I wrote what could be described less as a review and more as a Thesis on this and Spheres of Might. I am going to write this review as bulletpointy and brief as possible so I don't overwhelm possible buyers.

Do I recommend this splat?

not just a regular yes, Yes with a Heading 1 to make it REALLY BIG. that thesis consisted largely of me ranting and raving like a lunatic about my pathfinder nostalgia using SoP/M. this has gotta be one of my favourite splats ever. 5 star for a reason.

Who is this splat for?

• Anyone who is dissatisfied with the very cut-and-dry system of magic that [DnD5e] offers.
• Anyone who Wants to use a magic system that offers Horizontal Progression as an option
• Anyone who is looking for a more malleable magic system for their RPGs, especially those that lean towards actually crafting spells.
• You pathfinder friends who loved this supplement back in that system.

Who is this splat not for?

• Anyone who is averse to reading rules, fortunately, if you're buying this book, that means you're likely part of the ~20% of 5e Enjoyers that don't fall into this category because you actually play the game
• Anyone who already considers 5e's simpleton magic system already too complex; this book has a lot of different concepts and requires a bit of a refocus on how magic works mechanically.
• Anyone who is already using a large amount of modifications to their current games in relation to magic (same for martial combat with spheres of Might). Trying to integrate this system with a lot of existing magic rules will result in a lot of jank and conflicts. it can be done, but it won't be easy. (definitely worth it from experience)
• Anyone who is expecting a more fluffy magical system; more on that later

The Good

• ITS SPHERES OF POWER ITS BACK, ITS UPDATED FOR 5E
• The rules in this system are precise and consistent. if you have a query about how something works, it will be in SoP.
• The rules updates for 5e bring it in line for better balance than just handjamming the pathfinder rules themselves.
• Sphere and Talent selection is broad enough to give players a wide variety of options.
• the class offerings allow easier quickstarts into the ruleset.
• theres a LOT of options in this book and its definitely worth its asking price for the volume of stuff
• combine the above points and you can make a wider array of characters. want to have a blade dancer with six dancing swords that teleport into peoples skulls like in that one final fantasy game? about seven levels with this and SoM and you're set.
• the System can be used interchangeably with regular casting rules. specifically, one character is a spherecaster, the other is a standard vancian caster. you can apparently also mix and match spherecasting classes with regular classes while multiclassing however I am not a psychopath so I will not be doing that.

The Bad

• Spheres of Power is impossible to perfectly balance against regular magic, and will always be inherently slightly more powerful due to the progression options. its a concession that, at least previously, the Authors have accepted. its part of what makes it difficult to make compatible with other homebrew. this makes it a good option if only the players are using it, as its easier than a DM trying to craft spells for every individual NPC, and will allow the party casters to feel adequately rewarded for the ffort they ahve put in to designing and crafting their spherecasters.
• The System is notorious for how fundamentally different it is mechanically to other systems. gone are the days of cantrip spam, you need to learn to manage your MANA (or spell points(tm) ). This system will intimidate newer DMs and players, and i recommend some prior experience before implementing it.
• my consistent criticism, even from the pathfinder days, is that SoP has a somewhat weird and esoteric list of sphere options. you've got stuff like alteration, life, light, Okay that makes sense. but now youve got Mind, Fate, Enhancement. I can live with this, but where's Fire, earth, air, water? ah well those would be assorted through all the other spheres, namely Destruction. Making a multifaceted cryomancer for example is less about investing very straightforwardly into an ice sphere as the name would suggest, but involves stuff from a wide range of diferent spheres(i want to note that it is, however, very possible to build said cryomancer, just not as simple as I feel it could be), which can ultimately lead to my next point.
• Following the older gaming style, its easy for players to accidentally noob trap themselves by spreading too wide and thin on different spheres and miscellaneous abilities. this is not an inherent trait of SoP/M, of course, however nothing that the splatbook is fundamentally different and the the requirement to relearn the core systems of magic can likely result in players struggling to find the right build. too many choices can be just as bad as no choice at all sometimes. Its not as bad as a lot of forward-port conversions, thankfully, and no option or choice in the book is a true "noob trap", however players will need to assess when they should preference horizontal vs vertical progression in their spheres rather than just simply selecting the "top three spells for spell level X"

