Scoop!?! New Magic Item Format in D&D: The Complete Animated Series

In the Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series DVD boxed set, there is a nifty little "hardcover" book, "The Animated Series Handbook". This book gives D&D 3.5 stats for the kids and Venger . . . and gives stats for their "objects of power"!

Check out the FORMAT of these magic items:

Animated Series Handbook said:

Energy Bow

Price: 22,600 gp
Body Slot: -- (held)
Caster Level: 6th
Aura: Moderate (DC 18) evocation
Activation: See below
Weight: 3 lb

Simply drawing your fingers in the air near this finely crafted bow causes it to be strung with an arrow of glimmering energy.

Hank's energy bow . . . <snip> . . . The penalty on attack rolls and bonus on damage rolls lasts until Hank's next turn.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, magic missile.
Cost to Create: 11,500 gp, 888 XP, 23 days.

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What do you think? I'm betting this is the new magic item format we'll see again in the Magic Item Compendium next year!

I think this might be my first ever scoop . . .

I like that substantially more than the magic item format pioneered in DMG 2 that's been showing up for the past year or so. Much more streamlined.

Demiurge out.

Why couldn't they just have sold the book seperately? I'd be much more interested in wasting my money on that than I would wasting it on the series.

Kaodi said:

Why couldn't they just have sold the book seperately? I'd be much more interested in wasting my money on that than I would wasting it on the series.

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The little book is pretty cool, but it's only 30 pages and DVD slipcase sized. It has NPC writeups for the six child-heroes, Uni, the weapons, Venger, Shadow Demon, and a new spell called Damning Darkness. It's the coolest DVD extra I've ever seen, but I'm not sure it would be worthwhile doing as a separate product.

Now the "Expanded" Animated Series Handbook for D&D 3.75 could provide fully detailed stats for not just the above but all the heroes and villians from the show and toy line, and monster entries for the few unique monsters from the show . . . like don't they meet care bears at some point? (haven't finished watching the DVDs yet) That'd be cool!

I made this purchase based solely on nostalgia, but after watching the first disc I'm pleasently suprised how well this holds up! The animation is actually very good (not just for it's time, but by today's standards even), the stories are fun, and it's great seeing D&D monsters on my TV! About the only downside is the non-violent ways the kids get past violent encounters . . . a vital element of D&D lacking here!?!

demiurge1138 said:

I like that substantially more than the magic item format pioneered in DMG 2 that's been showing up for the past year or so. Much more streamlined.

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My thoughts exactly. I like the extra lore and description of the current format, but this new one is much more streamlined with all the important info right up front. I'm now looking forward to the Magic Item Compendium!

I need to pick this up. as a matter of fact, I am using the kids and Venger in my world's Largest Dungeon campaign... so I really need to break down and pick this up. Wish I would have known that book was there sooner.

Can you tell me what the levels/classes they made the kids? I'm curious to know how close I was when I stated them out.

just a point about the earlier poster re violence in D&D - I think the cartoon was produced to deflect some of the scare stories going around at that time (and still are) re occultism, dangerous loonies running around believing that D7D was 'real' -there was a film starring tom hanks out around the 80's (can't recall the name) where roleplaying was implicated as the cause for a suicide - Mazes and Monsters that was it. So the cartoons were bound to promote the wholesomeness and homlieness of the all-american hero kids facing evil but not going down to their level, and any way american teens are'nt violent are they.

These writeups were intended for the adventure provided in the same booklet. They were not this competant in the show.

Hank - Ranger 7
Eric - Fighter 7 specialized in Shield
Diana - Monk 7
Presto - Wizard 7
Sheila - Rogue 7
Bobby - Barbarian 7
Uni - Small unicorn 3 HD

Venger - CR 21 half fiend Sorcerer 13/archmage 5
Shadow demon - CR 8 CE Medium outsider (chaotic, evil, extraplanar, incorporeal)

The writeups are good, though it's more D&D 3e than D&D cartoon. Each magic item is a detailed magic item between 20K and 30K. Although Hank's bow is a cool magic item, it's not the bow of infinite wishes that is portrayed in the cartoon.

But my writeups for the kids in the cartoon would look something like this:
Hank, Eric, Presto, Sheila, Bobby - Commoner 1 with improved evasion and plot-device magic item
Diana - Expert 1 with improved evasion and plot-device magic item

By the latter episodes they were far more competent than that. I'd stat them as:

Hank - Ranger 7 (using the Complete Warrior spell-less variant, the Favored Terrain variant from Unearthed Arcana and replacing Animal Companion with Item Familiar [bow]).
Eric - Fighter 7 with Shield Bash feat chain
Presto - Conjurer 7
Sheila - Rogue 7 focusing on stealth and replacing sneak attack with fighter bonus feats (which she uses for the Combat Expertise feat chain)
Bobby - Barbarian 7. Human child, using the stats of a halfling. Wild Cohort feat to have Uni as a cohort.
Diana - Monk 5/Thief-Acrobat 2 with +2/+2 throwing returning ki strike quarterstaff that adds +10 to Balance and Jump checks.

Andy Collins described the new format at the Wizards boards on this thread, and also proviced the DMG Cloack of Arachnida in the new format on the second page.