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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="Paragon Badger" data-source="post: 2009667" data-attributes="member: 6334">[Edit- added bold to key terms to allow for easy skimming]This review is divided into 3 sections, my opinion of the individual sections (what I like and don’t like), my opinion of the layout/art, and my overall view of the system with rating.ContentThe first thing you notice upon jumping into this book will be the basic class section. The general scheme is this there are 6 classes one keyed to each of the ability scores that heroes start their careers in. Some people won’t like this. They are going to look and say “Why can’t I start as a Gunslinger?” I, personally, like this system however. The absolute generality of the basic classes provide a great amount of flexibility. You could stat almost anything just on basis of the basic classes. Want a street tough gang leader? Smack down a couple levels in Strong Hero and a couple levels in Charismatic. Want an urban ranger? Fast Hero / Dedicated Hero combo in that case. Another thing I like that provides greater flexibility are the Talent trees. Here’s an example. At 1st and every 2 levels thereafter a Fast Hero picks a Talent. They pick from 2 different trees. One has the rogue abilities like Uncanny Dodge and Defensive Roll. The other tree has increased speed bonuses. This almost guarantees you can make two 5th lvl Fast heroes that are totally different. Added to the massive amounts of feats you get and your PC can be customized to precise detail without even touching the Advanced Classes.Another thing you’ll notice in making your character are action points. These nice little bonuses are non-regenerating points you get on level up that allow you to add to d20 rolls or power certain class abilities. I like the fact this allows PCs to dictate when they absolutely don’t want to miss. How many great PC stands are ruined when your final bullet misses the archvillian but 1 point to hit? However, I would have liked to see some additional uses for the AP. How about a heroic stand use that allows the PC to heal 1d6 hit points 1/day. Or maybe an adrenaline rush use that cost 3 AP to allow the hero an extra partial action. (Though this use is replicating the Heroic Surge feat). Next you come to the Starting Occupation section. This is a list of professions that your PC has. It allows certain skills as permanent class skills, some bonus feats, and a wealth bonus (I’ll get to that next). I like this idea in theory. It helps backstory and character development. The problem is you have to make sure if you add further occupations you keep them balanced. Occupations could easily be as broken as some 2e kits if the DM isn’t careful. If a PCs want to create a Green Beret starting occupation that gives a +3 wealth bonus Hide, Move Silently, and Spot class skills, and Personal Fire Prof and Adv. Personal Firearm Prof. think “Bladesinger” and say no. I haven’t played with the occupations in the core book so I’ll assume that WotC was on the ball enough to make sure they are balanced.Now onto Wealth bonus and Purchase DCs. The idea behind this is instead of tracking dollars and cents your PC has a bonus to Wealth much like a bonus to hit. To buy something you just have to beat the purchase DC. Buying very expensive items drops your wealth bonus. Nice, simple, and abstract. The good thing is this is easy to use and eliminates the hassle of tracking credit and loans prevalent in the modern world. The bad is the random chance involved in buying something. However WotC shows forethought and allows for Taking 10 and Taking 20 on a Wealth roll. All in all I like this abstraction. However, for those that hate abstraction in all its forms there is a Purchase DC to $ conversion table.Now that your PC is coming along you’ll want to pick your Alignment. Guess what. They killed that sacred cow and installed the allegiance system. The allegiance system is merely a list of groups or ideas (like good or evil) that your character feels a connection to. The good part of this is flexibility provided by allowing connections to people and organizations rather than strict philosophies. The bad is two fold. First, with no real list of example allegiances PCs may be unsure exactly what they are allied to. Second, newer players may lose the character direction provided by alignments. No longer can you say “I’m Lawful Good, so I should be offended.”Reputation is a system taken from the WoT system (among others). It is generally a measure of how well known you are. It can delineate how easy it is to get a favor. Some people may love this. I’m sort of neutral to it. If I feel I can use it in an important junction I will, otherwise I’ll ignore in favor of character interaction with NPCs.With all these nice classes you may wonder how to fit them all in and not snag an XP penalty for multiclassing. Well in