Crothian
First Post
Treasure is always a part of the D&D game and at times it does seem like it just gets neglected to being numbers of gold pieces. Even other items are just given a value and soon they are sold and become gold pieces. A little extra detail ion the other types of treasure is always useful and ways of making them interesting and a little useful mechanically is good as well. That is what Treasure Chests Unlocked: Gems does. It presents forth many kinds of gems and helps the reader understand what they are and how they are significant. It will help make gems more then just what they are worth.
Treasure Chests Unlocked: Gems is a PDF by Sword’s Edge Publishing. The twenty two page PDF has little art but does include pictures of many gemstones. It has a simple lay out that makes it seem like it is parchment and while it looks good will eat up some ink when printed. The book has no book marks.
The book starts with some basic terms and then gets right into the different types of gemstones one can find. Each has a picture of the gemstone and that is very useful. There are some simple identification rules included in this as well. They give a DC for use of an intelligence check or the appraise skill. A character though can only use the appraise skill if they have some ranks in Craft Gemcutting. These are easy identification rules that use the rules and makes some lesser used skills a lot more useful. There are over forty gems tones described and shown in this way.
There are two other uses the book gives for gems. Each requires a feat and certain skills to take advantage of. The first is harmonizing the gem. This attunes the gem to the person with the feat and as long as the gem is on the person they get a minor bonus to something. They can be like +2 to hide or +1 to all wisdom checks. Each gem has to be worn in a specific place. Then there is harnessing the gems. This is more powerful and the gem is destroyed in the process. One also has to be an arcane spell caster to be able to do this. Each gem affects a certain spell in a certain way like causing Protection from Law to be Extended. With the many types of gems in the book there are plenty of useful o0nes any character will be able to find.
The book does a nice job of presenting what the different gem stones are and makes them more then just generic money. The new rules for using them to create different effects seems like it will work out pretty well. A worksheet with the different types of gems, pictures, and what they could do will really make this more useful and I would have liked to have seen something like that included. This is a good book for people that want more out of gems.
Treasure Chests Unlocked: Gems is a PDF by Sword’s Edge Publishing. The twenty two page PDF has little art but does include pictures of many gemstones. It has a simple lay out that makes it seem like it is parchment and while it looks good will eat up some ink when printed. The book has no book marks.
The book starts with some basic terms and then gets right into the different types of gemstones one can find. Each has a picture of the gemstone and that is very useful. There are some simple identification rules included in this as well. They give a DC for use of an intelligence check or the appraise skill. A character though can only use the appraise skill if they have some ranks in Craft Gemcutting. These are easy identification rules that use the rules and makes some lesser used skills a lot more useful. There are over forty gems tones described and shown in this way.
There are two other uses the book gives for gems. Each requires a feat and certain skills to take advantage of. The first is harmonizing the gem. This attunes the gem to the person with the feat and as long as the gem is on the person they get a minor bonus to something. They can be like +2 to hide or +1 to all wisdom checks. Each gem has to be worn in a specific place. Then there is harnessing the gems. This is more powerful and the gem is destroyed in the process. One also has to be an arcane spell caster to be able to do this. Each gem affects a certain spell in a certain way like causing Protection from Law to be Extended. With the many types of gems in the book there are plenty of useful o0nes any character will be able to find.
The book does a nice job of presenting what the different gem stones are and makes them more then just generic money. The new rules for using them to create different effects seems like it will work out pretty well. A worksheet with the different types of gems, pictures, and what they could do will really make this more useful and I would have liked to have seen something like that included. This is a good book for people that want more out of gems.
