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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="Terath Ninir" data-source="post: 2009923" data-attributes="member: 47">Hola!  This is my first review, but I love this book enough to post a review.  Psion has already covered the standard review very well.  I'll post this review from the point of view I have: I may never actually play this game, but it has many, many things worth using in other settings.The "Characters" chapter introduces the two new stats of Education and Social Standing.  Education could work in almost any setting, though it certainly isn't necessary.  Social Standing would be wonderful for many settings, especially feudal ones.  It would work well for knights in shining armour and for samurai.The races in the chapter seem well adapted to the d20 system.  While I would love to have the stats for the Droyne and the Hivers, I understand why they aren't included: they need a book of their own.  They are alien enough races that they would just take too much space to be in the core rulebook.The "Classes" chapter introduces some very well-done and well thought out classes.  They actually capture the feeling of the old Traveller, which I wasn't sure was possible in d20.  The bonus feats the gain are well thought out for each class.  I do have a quibble here, though.  Each class gives a bonus feat at first level, and every level that you aren't getting a regular feat or a bonus ability point.  This would be fine for a single-classed character, but it breaks down when a character multi-classes.  But this is a small quibble; it's simple enough to ignore or fix (by giving a bonus feat every level).The "Skills" section is, overall, excellent.  I plan on using it or a close relative in any modern or futuristic game I run.  Many new social skills are introduced, including Bribery, Broker, Leader, P/Administration, Recruiting, and Trader.  While a fantasy game like D&D may not need these, they are essential for running a more modern setting -- especially one that features trade and/or interaction with the government.The Technical cascade skill is a welcome addition.  While one could refer to the Craft/Electronics skill, the Technical/Electronics skill sounds much, much better.I also love that the term "cascade skill" has finally come to the d20 system.  I've always thought of Craft, Knowledge, and Profession as cascade skills.  Now they are.  I also like the shorthand system they introduce, where Profession (Administration) becomes P/Administration.The "Feats" section has some excellent modern feats in it.  I found, however, that the sample characters I created tended to only have the unique, class-related feats and very few feats from this section.  Tying in with my comments on the Class chapter, I would modify the rules slightly.  I would make the class-related feats into Talents (like d20 Modern), and give one every odd level.  On every even level, the class would give a bonus feat drawn from this chapter.  A pretty easy fix that ties the game closer to d20 Modern than D&D.The feats themselves are well-done and do not all revolve around combat, which is a problem with the D&D feats.    My favourite feat has to be Surgery -- not for what it does so much as the following quote:"Normal: Anyone may perform surgery without this feat.  The Surgery feat gives the patient a chance of surviving the experience."Comedy Gold, and a welcome addition to the often-dry prose of a feats section.The "Prior History" section is the most innovative section for the d20 system.  They've actually managed to capture the feel, if not all the details, of the old Traveller character generation system.  They also allow you to make older, more experienced characters, which is essential if you want to, say, do your own version of Stargate SG-1.  Some characters need to start out more experienced than others if you want to capture the feeling of a story or a movie.This section is one of the big reasons I'm recommending the book.  It can be used as-is for modern and futuristic settings, but it would not be too difficult to adapt it to a fantasy setting.  You could then have the grizzled old war hero and the venerable wizard with the group of brash youngsters, and they would have some history built up.The material benefits that a character can gain from their prior history could use a bit of balancing, though.  The system is inherently random, yes, but some benefits are much, much better than others.  For example, a Belter could earn a free Weapon, worth up to Cr1,000.  But it hardly compares to a +1 Intelligence or membership in the Traveller's Aid Society (worth Cr1,000,000!).  Again, like most of the problems with the book, I think it could easily be fixed, by breaking material benefits up into a minor and major list.Another quibble I have is with the layout: this section should be right next to the Class section.  It gets very annoying flipping back and forth between the two sections.  They go hand in hand, and should be set up that way.  It could be right before or right after, but it should be next to it.  Maybe next edition.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I'm only going to cover one other section of the book in my review, but it is the other major reason I'm recommending the book: Psionics.  Finally, d20 has a psionics system I like!  You can either gain psionics through testing and training or through the Natural Talent feat.  In Traveller, the type of psionics you know is random, though you could easily change this for another setting.Once you know a type of psionics, you gain access (as a cross-class skill) to the psionic skill of the same name (Telepathy, for instance).  As you gain ranks in the skill, you gain access to better and better psionic feats.  In Telepathy, one low-rank skill is Life Detection, while a high-rank skill would be Probe, which lets you dig into the mind of another character.  The system is very well balanced, especially since you cannot use any bonus feats to gain psionics, only the basic feats.  Also, since the skills are cross-class, you cannot gain the more powerful feats until you are very high level.  You can take the Hobby feat, and upgrade the skill to class skill status, but that eats up another of your precious feats.  Psionics is powerful, but you have to make sacrifices to get it, so it is also very balanced.Is this worth $45 American, especially if you're not going to actually play Traveller?  I think so.  The skills, the prior history, and the psionics are enough to make it worthwhile -- and that's not even touching on the feats, the equipment, the world generation, and the random animal generation.  I happily paid the hefty cover price and I recommend it to all.</blockquote>

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