Adventurer's Vault: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement

Author : Logan Bonner Edition : 4th Number of Pages : 224 Release Date : 2008-09-16 Publisher : Wizards of the Coast List Price : $29.95 Amazon Price : $15.58 Used Price : $15.58

Product Description

Customer reviews

So many items so little time. by .. Aaron Keating ()
For those of you not in the know about the purpose of this product, Adventurer's Vault is a book made with one purpose and one purpose alone in mind.

Items.

A tremendously stupid, high amount of items, so many to the point you will likely never get the full use out of this book. Ever. This book is a Player's Dream come to life, and either the Dm's favorite bag of treats for the player's or his or her worst nightmare if the player comes to the table getting ready to open the book and say "Can I have?".

I suspect there will be many game tables having this moment, as there are a great deal of items in this book each one I think personally appeals to different tastes (beyond the obvious of "it's an option so duh").

To help you sort the items (and believe me there are a ton of items here.) they give you nice reference tables at the start of each type of item (Sorted by level for your conveinence). This is both a boon and a bane. Could they at least space them out in clusters of four on the tables? Having spaces between the differing levels of items not only would have been a nice touch, but it would have made reading the tables much easier than it is. It's like a gigantic run on chart from the bowels of gamer hell. Seriously Wizards, space the tables please. If you really love us, do this!

Annoyingly not spaced out tables aside, most of the items seem to function as they should at least conceptually speaking there's a couple here and there that raise an eyebrow or two, but it's more or less what you would expect for magic items. (The item that allows you to add your Cha mod to sneak attack damage for example is questionable).

I give this product four stars mostly because of the inane not spaced out properly tables that they have in the book. Otherwise I'd give it five.

Ps the "Alternate Advancement Rules" are just spectacular. Basically what they are, are means to hang onto the same item over your career instead of having to "Go to Magi Mart" or hope you find a new item that you can use in a treasure horde somewhere. The item levels with you is the end result. This can be a result of defeating powerful foes and their energies become trapped in the blades, results of heroic deeds, an item reawakening to it's full potential, just to name a few. It's a really nice touch to include this as actual rules. Especially since I can't stand Magi-Marts 9 times out of 10.

near useless book. by .. Früchlè (Perth, AU)
This is close to the first time I've actually thought about returning a book to get my money back. The mundane items were negligable. The magic items were boring and repetitive. There was little imagination or variety. Most bothersomely, it was 95% all just magic items!

A&D2nd and D&D3rd's 'Arms & Equipment Guide's both had pages of odd and interesting equipment, both mundane and magical to add to a game. Those books sparked ideas for areas, encounters and treasure.. This new 4th edition book is next to useless.

Save your money for the Powers books, which add more flavor and interest in general to the game.

Great supplement for 4th edition! by .. Greenmoepho (St. Augustine, FL USA)
This book is great!

It provides an extensive (and much needed) expansion to the magic items that were presented in the players handbook. In addition, the sections on mounts and alchemy are great new additions to the content. Obviously the sections on armor and weapons are larger than the others, however, there are lots of choices for every class in the game.

Well worth the price. I highly recommend this book for players and dungeonmasters alike!

A fascinating treasure trove of goodies! by .. N. Sarb ()
This book is a valuable addition to my Dungeons and Dragons group. The players were very excited about the selection, new items (dwarves wielding executioner's axes, minotaurs and their khopeshs), and many new enchantments. We have a variety of new takes on the weapons, a plentiful harvest of armors, and more wondrous items than you can shake a fist at. The implements are handy, as they allow the caster characters more variety for item-power relationships. All in all, I am glad I got this book. And it is only $20 on Amazon! Well worth it.

more tools by .. R. Schneidler (milwaukee wi. USA)
it is always great to have more tools to play with and this book provides them

Divine Power: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement

Author : Wizards RPG Team Number of Pages : 160 Release Date : 2009-07-21 Publisher : Wizards of the Coast List Price : $29.95 Amazon Price : $19.77

Manual of the Planes: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement (D&D Rules Expansion)

Author : Wizards RPG Team Number of Pages : 160 Release Date : 2008-12-16 Publisher : Wizards of the Coast List Price : $29.95 Amazon Price : $16.90 Used Price : $16.90

Product Description

Customer reviews

Overpriced, Unimaginative by .. S. Patel (Washington, DC United States)
Pros:

1. A few clever ideas like the ex-proxy of Vecna, and a backtracking on the Blood War. The 4e designers said it was a flaw in prior editions, but given the lack of cleverness in the book I'm not surprised they came around.

