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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="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011864" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Dallas Parsons, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine RackInitiative RoundE.N. Arsenal-Whip is the second .pdf in the arsenal series produced by E.N. Publishing. Each book in the series gives variants, optional rules, prestige classes, feats, and more for a particular weapon. This one, of course, is all about whips.E.N. Arsenal-Whip is written by Ryan Nock, with additional material by numerous other writers that are grouped together by the title The ENWorld A-Team. The cover, by M. Jason Parent, is a simple red leather-like background with a whip design and title in silver. Interior illustrations are by Danilo Moretti, Ryan Nock (a man of many talents obviously), and Kevin H. Yancey. All in all the art is quite good, especially for a pdf, but some of the illustrations are used more than once throughout the book. This 26 page pdf is available for $4.95.The layout is very nice with small text so the pdf packs a lot into the 26 pages, but it is not small enough to hamper readability. Between the table of contents and the very thorough bookmarks, it should be no trouble finding anything in the product. There are some problems though. I am of the opinion that any pdf product should come with a printer friendly version, but this one does not. The border on the bottom of the page and the watermark image of a whip wielding warrior will take up some ink. Chapter one of the pdf begins with an introduction of the whip. It is easy to see that the designers did their research on whips. Not only is there an ample description of how a whip produces the cracking sound, there is also a description of how a whip is constructed. Next is the real-world history of the whip, which talks about how the weapon was never used in combat, but only as a way to drive cattle and slaves, and used as a torture devise. The author even mentions the recent occurrence of the whip being considered an erotic toy, but this is done very tastefully. The chapter ends with a paragraph on how common fantasy races view the whip.Variations of the normal whip, or bullwhip, are described in chapter two. A few of these variants are: -Bladed Whip: A normal whip that has metal strips along the length that are used for slashing.-Ribbon Staff: A quarterstaff with a whip that can be used for grapple or trip attacks, but cannot deal damage. The weapons can be used in the same manner as a double weapon.-Whip Sword: It is a longsword with a blade made up of numerous segments that can detach and allow the sword to be used like a whip. A neat weapon, but would seem difficult to use properly.After the variant whips are variations on the construction of a whip. These include normal ways of making a higher craft check to add to the weapons durability, toughness, and weight, all of which cost extra. Also detailed are fantasy materials that can be used in the construction of a whip to add to its effectiveness. Examples of these are displacerhide, which grants the whip concealment from being struck in combat; feyhart leather, a material that is made from deer in faerie realms that allows the whip to bypass damage resistance as if the whip was cold iron; and roper oil, an oil made from ropers and mimics that, when applied to a whip, allows the whip to stick to a surface on a successful attack. Chapter three is all about ways to use a whip in a fight. Normal options that a whip is useful for are described, such as tripping a foe and disarming them, but what I wanted to see and glad I did was ways to use the whip to grab a hold of an object to swing from them. Rules for using a whip to stop yourself and others from falling are also given. An added part is a technique called The Calamity Symphony, which is only available to epic level characters. The technique is the use of several feats, which are mainly from this pdf, which allows a character to make a near infinite number of attacks on an opponent as long as the character can continue to succeed at attack rolls. This is the first combo of this sort I’ve seen in any roleplaying game, but I’m not sure if I like “wall-juggles” as they are called in fighting games filtering into roleplaying games.Also in chapter three are 26 new feats that mainly focus on whips, but a few could be taken by non-whip fighters. A small selection of the feats are:-Deafening Crack: As the name implies, the feat allows a character to possibly deafen an enemy instead of dealing damage.-Style Focus: This feat lets a character choose a two-weapon combination and as long as the character is using both of those weapons, he gains a bonus to attack rolls.