Most cultures have a tradition of curse-bestowal, so here are the tools to enable effective cursing to take place in your campaign world. Being fantasy, curses are bestowed by magical means and affect their targets in the same way as other spells can do.

The book begins with an overview of what real cursing is all about. It's a lot more than merely wishing ill on someone who has annoyed you. This moves on to a discussion of some real-world cursing traditions, from ancient Egypt (Tutenkhamun's tomb, anyone?), ancient Greece, the Judeo-Christian tradition and - possibly one of the best-known today - Voodoo (Voudoun). And of course witches are widely believed to have the 'evil eye.'

Next comes a definition of what makes a spell a curse. Ultimately, any spell with 'curse' in its name qualifies, as does one which does permanent harm or has an ongoing detrimental effect on its target, as do those which use 'words of power' to deliver harm... and, of course, if remove curse negates the effect of a given spell, that spell must be a curse itself. There's a list of Player's Handbook spells that qualify, and the concept that cursing can become an area in which you can specialise by use of the Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus feats. A range of options to make bestow curse and mark of justice a bit more interesting are also included.

Next comes an assortment of new curse-related spells. Most will enable the caster to have a bit of fun with someone who's annoyed them, but there's also spells giving the ability to protect oneself from being cursed, and that to detect a curse on a person or item.

There is also a range of feats which may be taken, again curse-related in some manner, including the ability to bestow a dying curse on whoever caused your demise and a series that mimic the classic Voudoun ability to create zombies out of the dead remains of your enemies.

Finally, there is a collection of prestige classes for those who wish to specialise in the use of curses. These are probably best left to NPCs for the most part, but are quite interesting nonetheless.

Overall, this is a little gem to aid any DM in putting some attitude into his Bad Guys' curses and is well worth taking a look at.

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The book opens with an overview of curses from Egypt, Greece as well as Judeo-Chirstian, Voudoun and the evil eye curses. Each area is only given a few paragraphs but this provides a good general overview.

There are a number of new spells and a new spell type (curse) and a list of which core spells are curses. The spells, all curses, and well thought out and flesh out the spell selection of a curse-based spellcaster, offering a good range of new low level and high level curses to supplement existing curses.

Many of the new feats are curse themed variations on existing staple feats. They increase the caster level for curses, increase the saving throws against curses or increase caster level when trying to defeat curses. These are all very good feats for spellcasters working with or against curses. I especially like Power Word Master feat but I don?t want my DM to know about it. The Death Curse Contingency feat provides the infamous dying curse ability. While many players might not choose such a feat, it is very appropriate for a spellcaster specializing in curses.

There is a solid block of prestige classes. I liked the evil eye because rather than giving the spellcaster 1 extra spell of each spell level that specialist wizards get, they have done something different that fits the theme of the evil eye. The spellcaster gains uses of evil eye per day and has a variety of curses he can cast with it, and a cost in uses for each curse.

The book comes as a set of 4 PDF files, one for viewing, one for print-on-demand and another for home printing. The last is a high-resolution version of the cover. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The book is very compatible with core d20. The curse based feats, spells and prestige classes are built very much like a new school of magic, with a few new mechanics that makes them different. Nothing appears to be over-powered or game unbalancing. I very much like the new spells which round out the spell list for a curse-based spellcaster.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked to have seen more historical information on real-world curses. Where is the origin of turning people into toads? Why do they call them ?curse words?? Why do people spit in relation to curses? What is with biting your thumb?

It is a minor detail but I would have enjoyed a curse-based class, especially a curse-wizard specialist. The prestige classes do the job, but they are not available right away. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Saying it's "comprehensive" is a bit of a stretch, but you definitely get your $2 worth! The spells and feats are especially good, and I'm a tough sell. I've been able to use a lot of this in my homebrew, both for my not-so-evil witches down the lane, and to help flesh out an evil god of pain, who now specializes in curses too. Between the new spells and the ideas for how to use existing spells as curses, you can create your own Curse domain, beef it up by giving the clerics the special nasty curse feats, and still have plenty of crunch left over.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Favorite spell: Toady. Yes, Esmeralda, you can turn little Tommy into a toad. (He'll return to being a little brat after 1 minute/level, but maybe that will teach him a lesson, eh?)<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked a little more on the background material section, about how curses have been viewed in real-life cultures.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>