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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="KDLadage" data-source="post: 2008783" data-attributes="member: 88">updated on 22-NOV-02Before I begin, let me say that it really hurts to have to write this review. Up until this point, all of the Class Books (Sword and Fist, Song and Silence, and so on and so forth) I have given a lenient hand to. For the most part, this is due to the fact that I figure much of the book is written to the newbie who might not think of some of the things that the book presents (while a good many of us old timers will have already thought of it, it might not be something we thought to tell the newbie)... so on that mode of thinking, even such things as the Hero Builder's Guidebook are of value -- real, measurable value. Overall, even giving that level of thought, Masters of the Wild is a disappointing volume.Like most of these volumes, it opens up with a page of Introduction, What this book is not, and How to use this book -- basically a rehash of the material in most of the others. Not bad, overall.Chapter I is called Nature's Lore and examines the role of the Barbarian, the Druid and the Ranger over the next 13 pages. It covers such topics as When to Rage, choosing your Wild Shape and choosing your Favored Enemy. Interestingly, the single-mindedness of the base class Ranger is admitted in this text, and a variation of the Ranger is provided -- the Urban Ranger; a sort of cross between the Ranger and the Rogue that would be best simulated as a multi-classes Ranger/Rogue than with this odd variation. At least in my opinion.The Skills section follows, and it is a bit light; then come the feats...Oh blessed mother of Christ, these feats could not have been playtested. It is just simply impossible. Specifically, I cannot believe that they took more than a few moments considering the implications of Dragon's Toughness, Dwarf's Toughness, and Giant's Toughness -- all of which are made available to Fighters as their Bonus Feats... Strangely, none of these feats require Toughness as a Prerequisite -- a fact that might have balanced them off a bit. Others that I will certainly have to look over before I allow them in any of my games include: Natural Spell (the ability to cast spells while Wild Shaped), Power Critical (automatic Critical threats, once per day), Supernatural Blow (ability to make critical hits against creatures otherwise immune to critical hits), and so on.The next section, Tools of the Trade is not too bad. The section on Infusions is actually pretty good. In the Animals section, they split the creature charts across non-facing pages again -- one of my pet-peeves.On page 43, and continuing to page 79, we have 20 Prestige Classes... none of which I feel are very interesting at all. The Eye of Gruumsh is fine, although I believe it was in Dragon before here. The Oozemaster is just plain... well, I'll let you decide that one. The others are just plain boring. And, if one considers the writings that WotC has put out concerning the purpose of Prestige Classes, none of these fit.The New Spells are next -- they are fine, if less than spectacular. I do like a few of the lower level utility spells...And that completes the book.THE CONCLUSIONAnd so... as much as I would like to give this book a "2" -- it is not that the book is really bad; it is about average. It is just that I had hoped that the level of utility would be at least as good as the previous books. If it did not have the few shining points of light in it, it would get a "2" instead of the "3" I am giving it. But if this trend continues, I fear that some "2" are in the WotC future for these books...</blockquote>

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