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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9455460" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/H8wWj6B.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />But it’s not just living things that are of interest to anglers. Junk covers all sorts of bric-a-brac someone can pull up from fishing. While a lot of such Junk is of questionable value, sometimes an angler might net a nice prize. Like fish, Junk can be caught on a Fishing Table with results differing by environment. A few Junk items are related to the side-quests of NPCs detailed in the regional chapters, and some Junk is unique meaning it can only be obtained once. Some of the more interesting Junk includes an Ancient Automaton (a humanoid construct that can be trained as a Companion), Behemoth Lure* (an angry aboleth with enhanced stats that is a Combat Encounter), Bone Shiv (can be used as a dagger worth 250 gold, carved from a large creature), Box of Screams (a magical box with creepy faces carved on it, when opened once per long rest can emit screaming voices that are an AoE attack imposing the frightened condition), Brittle Tablet* (an ancient stone tablet that summons a hostile Pit Fiend when touched or read), Espionage Briefcase (waterproof container filled with highly sensitive political material of a long-dead kingdom), Farewell Letter (correspondence from a sailor writing their final moments on a sinking ship, professing their love for their partner and two daughters), Fish’s Shadow (an immaterial shadow that somehow got caught by the angler and struggles as though it were the real thing, dissolves in direct sunlight), Glowing Snail (a snail that emits natural light and can be attached to any surface, worth 500 gold), Knuckle Dusters (a simple melee weapon worth 10 gold that enhances one’s unarmed strikes to deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage if they don’t already do that much), Message in a Bottle (a treasure map that can be deciphered on an Investigation check with retries once per short rest, leads the party to a chest full of gold and precious objects), and an Onyx Tablet (has Infernal writing, a character who speaks the language and expends an 8th level spell slot destroys the tablet and opens a portal to the Hells).*Not to worry, the Combat Encounters occur only in environments of appropriate level, so 1st level parties won’t experience a TPK from inadvertently summoning an archdevil!Thoughts: All of the listed fish fit into the Fishing Tables in the sample environments that make up the rest of this book, so lazy DMs won’t have to do much work in crafting their own tables to insert these aforementioned fish into campaigns. I really like how the book emphasizes how otherwise mundane animals would evolve and adapt to the strange environments of fantasy worlds, and granting many fish unique abilities in evading capture works on both a gamist level for providing challenge and also a verisimilitude level for plausible world-building. One concern that I do have is that while most fish don’t have proper stats, quite a bit of them have rather nifty abilities that will cause a Druid or Polymorph enjoyer to query about the possibility of shapeshifting into otherwise small and harmless animals with powerful features. While it’s clear that it’s not in the spirit of the mini-game, on the verisimilitude and game balance level it may feel too artificial if a DM simply says “no” without a clever explanation. Last but not least, the Spicesquid’s ability to make an expensive piece of food once per day can open up an awful lot of free money to PCs. And given that the following section and several shops have monetary values for a lot of good equipment, this is something that DMs should look out for.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/4IxJXUT.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> EquipmentUnless you plan on fishing with your hands, every good angler is in need of some gear, and this chapter’s got it in spades! We start things out with some new Crafting Rules that are simple enough to fit on a single page. Basically, building an item is a Crafting Project and requires proficiency in an appropriate tool associated with the kind of artisanship being used. A character dedicates an Activity to building the item, and their progress is measured in the Material Value of resources. The quality of their tools determines how much gold pieces’ worth of Material Value they can commit to per Activity, Much like magic items, such tools have qualities ranging from Common to Legendary in granting a bonus on relevant tool checks. While gold pieces can be used to purchase typical resources on a one-for-one basis, Potential Ingredients are materials considered highly appropriate for the item’s creation and count as double their value for Crafting Projects. Once the total amount of effective gold pieces equals the item’s market value, the item is created.The upside of this crafting system is that it allows characters to effectively purchase items for half price if they have enough Potential Ingredients. And to further encourage interaction with the fishing mini-game, harvested Fish Parts count as Potential Ingredients for all items detailed in this book, even for things that may not exactly make sense like cannons and diving suits. Then again, with how many fish are outright magical in this book I suppose it can be justified via An Artificer Did It.Moving onto new items proper, they’re divided based on appropriate categories. For brevity I won’t detail every item listed, instead focusing on the most interesting ones. The book also provides a new rule for attunement, where some items in this book require a user attune