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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010626" data-attributes="member: 1129">The question of disposable magic weapons is the root origin of Artifacts of the Ages. Fiery Dragon was one of the first on the scene with their runeswords, blades that gained power as the user gained levels. Others followed with methods that ranged from sacrificing experience points and gold to the item, to allowing the item to gain its own levels.This book, a combination of the two PDF products Swords of Our Fathers and Staves of Ascendance, goes another route. Here, there are four prestige classes, four scions, battle, spell, faith and swift, that represent the broad archetypes of fighter, mage, cleric and rogue. Each one gains abilities pretty similar to their core class but in giving up a little power, gain special abilities with their unique weapons. The bad news is that you take the class for a particular weapon. The good news is that the book recommends that those who've spent the time and levels to gain these classes, don't lose their special weapons. Very similar to the attitude BESM d20 takes with weapons purchased with character points. As I guessed when the product was announced, the classes which are separate in the PDF files, are merged into one with notes on what abilities the blade and staff scions get as they gain slightly different feats and abilities.This is an excellent idea and works well. In many ways, this is where a majority of the work of making this a 3.5 product came into play as the class skills and abilities have been changed to reflect the new rules. The other change occurs when the magic items in the book uses spells as many spells now underwent some changes but the product itself is very familiar to those who own the original PDF files.The magic items are combined by chapters, which are broken up into scion sections so we've got battle, spell, faith and swift. Each section includes background information, legends, what knowledge check is required to recall information of the blade, the requirements to enter into the PrC, which vary according to the item in question, attributes or physical description, hardness hit points, value, special abilities, and the Scion Level Breakdown chart which shows when new powers become available to the user. Each item has a minimum amount of power and generally, the more powerful the base item is, the higher level the user must be to enter the prestige scion class in order to advance the weapon's power. Sidebars include general adventure hooks for those wishing to use the items right away but a little unsure of how best to proceed.The book is very similar to the PDF files. The front cover is from the swords book while the rear illustration is from the staff book. In terms of layout, two columns of text with fairly good use of white space save for the end of some chapters which have lots of white space there. Art is crisp and clean, but reused from the PDF. The illustrations of the weapons allow a GM to quickly point out the item to the party and give each item personality beyond the text. For those looking for a bit more than magic items, appendix A, Crafting Legendary Items goes into details about assigning a scion prestige class, making the requirements to enter, getting the right mix of abilities and spreading those abilities out through different levels, using an item from the book as an example.This book is for those who don't want magic items that you throw away as you gain levels. It's for those who want a little backstory in the magic item design. If you didn't pick up the PDF books when they came out, now is a good time to get the collected edition, updated to 3.5 to save you the trouble.REVIEWER'S NOTE: OgreCave will be showcasing my review of the original PDF files in due time to showcase some of the strengths and weaknesses of the individual books.</blockquote>

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