d20 Modern there is no penalty for multiclassing. This means future writers for d20 Modern have to make sure they don’t front load a class or power gaming could result. The general flexibility of the basic classes doesn’t seem to lend itself to overt powergaming though.Skills in d20 Modern are very nice. The entries for some of them are far beyond the typical “here’s the 2 or 3 uses, have fun.” For example Craft (chemical) provides craft rules for explosives, acids, and poisons in its entry with more available in the web enhancement. The skills are well laid out and everything you need for a modern era game is there, like Computer Use, Drive, Demolitions, Gamble, Pilot, Research, and many more. Nothing I saw in here struck as overpowered. However, I will say Craft (chemical) is very useful to the right kind of character. Feats the pride and joy of any d20 system ;-) You’ll find an array of give +2 bonuses to two related skills in this chapter. This is good since Skill Focus isn’t a feat but a Dedicated talent in d20 Modern. You find a wide variety of useful firearms and melee feats along with many general feats. Nothing here seems too broken, just don’t let a D&D character take Agile Riposte (if a character you Dodge misses you, you get a free melee attack.)The equipment section start with several useful tidbits like buying items  on the black market, concealing weapons and armor, requisitioning equipment, and selling stuff. Then you get to the good part, the weapons. Of course they start with firearms. There is a decent selection of  around 40 guns with most split between handguns and longarms and only 4 heavies like HMGs and rocket launchers are found. The guns are set up with a 2 dice of damage system. This means the gun damage ranges from 2d4 to 2d12. Also the crit range is a 20 threat and x2 crit. At first I thought, “Wait a second. If I hit somebody I want to drop somebody!” Then it hit me, if guns were made that lethal, what chance would the PCs have? So I’ve come to accept the damage range. With abilities like Autofire, Burst Fire, and Double Tap the guns do enough damage to put the fear of God in most people. However, one thing does bother me, the shotguns and rifles seem almost identical except for range increrment. I don’t think this accurately reflects the amount of sheer damage you’d take from an up close shotgun blast. I think my personal house rule to remedy that will be as follows; Within 1 range increment add 1 dice of damage to the shotgun (2d6 becomes 3d6). Further than 3 range increments subtract 1 dice of damage (2d6 becomes 1d6). Now I just mentioned Autofire, Burst Fire, and Double Tap. These are special attack options you gain through feats. Autofire (Adv. Personal Firearms Feat) allows an area attack over a 10’ by 10’ box (20’ by 5’ with Strafe feat). Burst Fire (feat of same name) adds an extra die of damage for a neg to hit. Double Tap (same name feat) allows two shots with a semiautomatic weapon which coverts into an extra die of damage for a neg to hit.Several explosive weapons with appropriate splash damage are found next, though Claymores (a personal favorite) are left to the web enhancement. Then melee weapons follow up. Unless you are focusing on a melee character you probably won’t care much about these, but rest assured that several modern favorites (stun gun, brass knuckles, tonfa, and bayonet) are found. After that is a lovely little improvised weapon table with damage based on size. 2d8 damage if you get hit by a swung stoplight! (Worry more about the Str modifier of the thing doing the swinging!)Next we come to what will likely be most people’s biggest grudge, armor. Unlike the Shadow Chasers mini-game, armor in d20 Modern adds to Defense not damage reduction. Some people will want to see the DR style but it isn’t hard to convert. The way I see it since classes get a Defense bonus ala Star Wars d20 and the fact you’ll have to buy armor proficiency with feats most PCs will ignore armor entirely and the problem isn’t that large YMMV. Armor ranges from leather jackets to forced entry unit.This reminds me of something I forgot to mention before, d20 Modern uses HP not WP/VP. You may not like this or you may love it depending in which camp you fall. As for me I really didn’t care either way. Of note is the Massive Damage rule. You have massive damage threshold equal to your Con score (more with a feat). If you take more damage than that in one hit you need to make a Fort save or drop to -1. This adds to the lethality of the guns.Let me add here one of my biggest gripes with the system. Subdual damage has been replaced with non-lethal damage. The idea is you can choose to do non-lethal damage by taking a -4 to hit. If you beat your opponent's Con score in one attack, with non-lethal damage, he must make a Fort DC 15 or be knocked unconscious for 1d4+1 rounds, otherwise the damage just disappears. This leads to an absurd idea that you can punch an