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Arms & Armor 3.5
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<blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011839" data-attributes="member: 18387"><p><strong>By Tom Gafkjen, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Initiative Round</strong></p><p>Arms & Armor v3.5 is a 176 page product from Bastion Press. The authors listed are Jim Butler, Steve Creech, and Kevin Ruesch. This is a 3.5 version update of their previous work. They also added to this supplement by including open source content found in dozens of other products, doubling its size from the previous version. It lists for $14.99 at RPGNow as a pdf and retails for $29.95 in hardcover.</p><p></p><p>Chapter one breaks down weapons into several interlocking sets of categories. These categories pertain to what training is needed to become proficient in a weapon’s use (simple, martial, or exotic), the weapon’s usefulness either in close combat (melee) or at a distance (ranged, which includes both thrown and projectile weapons), its relative encumbrance (light, one-handed, or two-handed), and its size (Small, Medium, or Large). It includes four pages of weapon tables along with each new weapon’s description. I liked the diversity of the weapons listed along with the game mechanics involved with several of them. My wife even found a new weapon for her barbarian.</p><p></p><p>Chapter two deals with weapon qualities and contains a compiled description list of the most popular magical additions to weapons. It contains random generation tables that break these down into categories; Minor (+1 to +2 modifiers), Medium (+3 to +4 modifiers), and Major (+5 to +8 modifiers) along with a couple of random table charts when dealing with weapons that have the following magical qualities; Bane, Class Bane, and Dread. My gaming group, who love to tweak their magic weapons, is going to go nuts over this chapter when I present the book to them. It has everything they would want in a magic weapon.</p><p></p><p>Chapter three deals with Weapons of Valor or as I call them, pre-generated magic weapons. This chapter contains your old favorites like dagger of venom as well as including many new ones. It also includes several minor and major weapon artifacts. I like the fact that they compiled all these into one place so I don’t have to flip through several books to find the weapon I need.</p><p></p><p>Chapter four starts our foray into armor. This section outlines many of the more common types of armor found. It contains tables on; light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, and shields & extras. A good description is given on each of the armors. Also included in this chapter are time frames on donning armor, armor size cost modifier and variant rules using armor as damage reduction. In the armor extras section they cover exoskeletons for steam-punk type campaigns.</p><p></p><p>Chapter five deals with armor qualities and, once again, contains a compiled description of the most popular magical additions. It contains random generation tables that break these down into categories; Minor (+1 to +2 modifiers), Medium (+3 to +4 modifiers), and Major (+5 to +10 modifiers). I am impressed with the overwhelming amount of magical options available in this chapter. It has something for every type of character class.</p><p></p><p>Chapter six describes Armor of Gallantry or pre-generated magic armor. This section describes the wealth of miscellaneous magical armors, along with magic items that grant armor class, movement, mobility, and other defenses. It contains random generation tables for Minor, Medium, Major, and Epic magic armor. It also includes several minor and major armor artifacts.</p><p></p><p>Chapter seven covers new materials. Weapons and armor can be crafted from nearly any substance and this chapter gives plenty to choose from. There are descriptions of about 24 new materials and also a small section on increasing the durability of weapons and armor.</p><p></p><p>Chapter eight brings us more optional rules. It starts out covering divine and legendry weapons and rules covering such. There are optional prestige classes called Scions that devote themselves to using their legendry weapon and they are as follows; Battle Scions, Faith Scions, Spell Scions, and Swift Scions. Each prestige class also has an example legendry weapon in its description. </p><p></p><p>Magic ability chains is the next item covered. Magical ability chain refers to, when upgrading an item, adding a more powerful ability that is closely related or similar to an ability that the item already possesses. Taking advantage of this synergy makes it easier to upgrade an item’s power and they have examples of weapons and armor magic ability chains. </p><p></p><p>There is a small part on intelligent weapons. When generating a special purpose for intelligent weapons, there is a 20% chance of it having an extraordinary special purpose and several of these are covered here like Battle Seeker, Defender and a couple others. </p><p></p><p>Outsider weapons are the last thing covered in chapter eight. It describes a category of magic weapons that derive their power from an extra-planar creature whose essence is bound into the weapon itself, the weapons creation and abilities. The end result is usually an intelligent magic weapon. I found this part very interesting and plan on using this as my primary way in creation of intelligent items and introducing them to my players.</p><p></p><p>Chapter nine covers cursed items. It starts with descriptions of random generic curses like delusions or intermittent functioning and then gets into specific cursed items like helm of opposite alignment. I am not one for using cursed items, for me this would be the least used chapter of the book.</p><p></p><p>Chapter ten discusses martial constructs. The following section details some of the more unusual types of arms and armor: golems. It starts with Amulet Servitors, they are constructs designed to be concealed when not in use, collapsing to form a small amulet of tightly wound metal. Next is Golem Armor. This armor itself can serve as an ordinary golem if unoccupied. The inside of the golem is hollow, and a Medium-size humanoid can fit comfortably inside. In this fashion, the golem can be worn as protective and animated armor. Finally it introduces several different types of golems; Amber, Force Guardian, and the Silver Steeds of Inarial. </p><p></p><p><strong>Critical Hit</strong></p><p>By combining all of the popular abilities into one book, this makes it tremendously useful for those of us that design our own weapons or armor. It gives one area of reference, helping to continue the flow of the game instead of spending all your time looking through different books for all your magical abilities.</p><p></p><p><strong>Critical Fumble</strong></p><p>The art in this product is black and white and many of them appear low resolution. The presentation would have been better to include several color pictures and/or higher resolution images.</p><p></p><p><strong>Coup de Grace</strong></p><p>I highly recommend this product to everyone, GMs and players alike. Even though the art of questionable quality, it plays such a small part in this products usefulness. With this book, there is no more paging through dozens of other supplements trying to find that particular ability you were looking for. With approximately 200 weapon and 200 armor magical abilities described, there is something here that will fit your needs.