Notes about the PDF itself The PDF is high quality, easily readable, and has a good smattering of fairly charming, simple hand-painted artwork throughout. its enough to get you thinking about builds, and the descriptions are clear, interesting to read and don't waste your time with excessive flowery writing. this is a PDF that offers a lot of content as is, and is ambitious to bring back this glorious old Magic system to 5e. It's not here to waste your time with novels about the creator's OCs and I respect that. My only major criticism about the PDF is that the top and bottom margin formatting could do with a bigger buffer, sometimes text clips with the top and bottom smoke/fire effect. it doesnt make it harder for me to read or anything, I just figured I should probably put something here for the sake of fairness.

Why 5 star with all those negative points I have dealt with SoP/M in pathfinder, a far more crunch intensive RPG than 5e could ever hope to be. while i meantioned that the system is intimidating to new players, that doesn't mean you should avoid it; rather you SHOULD push yourself to try and use it. you will adapt, it will make you more creative in character building, and give you a good reference on how to houserule and house-errata. I learned all of this, and eventually what appears initially as a negative for this system ultimately becomes transient, or even becomes a positive in my eyes. it made me a better player and an infinitely better 5e GM, as did Pathfinder as a whole.

Anything thi book is missing, should add, or have in future expeansions? WHERE ARE THE PRIMAL ELEMENT SPHERES, DDS? /j in all seriousness, I would love for more sphere options. the class selection is more than hearty enough and that is a testament to how fundamentally rock-solid this ruleset is, all I could possibly ask for is more creative and cool paths for me to branch out with. I should note that the book gives players all the resources to create their own spheres and talents, so theres no need to hold your breath if you have a similar concern, get creative.

In summary, best magic book for DnD5e.

I will boil this review down to bullet points for ease of reading. What I liked

• the preface about how race is addressed in this book is well written. I'd argue its the sole time i've seen the "DnD Race discussion" been written about in a way thats respectful to players, without making the reader feel bad because they used goblins for an enemy in their last campaign. explanations about historical racist stereotypes are just that; not some kind of accusation at players. it says "this is how it was, this is how we plan to fix it. we're not only doing this to cut away said stereotypes, but also to make characters a bit more interesting
• The book actually provides a solution, a GOOD solution, to the issue. Unlike Tasha's Cauldron of Ruining Everything
• statistical changes between races have effects. Players can feel like their choices for their races have impact in the crunch and being able to make mixed race/culture characters allows a bit of extra versatility in character creation.
• the rules for using this book are fairly straightforward. it is Plug-and-play as described, and I strongly recommend it over the garbage that TCoE pushed out.
• the art slaps. it makes mixed race characters look natural. theyre not Original the Character, theyre not snowflake princess the ultra special. they're just regular people, who live in a regular fantasy world.

what i didn't like so much:

• the verbosity of sections, such as the how to use the ancestries and cultures made the section slightly harder to read, and I feel like a lot of the extra explanation could be moved to an addendum section just below. keeping those crunch sections quick and easy to follow makes it easier at the table when players are rolling up characters on Session zero. Ancestries and cultures themselves are quick and easy to read, however.
• the races these ancestries and cultres are modeled off are the SRD5 races (this isn't really something the author can do much about. and I'm sure there would have been more added if they were permitted to.) there is an annex to this book, Custom Ancestries and Cultures, which greatly expands on this, however I would love to see if the authors could get approval to integrate all the 5e Races as they envision, rather than me having to hope I got it right when homebrewing it.
• the rest of this book is dedicated to two short campaigns about ancestry and culture as a thematic device in games. its neat, it provides a great example. its also ~half of this book. I feel that a majority of groups that want to use this book are doing so in order to integrate the ruleset, rather than play the stories included. I mean no disrespect to the authors that worked hard on making them, I just feel bad that a lot of the time all that effort will end up unused.
• the custom ancestry/culture template feels very basic. I understand why this is so, however I feel this would have been a good opprtunity to provide a breakdown on design principles when making said custom aspects, so that players can balance crunch and have custom ancestries/cultures with apects similar to existing ones such as innate spellcasting, breath weapons etc. rather than, essentially, being base human 2.0.