2. Sigil, a passing nod to spelljammers, inclusion of some of the Great Wheel planes.

Cons:

1. Way overpriced.

2. Poor artwork, with a few exceptions entering the acceptable range.

3. Crunch is only at the end, making the legal pdfs of planar supplements a much, much, much better buy.

4. How dull can you get? Most of the good stuff in this book was taken from the supposedly flawed cosmology of the past, and the rest is pretty much stuff you could come with by yourself over a lazy afternoon of brain storming.

Short, but full of good ideas by .. John Biernacki ()
Let me get my big criticism out of the way first.. When I see a suggested price on a book around $30, I expect it to be worth that much. I was right off put off by how it only has 159 pages. I mean the player's handbook was only $5 more and twice that size.

With that out of the way, I have to say the content if packed and full of fantastic ideas on how to run a planar campaign. It goes over and explains the new Cosmology within 4th edition, it's quite a bit different from previous editions. (however it also has tips on customizing the cosmology, and even examples of past cosmologies)

The details and descriptions in this book are priceless and there's little in the book I didn't ponder about how much fun it would be to have that happen mid game. If your big into dungeons and dragons, I suggest you take the $30 pill and get this book. It's one of the more useful books so far in 4th edition.

Inspiring, but I wish there were more. by .. Scott Schimmel ()
Manual of the Planes discusses the other planes of the Dungeons & Dragons world -- the areas of reality beyond the mortal world. Its goal is to allow for adventures set among these other realms -- primarily, the Shadowfell, the Feywild, the Elemental Chaos, and the Astral Sea. It mainly succeeds.

The first chapter of the book, Exploring the Planes, deals mainly with traveling to the planes and the characteristics of the planes. It includes a description of the basic cosmology of the D&D world, some advice for creating alternate cosmologies if you should desire to, and some notes about Sigil, the City of Doors, a location which can be used as a center for planar adventures (among other things).

Those who've played Planescape in earlier editions will recognize Sigil, and it's only one of many references to previous editions of the game. Veterans will notice new treatments of such things as the City of Brass, the Isle of Dread, the Demonweb, the Blood War, and spelljammers. Newer players need not worry; the book sets these elements adequately within 4e, so that no previous experience with them is necessary.

The next four chapters deal with the major planes suitable for adventuring: The Feywild, domain of faerie and preternatural wilderness; the Shadowfell, decayed echo of the mortal world shrouded in gloom; the Elemental Chaos, home to such locations as the City of Brass and the Abyss; and the Astral Sea, in which the domains of the great powers float like islands. Each of these chapters has four sections: traveling to the plane, exploring the plane, sample inhabitants of the plane, and sample locations within the plane.

The writeups about the inhabitants and locations are fairly brief. They're sufficient to give the flavor of the place, and hopefully to inspire a GM to flesh them out and adapt them to his game. They are not, however, fully detailed writeups that are able to simply be dropped right into the game. The book leaves much of the design work to the individual GM. Some people might consider this a weak point; I consider it a strength, because it fits my preferred style.

Chapters six and seven introduce more mechanics. Six is a collection of monsters from the planes for the GM to employ -- a little over a dozen of them, of which half are demons or devils. These are useful as adversaries, but there's nothing outstanding here. Still, nice to have.

Chapter seven is for players -- new paragon paths, rituals, and magic items. Here, too, there's not much that makes me pause and double-take, but nothing that leaps out at me as broken, either. It should serve its purpose well enough.

Overall, I'd say the usefulness of this book will depend on the GM using it -- and it is a book for GMs, with little that's of interest to players.