</p><p></p><p><strong>Final Grade: A</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Messageboard Golem, post: 2011839, member: 18387"] [b]By Tom Gafkjen, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack[/b] [b]Initiative Round[/b] Arms & Armor v3.5 is a 176 page product from Bastion Press. The authors listed are Jim Butler, Steve Creech, and Kevin Ruesch. This is a 3.5 version update of their previous work. They also added to this supplement by including open source content found in dozens of other products, doubling its size from the previous version. It lists for $14.99 at RPGNow as a pdf and retails for $29.95 in hardcover. Chapter one breaks down weapons into several interlocking sets of categories. These categories pertain to what training is needed to become proficient in a weapon’s use (simple, martial, or exotic), the weapon’s usefulness either in close combat (melee) or at a distance (ranged, which includes both thrown and projectile weapons), its relative encumbrance (light, one-handed, or two-handed), and its size (Small, Medium, or Large). It includes four pages of weapon tables along with each new weapon’s description. I liked the diversity of the weapons listed along with the game mechanics involved with several of them. My wife even found a new weapon for her barbarian. Chapter two deals with weapon qualities and contains a compiled description list of the most popular magical additions to weapons. It contains random generation tables that break these down into categories; Minor (+1 to +2 modifiers), Medium (+3 to +4 modifiers), and Major (+5 to +8 modifiers) along with a couple of random table charts when dealing with weapons that have the following magical qualities; Bane, Class Bane, and Dread. My gaming group, who love to tweak their magic weapons, is going to go nuts over this chapter when I present the book to them. It has everything they would want in a magic weapon. Chapter three deals with Weapons of Valor or as I call them, pre-generated magic weapons. This chapter contains your old favorites like dagger of venom as well as including many new ones. It also includes several minor and major weapon artifacts. I like the fact that they compiled all these into one place so I don’t have to flip through several books to find the weapon I need. Chapter four starts our foray into armor. This section outlines many of the more common types of armor found. It contains tables on; light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, and shields & extras. A good description is given on each of the armors. Also included in this chapter are time frames on donning armor, armor size cost modifier and variant rules using armor as damage reduction. In the armor extras section they cover exoskeletons for steam-punk type campaigns. Chapter five deals with armor qualities and, once again, contains a compiled description of the most popular magical additions. It contains random generation tables that break these down into categories; Minor (+1 to +2 modifiers), Medium (+3 to +4 modifiers), and Major (+5 to +10 modifiers). I am impressed with the overwhelming amount of magical options available in this chapter. It has something for every type of character class. Chapter six describes Armor of Gallantry or pre-generated magic armor. This section describes the wealth of miscellaneous magical armors, along with magic items that grant armor class, movement, mobility, and other defenses. It contains random generation tables for Minor, Medium, Major, and Epic magic armor. It also includes several minor and major armor artifacts. Chapter seven covers new materials. Weapons and armor can be crafted from nearly any substance and this chapter gives plenty to choose from. There are descriptions of about 24 new materials and also a small section on increasing the durability of weapons and armor. Chapter eight brings us more optional rules. It starts out covering divine and legendry weapons and rules covering such. There are optional prestige classes called Scions that devote themselves to using their legendry weapon and they are as follows; Battle Scions, Faith Scions, Spell Scions, and Swift Scions. Each prestige class also has an example legendry weapon in its description. Magic ability chains is the next item covered. Magical ability chain refers to, when upgrading an item, adding a more powerful ability that is closely related or similar to an ability that the item already possesses. Taking advantage of this synergy makes it easier to upgrade an item’s power and they have examples of weapons and armor magic ability chains. There is a small part on intelligent weapons. When generating a special purpose for intelligent weapons, there is a 20% chance of it having an extraordinary special purpose and several of these are covered here like Battle Seeker, Defender and a couple others. Outsider weapons are the last thing covered in chapter eight. It describes a category of magic weapons that derive their power from an extra-planar creature whose essence is bound into the weapon itself, the weapons creation and abilities. The end result is usually an intelligent magic weapon. I found this part very interesting and plan on using this as my primary way in creation of intelligent items and introducing them to my players. Chapter nine covers cursed items. It starts with descriptions of random generic curses like delusions or intermittent functioning and then gets into specific cursed items like helm of opposite alignment. I am not one for using cursed items, for me this would be the least used chapter of the book. Chapter ten discusses martial constructs. The following section details some of the more unusual types of arms and armor: golems. It starts with Amulet Servitors, they are constructs designed to be concealed when not in use, collapsing to form a small amulet of tightly wound metal. Next is Golem Armor. This armor itself can serve as an ordinary golem if unoccupied. The inside of the golem is hollow, and a Medium-size humanoid can fit comfortably inside. In this fashion, the golem can be worn as protective and animated armor. Finally it introduces several different types of golems; Amber, Force Guardian, and the Silver Steeds of Inarial. [b]Critical Hit[/b] By combining all of the popular abilities into one book, this makes it tremendously useful for those of us that design our own weapons or armor. It gives one area of reference, helping to continue the flow of the game instead of spending all your time looking through different books for all your magical abilities. [b]Critical Fumble[/b] The art in this product is black and white and many of them appear low resolution. The presentation would have been better to include several color pictures and/or higher resolution images. [b]Coup de Grace[/b] I highly recommend this product to everyone, GMs and players alike. Even though the art of questionable quality, it plays such a small part in this products usefulness. With this book, there is no more paging through dozens of other supplements trying to find that particular ability you were looking for. With approximately 200 weapon and 200 armor magical abilities described, there is something here that will fit your needs. [b]Final Grade: A[/b] [/QUOTE]
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