Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009182" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.This is not a playtest review.Wondrous Items Of Power is the third in Fast Forward's three-volume tomes on items 'of power'. This one, strangely enough, details some wondrous items.Wondrous Items of Power comes in at $26.99 for a 160-page hardcover book (currently reduced at EN World's online store). This is fairly average pricing (cheaper than Freeport COA, about the same as Dragonstar and more expensive than FFG's Spells & Spellcraft). Space usage is also fairly average. Apart from the interesting front cover depicting a clawed hand holding a lava-like ball, the remainder of the 'art' inside is actually a series of touched-up photos of the replica items from the book sold by Fast Forward. I don't know whether to praise them for this clever marketing idea or despise them for their commerciality. I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as it's hard enough to make a buck in this life! That said, I found the pictures fairly unimpressive - use of colour might have improved the visual effect.The book is split into two sections. In the first section, the 65 items presented in the accessory are each given a background history and introduction using a short story using a two-page spread for each item (130 pages). No stats are given in this section, it is purely prose. The stories range in writing quality and style, from standard short story format to fairy tale-like prose to a diary. On the whole, I enjoyed most of the stories and most leant themselves well to adventure hooks that might introduce the item into a campaign. Though the introduction of the book states that the stories have attempted to keep their settings as standard as possible, I did not find this to be true - several of the stories were set in identifiably historically-influenced settings with their encumbent gods and language - I found this to enhance the atmosphere of the story where it occurred but was concerned about the changes that might need to be made to the items to integrate them into an ongoing campaign.In the second section (16 pages), the game statistics of each item (along with NPC and monster stats where applicable) are given. In several cases, the statistics did not fully reflect the implications of the story in the first section and also had mistakes in them, or lacked full information. All the items tend to be fairly powerful, at the level of minor artifacts and lack creation pricing in line with this power level.Some examples of the items include:* Celtic Dragon Amulet - an amulet designed by a dragon-hating elf which enables the wearer to  become immune to the attacks of dragons after being subjected to them - for instance, once the wearer has experienced (and survived!) the breath attack of a red dragon, she is then immune to all further red dragon breath attacks.* Falcon Dagger - a dagger discovered in a tar pit by a soon-to-be paladin giving a +1 to saving throws, a single wish, and vibrates before the wielder is attacked. It is linked to a giant falcon who may become the wielder's companion.* Dumortierite Brooch Of Reflection - a brooch worn by a sorcerer whose job it is to bring rogue spellcasters to justice. The brooch has the ability to reflect spells back at the caster.Conclusion: The fiction that introduces and gives the background to the wondrous items in the book is generally pretty good at stimulating the imagination, and providing lead-ins to introducing the item into a campaign. Several of the items have a definite setting (much of it Egyptian in tone) but they are not beyond integration with a little work. The statistical side of the items in Section 2 let the book down for me - I was hoping for more detail on each item and I would have liked to see something along the lines of FFG's Personal Growth Items - where the item's powers grow or are discovered as the owner grows in power. Some of the items here such as the Celtic Dragon Amulet nearly got there but this aspect could have been put to more use, making these items more usable across levels.Despite the proselytizing in the introduction on the benefits of fictional wonder versus statistical information, I found the book to be unbalanced on this level. I suspect that the errors in the statistical section and the focus on the fiction are a reflection of either the authors' lack of understanding, or interest in the minutiae, of the d20 rules.Finally, I felt that due to the power of the items, a GM was only likely to introduce one or two of these items into his campaign. I feel it unlikely that the cost of the tome would be worth the limited use that would be made of the content for most GMs.Note: Four additional items can be downloaded free at Fast Forward's website.</blockquote>

Verification