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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="Pinotage" data-source="post: 2741412" data-attributes="member: 15194">E.N. Arsenal: WhipE.N. Arsenal: Whip is the second volume in the E.N.Arsenal line from E.N.Publishing. Other weapons already covered in this line include the spiked chain, pistols, the hooked hammer and the two-bladed sword. This volume, written by Ryan Nock, is devoted to the whip, and includes a good amount of supplemental material for this weapon in the form of new types of whips, new feats, advice on using the whip, prestige classes, spells and weapon enhancements. The pdf is 26 pages long, 23 pages of which contain actual content. E.N.Arsenal: Whip normally retails for $4.95. This review was done as part of Crothian's Review Project.Initial Impressions:E.N. Arsenal: Whip comes as a single fully bookmarked file. It's not color or graphics intensive (apart from the red cover), and as such should be easy to print out if so desired. The layout is well done, with a full table of contents provided, as well as a table of tables for easy reference. The writing is very good - clear and concise in all instances. There are several pieces of art in this pdf, none particularly striking, and several of them have been heavily used as repeated art throughout, although in most cases only a portion of a larger image. One of the images is embedded into the background on each page containing a chapter beginning, and the greyscale drawing blends in very well with the text on top of it, making for an uncomfortable and rather ugly read. Despite these rather horrible layout issues, the pdf makes for a fine and enjoyable read, and has some quality content that I'll get to next.The Details:The pdf is divided into 5 chapters, and after taking a quick peak at the Section 15 of the OGL, apparently uses a lot of material taken from other sources including works of Fantasy Flight Games and Alderac Entertainment Group, along with several references to E.N. Publishing's own work. Whether or not it uses a little or a lot of material from these sources, it presents a detailed and very usable look at the whip and whip-like variants, offering a lot of balanced options for expanding on the weapon. A useful resource overall, and containing some material that does not necessarily relate to whips and can be used in a more general manner.Chapter 1 - Introduction to the Whip: The pdf starts with a brief introduction to the whip, including methods of crafting whips, general principle of operation of whips, mechanics of whips in game terms, statistics for whips of different sizes, racial preferences, and a brief overview of the use of whips in real-life history. It's a well-detailed chapter that gives enough information to understand and appreciate the nature of the whip and its intention in use, and sets a solid background on which to build upon in future chapters. Chapter 2 - Whip Variants: The second chapter looks at a number of different whip variants, as well as different ways of enhancing whips through crafting. Variants include the bladed whip contain slashing blades, the longwhip, the signal whip particularly useful for performing whip tricks as detailed later in the pdf, and the whipsword, a combination whip and longsword. The various variants are well integrated with the other rules and feats included in the pdf, forming a complete package. None of the ideas are particularly outrageous, although I would've preferred to see separate proficiencies for each variant, rather than a blanket exotic weapon proficiency required for all whips. It strikes me that a person wielding a whipsword may not be capable of wielding a longwhip, for example, or even being completely proficient with a normal whip.On the crafting side whips can be crafted at additional expense to make them lighter or tougher, but can also be crafted from different materials such as hair from a creature with damage reduction (thereby allowing the whip a benefit with regard to DR) or strands from a victim of lycanthropy (giving it certain properties suitable to combating lycanthropes). The ideas are good and balanced, and would certainly be something that I'd be prepared to use in a game, or even as the basis for further expansion (whips made from dragon beards spring to mind as an example).Chapter 3 - Feats and Fighting: This chapter gives advice on tactics for using whips, as well as twenty-two new feats that can be used with whips and even more generally. Tactics for whips are discussed in terms of a variety of actions, such as disarming, tripping, power attack, and two-weapon fighting. In addition, new tricks are discussed for whip users, which included using a whip to prevent a fall, or swing from a whip when attached to a suitable object. The large amount of feats expand further on the options for whip users, and these range from Deafening Crack used to deafen opponents with a whip crack, Melee Lash that allows you to threaten some of the space around you with a whip, Snagging Trip to drag tripped opponents closer after tripping them, Third Hand that allows you to use the whips for a variety of other purposes such as retrieving unattended objects, and Whip Strike that allows you to cause damage to any armored opponent when using a whip. There's  a good selection of material here, and something for everybody who enjoys using whips, or is looking to increase the versatility or lethality of whip-like weapons.Chapter 4 - Whip Prestige Classes: This chapters present four whip-based prestige classes - Thunderchild (a prestige class with a fighting style based on sonic abilities akin to thunderstrikes), Nailo Shalanth Whip Duelist (capable of striking like the wind, and disappearing into shadow), Ophidian Skinbearer (a prestige class blending the power of the snake and whip), and Whimsy (a battlefield master with a whip). My overall impression was that these were presented on a 'dime-a-dozen' basis, in other words, with very little background material or fluff to really enable you to use the class effectively. The Whip Duelist and Skinbearer classes, for instance, contain a whopping two sentences of description before diving into the mechanics. However, while the fluff parts are very poor, there is some good mechanics, and the Ophidian Skinbearer is a very nice and interesting class with that something that says 'Use me', although written all over the mechanics rather than the flavor portions of the prestige class. I'd would've liked to see a lot more material on these prestige classes rather than just presenting pure mechanics.The chapter concludes with two sample NPCs that illustrate the concepts explained and detailed in this pdf. While not necessarily useable due to high CRs (28 and 10 respectively), they do show what can be done with the mechanics, and what combinations work well, something useful to most gamers.Chapter 5 - Whip Magic: The last chapter concludes with a handful of spells, some additional weapon enhancements (e.g. locking to avoid disarming or animated for whips) and several special magic and psionic whips. Nothing particularly jumped out of the page, but it's generally well done and the special weapons are worth a look at. The chapter concludes by presenting Ford, the god of Adventure for those interested in a whip-deity.Conclusions:E.N. Arsenal: Whip presents 23 pages of material to expand on whips and whip-like variants. Despite some of the layout issues making the text difficult to read, it contains some good content, and some material stands out and is very usable although not necessarily a must-have. Of course, being that it exclusively deals with whips, it's not a product that going to be used by everyone, but I think players that like whips and DMs hoping to design encounters based on renegade believers in a whip deity, for example, can certainly challenge their players with something different using this material. Of course, a lot of the material takes whips beyond their normal abilities, so if you don't want to expand on that, this may not be for you. Based on layout issues, content that's usable for anybody interested in whips, balanced material and some interesting concepts, I'd grade this with three and a half stars, rounding up to four stars.</blockquote>

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