-Third Hand: The character can use this feat to grab objects, including weapons they disarmed from an opponent, and move them to anywhere within range of the whip. This feat also lets a character use objects they can grab with a whip in an attack against an opponent.Chapter Four presents four prestige classes that focus on the use of whips. Overall they all seem to be well balanced, but there are a few issues I have with them. The prestige classes are:-Thunderchild: Taught by a hermit in the middle of a storm ravaged mountain range, those that complete the training gain the power of the storm. This class allows a whip fighter to deal sonic damage with their whip, without the whip being magical, sonic resistance, and finally the Rolling Thunder ability, which allows the thunderchild to create a loud thunderclap that deals 1d6 sonic damage to everyone within 15 ft. As the final ability of a prestige class, which would be available at 16th level at the earliest, I would expect a little more than 1d6 damage. -Nailo-Shalanth: This is an elven fighting form, Nailo-Shalanth meaning “Nightbreeze Form”, which utilizes the whip and rapier. These whip-fighters are known for their stealth and ability to quickly attack an opponent. The Nailo-Shalanth gains the ability to Hide and Move Silenty moving a full speed and at 10th level while running. Mainly, though, the class follows a progression of feats which are gained at each level. The class seems overpowered at first, but with the low skill points and rogue/cleric BAB it looks balanced.-Ophidian Skinbearer: This class is mainly for druids that have an affinity for snakes. The class allows a character to change into progressively more powerful snakes, lets the whip the character is holding excrete poison, and allows the character to use their snake companion as a whip. That ability, called Living Whip, also allows the character to merge their snake companion with a magical whip, which grants the snake the whips properties, as well as grants the character the magical properties of the whip if the character assumes a snake form while using the living whip (assuming the snake form causes the whip to merge with the character). Both of those abilities of the living whip do not sit well with me. So for example, if my character had a flaming whip my character, while in snake form, would be able to bite and deal flaming damage. A final ability of the class pushes the class over the edge to being overpowered. That ability allows the ophidian skinbearer to turn into a swarm of snakes if reduced to below 0 hit points and not killed. This swarm does not take damage from weapons and can heal at a rate of 1 per hour, until above 0 and the swarm turns back into the character. -Whimsy: This class, whose fighting style is crafted after legendary gnome, is for small characters only. The fighting style uses the whip to use tricks and annoying tactics to confuse and irritate an enemy. The class grants a character several bonus feats, as well as bonuses for tricks that a whip-fighter can use in battle, such as allowing the character to use their Dex bonuses when tripping an opponent with a whip. This is my personal favorite of the prestige classes just because of how fun it would be to make a character that did nothing but fluster and annoy the monsters and enemies they came across.Two sample NPCs finish out the prestige classes. One of them is the hermit that has created the thunderchild prestige class, but does not have levels in the class herself, which is odd.Chapter five details new spells and magic items based around whips. An example of one of the spells is whip form. The spell allows a caster to cause one weapon to lengthen and become flexible like a whip, but deals the same damage as the normal weapons. There are also several new magic enhancements that can be given to weapons presented, as well as new magic items. My personal favorite of the lot is Amistrom, Whip of Six Storms, which goes through a cycle of dealing energy damage, and deals more damage if the wielder is able to go through the cycle and hit each time. Lastly in the chapter is a sample god known for fighting with a whip: a god of adventure named Ford (whose arch-nemesis is obviously Chevy…sorry couldn’t resist). Critical HitWhen I finished reading the pdf, the first thing I thought was if there should have been anything in the product that wasn’t. To my surprise, I could not think of single thing. This means that the designers did a great job of touching on everything that would be useful for players wanting to make characters that focused on whips.Critical FumbleBesides the possible imbalance of the prestige classes, there is not much that is wrong with this product. There are a two feats that are referenced, Awesome Blow and Improved Combat Reflexes, that are not in the Player’s Handbook, which took me a little while to track down. Awesome Blow is in the Monsters Manual and Improved Combat Reflexes is in the Epic Level Handbook, or in the SRD for epic feats. Since both of these are not easily found, it would have been helpful for them to have been listed along with the other feats.Coup de GraceThis is a solid book, but is basically a niche product. Whether you will want to get this pdf or not will all depend on whether you or someone in your group is interested in using whips as a main weapon. If you are, then this product is a must have. If not, then you may want to wait and see if another release in this line suits your tastes.Also, I must mention that with a price of $4.95 at RPGNow you will have to buy another product in order to reach the minimum price for purchases.Final Grade: B+</blockquote>

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