All up I rate this book fairly good. most of my criticisms leveled at it are largely due to the limitations the authors are having to work with. its a respectful take that gives each ancestry and culture its own spotlight and allows players to really make their characters their own while still feeling a part of the defined fantasy world theyre in. I compare it with TCOE, as TCoE did the opposite of what this book does. This book takes the existing palette and made new colours from which to paint an even more visually interesting piece. TCoE just gave me one shade of grey and said "have fun with your reskinned base human"

Really would love to see if you guys could get the rights to rework the non SRD races tho.

I have played shadowrun for close to two decades. I really enjoyed the system, the games i played with friends, but most of all, the setting. Blending High fantasy aspects with cyberpunk, a dash of that more CoC style magic by way of limitations and lore. all of these things made for a very enjoyable environment. I do not consider 5e DnD to be the end-all of RPGs. while it has its flaws, however, it streamlines and simplifies a lot of elements that a lot of games stuck in the past often prefer to keep complex in favour of an "Ivory Tower" attitude to tabletop gaming. I have been recommended UM5 multiple times when asking for systems that improve on shadowrun (my beloved) mechanically. I decided to take the plunge and I adore every last bit of it. my key favourite elements in a simple list:

• the new rules are rock solid and are balanced perfectly. Things that should outclass a stock 5e block do so, and the Author isn't afraid to shy away from this. the players feel rewarded when they're using modern gear instead of still pretending to be conan the barbarian in the middle of Night City. as of writing, the rules are still being actively tested and updated.
• the content and equipment for the book is numerous and ranges all the way from the advent of firearms up to fleet ships and lasers. the name ultra- "Modern" is more of a preference towards the book's primary focus thematically, but is by no means an explicit limitation on content. I'd reccomend this for anything from cowboys to captain harlock impersonators.
• the ladder system is an objectively better progression system for the types of settings that UM5 focuses on. characters in these settings shouldn't feel typecast and pigeonholed, and ladders are distinct and identifiable, while remaining flexible enough to write a variety of characters around.
• the race/class options, lifepath system, level adjustment for statblocks, tech level categorizations and more make this book distinct, and allow players to take these aspects and cleanly insert them into their setting without too much backend tinkering, should they prefer not to use the entire ruleset in their game.
• the technolich on the front cover is so goddamn cool.
• The system doesn't obfuscate the rules, and it being an overhaul to 5e makes it versatile and easy for a majority of playgroups to adapt into, rather than learning a different system.
• as mentioned, aspects of the game (such as ladders) resemble a streamlining of systems from other popular TTRPGS, taking the good and trimming the fat so the group can focus on gameplay.
• a major "criticism" would have to be the Ultra/Ultramax section of the book. It contains a lot of really good content that actually makes games more engaging, challenging, and gritty, however the rules themselves often dip their toes into "making an entirely new TTRPG" rather than a 5e overhaul. i say "criticism" in quotes because I quite prefer this, however it can be daunting to groups that are picking this book up for the first time, especially if they don't have much experience with 5e or using overhaul splats. I recommend playing the system without Ultramax initially, and then integrating it if you feel confident enough as a group to do so.
• my other main criticism, and this is a HEAVILY personal choice, is that I do not care too much for the settings included with the books. To me, they feel a bit too thematic and specific, the same way a GM might steer away from something like Dark Sun. They are well fleshed out enough to construct campaigns from, however I din't buy this book for this purpose, and the content in this book isn't reliant on these settings' lore. to clarify: these settings are not bad, they're good quality, and they have been separated enough that they don't interfere with the crunch content, as it should be.

all up, the book is a 5*. i recommend it as the new standard for anyone trying to run a cyberpunk game, as I no longer play shadowrun, I play UM5e