The Spell Compendium!!! Thanks Wizards!

[mirivor]

I don't do this often, but I wanted to send a hearty Gratzi to any Wizards employee who may be surfing this board. I have been waiting an eternity for this book, advertised in Dragon Magazine this month. I HATE lugging 50 pounds worth of books to my weekly games so this book will be a lifesaver! Now I only want a complete book of feats...

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

you mean this?

Spell Compendium provides players and Dungeon Masters with quick access to the D&D spells they need most. Drawing from a treasure trove of sources, Spell Compendium is the one place to find spells that are referenced time and again: the best, most iconic, most popular, and most frequently used. This convenient reference introduces a new spell format that includes descriptive text.

The description makes me a little suspicious... they mention the most popular, most iconic spells... makes me believe that instead of getting the majority of the spells from WotC sources, we're only going to get a small fraction... :\

AR

 

[Jer]

you mean this?



The description makes me a little suspicious... they mention the most popular, most iconic spells... makes me believe that instead of getting the majority of the spells from WotC sources, we're only going to get a small fraction... :\

AR

There's a thread about this over on the WotC messageboards:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=452060&page=2&pp=30

With this quote from Andy Collins:

I think y'all may be reading just a little bit too much into the (admittedly vague) promo page.

The Spell Compendium isn't a "quick reference" to spells published elsewhere, nor is it a haphazard collection of a handful of the spells that've come before.

It's a massive collection of D&D spells collected from a wide range of official source material published throughout the lifespan of 3rd edition and carefully developed to maximize utility and gameplay.

Is it "every spell ever written"? Not quite, but we estimate it's roughly 90% or so of the (non-PH) spells that had been published between 2000 and early 2005 (when the design/development work was occurring). Spell Compendium will have more spells in one place than any 3E D&D product has ever contained, and I'm including the PH in that list!

I'm not going to go into more detail than that--I'm sure the website will be previewing this book later this fall--but I wanted to clear up this basic misconception.

And later in the same thread:

I wasn't on the Dev team for SpellComp (Michael Donais, Steve Schubert, and Rob Watkins handled it), so my knowledge only goes so far. Thus, I'm not a good source for in-depth Q&A; even if I were, that sort of thing should really wait for the website news & such later this fall.

I can say for certain that PH spells are NOT reprinted in it. It's one thing to collect material from dozens of sources in the aim of providing a "one-stop-shop" for spellcasters, but reprinting 120+ pages from a book the game already expects you to own didn't seem like a very wise use of resources.

The book doesn't have a "focus" other than "spells." Yes, there are some spells from FR products in there, but honestly the vast majority of "FR" spells are largely indistinguishable from "D&D" spells so my guess is most readers won't even register a difference. Sure, you and I might be able to remember the origin of a particular spell as coming from one of those spellbooks that Ed Greenwood wrote about in Dragon the 80s, but we must accept that we're on the fringe of that particular bell curve.

And speaking of that august periodical, I'll also confirm that Dragon magazine (from debut of 3E to present) was one of the sources for Spell Compendium.

Oh, and before everyone gets excited about making requests, remember that by the time a catalog appears, the book's already been designed and developed--as intelligent and well-meant as your requests and comments might be, we don't really have any ability to act on them. Like it or not, that's just one of those realities of our publishing schedule...

As for the "Will there be a Spell Compendium II" question, y'all know that we don't talk about products that aren't yet in a catalog. As is always true, sales numbers speak very loudly, so logic tells me that if this product does well we'd certainly consider a "sequel" that collected spells from additional resources, but I don't have any more insight than that.

So, judging by this and what's in the catalog entry, the Spell Compendium will:

1. Not reprint spells from the Player's Handbook
2. Contain more spells than any other book (including the PHB)
3. Contain spells collected from books throughout 3rd edition's lifespan, including setting-specific ones
4. Contain spells gathered from Dragon Magazine since the 3e rollout

Given that, and the fact that this book is supposed to be a 288 page hardcover (almost the size of the PHB), I'd imagine that if you're looking for a book that reprints most of the good spells that have shown up over the last few years, you stand a chance of being happy with this book.

I mean, there's no way they're going to be able to get ALL of the spells that have been printed over the last 5 years into a book that size. We're not looking at a replacement for the 2e Wizard's Spell Compendium series here, after all. But, I also wouldn't put too much weight on the term "most iconic" either. Lately the word "iconic" seems to be bandied about by Wizard's the same way others use the word "ultimate" - I think it just means "spells that have been / seem to be the most useful in-game" in this instance.

 

[JoeBlank]

Thanks for the info, Jer. This is looking like the only WotC book I'll buy this year.

Is that odd? I probably have half of the spells already, but rarely spend the time digging thru magazines and splat books. And I have only 1 of the Complete books, no Races books, really nothing WotC since Complete Warrior and Eberron.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Thanks, Jer, this alleviates my suspicion.

Is it just me, or the first blurbs about WotC books are often confusing and prone to anxious speculations (it did something similar when they announced Magic of Incarnum).

AR

 

[EdL]

There's a thread about this over on the WotC messageboards:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=452060&page=2&pp=30

2. Contain more spells than any other book (including the PHB)
3. Contain spells collected from books throughout 3rd edition's lifespan, including setting-specific ones
4. Contain spells gathered from Dragon Magazine since the 3e rollout

That sounds like it should be pretty confuing to me. In other words, it will contain 3.0 and 3.5 spells. So if its alphabetized...

 

[coyote6]

The spells are alleged to have been updated. Which is good, because some of 'em need it. Especially including 3e spells that have already been "redone" in 3.5e books.

(Everyone, wave to Complete Divine.)

 

[IronWolf]

This looks like one that will hit my "To Buy" list. Having a larger list of non-PHB spells in one place (even if it just ones considered worthy of reprint) would be a good thing.

 

[Bihor]

What's realy tick me is that I just finish mine and it took me serval years to do it.

 

[RichGreen]

Is that odd? I probably have half of the spells already, but rarely spend the time digging thru magazines and splat books. And I have only 1 of the Complete books, no Races books, really nothing WotC since Complete Warrior and Eberron.

It's not odd. I have quite a lot of the books they've brought out for 3.x, but it's very handy having one big book full of spells. It's the only must-buy for me from the autumn WotC releases.

Cheers


Richard