to it but don’t take up any attunement slots. Several of them aren’t necessarily weak or trivial magic items either, so I’m a bit unsure as to the design decisions behind this choice. Additionally, every item in this book has a listed price in gold pieces, even magical items.Adventuring Gear details items typically sported by dungeon-delvers, explorers, questing knights, and similar RPG protagonists and swords-for-hire. We have mounts such as an Actual Arachnid that can climb up walls or a Dunestalker Goat-Elk that can scale steep inclines, an autoswimmer diving suit that grants a swim speed and sheds light, various kinds of magical gear that grant +1 to +3 bonuses for various checks for the fishing mini-game,* Frost Rods that can flash freeze caught fish to make them easier to catch up to 3 times per long rest, Hiking Boots that ignore caltrops and difficult terrain in mountainous environments, and Rain Gear that lets one fish without penalty during rainy weather and won’t suffer Exhaustion from rain-related weather effects.*Such as Barbed Gloves for the Noodling Style and the Carving Blade for harvesting Fish Parts.Armor details new sets of protective gear, such as the Hermitshell Armor which is a +1 half plate that lets the wearer hide inside the armor to gain various defensive benefits; or the Mail of Hooked Chains, a +2 Chain Mail that can animate one of its chains as an action to be used as a slashing reach weapon that can then grapple struck enemies as a bonus action.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/eV5mogz.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Consumables details various kinds of bait and bobbers whose market value is based on the environments in which they’re used. Using environment-appropriate bait grants +10 to the Fishing Table result, while an appropriate Bobber lets the angler roll an additional d20 for a Fishing Check and chooses which result to keep. The six more mundane and lower-level environments are very affordable for PCs, ranging from 1 to 10 gold pieces, but the Tier 3 environments of Arctic, Desert, Underground, and Ocean jump up to 100 gold pieces, while bait and bobbers for the Tier 4 Deep Ocean and Hells are 1,000 gold pieces each.The bulk of Consumables are covered by Food, items which are consumed during Activities to grant boons to the eater. They all remove at least 1 Fishing Ordeal, and they have a Meal Effect that is typically single-use that must be spent in the next hour or long rest. All such Effects can only apply once for a character until the next long rest, preventing possible abuse of more powerful abilities stacked on top of each other. The Baked Stuff Flat Fish lets a character regain an expended spell slot up to 3rd level, Dragonfire Soup lets someone add 1d4 to their next Fishing Check, Meal O’Plenty grants a free bonus Hit Die for recovering damage during a rest, and Pebblefish Poppers heal 1d6+1 hit points and grants the effect of True Strike to the consumer’s next attack roll within the next hour.Miscellaneous covers items that don’t fit anywhere else: three different one-use Manuscripts written in Infernal parchment let a reader sacrifice an aspect of their talents (ability score, skill, or tool proficiency) by reducing or losing it in exchange for raising or gaining another; Naval Mines are bombs that explode when a creature or object of at least Small size moves within 5 feet, dealing force damage in a 10 foot radius; Prisma Paint is a consumable item with 5 charges that can either grant advantage on tool checks with Painter’s Supplies or cast Color Spray; Drop of Moonlight is a piece of water from the moon that fell to the planet, and has 7 charges that can either cast Moonbeam or consumed to gain the permanent ability to transform into a Beast of CR 2 or less once per short rest for up to one hour.Poisons, Potions, and Oils are three different categories, but I’m covering them together for convenience. Oil of Bone Growth and Oil of Iron Blood are applied to non-magical melee weapons and armors respectively, granting them a magical +1 enhancement bonus for the next hour. Burrowing Slayer is a poison that deals 8d10 necrotic damage initially and for every 24 hours they fail a Constitution saving throw, and also reduces their maximum hit points by that amount. Friendly Neighbor is a poison that deals poison damage, the Poisoned condition, and causes a creature to become paranoid for 24 hours and be wary of all other creatures for that time. Fine Wine is a potion that causes a drinker’s Strength to increase by 2 but their Intelligence and Wisdom to decrease by 2 for one minute. Panic Potion causes the drinker to shift into the Ethereal Plane once they hit 0 hit points, dropping to one hit point instead and can choose to return to the Material Plane at any point later, healing more damage once they do so. Polymorph Potion lets the drinker cast Polymorph on themselves but they don’t have to maintain concentration. Potion of Fairy Vision grants darkvision and the ability to see invisible creatures for 1 hour, but the drinker is blinded for 1 hour once that duration wears off. Potion of Twinned Essence lets the drinker maintain concentration on two spells at once. Primal Potion lets a drinker choose to succeed on one failed saving throw made within the next hour.We’ve got quite a bit of Thrown and Weapons items for offensively-minded characters. For the former category we got various Elemental Bombs that deal 3d6 of certain energy damage types in a 10 foot radius, Flashbulbs that can blind targets, Mist Bombs that generate mist similar to the Fog Cloud spell but for up to 10 minutes, and the powerful Maw Bomb that deals force damage, pulls targets closer to the point of detonation, and turns the