NPC 50 times in a row and do no damage! I much prefered the subdual system. There are feats that aid your knockout abilities, like Knockout Punch where an unarmed strike is an auto x3 crit. I'll play with this system a bit more before I abandon it in favor of subdual again.Next in equipment is general equipment. Nothing too outstanding that I noticed. Everything you really need is there from clothes to suppressors. After that comes Carrying Capacity then Lifestyle items (movies etc.), and Services (doctors etc.).Finally, you get to the vehicles. You get a nice spread of aircraft, cars, bikes, water vehicles and military vehicles. The stats are effective and concise. You don’t end up with a book of stats for each vehicle, which is fine by me. The actual vehicle rules are covered later. I do want to note that school buses are in the web enhancement. I was looking for them when I bought the book and was disappointed not to see them.Combat is next with no big differences from the d20 standard. However in this chapter are the vehicle rules. Vehicles rules maintain a fair consistency with d20 combat while allowing for facing, slower turns and higher speeds found in vehicles. The vehicle combat seems focused on land vehicles, however they are easily adaptable to air and water. One thing I liked is the dual scales that are mentioned. When you are dealing with character both in and out of vehicles you use the “5 foot a square” character scale. When you are fighting amid vehicles you can switch to the larger “50 foot a square” chase scale. The system runs smoothly, with special maneuvers like hard braking, bootleg turns, and jumping all covered by a Drive or Pilot check. Also of great use is a section on how to use Bluff and Hide in a vehicle for those times when you want to ditch the fuzz. Furthermore, there are sidebars for taking out tires, windows and windshields.Of great interest to all will be the Advanced Classes. More or less these are prestige classes designed to be entered by level 4. Most are designed to compliment a particular basic class, for example Strong Heroes make good Soldiers. The classes in here are nice and cover a wide range of modern day heroes. Soldier is the typical well trained fighting machine. Martial Artist is a monk without mystic mumbo jumbo. Gunslinger is a dead eye with his chosen firearm. Infiltrator is the thief for a modern era (no sneak attacks focus on sneaking in and out). Daredevil is a thrill junkie that loves risking his life. Bodyguard is tough fellow that guards his charge with his life.  Field Scientist is a scientist that doesn’t shy from battle to claim a discovery. Techie is a tech master than can soup up guns and cars and create robots or mastercraft items. Field Medic is a modern day cleric that heals with technology. Investigator is your CSI / private investigator class. Personality is the celebrity you see on TV. And Negotiator is the fellow you can talk you down from a ledge right into a trap ;-).Gamemastering is next and has some useful information. It first deals with the typical “Here’s how to roleplay” information found in most core rulebooks. Then we get to the good parts. A table provides an outline of how Purchase DC convert to real money. Wealth bonus by level is laid out, as is a typical Wealth bonus adventure reward. Then comes the CR section with info useful to all like assigning CRs to skill checks and CR adjustment for multiple obstacles. Also there are modifiers if the actual encounter is a low or no threat to the PCs. Then we get to the Campaign section with useful tables galore. You have falling damage, diseases (real life stuff like Anthrax, Small Pox, Necrotizing faciitis, etc.), acid damage, and electricity damage from many sources (like power lines).Then we come to Friends and Foes or the Monster section. The general layout of this section is a Creature Factory with more detailed rules how to put together a custom creature. However, don’t fear there is a large section of creatures including brand new creations and modernized D&D favorites. A personal favorite is the Tooth Fairy an evil fey that torments mortals. Also there are several types of animal-human hybrids called Moreaus. These all have 3 levels of appearance from covert to moderate to overt. There are mentions of making Moreau characters but I’m unsure if they are ECL 0 creatures. After the monsters comes a table of monster weaknesses. This allows for serious to humorous weakness to be added to monsters. Want a Tooth Fairy damaged by Country Music or maybe a Medusa that can’t get enough ice cream. Good concept that makes the monsters more unique, however no mention is made of how to modify the CR when adding a weakness. Further on, you have rules for ordinaries (NPCs that don’t get all the frills a PC does) and rules for children. Next you get a section that will please many people (me included). You have a series of archetypes that are Ordinary NPCs made at 3 