The Genius Guide to Fire Magic Owen K.C. Stephens is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games (originally Super Genius Games) for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 12-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a bundle. Two thirds of a page is the front cover and one page is the Open Game License and credits.
The opening paragraphs explain how fire is both dangerous and useful, and is often the preferred tool of evil but is also used by good to burn out evil, and that fire is represented in the core rules, with the classic fireball spell, but there are always new options.
New Spells starts with the standard summary of the spells by class and level; the highest-level spell is 7th or 8th level, depending on class. The fourteen new spells themselves are then described, ranging from a ball that seeks hidden objects to a lash of charcoal and ciders that ignores armour but can harm the wielder to minor spells that create flares. There are three new walls, glass, smoke and steam, and a sidebar on how steam spells can affect creatures immune to fire, because they are also water-based.
New Class Options has a new judgment for inquisitors, Burning Guilt, whereby the inquisitor’s weapon turns into solid flame, a new oracle mystery, dragonfire, and two new witch hexes, one of which allows the witch to manipulate pyres.
There is a fiery creature template intended to broaden the fire-based monsters around, and two new feats, one that allows fire spells to do holy damage and the other allows fire spells to be cast as steam spells, as per the earlier sidebar.
The Genius Guide to Fire Magic in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though it’s comparatively short, it’s long enough with enough sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains the old three-column landscape format used by Super Genius Games and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of relevant black and white and colour pieces of stock art. Presentation is fine.
This is a nice collection of new spells and options for fire magic, and not just new spells, as might be expected. The spells themselves are interesting uses of fire magic, but the other new options, such as steam spells, add more features. The Genius Guide to Fire Magic is a nice little supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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