Spell Compendium: Is it worth the $$

[Thomas Percy]

There are no spells from PHB, so it's not a complete book, it's just-another book.

 

[Thanee]

It's a good book, but not outstanding. If you already have the Complete books and you do not care too much about the numerous revisions done there or the spells from campaign settings you do not have, it's not really that great. If you dislike browsing through multiple books for spells, it might be worth it for that alone, though.

Unfortunately, it will still be at least two books then (PHB+SC) and - naturally - new spells are not included, so the number of books is growing again (PHB II, Complete Mage, ...), if you want to have the most important books available.

The revisions are (to me) the biggest selling point of the book, but that alone isn't really worth the price.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Kerrick]

It's all right... I've cracked it open a grand total of about a dozen times since I bought it several months ago, and I like magic. I think it's partly because a) any spell I need, I can make myself (our group has a list of around 900 spells of its own); and b) there's only a handful of really cool spells in there - the rest are pretty much ho-hum. So, yeah - if you don't have the original sources and are looking for a big book o' spells, this would be a good buy.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

The three books in my gamer backpack are...

PHB
Complete Arcane
Spell Compendium

I like it alot.

DS

 

[philreed]

It's at Half-Price books for $13 these days. Stacks of them.

 

[Meloncov]

If you don't own the majority of splatbooks, its worth far more than the retail price if you play a spellcaster. If you do own most splatbooks or don't play many spellcasters, it falls into the moderately useful catagory.

 

[Andre]

I picked it up at Half-Price Books for $20 and got my money's worth. I wouldn't recommend it at full price.

 

[kaomera]

I picked it up at Half-Price Books for $20 and got my money's worth. I wouldn't recommend it at full price.

QFT. My FsLGS is doing inventory, so I expect to score one of their so-far unsold copies fairly cheap in a week or so (unless too many other gamers have the same idea...).

 

[Turjan]

Hey, this thread had birthday last week! Happy belated one !

And the book is still worth it .

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

The revisions are (to me) the biggest selling point of the book, but that alone isn't really worth the price.

Bye
Thanee

Yes,

But is it a carefully thought out revision based upon the years of experience that has occured in the years since the original spell came out?

Or:

Is it a complete editing Screw-Up?

Your educated guess is as good as mine.

The simple fact is, due to numerous editing errors, combined with numerous revisions, it's pretty well muddled as to whether any change is this book is one or the other.

Of course, I've been playing/running the games since the day it came out, so I can take a pretty good guess. But I'm still not 100% certain.

Of all the WoTC D&D Books I have, this is the one the MOST needs an errata out (After all it is supposed to be an EDITIED compilation).

Until WoTC releases an Errata for this book I will ALWAYS tell people to skip it.

If they actually bothered to tell people what changes were on purpose & which were oopsies, then I'd call this a Must Buy.

This book is just one of my pet peeves.

The book exists for 2 Reasons.

1. Compilation. Combine the best spells from dozens of sources for your convience.

2. Editing. The spells are fully revised & editing for 3.5 & rules balance.

Number 2 is a complete miss.

Realistically,

A spellcaster can get a lot of milage out of this one. But, there will be quite a few speed bumps along the way; and watch for an editing gaff to open up a rules hole you could drive Tiamat through.