On the Path of Magic..........
I got this book last night and just finished reading the section on items of power.
There are three basic types: Expendable Foci, Fonts, and Elditch Staffs. All are nicely writen up. Both the foci and the staffs are usefull and balanced.
The foci are basicly temporly magic items that allow you to metamagic spells per the Metamagic rods in B&T. They are flexible but have a very unusal draw back. They cost you the tempory lost of hit points that are not regained until the item is lost. Over all I like them, they will add favor to a few spell casters that can't begotten in other ways while the hit point thing will prevent them being used by everspell caster.
The fonts are more of a campain style item, but do provide a good reason that you have mages making magic items with out adventuring. (I will need to read and ponder this section before I make a final call on it)
The staff off lots of nice innate ablity like stuff but at a cost equal to the power being embedded in the staff. These can range from losing a single spell (Almost free) through a losing a spell slot permanetly to subtracting the number powers embedded in the staff from all school that are of a different one then the power you are paying for.
