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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
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Bluffside: City on the Edge
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<blockquote data-quote="Warchild" data-source="post: 2009120" data-attributes="member: 769"><p><strong>Bluffside: City on the Edge</strong></p><p></p><p>This is not a playtest or gift review.</p><p>Given that the specific material has already been outlined in previous reviews, i'll keep my comments focused on what i think are its major selling points and its detractions.</p><p></p><p><strong>Cost:</strong></p><p>At 22.95 and 144 pages, this product costs about 16 cents a page. Thats pretty good. Honestly, given the quality of the material, i would have payed more for this book. Don't tell THG, though. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p><strong>Art:</strong></p><p>This is probably the most dissappointing part of the book for me. The art was see-saw, some good, some bad. Mostly small and out of the way. No real problem for me there. The real problem comes with the map(s). The main pullout map is not in color, nor does it show the distinguishing landmarks that exist outside the city and are detailed in the book. Thus it has no legends chart. All in all, i was not real happy with it. The problem is alleviated somewhat by each chapter having its own close up map of the sector in the book. However, the Undercity map has locations depicted in the book that are left out. Though its not hard to guess or just place them where you wish, it was still somewhat irratating.</p><p></p><p><strong>Material:</strong></p><p>-Setting Material: </p><p>The breadth of this city setting is nothing short of amazing. This city has so many details and possibilites that can stem from not just the city itself but the surounding areas that are also discussed. You could run several campaigns and not use all of the ideas presented in this book. In fact, despite the books modular attributes, you could run use this city as your setting and not NEED to drop it into a published or homebrew setting!</p><p>Being that as it may, i found the TONE of the city to be quite modular. My personal campaign style is more Thieves World/Cyberpunkish and i had no problem with fitting that attitude in with the material in this book. THG has put a lot of hard work into creating a supplement that can truly be used for YOUR style of play, whatever that is, and that hard work is very easy to see.</p><p></p><p>-Religion: </p><p>NOTE: I have edited this portion of my review because, in retrospect, i don't believe i gave the idea due consideration.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mechanics:</strong></p><p>-Races: The races presented in this book are very interesting and will act as catalysts to interesting characters and story lines. However a couple of them suffer from some questionable ECL ratings.</p><p>The Dargori-Nen race with its overall bonus to stats, free feat, extra attack, and natural armor almost certaintly should be a +1 ECL.</p><p>The Sixam (winged creatures) also should probably be a +1 or be scaled down a bit.</p><p>The Dragori-Sah seem possibly underpowered!</p><p>-Prestige Classes:</p><p>The Bluffside Ranger is too powerful, as no Ranger would ever NOT want to be one. The requirements are decent, but the overall abilities they receive are a bit too much.</p><p>The Cat Burglar is also suspect in that it allows characters to get Skill Mastery by 6th level. However the abilities as a whole are not overpowering.</p><p>Th Explorer gives 2 excellent saves, full combat, 4 skill points, and many many extra abilities and most DM's will probably need to adjust it if he expects game balance.</p><p>The Tunnel Fighter is good example of a prestige class that is powerful, but focused in abilites that the class represents.</p><p>As a whole, these prestige classes are not blantantly power-ups, but are powerful enough for the DM to take a hard look at them before he okays their use.</p><p>-Feats:</p><p>The feats are a highlight. Quite interesting and balanced. Spellmarking is a nice version of tatoo magic.</p><p>-Spells:</p><p>There is a nice list of spells, with Snip (a spell that cuts bow strings) probably being my favorite.</p><p>-Magic Items:</p><p>The magic items are interesting and give flavor to the city setting.</p><p>-Domains:</p><p>Most of these are okay, if made somewhat redundant (Combat and Peace for example)by existing Domains or are more powerful than the others and even outshine(such as Skullduggery being nearly the same but better than their Shadow domain) other new domains they have created.</p><p></p><p>Cost: +.5 (a real decent price)</p><p>Art: -.5 (so-so art and some map problems)</p><p>Material: +.5 (Extremly cool setting with so many possibilities)</p><p>Mechanics -1 (has iffy race ECL's, a bit too much power in the prestige classes, and some mismatched Domains)</p><p>Rating: 4.5 rating. Those of you who do not mind the mechanic problems/extra work, will want to rate this review higher than a 4.5 for its source material! This rating began at a 5.