area into difficult terrain. We also have 23 different types of weapons, such as the Battle Fishing Rod that can rig weapons onto it to gain the Reach and Versatile properties; the sun-enchanted Brightblade shortsword that deals radiant instead of piercing damage and can cast Flame Strike once per long rest; the Ether Oar favored by extraplanar mariners for its ability to cast Dimension Door once per long rest and strike enemies up to 30 feet away 3 times per short or long rest by tearing holes in space-time; the coral-studded Razor’s Razor spear once wielded by a famous merfolk that can let the wearer launch themselves in a charge attack to deal bonus damage, grants advantage on Performance checks, and can add the wielder’s Charisma modifier to damage once per turn; the Roper-Tendril Whip made from the namesake monster that grants the wielder similar abilities to grapple and reel in struck targets; and the mundane Harpoon and Reinforced Spiked Net weapons, the former of which is a finesse reach and thrown weapon which can attack with both ends as per Two-Weapon Fighting, and the latter that can restrain and pull in targets and the wielder can deal damage to them as a bonus action.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/RhYw56Y.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Of the various categories, the Wondrous Items have the most by far, with 32 new items. They include such pieces like the Bag of Aquatic Holding which are extradimensional spaces filled to the brim with water that doesn’t count against its weight and are designed to hold fish and other items that need constant submersion; the Clockwork Crystal that has 20 charges which it can feed into attached magic items, restoring their charges on a one-for-one basis; the Cup of Infinite Tea that can refill its contents with tea once per day that removes 1 Fishing Ordeal when drunk; the Eternal Beacon that provides 500 days’ worth of continual light and are typically mounted on lighthouses and sea vessels; the Full Moon Amulet that grants +1 to AC and saving throws (doesn’t stack with Cloak of Protection), can let the wielder reroll a natural 1 once per day, and cast the Moonbeam spell once per day; the Gazing Eye talisman that grants x-ray vision at will and can cast Arcane Eye once per long rest without material components; Hearthfire Lantern which can be magically lit at will for 1 hour per gold piece placed into the lantern (doesn’t specify if the gold is consumed or not, meaning it may have potential infinite use depending on the DM’s call) and makes those within its light immune to negative consequences from cold temperatures; the Living Aquarium, a specially-trained noncombatant water elemental that can comfortably house aquatic creatures within itself; the Mask of the Blobfish that is at once gross and pitiable to behold, letting the wearer become amorphous 3 times per long rest to squeeze through small openings and once per long rest can force an attacker to choose someone else to attack instead if they fail a Wisdom save; the Mounted Cannon, which can fire once per minute yet requires no ammunition, dealing 4d10 fire damage as a ranged weapon attack; the Resonant Flute, which once per long rest can cast Shatter when played with a high one, and also once per long rest auto-dispel any affect that would inflict the Charmed, Deafened, or Frightened conditions as a reaction by playing a piercing note; and the Sharkbite Necklace, which 3 times per long rest as a reaction can halve the damage dealt by a non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing attack.Thoughts: I really like a lot of the new items provided, and I also enjoy the inclusion of a crafting system that works well with the fishing mini-game. Giving a gold piece value to everything here is helpful in being used with said crafting system, but in so doing it does make me concerned that PCs at higher tiers of play can easily end up with a lot of powerful items. For instance, while they’re a pricey 2,000 gold, the potion that lets someone maintain concentration on two spells at once is going to have any spellcaster worth their salt make a beeline for crafting them during downtime. And Clockwork Crystals can be potentially broken when used to restore charges of very potent magic items.I do like the inclusion of various items designed for underwater exploration, particularly the autoswimmer. And including special bait, bobbies, and magic items granting numerical bonuses on Fishing Checks for certain Styles rewards players who spend gold (and therefore resources) on making themselves better at fishing. The universal applicability of Fish Parts for crafting every item in this book also opens up such gear to PCs who invest heavily in the mini-game as a bit of an early reward.I also like the addition of Food as a rest-based consumable resource; they’re not something that can be chowed down on in the middle of combat to gain their effects, so limiting them to Activities (and therefore short and long rests) feels both balanced and plausible. It also helps out with the easy-going feel of fishing, of characters setting down for a meal while catching fish on the beach or a lake.Thoughts So Far: My overall opinions can be summed up in the individual Thoughts listed above, but overall the in-depth system looks robust and flavorful enough to not get old after a few tries. My main concerns are aspects where mechanics brush hard against verisimilitude, where even if done for the sake of game balance I feel can be done in a less clunky, more plausible way.Join us next time as we check out some sample environments for fishing and questing, such as sunny Plains and scenic Mountains!</blockquote>

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