different power levels for each of the combinations of the basic classes. You have Strong/Fast all the way to Deidicated/Chrasmatic. This will be of great use to anyone when they need a quick NPC for a game session.The next chapter contains the 3 campaign models with 2 advanced classes a piece. The campaign models are all campaign settings that are fleshed out somewhat. First is Shadow Chasers, the modern world as evil mythical creatures begin to invade. Think Buffy. The advanced classes are Shadow Slayer a ranger-ish monster slayer and Occultist a mage-ish monster slayer. Overall these classes seem least likely to find their ways into other campaigns since they are somewhat setting specific. Second is Agents of Psi, where PCs are secret agents that can have psionic power. Think James Bond or Sydney Bristow with a psionic twist. The Advanced classes are Telepath a psion with up to 5th level powers and Battlemind a Psionic Warrior with some neat abilities like making a blade and shield of mental force. These classes are easy to transfer. Finally, there is Urban Arcana, the modern world as creatures from your typical D&D world begin showing up. The advanced classes here are most likely to show up elsewhere. You have Mage, a wizard of up to 5th level spells and Acolyte, a cleric (no domains) of up to 5th level spells. Some people may complain that you can’t make it pass the 5th level of powers/spells but when you consider that magic is rare in the settings put forth you realize magic can be very useful (especially if you snag the web enhancement for the extra 10 or so modern spells.)The final chapter is FX abilities the catch all chapter for magic and powers. Most of your favorite spells and powers are found here. Some like Flaming Projectile have been altered for modern uses. And some like Power Device are whole new spells that only make sense in the modern world. One very powerful adjustment is the Enhance Ability spell. Take all the ability buffing spells, maximize them, cut the duration down to a minute per level and you have Enhance Ability. I’m not sure if this is too powerful because of the flexibility or too weak because of the limited duration. You’ll notice that combat modes for psionics are gone. I say good riddance. I never used then anyway so I don’t really miss them YMMV. A new feat hidden in this section is Wild Talent that allows 3 free uses of a 0-level power. The book ends with a small section of magic items. If you expected a list like the DMG you’ll have to wait for the Urban Arcana campaign sourcebook. However, all the bases are covered and rules for making +1, +2, and +3 items are present.Then you have the character sheet (modeled after the standard WotC PHB sheet) and the index and index of tables.Art / LayoutYou’ll pick this book up and say cool! It is thick at 384 pages and it looks very nice. The cover has a brushed metal file folder look that is very attractive. Interior art varies in quality. Some of it is very good, some of it is good modern comic style, and some will not suit you. However, I didn’t see anything cringe worthy on my look through. You’ll find several pieces of art to point out to your friends in this book. Some favorites include a Gnoll Pimp, an Army version of Meepo the kobold, and a mutilated Santa crime scene. The art in the monster section alone is worth the price of admission for the laughs alone (I won’t spoil them all.) The layout is very clean and effective. Tables are well presented and easy to read. The text flows well and sidebars are not jarring. The monster section felt somewhat cramped to me but not to the point of effecting readability.Compatibility with D&DMany will be happy to know that d20 Modern is easily compatible with standard D&D. The prestige classes from standard D&D could be plugged in if desired. You can make a Fast Hero/Deepwood Sniper if you want to. More so using the basic class idea combined with advanced class versions of the standard classes could make for a interesting low magic campaign.OverallOverall, I really like this book. When this hits the SRD it will be a massive boon to the community. The flexibility of the system surpasses that of the generic D&D. I imagine many people will make great use of the system and to create Sci-Fi, High Renaissance, Steampunk, Low Fantasy and other genres I can’t name. The system is fun to play. It isn’t lethally overpowered or pitifully underpowered. You can easily do a Car Wars vehicle battle to a Quake 3 Arena combat to a Grand Theft Auto campaign. If I honestly compared this to a 5 rated product like Manual of the Planes I’d given it a 4/5 for some questionable calls. However MotP did relatively nothing for the d20 community. When d20 Modern hits SRD it will benefit and stimulate the d20 community so it deserves a 5/5, warts and all.Rules 4/5Art 4/5Layout 5/5Compatibility with D&D 5/5OGC 5/5Overall 5/5</blockquote>

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