John Cooper
Explorer
LOOT 4 LESS VOL. II: RODS, STAFFS & WANDS
By Owen K.C. Stephens
Interactive Design Adventures product number IDA60004
16-page PDF, $1.25
Loot 4 Less vol. II: Rods, Staffs & Wands is the second in the aggravatingly titled "Loot 4 Less" series by Owen K.C. Stephens dealing with magic items with a market price of 2,500 gp or less. Given the title of this PDF, I'll bet you can all guess which three types of magic item this volume focuses on.
Like the first volume (Loot 4 Less: Rings & Things), there is not a stitch of artwork in this PDF; Owen foregoes artwork completely to save money (and passes those saving on to you!). Still, a series concentrating on new magic items is arguably the type of series that needs artwork the least - who out there doesn't know what a rod, staff, or wand looks like? Again, I'd say this was a good call on his part.
Owen makes a couple of bold moves with this volume. He completely disregards the d20 "definitions" of staffs and wands and makes up his own. Traditionally, rods and wands are "charged" items (each holding 50 charges), and when the charges are used up, the item is pretty much useless. This strikes Owen as just being wrong, considering that a fighter with a magic weapon doesn't have his weapon drained of magical usefulness after 50 swings (and I have to admit, he really has a point there). So...Owen chucks away the traditional definitions and makes up his own, recreating the definitions to better fit his vision. Now, before anybody gets turned off by this approach, I want to point out that Owen has already acknowledged that this approach isn't going to be for everyone, and he's found a way for even "traditionalists" to use the material in this PDF. You can either consider these to be variant staffs and wands, or Owen even comes up with other types of magic items that these rules could be applied to - his variant wands, for example, could be used as additional powers applied to normal magic wands, or they could even be converted over to rings or athames (ritual daggers used to aid magical ceremonies). And Owen even manages to come up with a few examples of staffs and wands using the existing rules for such things, that still fit into his self-imposed "2,500 gp or less" limitation. (There are no such problems with rods, as magic rods tend to be somewhat "catch-all" - there's no real definition as to what they can do.)
So, the changes that Owen makes boil down to having staffs provide the spellcaster with access to spells he might otherwise not have access to - in a way, the staff is loaded up with a spell or spells much like a ring of spell storing, only when you cast that spell, it doesn't "leave" the staff; rather, you use your own spell slots to power the casting. A very neat solution, I think. Likewise, his new version of wands involves providing enhancement bonuses to Caster Level, area, duration, effect, range, targets, and/or save DCs to a limited number of spell schools (or even a limited number of specific spells). So again, the new staff or wand is going to remain useful throughout a spellcaster's entire career, not used up after 50 uses and thrown away.
In a PDF with 16 pages (one of which is the cover, one page the Table of Contents/Credits page, one the Open Game License, and one a "back page" of advertisement for the product, leaving only 12 pages of actual content), I'm not going to be able to say as much as I normally would in one of my reviews. Still, while I liked the content of Vol II much more than I did Vol I, the proofreading and editing jobs still are somewhat disappointing, considering that there are two editors going over this stuff. In less than an hour, I managed to compile a full page of noted errors; couldn't another hour have been spent readying this PDF for sale to the public? Granted, most of them are just irritants, as opposed to things that will make the material difficult to understand or use, but I'm always one for having material people are expected to pay money for - no matter how much or how little - look like a professional product. As always, I'll pass on my "errata list" to the publisher and allow him to take it from there.
In any case, Loot 4 Less vol. II: Rods, Staffs & Wands was an enjoyable read, made the more so due to Owen's knowledge of the ins and outs of the d20 system, his ability to break down concepts and rebuild them in a logical fashion, and his willingness to explain the thought processes behind what changes are being made and why. (He also has a good sense of humor, as evidenced by the names of the sample PCs he concocts to make his points. Even if you're not sure what "Spoonerisms" are, you'll find a couple of cute examples in this PDF.) I give Loot 4 Less vol. II: Rods, Staffs & Wands a rating of "4 (Good)."
