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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="Azurecrusader" data-source="post: 2481655" data-attributes="member: 24071">E.N. Arsenal – WhipE.N. Arsenal – WhipBy Ryan Nock26-page PDF, $4.95Summary:  E.N. Arsenal – Whip is an interesting book that presents many new options for the oft overlooked whip.  While it suffers from inconsistency of theme and some illogical rules, it is certainly a useful book for anyone looking to wield a whip.  Review:E.N. Arsenal – Whip is the second book in a line of products from E.N. Publishing devoted to exploring a single weapon in great detail.  This volume, obviously, is dedicated to perhaps the most underappreciated weapon in the Dungeons & Dragons universe: the Whip. The cover art of the PDF, while certainly not bad, leaves a bit to be desired and fails to establish a tone for the rest of the text.  The overlay title: Whips, is done in a mediocre Photoshop texture and lends a cheesy feeling to the cover, which otherwise has a simple but attractive illustration of, you guessed it, a whip.  The E.N. Arsenal logo at the top of the cover makes use of the “look ma, I know Photoshop!” effects as well.  The cover is unfortunate because it makes the product look amateurish at first glance.Each individual piece of interior artwork is well done, but together they lack a consistent feel.  Most of the artwork is used multiple times, but it is cut up nicely so that you get different parts of the illustration on different pages.  The art generally works well where it is placed, complimenting the flavor text.  I was mildly disappointed that there was no illustration to complement the “Calamity Symphony” technique which I will talk more about later.So, other than art, what does a PDF containing 23 (26 – OGL, Cover and Table of Contents) pages about the whip have in it?  The book starts off with an introduction to the whip in both a real world historical fashion as well as in D&D terms.  The introduction plays up the whip as a sex symbol, but this theme is dropped when it comes to game mechanics.  In general, the real world introduction seems to have no bearing on the rest of the book and feels kind of forced.  The racial preferences section on the other hand does a nice job of presenting the whip in the context of a typical D&D setting, although it is far too short at a single small paragraph.Seemingly out of place in the introduction are the statistics for basic whips of various sizes as well as a new rule which states that whips triple the reach of the wielder.  This rule may not seem all that crazy, after all, it’s just a whip right?  In truth though, this change combined with new feats and techniques makes the whip over powered.  I also had a problem with this rules change because it is not particularly logical.  Just because a whip is long enough to be extended in a straight line to a target does not mean that you could attack someone that far away.  The “cracking” motion of a whip limits its range to far less than its actual length.  It is clear that this additional range is in place to allow for other rules to function. The first section after the introduction presents some new whip variants, such as the Ribbon Staff and the Whipsword.  All of these weapons have interesting twists on the basic whip that allow them to be viable choices for combat.  Many of the new whip variants do “real” damage (that is the books way of saying lethal damage), which would seem to me to be reason enough to make them require their own exotic weapon proficiency, however you can become proficient with all the whip variants simply by taking Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip).  In game terms that probably won’t make much difference, but again, it sort of rubs logic the wrong way.  Surely a whip is much easier to handle than a Whipsword?In addition to the basic whip variants, there are also new materials with which to craft a whip.  This was one of my favorite parts of the book since I love the idea of using alternate materials for weapons instead of just adding magical bonuses to attack and damage.  Most of the materials interesting and well thought out, but for some reason the Moonhair whip, which is made of lycanthrope fur, is considered a silver weapon.  Why?  I’m not sure, I guess that because lycanthropes take lethal damage from silver their fur is considered a silver weapon . . . again, that just does not work well for me.Next up, we have various techniques and feats designed for the whip.  This list of possibilities greatly expands the usefulness of the whip.  The non-epic stuff is well done and far from over powering, it simply adds some nice options for whip users.  One of the feats, Mighty Grip, is in fact under powered, since Complete Warrior details the Monkey Grip feat, which has the exact same effect (you can wield weapons of a size category larger than normal with their normal handedness) but applies to all weapons instead of just one of your choosing.  The Epic feat Self-Opportunist and its accompanying technique, Calamity Symphony are by far my largest gripe with this book.  Self-Opportunist allows you to take attacks of opportunity when you move an opponent, such as through a bull rush, or some other whip feats that let you drag opponents around.  The problem here is that you can take these attacks even if you move an opponent only 5 feet, and you can take as many attacks of opportunity as your opponent moved spaces.  Frankly, I think this feat goes too far, even for an epic feat.  Worse than Self-Opportunist by itself though is Calamity Symphony, which is basically a never ending combo move that would allow you to whip and drag your opponent, dealing lethal damage, indefinitely.  The whole idea of taking more than one attack of opportunity against the same opponent in one round is just crazy too me, and allows far too many of these “infinite combo” type moves.Once you are passed that silliness you are presented with the requisite prestige classes, four in this case.  Truthfully these classes are well done and add some real meat to whip users.  Each prestige class is carried to a full 10 levels, which turns out to feel like too much.  A five level prestige class or two would have worked nicely given that the whip is not a very common weapon and some people might just want to pick up a little mastery in it for an off hand weapon.  Here particularly is where the whip as a sex symbol could have come into play, but sadly that part of the introduction is forgotten.  Personally I’m tired of every book feeling the need to present more prestige classes, but at least these help to flesh out the whip and don’t seem to be just afterthoughts.  Also included in this section are two NPC’s who, while not particularly noteworthy, do help to set up the prestige classes. Three new magical qualities are up next, one of which adds yet more reach to a whip.  While these new qualities are not really anything special, the unique whips that are detailed are all great.  If you are looking for an unconventional, yet still powerful, magical weapon I can highly recommend this section.  I only wish there had been a bit more back story included with each one, although it is clear that narrative is not the goal of this book.Finally, we have the whip god:  Ford.  Yes, in a nod to Indiana Jones, the rugged god of adventure is Ford, who ascended to godhood after drinking from the cup of immortality.  Given that most players who decide to use a whip are probably going to base themselves at least in some fashion off of Indiana, this was a wonderful way to wrap up a book on whips.  I have to say that overall I was impressed with the editing in the book.  The problems that were there generally were not related to typos or improper use of punctuation.  There were a number of awkward sentences, but nothing so bad that it made the book difficult to understand.  I just have to point out on of my favorite lines though: “Throughout history, the whip has primarily been relegated to being a tool for driving animals – people as well as livestock.”  Perhaps a better word than animals would have been labor.Suggestions for improvement:  The primary stumbling blocks in this book include an unfocused theme (both in the text and in the artwork) and some rules that overcompensate, trying to raise the whip from overlooked to an obvious first choice.  The introduction seems to want to run with the idea of the whip as a sexy weapon, but there is no follow through on this.  The book also fumbles between tongue-in-cheek humor and a downright serious rules discussion.  An editorial review for thematic consistency would probably be a good idea here.  The rules also need to be taken out of the vacuum and compared with other weapons.  Since the whip is likely to be a secondary choice for most players perhaps the focus should be more upon using the whip in conjunction with other weapons as an off hand option, which is something that does not really get touched upon.  Finally, for a professional product, the cover is simply not up to par.    E.N. Arsenal – Whip is nothing stellar, but it is certainly not a bad book.  I give it a solid 3 “Average”.  ~Cal Guisti</blockquote>

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