Tome of Magic

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Tome of Magic is the name of two Dungeons & Dragons splatbooks; the first published for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition by TSR, the second published by Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. Both share the common theme of seeking to expand upon the presence of magic in the D&D game, but they do so in different ways.

AD&D Tome

In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the Tome of Magic is a setting-neutral sourcebook for Wizards and Clerics - the Forgotten Realms had multiple splatbooks that served a similar role; Pages from the Mages, Wizards and Rogues of the Realms, Warriors and Priests of the Realms, and Secrets of the Magister. It provided an assortment of new spells and magical items for both classes, as well as three large indexes of spells covering all of the splatbooks to that point, but also introduced several new rules.

For wizards, those new rules were the new kits of the Wild Mage and the Elementalist.

For clerics, those new rules consisted of three new spellcasting systems - Quest Spells, Faith Magic, and Cooperative Magic, as well as an assortment of new Priest Spheres: Chaos, Law, Numbers, Thought, Time, Travelers, War and Wards.

3.5 Tome

In Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, the Tome of Magic was a way to introduce three new alternative types of magic; completely new systems, each with its own signature class, as well as appropriate new Prestige Classes, magical items, monsters and sample organizations.

Pact Magic

The first of these three new systems was Pact Magic, exemplified by the Binder class. This is generally considered the best of the systems added, being unique, flavorful, relatively easy to understand, and with solid mechanics.

This chapter also introduces 7 new monsters that are all associated with one of the many Vestiges that Binders can summon. None of these monsters actually use Pact Magic and are more for showing the influence of Vestiges on the world, but several of them do have abilities similar to what their associated Vestige grants.

• Deadly Dancer: Aberrations that look like bony alien humanoids whose arms and legs end in blades. They reproduce by breaking off one of their blades in a corpse. They worship the vestige Paimon which they resemble, and often draw his seal, but don't actually summon him.
• Deathshead: An undead giant's head that walks around upside-down using its hair and possesses vast knowledge. They closely resemble the vestige Shax, so it is believed that they were invented by a necromancer who was also a binder.
• Horned Beast: A fire-breathing goat with a snake for a tale. It is believed that that these creatures were once golden rams that served the god Amon when he was alive, but his turn to evil after he died and became a vestige corrupted them as well.
• Karsite race with a 1st-Level Warrior as an example
• Roving Mauler
• Murder of Crows Swarm: A swarm of crows. Is his believed that the swarming behavior of crows started as a result of the influence of the Vestige Malphas.
• Tooth Beast: Resembles a bear whose hair, nails, and eyes are replaced with teeth. Their resemblance to the vestige Dahlver-Nar leads to the theory that they were created from binders who used too many of the teeth of Dahlver-Nar at the same time.

Shadow Magic

The second new system was Shadow Magic, exemplified by the Shadowcaster class. This is considered more ambitious than Pact Magic, and not as functional, but better than the last one.

Four new monsters appear in this chapter, but only the last two actually use shadow magic mysteries:

• Dark Creature template, with Dark Goblin, Dark Lion, and Dark Umber Hulk as examples: For creating Plane of Shadow counterparts of creatures of the Material Plane. This is a simplified version of the Shadow Creature Template that appeared in previous books.
• Ephemeral Hangman: An octopus-like creature that can slip through impossibly small spaces as long as it isn't in bright light.
• Khayal Genie
• Shadow Elemental in small, medium, large, huge, greater, and elder.

Truename Magic

The last new system was Truename Magic, exemplified by the Truenamer. Sadly, this is considered the absolute worst of the systems introduced in this book, being considered underpowered and overly complex.

The chapter introduces five new monsters that use truename magic:

• Word Archon
• Logokron
• Garbler
• Loquasphinx
• Painspeaker: The undead form of a person who died before they could say something very important.