By Owen K.C. Stephens
Interactive Design Adventures product number IDA60004
16-page PDF, $1.25
Loot 4 Less vol. II: Rods, Staffs & Wands is the second in the aggravatingly titled "Loot 4 Less" series by Owen K.C. Stephens dealing with magic items with a market price of 2,500 gp or less. Given the title of this PDF, I'll bet you can all guess which three types of magic item this volume focuses on.
Like the first volume (Loot 4 Less: Rings & Things), there is not a stitch of artwork in this PDF; Owen foregoes artwork completely to save money (and passes those saving on to you!). Still, a series concentrating on new magic items is arguably the type of series that needs artwork the least - who out there doesn't know what a rod, staff, or wand looks like? Again, I'd say this was a good call on his part.
Owen makes a couple of bold moves with this volume. He completely disregards the d20 "definitions" of staffs and wands and makes up his own. Traditionally, rods and wands are "charged" items (each holding 50 charges), and when the charges are used up, the item is pretty much useless. This strikes Owen as just being wrong, considering that a fighter with a magic weapon doesn't have his weapon drained of magical usefulness after 50 swings (and I have to admit, he really has a point there). So...Owen chucks away the traditional definitions and makes up his own, recreating the definitions to better fit his vision. Now, before anybody gets turned off by this approach, I want to point out that Owen has already acknowledged that this approach isn't going to be for everyone, and he's found a way for even "traditionalists" to use the material in this PDF. You can either consider these to be variant staffs and wands, or Owen even comes up with other types of magic items that these rules could be applied to - his variant wands, for example, could be used as additional powers applied to normal magic wands, or they could even be converted over to rings or athames (ritual daggers used to aid magical ceremonies). And Owen even manages to come up with a few examples of staffs and wands using the existing rules for such things, that still fit into his self-imposed "2,500 gp or less" limitation. (There are no such problems with rods, as magic rods tend to be somewhat "catch-all" - there's no real definition as to what they can do.)
So, the changes that Owen makes boil down to having staffs provide the spellcaster with access to spells he might otherwise not have access to - in a way, the staff is loaded up with a spell or spells much like a ring of spell storing, only when you cast that spell, it doesn't "leave" the staff; rather, you use your own spell slots to power the casting. A very neat solution, I think. Likewise, his new version of wands involves providing enhancement bonuses to Caster Level, area, duration, effect, range, targets, and/or save DCs to a limited number of spell schools (or even a limited number of specific spells). So again, the new staff or wand is going to remain useful throughout a spellcaster's entire career, not used up after 50 uses and thrown away.
In a PDF with 16 pages (one of which is the cover, one page the Table of Contents/Credits page, one the Open Game License, and one a "back page" of advertisement for the product, leaving only 12 pages of actual content), I'm not going to be able to say as much as I normally would in one of my reviews. Still, while I liked the content of Vol II much more than I did Vol I, the proofreading and editing jobs still are somewhat disappointing, considering that there are two editors going over this stuff. In less than an hour, I managed to compile a full page of noted errors; couldn't another hour have been spent readying this PDF for sale to the public? Granted, most of them are just irritants, as opposed to things that will make the material difficult to understand or use, but I'm always one for having material people are expected to pay money for - no matter how much or how little - look like a professional product. As always, I'll pass on my "errata list" to the publisher and allow him to take it from there.
In any case, Loot 4 Less vol. II: Rods, Staffs & Wands was an enjoyable read, made the more so due to Owen's knowledge of the ins and outs of the d20 system, his ability to break down concepts and rebuild them in a logical fashion, and his willingness to explain the thought processes behind what changes are being made and why. (He also has a good sense of humor, as evidenced by the names of the sample PCs he concocts to make his points. Even if you're not sure what "Spoonerisms" are, you'll find a couple of cute examples in this PDF.) I give Loot 4 Less vol. II: Rods, Staffs & Wands a rating of "4 (Good)."
