Review – The Genius Guide to Earth Magic
1 April, 2010The Genius Guide to: Earth Magic is a 14-page PDF (13 pages if you remove the credits/OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Owen K. C. Stephens and published by Super Genius Game. This is part of Super Genius Games’ Genius Guide line.
The layout is a screen-friendly landscape design, with cover art and 1-column on the first page and three columns on the rest. The chart of feats is clear and easy to read. The art is full color throughout and supports the earth magic and spell-casting theme of this product.
Earth Magic opens with a discussion about how Earth is a neglected element in the Pathfinder game and that this product makes some attempt to remedy that. This product adds the stone descriptor for earth-based attack spells alongside acid (as well as a warning not to take the description of acids and alkali as accurate as this is a work of fantasy).
Twenty-two spell across all levels and something for most types of casters (bard, cleric, druid and sorcerer/wizard). The mix of spells between attack, defense and utility is slightly weighted (naturally) toward offense but there are a variety of interesting and useful options.
To support use of the new spells there is the Cold Iron Domain -specializing in anti-magic- for Clerics, the Stone Bloodline for Sorcerers and the Earth specialist for Wizards. Rounding out the product are two templates: Cold Iron for earth elementals and Ironskinned for those armored by contact with the elemental plane of earth.
Earth Magic is an excellent resource if you wish to expand the elemental options in your campaign.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal 
This is not a personal attack on the product but I have completely sworn off PDFs smaller than 25+ pages. I tend to get about as much out of them as a good blog post or wiki read.
I want a PDF to have more synthesis. Also there a number of PDFs that consistently are larger and deserve more patronage in appreciation.
Sigurd
Again, not an attack on this PDF in particular.
These are the sorts of things that PDF publisher need to know. What if SGG gathered their Genius Guides into bundles by themes? Would those interest you?
I’ve bought some of the Genius Guide stuff. It is decent material. I’d probably buy more if it was collected or if the pdfs were larger.
The best solution would be more than just a collection however. Artistically, I think an author’s vision broadens when creating a larger work. Hopefully he\she considers each element in terms of game balance and against each other element.
I think the result is better material for the game master. It certainly makes the book easier to remember and give the reader more to think about.