Close
Close
Advanced Search

Elminster's Guide to MagicClick to magnify
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.dmsguild.com/pdf_previews/221735-sample.pdf

Elminster's Guide to Magic

ADD TO WISHLIST >

“This is an incredible supplement full of clever writing that made me think Ed Greenwood had contributed. Every spellcaster, from wizards to clerics to eldritch knights, needs a copy of this book. Sure, this book has hundreds of balanced, creative, fun, new spells to fill your arsenal and is brimming with magic items both sinister and hilarious, but it also is chock full of story bits. Names for towers, magic words to shout when casting spells, and more, this supplement is worth at least triple every penny you drop on it... I could not be more excited!” (James Intracaso, host of Tabletop Babble)

“A fantastic book filled with some of the greatest powers ever to shine in the lands of Faerun! This book is a a wonderful asset for players seeking more options for their arcane characters or dungeon masters seeking new ways to spice up their arcane villains!” (Mike Shea, author of The Lazy DM)

"Elminster’s backlog of Wizard Tower Names and the tomes within the Spellcaster’s Library are perfect for those players that love to explore the details absent from current modules and will fuel your own adventures with new possibilities. Magical Trinkets and Strange Elixir made the little artificer in me go wild! My favorite section by far pertains to exemplary options for DMs or fastidious PCs roleplaying magical dialects and phrases with Verbal Spell Components. Okay, you got me… I’m impressed. (Ruty Rutenberg, Co-Creator & Dungeon Master of Maze Arcana)

Become the ultimate spellcaster!

Join Elminster, the Sage of Shadowdale, as he takes you on an astounding journey through all things magical. This indispensible guide contains some of the most potent and fantastic magic ever created! Between these covers, you will find:

  • Over 350 new spells, covering all schools and spellcasting classes
  • Over 50 new magic items
  • A guide for young wizards
  • A history of the magical factions of the Forgotten Realms
  • 8 fantastic new faction-based archetypes
  • ...and even more!

This book contains nearly 180 pages of content, and every page is crammed with information, both wonderful and weird. Elminster's Guide to Magic is a must-have companion volume to the Player's Handbook, and will transform your character into the ultimate spellcaster!

Update: The second edition is now available!   

If you want more Elminster, be sure to check out this product -

233047.jpg

pixel_trans.gif
 
 More from this Title's Contributors
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (17)
Discussions (93)
Customer avatar
Thomas W August 27, 2021 7:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
Will there be a print on demand again, given Dmsguild's new policy? I would love to have a print copy.
Customer avatar
Terry T May 08, 2021 4:10 am UTC
PURCHASER
Any chance of adding the Alchemist spell list to the book?
Customer avatar
Taran B March 30, 2021 8:00 pm UTC
Hello I was wondering if there is any spreadsheet or spell card printouts for these spells? I'd definitely be willing to buy a copy of that, if that's something the creators feel up to.
Customer avatar
Ryan P February 04, 2021 3:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is a really useful book for transferring 3rd and 4th edition spells to 5th edition, and is really colorful and has a lot of detail.

I am a little bit uneasy about the balancing of many of the spells however. A lot of them are superior to similar existing spells of either equal or higher level. This ranges from spells that are just subtly better, such as Celestial Fist being arguably better than Guiding Bolt (which is already arguably one of the strongest 1st level combat spells), to things that are completely overpowered and broken, such as Create Item being better than both Light and Shape Water put together, or Jinx Shot being a strictly superior version of Vicious Mockery.

At the end of the day I'm really glad I bought it and I love supporting people who create things like this, but I'd advise other buyers to look at the spells carefully, pick and choose what to actually allow in a campaign, and possibly tone down the power level of spells. I'm finding myself toning down the power...See more
Customer avatar
Jason R August 06, 2020 12:37 am UTC
PURCHASER
Love the supplement, just wonder about the Cat's Eye Marble. It's worse than Goggles of Night but more rare and requires attunement?
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B August 06, 2020 9:53 am UTC
CREATOR
Yes. Assume it grants you colour night vision
Customer avatar
Joshua H July 05, 2020 9:16 am UTC
PURCHASER
Did you guys ever fix the one spell that wasn't on any of the class lists? Also you never did give Rainbow Beam the Material component. Lastly, in Version 3, the first spell I think used to say Ability Theft, rather than Ability Rip. Haven't gone any deeper than that yet, will let you know if I find anything more, or if I find that missing spell.
Love the anthology and have been using it for a while, but you still seem to have a little clean-up to do ; )
Customer avatar
Jason S June 11, 2020 4:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is the first purchase from here I had printed in color and bound at Staples.
I have not read every single spell yet.
I have gone thru many of the low level ones, and though there is some balance issues (which is an argument that can be made for most any product including WOTC blessed ones), I see nothing that will break a game and is not easily adjusted by a DM.
With 300 spells, some feel like minor tweaks to existing spells, but many are unique.
The selling point for me is the copious amount of Necromancy spells.
This has made it easier to build a Necromancer to face down my party, and they were clueless and wowed by some of his powers.
If you are looking for a fun, creative, useful and entertaining tome of magic spells then you should add this to your collection.
Customer avatar
Christopher C April 29, 2020 11:51 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi guys, I've acquired the Fantasy Grounds version, and can't wait to dig in. However, when I try to load the mod, I get:

[ERROR] Process Data File (Elminster's Guide to Magic): Reference to undeclared entity 'apo'. Line 1796, position 151

Does this maybe have to to with FGC vs FGU? I'm using the newer Unity one. (I've tried to delete and re-download, but I get the same error.)
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B April 30, 2020 1:15 am UTC
CREATOR
I will get in touch with our FG guy and see what we can discover
Reply
Customer avatar
Jeffrey L April 30, 2020 1:25 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hello Christopher. Thank you for purchasing the Fantasy Grounds module of Elminster's Guide to Magic. I have noted the error and will be correcting the issue as soon as I have access to the Unity beta. Elminster's Guide to Magic is the first module in my product line that will be receiving a Unity update once I am able to test my code. I greatly appreciate your patience and value your support.
Reply
Customer avatar
Oscar J December 04, 2020 2:26 am UTC
PURCHASER
I am also a FGU user and I have the same error. Now that FGU is final, is there a time frame to correct this?
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B December 09, 2020 10:26 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Oscar,

I'm sorry this is giving you trouble. Could we move this conversation over to the FG product page? Our FG guy is due to give a status update in the next day or so over there, and I'd rather keep the conversation in one place.

many thanks,
MTB
Customer avatar
Jason L February 24, 2020 10:14 am UTC
PURCHASER
Quick clarifying question: I was looking at the Black Blade of Disaster spell (9th Level Conjuration Spell for sorcerers and wizards; 1 minute duration with concentration) and the spell description seems to indicate it being a melee spell attack (even having a clause at the end of the spell saying that the spell will end early should you drop the blade), but the RANGE of the spell says 60 feet, implying that the blade is cast at some point 60 feet away from you and not appearing in your hand. Is this an error (with the correct range being SELF with a reach of 5 feet, I assume)... or is this actually a melee spell attack with a REACH of 60 feet?
Reply
Customer avatar
Joshua H July 05, 2020 8:59 am UTC
PURCHASER
For reference: In earlier editions it would fly out from the caster to make its attack (Melee spell attack). There was no designation that it needed to be held, only that it would fizzle out if it went out of range or the caster could no longer see it (which makes darkness and fog could WONDERFUL spells for countering).
Interpretation is up to you, but I THINK what they are implying is that it is cast in your immediate area of control, can fly out to attack at range as a melee attack and returns, but fizzles if the caster can no longer control it. Really it is up to you, but considering that the thing dissolves matter, probably best NOT to touch it.
Customer avatar
Andrew S January 12, 2020 3:17 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It would be nice if a future version bookmarked the spells by letter, so you could find them easier.
Customer avatar
Daniel C October 05, 2019 4:57 am UTC
PURCHASER
thank you so much for the work you put in!

but was wondering what was updated between the versions? any chance you could give a basic Changelog? if not I understand between time and memory since it has been a bit for the updates.
Reply
Customer avatar
Alessandro B October 08, 2019 2:06 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Yeah, would second that question.

I downloaded v1.1 long ago, now there is v3 which has dozens of pages less. is v3 just a clean-up in formatting?
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B October 08, 2019 7:31 pm UTC
CREATOR
Yes, we have essentially cleaned up and tightened up the format. There is no loss of content.
Customer avatar
Charles L August 28, 2019 7:13 pm UTC
Any update on a print on demand option for this?
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B August 28, 2019 10:32 pm UTC
CREATOR
At this stage, OBS are only considering new titles for POD. This may change in the future.
Customer avatar
Damian F May 30, 2019 3:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is it possible to get a breakdown of the changes in the current version? It can be a pain to not realise what spells were changed.
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B May 30, 2019 9:38 pm UTC
CREATOR
v3 was almost exclusively formatting changes with a few typos fixed
Customer avatar
Thomas W May 27, 2019 1:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any chance of seeing this as a print on demand again?
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B May 27, 2019 10:16 pm UTC
CREATOR
We are in discussions about this
Customer avatar
Luis Alberto G May 15, 2019 11:20 pm UTC
Life Bolt being able to deal 20d6 at 4th level by taking just 10 damage seems pretty op even if it works on undead only. Also no attack or save?
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B May 15, 2019 11:31 pm UTC
CREATOR
You have to be level 20 to inflict that much damage. But looking at it again, and comparing it to the original 3e spell, I think I would be inclined to rework it.
Customer avatar
Damian F January 21, 2019 6:33 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Small error I thought I'd like to bring up - the spell "Stone Body" is listed as 5th level in the Spell Lists, but its description calls it 6th level. Which one was intended?
Reply
Customer avatar
Thomas W April 16, 2019 4:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I was wondering the same thing. It looks like we still haven't got an official reply.
Reply
Customer avatar
M.T. B April 16, 2019 8:04 pm UTC
CREATOR
It should be 6th level
See 16 more
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Mithral seller
Community Content
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
139
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Last Updated:
May 28, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on September 15, 2017.