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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crothian" data-source="post: 2009751" data-attributes="member: 232">Crimson Contracts By AmbientThis is from a promtional copy.      Crimson Contracts is a 127-page pdf all about assassins and the art of assassination.  The book covers everything that from new prestige classes to new poison and from new feats to new originations.  The book also follows the hiring of an assassination by Ralts Bloodthorne.  I like how they follow this character and introduce the features of the book with him and his quest to hire the perfect assassin.  It gives a great insight into the world and really adds a level to the readability of the book.  There is a story to follow, as one reads from chapter to chapter and the story does not interfere of eclipse the purpose of the book.      The book comes in two versions.  The first is for use on the computer while the other is designed for easy printing.  I personally like this as it allows for optimum use no matter which the user wants to use the product.  The art is nice and stylish.  I really think it fits the product well with a feeling of evil in them.  The format is really easy to read and the table of contents will help when locating specific things.  The book does not have an index, which is something I like to see in all products.      The book does a very good job of covering many different types of assassins from the sneaking to the brute, the seductive to the cunning.  I was very impressed with the variety of types they have.      The book starts with the roles of the assassin.  It takes one through the many different types of assassins.  Then it goes into the methods of the assassin like the investigation of the target and ways of dealing with him.  The information here is very good and thorough.  There are some mature themes and it is handled very matter of fact like.    The next chapter deals with skills and feats.  There are many new uses for old skills and some good variant rules here.  The feats are pretty good with some interesting ones like Run By attack and Exude Venom.  While there are not many feats they are very creative and many unlike anything I’ve seen published yet.      Core and Prestige classes comes next and I’m not so sure about the new core classes.  They are designed for NPCs as classes geared towards NPC Assassins and their ilk.  However, I’m not sure the more NPC classes are really that needed.  I would have preferred to see a single, versatile NPC class.  The three core classes look well done and balanced so there should not be any problems with using them.  One interesting thing they did with prestige classes was making them of various power levels.  This allows the DM to select the prestige classes whose power fits his campaign.  The Brutal Killer is basically a psychopath who is devastating in combat and very hard to kill.   Then there is the Femme Fatale who uses seduction to kill her victims.  And then there is my favorite, the Fist of Righteousness.  These are Lawful Good assassins who are chosen by their god to act as judge, jury, and executioner.  There are many other good prestige classes and they are of a variety of power levels.    Next is the tools of the trade chapter.  It is filled with many things that an assassin will want and need in his job.  There are twenty new poisons and I really think they are creative and well done.  Not all of them just do attribute damage.  There are some that cause pain, swelling, dumbness, and many other cool effects.  There are some new magical diseases and a good deal of new equipment, weapons, magical items, and artifacts.  There are even psionic items in here and that is a big plus in my book.      New Spells is the next chapter.  There are not many spells, but the ones that are there are very well done.  There’s a spell to hide a weapon on one’s familiar.  There’s a spell that makes your alignment appear differently.  And there is a nice spell that renders the subject mute.  This is a very nice selection of new spells.      The following chapter is Templates. In it are seven new, and creative templates.  My favorite of these is the Winter’s Child.  A Winter’s Child appears as a teenage albino.  They are swift and do well in cold climates.  The other templates are also very good and many of them like Poison Child are quite insidious.      Then the book covers new organizations.  Each gives how they have rankings, traditional clothing, markings, or weapon, places they would lair, and some methods of operation.  These are well done and many should easily fit in the standard campaign.    Lastly are some variant rules.  There are new torture rules that I find much better then the ones presented in the Book of Vile Darkness.  There are also rules for breaking someone’s neck, using a garrote, choke holds, and instant kills using the kukri and sickle.  Then there is a sample encounter.    This is a very good book about assassins and the range of information is compelling.  Many of the prestige classes, new rules, and ideas presented here can also be used in a modern or other type of setting with a little work.  Ambient should be very proud of this book, as I believe it is their strongest book to date.</blockquote>

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