</p><p></p><p><strong>Overall</strong></p><p>What a great book. Though it has only small flaws, they are a few of them, and that prevented me from giving this book a perfect score. Even though i found myself wanting to give it the 5. That being said, this plug-in city supplement is the best of the bunch i have seen from any D20 company and the countless campaign ideas, intrigues, npc's, and flavor that this book provides is superb.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Warchild, post: 2009120, member: 769"] [b]Bluffside: City on the Edge[/b] This is not a playtest or gift review. Given that the specific material has already been outlined in previous reviews, i'll keep my comments focused on what i think are its major selling points and its detractions. [b]Cost:[/b] At 22.95 and 144 pages, this product costs about 16 cents a page. Thats pretty good. Honestly, given the quality of the material, i would have payed more for this book. Don't tell THG, though. :) [b]Art:[/b] This is probably the most dissappointing part of the book for me. The art was see-saw, some good, some bad. Mostly small and out of the way. No real problem for me there. The real problem comes with the map(s). The main pullout map is not in color, nor does it show the distinguishing landmarks that exist outside the city and are detailed in the book. Thus it has no legends chart. All in all, i was not real happy with it. The problem is alleviated somewhat by each chapter having its own close up map of the sector in the book. However, the Undercity map has locations depicted in the book that are left out. Though its not hard to guess or just place them where you wish, it was still somewhat irratating. [b]Material:[/b] -Setting Material: The breadth of this city setting is nothing short of amazing. This city has so many details and possibilites that can stem from not just the city itself but the surounding areas that are also discussed. You could run several campaigns and not use all of the ideas presented in this book. In fact, despite the books modular attributes, you could run use this city as your setting and not NEED to drop it into a published or homebrew setting! Being that as it may, i found the TONE of the city to be quite modular. My personal campaign style is more Thieves World/Cyberpunkish and i had no problem with fitting that attitude in with the material in this book. THG has put a lot of hard work into creating a supplement that can truly be used for YOUR style of play, whatever that is, and that hard work is very easy to see. -Religion: NOTE: I have edited this portion of my review because, in retrospect, i don't believe i gave the idea due consideration. [b]Mechanics:[/b] -Races: The races presented in this book are very interesting and will act as catalysts to interesting characters and story lines. However a couple of them suffer from some questionable ECL ratings. The Dargori-Nen race with its overall bonus to stats, free feat, extra attack, and natural armor almost certaintly should be a +1 ECL. The Sixam (winged creatures) also should probably be a +1 or be scaled down a bit. The Dragori-Sah seem possibly underpowered! -Prestige Classes: The Bluffside Ranger is too powerful, as no Ranger would ever NOT want to be one. The requirements are decent, but the overall abilities they receive are a bit too much. The Cat Burglar is also suspect in that it allows characters to get Skill Mastery by 6th level. However the abilities as a whole are not overpowering. Th Explorer gives 2 excellent saves, full combat, 4 skill points, and many many extra abilities and most DM's will probably need to adjust it if he expects game balance. The Tunnel Fighter is good example of a prestige class that is powerful, but focused in abilites that the class represents. As a whole, these prestige classes are not blantantly power-ups, but are powerful enough for the DM to take a hard look at them before he okays their use. -Feats: The feats are a highlight. Quite interesting and balanced. Spellmarking is a nice version of tatoo magic. -Spells: There is a nice list of spells, with Snip (a spell that cuts bow strings) probably being my favorite. -Magic Items: The magic items are interesting and give flavor to the city setting. -Domains: Most of these are okay, if made somewhat redundant (Combat and Peace for example)by existing Domains or are more powerful than the others and even outshine(such as Skullduggery being nearly the same but better than their Shadow domain) other new domains they have created. Cost: +.5 (a real decent price) Art: -.5 (so-so art and some map problems) Material: +.5 (Extremly cool setting with so many possibilities) Mechanics -1 (has iffy race ECL's, a bit too much power in the prestige classes, and some mismatched Domains) Rating: 4.5 rating. Those of you who do not mind the mechanic problems/extra work, will want to rate this review higher than a 4.5 for its source material! This rating began at a 5. [b]Overall[/b] What a great book. Though it has only small flaws, they are a few of them, and that prevented me from giving this book a perfect score. Even though i found myself wanting to give it the 5. That being said, this plug-in city supplement is the best of the bunch i have seen from any D20 company and the countless campaign ideas, intrigues, npc's, and flavor that this book provides is superb. [/QUOTE]
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