[Dthclaw]

Magic Item Compendium has taken a huge step towards restoring my faith in the direction of d20 gaming. Magic Item Compendium, the latest release, is perhaps the best thought-out book I've seen in a very long time.

Aside from the obvious premise (compile items from at least a dozen sourcebooks), MIC goes further. The book represents a thorough re-appraisal of the entire system of magic items, and fixes the method of assigning random treasure to boot.

Items are broken down into weapons, armors, clothing, tools, and (in a nod to modern gaming) set items. Every item has a stat block listing all the necessary information for them, including (finally) an instant-recognition line for what slot the item occupies, what it takes to use, its aura, its cost, weight... even an exact statement of how long it takes to make.

The book is, in a rare display, nearly 100% crunch... 100% if one doesn't count item description and [Lore] entries. And over 250+ pages, that means a *lot* of goodness.

Items take a different tack than every previous book. Items are, by and large, aimed for much lower gold value and, commensurately, more balanced power and effects. Many of the most 'broken' items from previous books get a major revision in this book, often making them a lot better than their original versions from a power-creep-control point of view. Though I admittedly have not examined each and every item in depth, I have yet to see a single thing I would hesitate to allow my players to have. Even the set items have a built-in control method for their proliferation (you can't make one without an existing set item) and are balanced even then.

But the best part, from the standpoint of a DM, is the two appendices in the back. The MIC finally addresses the biggest complaint by most people regarding the process of random item generation - it's too random, and too wildly variable from low to high. MIC fixes the system by breaking the results down by level, and each level has roughly equal results regardless of where you roll on it. Magic items are, unlike in the DMG, broken down to level rather than minor/medium/major. Not only does this keep things more balanced and controlled, but it also includes rules on using the new system to quickly and easily equip NPC's and PC's. And, just as a cherry on top, the system for generating random magic weapons and armors has similarly been fixed... no more results of +1 to +a lot total bonus on the items, a given level of results will produce the overall enhancement bonus, which is then randomly broken down into special enhancements and generic enhancements. And, for the first time, somebody finally figured out to place the book and page number for items and enhancements.

The only gripe I have - and it's a darn minor one - is that flat gold-piece cost enhancements got lumped into the +x sections of the random weapon/armor generation tables. It is - litterally - the only complaint I can find with this book.

So, Dthclaw's going to say 10/10 for this one, folks.

[RedSlayer]

Yea, Andy Collins wrote a series of 3 articles about the book and why it was right and what was wrong with the current system of D&D magic. (namely, things are far overpriced).

I wish he would have done/said something about Craft Wondrous Item, tho. Or at least that a lot of item creation feats are made totally redundant by it.

As for 100% crunch, I'd disagree there. Magic item entries were increased 3 fold in comparison to what they were at the start of 3.X. So, no, I don't count that as crunch

I'd give it a 6. It addressed some issues with magic items, but it does very little for the game on the whole, and compendiums go obsolete rather quickly.

[Greg Swifthands]

You know, I have a friend that got this recently and I got confused at one part...


Can you NOW Upgrade your magic items after they're first enchantment?

It looks nice but yeah this style of book go obsolete by the next month as they release another book with tweaks to the rules...

[Dthclaw]

Quote

Can you NOW Upgrade your magic items after they're first enchantment?

That's always been possible. You pay the difference between the new price and the original price and the item requires time, XP, etc as the new item being made from scratch.