The new spells in Pages are not new anymore and even that title was short lived. The Wizard's Spell Compendium books were released very shortly after this and contained most if not all the spells. This was a complaint I heard about this product from others and one of the reasons they did not see the use in it.
Pages in addition to containing new spells contains new monsters that the DM can use as adversaries for their players. The bulk of the book consists of write ups on over forty spells books from across the Realms. As what the books describes as an added bonus it includes Elminster's traveling spell book. I for one was never enamored with the Forgotten realms as a setting and even less so with Elminster and less yet with Drizzt.
The main benefit of this book for me is the write ups on the spell books. The search for magical tomes is such a part of fantasy literature and movies and yest is so lacking in most campaigns I hear about. When a spell book is found it is pillaged for new spells unceremoniously or sold to the same person who buys used arrows and sells you an ox.
I wish I could remember who it was that periodically writes up the magical tomes or books of interest in their campaign. I eat these posts up and have made a note to use even more mundane books as treasure if I were to ever start running a game or writing up dungeons again. This book again can be mined for material but in this case I think the broader strokes it offers as ideas for spell books and how to use them makes it useful in its own right.
Spell:
Cassandra's Mystical Bonds
Level: Second
Range: 6"
Duration: 3 Rounds/Level
Ares Effect: 6" Radius
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 2 Segments
Saving Throw: None
When this spell is cast the magic user will cause all creatures hostile to the magic user to become bound with bonds of mystical energy. These will appear on the victims as glowing shackles. They have no physical form though and can not be affected by anyone save the caster or the victim.
These bond will not be as powerful as a Hold Person but they will affect the victims in one of two ways based on the caster's choice. Each different effect will determine how the victim is affected.
The first possible appearance will bind the victims hands together in magical cuffs. This will make the use of a shield or casting spells impossible. The victim can still fight using a one or two handled weapon but not a bow. Any combat will be done at a -2 though due to the restrictive nature of the bonds.
The second appearance will appear as leg shackles. These will have the effect of reducing the movement rate of the creature to half their normal walking speed. They will also bind the victim to the ground and prevent any sort of aerial movement. For each round of movement the victim tries to move they will need to make a save against their dexterity at +4 or stumble and lose that round of movement getting up.
The caster can at will free any or all victims of their bonds before the spell expires due to duration. The victims can also for each round affected spend the round trying to free themselves. They will do this by rolling against their bend bars percentage. A thief that is affected can use their lock picking ability though the percentage is halved due to the nature of the shackles.
Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the 80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :) Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.
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