of a lost order of holy warriors, then this is a good start. Unlike another commenter, I found the story to be nicely written and quite nicely outlines the beginnings of a continent-wide search for the lost book to revive the order. A good holy campaign where the heroes are pitted against all the forces of evil... sorry, got carried away.

As a book of clerical and paladin spells (just as rebuttal to the commentor) there is a rule where these can be treated as special spells and need to be learned the way arcane spells are learned.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The holiness of it all ^-^. I believe some of the spells nicely fills some niches in the standard spell list.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I find it funny that after 4 Lost Books, there still isn't even one single level 8 spell...<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Aside from the halfling wizard privateer (a very unappealing combination for me), I must say this thrid of the Lost Books series is pretty good. The background story is very sufficient and has enough hooks, tie-ins, and ideas that can get you several gaming sessions.

The new spells seem to be rather interesting and should be fun to play. Plus, they really fit in well with the idea of a powerful halfling wizard/captain that has a "love of hot spices and the sea".<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The spells and the adventure hooks.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There was a mistake where one of the new spells didn't get listed in the spellbook. At least, I thought it was a mistake...<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

No one has commented on this. But since I bought the first one, I decided to give this a try. The Red Fist surprisingly refers to a weapon. The 'book' part of this series are actually military reports, spells, and arcane lore stored inside the weapon. That sounds really strange to me.

Of the 12 new spells, only about 4 can be counted as something useful for a tactician, which is what this Kull is supposed to be. The other spells explore the tyranny and dominion aspects of the faith Kull belongs to, as well as 1 or 2 utility ones. While these are pretty interesting spells, one of them has an ambiguous description. The spells also tend towards the lower levels. There's nothing wrong about the spells, for some reason, I was hoping for more focus on the "military tactician" side of things, despite the description already being clear on that.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The spells are pretty useful, both in the hands of players and NPCs. As the first book, the background is easily inserted into most campaign settings that feature a God of Tyranny.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not what I was hoping for, but there's not much to not like.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A detailed look at designing and playing an evil campaign. It takes a rather fresh look at evil campaigns. It's probably not enough to sustain a long-term campaign, but it's definitely at the top for short evil campaigns.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The great details and insights it gave me.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No pictures... at all... which is kinda sad, as it makes monotonous reading.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

It provides the background on a rather interesting book and the character who wrote it. The story details are not very long, but enough to get started on. Some of the spells are pretty interesting, and they don't deal with undead, which is great, as it adds more variety to necromancy. As was mentioned, the spells feel slightly more powerful than standard spells, but these are rare spells, so it should be limited anyway. But the flavor and creativity is right there.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The spells. The font is a nice touch.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Short background. But given the price, I'm not really complaining.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A rather interesting take on monster design. This is probably THE manual for monster design. It's not just about what abilities to give monsters or how to balance their CR. It's also about how to make monsters logical and believeable, as well as realistic (at least, in a fantasy world).<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: All the details I need to know to make a really memorable monster.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Feels like a textbook sometimes, some explanations could've been more brief, but no biggie.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Now's there's an ability to try - flesh magic. It's generic enough to be "pluggable" to most campaigns.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Interesting and solid mechanics.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It was definitely too short.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Not much to say expect that if you want a vampire-intensive campaign, you've got the perfect book.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: It was fun reading it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not much I guess.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I haven't finished reading the book yet, but I've flipped through all the pages. I'm just going to say that anyone looking to expand on the rules regarding poison, not to mention making poisons more fleshed out a threat, or even making poison a central part of an adventure or campaign; would do well to get this.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>