Magic, Spells, and Mystery of the Labyrinth

The Labyrinth Worldbook by Kobold Press is a source book for Tales of the Valiant or any DnD 5e variant. This is my review of chapter 5: Magic, Spells, and Mysteries.

The first section of the chapter adds a bunch of vehicles to the game. That seems out of place, and I don't know why they didn't just put vehicles into a short chapter all their own, but it's listed in the table of contents so I guess you can find it either way. Vehicles are of mild interest to me (in game, I mean), at least in theory. I like the idea of running an adventure on the Astral Sea or along the River Styx, for example, but I also have to admit that it doesn't come up all that often. It turns out that there are combat rules for vehicles in the Game Master's Guide, which I didn't purchase because I thought surely I have enough Game Master Guides. Maybe I'll get it some time in the future, because I never did love the 5e DMG. Maybe Kobold Press has improved upon it?

The point is, I guess, that the Labyrinth is big and sometimes players are reasonably going to want to take some form of transportation to traverse it. This chapter has sky ships, ships for the Astral Sea, a chariot, and a few more.

Magic items

I love magic items, and there are 8 pages of them in this chapter. They include swords, staves, keys, boots, and bows. Most or all of them have illustrations included, and a nice long description of what they do. Most of them are relatively powerful, so you'll have to use them judiciously.

Magic styles

This section helpfully organises spells into thematic groups, and it's surprisingly useful. As much as we all want our characters to be unique, ultimately we're all usually tapping into the same archetypes. It's really nice when somebody else does the work of reading through all the spells and tags them according to those common archetypes.

The one included here are:

• Dream magic
• Illumination magic
• Portal magic
• Void magic
• Ward magic

Honestly, I'd buy a whole book of these lists.

Spells

There are around 80 new spells in this book. Some feel strongly themed to the Labyrinth (like Minor Maze, Misdirect, Pocket Portal, and the ritual Discern Portals and Gates). Some tap into the Void, others invoke Yggdrasil, others focus on the dreamworld. All are fun spells to use in any setting.

I love the format of the spell block, too. Kobold Press very helpfully provides a one-line summary of the spell before the long description, so you can get a sense for it at a glance.

Here are some of my favourites:

• Baleful injunction: You use this as a reaction when an opponent has just rolled damage after a successful attack. On a failed WIS save, your target takes the damage they would have otherwise imposed.
• Discern portals and gates: A ritual that does exactly what it says on the tin, which is pretty useful in a setting that depends on traveling through portals and gates that can sometimes be disguised or hidden.
• Feather guard: Another reaction, this provides you with a shield of angelic feathers that lifts you out of harm's way.
• Flash freeze: There's a severe lack of cold magic in DnD. This spell freezes creatures in blocks of ice.
• Healing malediction: You choose a creature to take damage when it receives magical healing. What a beautiful riff on the undead take damage from healing tradition.
• Pocket portal: Open an invisible doorway between points you can see. Sure, it's basically Misty Step, but it's a little more like a portal gun. Unfathomable emptiness: One of those rare 9th Circle spells. This one overwhelms a creature with its own insignificance within the vastness of the Labyrinth. I like this one not for the spell itself necessarily, but because it reaffirms that the Labyrinth is eternally huge. It's the whole multiverse in size.

Always room for more magic

I don't always play magic users, but when I do I never mind having an abundance of choice. As a games master, I love having rare spells to throw at my players either offensively or as a scroll or magic item. I'll never argue with more magic content for my fantasy game, and this chapter provides lots of potential fun.

Next up, I'll be reviewing chapter 6: Pantheon of the Labyrinth!