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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="Psion" data-source="post: 2010757" data-attributes="member: 172">WildsWilds is one of AEG's "one word title" topic books for d20 System fantasy. Wilds provides supplemental rules for handling adventures in a variety of wilderness environments, as well as providing new character options (classes and feats) for characters native to each of those environments.Wilds features writing by Gareth Hanrehan, Andrew Hudson, Jeff Ibach, Mike Mearls, jim pinto, and Partick Younts.A First LookWilds is a 176 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $24.95. This is a very competitive price for a d20 System book of this size and format.The cover of the book features a painting by Hethe Srodawa depicting a muscular man lurking in the trees of a misty forest.The interior is black-and-white and features art by Marcio Fiorito, Steve Ellis, Lisa Hunt, and A. Bleys Ingram. The art is decent and topic appropriate for each chapter, but overall illustrations are seemingly infrequent.The book uses a modest sized body font text, and paragraphs and lines are single spaced. Overall, the layout is clear and readable, with no apparent layout gaffes.A Deeper LookWilds is organized into seven chapters, including a general chapter addressing outdoor survival and campaign considerations, and six chapters dedicated to specific terrain types: desert, forest, jungle, marsh, mountain, and tundra. Each chapter includes a variety of material, ranging from campaign advice, new rules for handling conditions in wilderness environments, new character options, and creatures.The first chapter provides the most general advice and material regarding wilderness adventures, including old standbys like new uses for old skills and feats. The feats in the first chapter are all of the "skill training" type that appears in many AEG books (in particular, Swashbuckling Adventures), each of which grant three class skills and four ranks to devote to those skills.The first chapter also provides some general (but often boring) elucidation of the importance and/or role of certain character classes and equipment in the wilderness.The fist really useful advice comes in the ecology section. This section is useful for GMs with an eye for the realistic, providing step-by-step instructions to conceiving a fantasy environment that is believable and self-consistent. Other general rules items include handling encounters, placing creatures of the standard types in the environment, and handling hunting.After the first general chapters are six specific chapters, each covering one terrain type. These chapters all have a similar format, providing advice for running campaigns in that environment, new rules for handling specific obstacles in that environment, character options (classes, feats, and spells) and creatures.One common thread between the classes is that each of chapters 2-7 has a ranger variant specific to that environment. Some of these ranger variants, particularly the desert ranger, the swamp ranger, and the tundra ranger, seem to be strongly based on the mercenary ranger from AEG's mercenaries in that they grant a "ranger option" ability at some levels that allow the character to craft their abilities. The remaining three core classes (the woodsman, the beast lord (jungle), and the mountaineer) remain rather ranger-like in character, but have more explicit abilities tuned to their terrain.The other classes are all prestige classes, and reflect specific roles a character in the environment might play, like sand shapers (desert), green mage (jungle), or skiff warrior (swamp). Similarly, other character options like feats also reflect specific talents that skilled natives would develop.Some elements of each environment are handled, including a few popular historical and literary archetypes, some of which are a little strong or blatant. For example, many desert classes are based on somewhat Arabic archetypes, which is perhaps unsurprising. However, the desert chapter also includes colossal creatures called sandworms and a feat to ride them, which struck me as way too much of a riff on Frank Herbert's Dune; I doubt there is a player group out there that doesn't include a few members who wouldn't roll their eyes if you introduced that element in a game.ConclusionOverall, the book seems very useful. The advice in the first chapter seems mundane, though the feats seem useful. However, the six environment chapters are gold mines. Conveniently arranged, if a GM is looking to run a campaign in a specific terrain, the GM simply need flip open to the appropriate section to find advice, rules, and ideas for the area as well as options for NPCs (or for presenting to PCs.)The variety of rangers may not appeal as much to those who have embraced the revised edition rules wholeheartedly, as there is much less reason to "fix" the ranger. However, some may feel that 3.5 ranger overcompensates, or that the more specific treatment of rangers in this book is worthwhile.Overall Grade: B-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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