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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2009768" data-attributes="member: 172">Wondrous Items of PowerWondrous Items of Power is the third book in the items of power series of books by Fast Forward Entertainment, following Rings of Power and Swords of Power.A First LookWondrous Items of Power is a 160-page hardbound book priced at $26.99. This is typical of an FFE book of this size, but a little expensive compared to other d20 books on the market of similar size.The cover of the book depicts a claw holding a glowing sphere; the picture appears to be a photo of an amulet or sculpture touched up with filters to add a glow to the orb and give the picture an oil-painting look.The interior is black-and-white. Most of the interior illustrations also appear as touched up photographs of jewelry and novelty weapons.The interior text is modestly sized, apparently a little denser than Rings of Power. The interior editing does appear better than Rings of Power. A variety of authors contribute to the book, and the writing style of the text pieces varies. Some are interesting reads, while others are dry are excessively florid.A Deeper LookThe format of Wondrous Items of Power is very similar to the previous books. The bulk of the book has stories setting forth the background of the various magic items, and the end of the book contain summary game statistics for all of the items and some of the characters mentioned earlier in the book. Fortunately, this book does not contain revamped item creation rules as Rings of Power did.Most of the items included match those in the “wondrous item” category as described in the DMG, primarily items of jewelry, but also other items such as egyptian style canopic jars, candles, hourglasses, and figurines/statuettes. The book also has a variety of non-sword weapons, primarily daggers.Many of the items are artifact level in power, such as the very powerful Celtic Dragon Amulet that grants the wearer immunity to the powers of a dragon once exposed to it. There are a few items that are more reasonable in power, such as the Eagle Amulet, which allows the user to project their senses in a straight line overhead of below their body, at the risk of becoming stranded from their body. However, there is no attempt to apply the standard item creation rules even to those items that warrant it.In some cases, there are some rules problems in the translation from the item depicted in the stories to game terms. For example, the Amulet of Kith Ator is said to protect the wearer from the breath of a dragon, but in the writeup, it only grant spell resistance (useless against supernatural abilities) in the game statistics. In another example, one item grants "+2 protection", not saying exactly what this means; is this a bonus to AC, saves, or both?The stories vary widely in writing style and inspiration. Some are a little dry. Others tell interesting stories, perhaps providing ideas for campaign events, or even for campaigns. For example, the story of the Celtic Dragon Amulet is possibly more interesting for the possible background behind “dragon towers” that GMs might want to integrate into a campaign than for the background of the item itself. Some would be harder to integrate into an ongoing campaign, such as the Amulet of Kith Ator, which is set against the backdrop of a setting in which a powerful human warlord strikes back against long dominant elf, dwarf, and dragon nations. ConclusionAs I said in the first review of this sort, I find the inclusion of a large amount of story material of dubious value in RPG products, as usually you can find fantasy fiction cheaper and better written on the shelves of your local bookseller. That said, these stories are targeted at providing backgrounds of items that you can potentially integrate in your campaign, and might be a bit easier to digest and integrate than fantasy novels would be.A few of the ideas are pretty good and do provide for the possibility of interesting and flavorful campaigning, though, as said, some of the ideas will be harder to integrate into an established campaign. Many of the items are Egyptian in nature, and are especially appropriate if you base parts of your campaign on Egyptian mythology.One of the biggest drawbacks of the book is that a great many items are artifact-level power, and even those that aren't are not written up in the standard item creation format. However, the items have an flavorful feel that may make a nice change of pace from the often formulaic feel of standard d20 items.-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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