Magic Item Compendium

[johnnype]

I'm almost certain I'm buying it but what's most important to me is as complete a list of magic item special materials as possible. For example, glassteel (I think it's called) is detailed as a sidebar in one of the Forgotten Realms sourcebooks. Even though I own the book it took me days to find the entry. Having all the materials listed and detailed in one place will add a lot of flexibility to weapon design. The same thing goes for special abilities, many of which appear all over the WotC D&D library.

Bastion Press had something very similar to this book in Arms & Armor v 3.5. The book is great but it includes many items, materials, and abilities from third party publishers and some of them are rather wonky. I expect better from WotC.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The new magic item format is a lot like a spell description; it takes up slightly more space than DMG descriptions, but a lot less space than the really expanded listings in some recent books. (DMG2?) It includes a listing for what slot an item uses.

Cheers!

I'm just hoping that they eliminate the redundancies of description. Big waste of space in the Spell Compendium reading about what a spell looks like and does and then reading reworded information that states almost the exact same thing.

"An exquisitely crafted long sword with a ruby pommel"

This ruby pommeled exquisitely crafted long sword is +2 flaming.

Bad editors, no cookies for you!

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

I'm looking forward to it, as I am a big fan of all things magic-item (and I wrote some material for it, so I want to see that in its final format). As for it being a shopping list for players, I seriously doubt I'll have any more trouble with that than I do the Spell Compendium, or for that matter the DMG or A&EG. But I can take a tough stance with players when I need to, and generally I don't even need to.

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

Need better cheap magic options?
Get Loot 4 Less II: Rods, Staves and Wands

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Since I don't buy any Eberron or FR-specific stuff any more (got the campaign setting for each, liked 'em, but decided they weren't for me), I'm hoping the magic items from their sourcebooks will be reprinted in the compendium, although I noticed that the Web enhancement spells for at least one FR product didn't make it into the Spell Compendium, so maybe not.

 

[Xath]

As to magic items for lesser used slots (vest/shirt for example), I simply make my own... Shirt of Intellect +2! The enhancement bonuses don't stack, so no throwing on a headband of intellect with it. I've done that so long, I can't even remember if that's a real rule or my house rule.

IIRC, each item slot has a type of enhancement that it is designed for. You can make items for slots with a different type, but I think it knocks the price up either by 1.5 or 2 times base.

 

[Stalker0]

I'm just hoping that they eliminate the redundancies of description. Big waste of space in the Spell Compendium reading about what a spell looks like and does and then reading reworded information that states almost the exact same thing.

"An exquisitely crafted long sword with a ruby pommel"

This ruby pommeled exquisitely crafted long sword is +2 flaming.

Bad editors, no cookies for you!

A lot of people like descriptions for their magic items though, they enjoy visualizing what it looks like.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

IIRC, each item slot has a type of enhancement that it is designed for. You can make items for slots with a different type, but I think it knocks the price up either by 1.5 or 2 times base.

1.5 is right.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I'll be getting this. Then, I'll do as I did with the Spell Compendium, and tell my players, "the magic items in this and the DMG are all the magic items you can select. If you want something else, you have to research it in-game."

Truth be told, the Spell Compendium has seen surprisingly little use at my table, something that actually disappoints me somewhat, and I expect the same to be true here. The major thing my players seem to want the supplements for is the Prestige Classes, and I expect to not see a PrC compendium and time soon.

Surprising. My players have taken to the Spell Compendium and it has proved to be the most consulted resource at the table after the PhB. I don't even think the MM sees as much use. It is absolutely certain that the DMG does not.

I'll be getting the Magic Item Compendium. I have probably all (or nearly all) the books it draws from but an all in one is still very handy to have.

Can the Feat Compendium be far behind?

 

[delericho]

Surprising.

Yeah. I kept getting bugged, over and over, to allow material outside the core. Then I did, and none of it gets used!

Can the Feat Compendium be far behind?

I hope not.

 

[Arnwyn]

Are you looking forward to this book? What are you hoping to see in it?

Absolutely. As a DM, this is the only 'compendium' book I'll be interested in (I'm skipping things like the Spell Compendium and any other compendium, like feats and/or PrCs). This book should help me introduce a myriad of different magic items into my campaign much more quickly and easily than I can now, thanks to everything being on one spot (hopefully including a gp price tables).

What am I hoping to see? What you mentioned in you OP would be nice:
- "I know they're not going to include every item from the DMG, but it'd be nice to see a unified treasure % table from all of the books which shows which book and which page the item is on."

That would be very much appreciated. I also hope to see it fit in as much as possible, in a space-efficient format.