I think that it's the sort of book that will inspire me, even if I use relatively little of its content as-printed in my game. On the other hand, I wish that there was more: more about the Far Realms, more about some of those locations, more about the anomalous realms like the Plane of Mirrors and the Plane of Dreams. It's probably unfair to expect a 160-page book to cover all of those planes in depth, especially when I'd probably end up cheerfully ignoring most of that depth anyway and using my own creations, personally. Even so, it just feels too brief at times.

I like it, though. I like it a lot. This is a product that makes good use of the history of the game and its lore, without becoming a slave to it. It puts new twists on old friends like the Isle of Dread and the City of Doors, and it fits things like spelljammers into 4e without also bringing along the annoying parts like helm-related bookkeeping, phlogiston, and gravity wells. I've been satisfied with supplements that have done much less.

A History of Siam:from the Earliest Times to the Year A. D. 1781 with a Supplement Dealing with More Recent Events

Author : W. A. R. Wood Publisher : Chalermnit Bookshop Used Price : $65.55

Pumped: Straight Facts for Athletes about Drugs, Supplements, and Training

Author : Cynthia Kuhn Edition : 1 Number of Pages : 192 Release Date : 2000-10-17 Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company List Price : $14.95 Amazon Price : $5.00 Used Price : $0.01

Product Description

Customer reviews

Totally Awesome! by .. Vasa Dudikof (Chicago, IL, USA)
I was doing a research paper on steroids, so i asked a friend of mine to get me some books out of the library. So one of the books he got me was "Pumped". I planned only to take a few notes and put it away, but when i started reading i just couldn't stop. The book is very informative. Like one of the reviewers said, it doesn't go into much detail, but its short and straight to the point. This book isn't only about steroids, it goes into things like alcohol, weed, cigarretes. So, if you have a couple of hours to spare, i suggest you pick this one up!

For Health's Sake by .. Tim Smith (Fresno, CA United States)
This is a useful, readable description and summary of drug and supplement use and the body's functioning especially written for athletes and those interested in physical fitness. It seems to make an honest effort to give the facts about drug and supplement use and sort out the truth from all the training ads that bombard anyone who uses fitness media. The problem is what most everyone suspects- there are no shortcuts and anything that does effect the body's functioning is a potential health risk. However, those who want all the drugs and supplements to work will be critical of this book because it doesn't tell them what they want to hear and unfortunately will probably continue to use what they want. The authors did a good job of describing the efficiency of the human body. It is such a remarkable machine that it adjusts to any "shortcut" and the effects become counter-productive. The well-known fact that the body starts to store fat when a person diets too quickly is a good example. I know the information in this book will not be accepted by some teens and exercising adults but it is worth knowing and hopefully the recommendations will be followed for health's sake.

Outdated theories posed as facts by .. C. Dancer (Riverside, CA United States)
If you are looking for a book that will explain the uses, and the effects of certain sports supplements and or drugs this is not the book. The book uses scare tactics from out-dated and disproven information. If you are an athlete or have a child that is an athlete and you want up-to-date information on products then you are better off buying a book or a magazine that is written by, doctors that are also athletes. Save your money and buy a book that uses studies that were done after 1999 unlike the 5 year studies used in Pumped.

Just the facts, mam. by .. Curtis J. Eshelman (Durham, North Carolina USA)
This is quite a remarkable book. It is short, to the point, knowledgable and readable. It tells the truth about performance enhancing drugs and is clear about the downside even for those that work. At the same time, it does not preach and I don't think would be a turn-off for teenagers.

If you have a child who is an athlete, or if you are in competetive athletics yourself, you should read this book. As a physician, I think these drugs are available in most every high school in the country. They are a giant temptation. This book is most helpful to parents, coaches and athletes themselves.

A book no serious body builder should be without by .. A. Comer Gaither (Earlysville, VA USA)
Finally, a book that provides non-judgmental information about the biology and pharmacology of body-building. This is not just one of those "just say no" books - it provides the reader with factual information so he or she can make informed choices. Take my word for it: trust the information in this book more than the layman's advice you get at the gym.