Crothian
First Post
Every now and I again I will be reading a blog or post on the net somewhere and it will lead me to review something. There is a lot of stuff out there to be reviewed so occasionally it is up to fate by what I randomly come across that leads to a review. This was not so much fate but just something I read and I could not recall if I had reviewed these. I had not so here I am now reviewing it. No one ever asks me why I review the things I review but here is one of the ways it happens anyhow.
Loot 4 Less Volume one Rings and Things is a PDF by Owen KC Stephens. It is published by Interactive Design Adventures. Not enough people seem to know who he is. He has done some really good things for D&D and Star Wars and is on the short list of game writers that if I see or hear his name is attached to a product I know I at least want to look at it. The PDF is one of the many small PDFs on the market; this is only a dozen pages long. It has a simple lay out and no art. The black and white PDF though does have good book marks.
The series is only concerned with creating cheaper new magical items. I like that the focus is just for items worth less then twenty five hundred gold. This makes it a great PDF that supports the low level game and also the low magic game. It would be very interesting to have a low magic campaign that never has items worth more then the twenty five hundred limit.
The book starts with new armor enchantments. It introduces at the half bonus. Some of the magical enchantments are just not worth a +1 bonus mark up so combine any two of them to get the +1 bonus or just have one and use their plus one half chart pricing system. There are ones like fleet that allow a person to run faster in heavy armor that are quite useful. Others like Elusive that just gives a armor class bonus to ranged attacks might get a bit complex to have different armor class for different types of attacks. Restful is very nice as with a fort save a person can sleep min medium or heavy armor and not be fatigued. Those types of enchantments are very useful.
Some of the weapon enchantments also have the half bonus idea that armor uses. I like the proficient enchantment which has no penalty for no proficiency use. A willing weapon can be drawn as a free action or sheathed as a free action if one has quick draw feat. There are some specific weapons and one of the neat ones is the fencing sword. It is a rapier that has a critical range of one greater though it follows the rules of stacking critical ranges as if was enchanted.
Lastly the book has a few magical rings. There are some good and simple to use ones like the Ring of Agility that grants a plus one bonus to all dexterity based skills. The ring though has to be warn for a week before the magic takes effect. There is a nice sidebar on the pricing of the item too. There is the ring of clotting that automatically stabilizes the wearer when they go to negative hit points. That can safe lives easily. There are a lot more rings then armor and weapons and many like the Ring of Literacy are nice utility items.
The Loot 4 Less series really shows off Owen KC Stephens’ creativity and very solid understanding of the d20 magic system. It is just one of those really nice books that I feel players and DMs will find plenty of useful magical items in but nothing that one has to be fearful of being game breaking.
Loot 4 Less Volume one Rings and Things is a PDF by Owen KC Stephens. It is published by Interactive Design Adventures. Not enough people seem to know who he is. He has done some really good things for D&D and Star Wars and is on the short list of game writers that if I see or hear his name is attached to a product I know I at least want to look at it. The PDF is one of the many small PDFs on the market; this is only a dozen pages long. It has a simple lay out and no art. The black and white PDF though does have good book marks.
The series is only concerned with creating cheaper new magical items. I like that the focus is just for items worth less then twenty five hundred gold. This makes it a great PDF that supports the low level game and also the low magic game. It would be very interesting to have a low magic campaign that never has items worth more then the twenty five hundred limit.
The book starts with new armor enchantments. It introduces at the half bonus. Some of the magical enchantments are just not worth a +1 bonus mark up so combine any two of them to get the +1 bonus or just have one and use their plus one half chart pricing system. There are ones like fleet that allow a person to run faster in heavy armor that are quite useful. Others like Elusive that just gives a armor class bonus to ranged attacks might get a bit complex to have different armor class for different types of attacks. Restful is very nice as with a fort save a person can sleep min medium or heavy armor and not be fatigued. Those types of enchantments are very useful.
Some of the weapon enchantments also have the half bonus idea that armor uses. I like the proficient enchantment which has no penalty for no proficiency use. A willing weapon can be drawn as a free action or sheathed as a free action if one has quick draw feat. There are some specific weapons and one of the neat ones is the fencing sword. It is a rapier that has a critical range of one greater though it follows the rules of stacking critical ranges as if was enchanted.
Lastly the book has a few magical rings. There are some good and simple to use ones like the Ring of Agility that grants a plus one bonus to all dexterity based skills. The ring though has to be warn for a week before the magic takes effect. There is a nice sidebar on the pricing of the item too. There is the ring of clotting that automatically stabilizes the wearer when they go to negative hit points. That can safe lives easily. There are a lot more rings then armor and weapons and many like the Ring of Literacy are nice utility items.
The Loot 4 Less series really shows off Owen KC Stephens’ creativity and very solid understanding of the d20 magic system. It is just one of those really nice books that I feel players and DMs will find plenty of useful magical items in but nothing that one has to be fearful of being game breaking.
