Spells are an important part of any Dungeons & Dragons game. Sure, there are the big flashy spells like fireball or hypnotic pattern, but much of the fun of playing a magic using character is casting spells in interesting ways to overcome the challenges the Dungeon Master puts in front of the players. Defeating a trap with Bigby’s hand or fleeing a powerful monster with the use of feather fall allow players who like to think of unusual solutions to problems and puzzles shine. The official spellbook has expanded a few times thanks to books like Xanathar’s Guide to Anything, but arcane players are always looking for new options.
Enter the Deep Magic series from Kobold Press. Each PDF offers more spells for players and Dungeon Masters. Players can use these spells to further customize their characters either by supplementing spells from known school with elemental magic or chaos magic, or by adding in a new school like void magic or ley lines. Dungeon Masters can also fine tune monsters with these spells. Many bad guys are casters or have a spell-like ability; switching out a Monster Manual entry’s ability for one of the same equivalent spell level can keep players on their toes if they are expecting all monsters to be uniform. It can also go a long way to reskinning a monster into something else; same stat block but a different description that saves the Dungeon Master time and effort during preparation. Nothing says “evil automaton” like giving a bad guy a spell or two from the Clockwork Magic school.
Did someone say steampunk?
Dungeons & Dragons already has a built in way to try out these spells: scrolls. Spell rarity is a dial the Dungeon Master can dial up and down depending on their game. In earlier editions, new spells had to be discovered during play and copied down into spellbook, which often took time, effort and gold pieces. Many Fifth Edition Dungeon Masters skip this idea, but introducing spells from a Deep Magic product can be part of the allure of adventuring. Players might be able to automatically choose new spells from the Player’s Handbook but to get the ones out of a different book, they have to head out into the unknown and find a scroll to copy.
Each PDF is around $3 but for fans who prefer to shop at Fantasy Costco, you can buy in bulk with the latest Kickstarter from Kobold Press. Kobold Press has run Kickstarters for massive add-on tomes before like Tome of Beasts and Creature Codex. They continue the series with Deep Magic, which collects nearly all the spells from the PDF series into one massive tome. The spells are updated and clarified with errata as needed and there is also plenty of new material too. New spellcasting schools and clerical domains are being put into the book as well.
These spells are designed by professionals who have worked on several editions of Dungeons & Dragons but backers are getting a chance to try out their skills too. Each backer may submit a spell and, if it’s chosen by the design team, it will be included in the book and the backer will be compensated for their contribution.
Dungeon Masters and adventurers looking to expand their arcane options will find a lot to love in the Deep Magic series from Kobold Press
