dungeons and dragons magic item compendium

These would both be hallmarks of D&D 4e magic item design. Items are all marked with levels, and some items even appear at multiple strengths. It was an attempt to do away with the minute differentiation between things like rods, staves, and wands, but was one of the few innovations in the Magic Item Compendium that didn't carry forward to D&D 4e. Items are organized in a new way, dividing them up into: armor, weapons, clothing (which takes up slots), tools, and magic items. Many of these innovations and upgrades would point the way to the larger-scale changes that were already being designed into D&D 4e (2008). Though Magic Item Compendium is primarily a collection of reprinted items, it looks at some of that old material in new ways and incorporates new material as well. With this philosophy in hand, the designers were able to start revising old items and creating new ones that might be competitive with the big six.Įxpanding D&D. They provided effects that were required for characters to stay competitive.There was nothing else as good in their slots.He then identified the reasons that these items were particularly well-loved: Andy Collins started this process by identifying the 'big six' magic items that took up the majority of characters' item slots: magic weapons magic armor & shields rings of protection cloaks of resistance amulets of natural armor and ability-score boosters. While updating and revising magic items, the designers did their best to make them the sort of things that characters would want. The reprinted items primarily came from: Book of Exalted Deeds (2003), Complete Adventurer (2005), Complete Arcane (2004), Complete Divine (2004), Complete Psionic (2006), Complete Warrior (2003), Eberron Campaign Setting (2004), Epic Level Handbook (2002), Expanded Psionics Handbook (2004), Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead (2004), Miniatures Handbook (2003), Magic of Incarnum (2005), Player’s Handbook II (2006), Sandstorm (2005), Spell Compendium (2005), and Tome of Magic (2006).Ī Philosophy of Magic Items. The items they left behind were 'a massive collection of ineffective trinkets, uninspiring spell replications, or just flat-out boring junk'. After looking through about 2000 magic items, they looted the best 1000 or so.

The designers found these items by delving through all of Wizards' 3e and 3.5e books - even Diablo II: Diablerie (2000). Similar to the Spell Compendium before it, the Magic Item Compendium reprints, updates, organizes, and regularizes numerous 3e magic items. In fact it would be the fifth and final 3.5e reprint, appearing in July 2013.Ībout the Book. As a capstone book, Magic Item Compendium was another obvious book to include in the 3.5e premium reprint series (2012-2013). The end was more obviously nigh, and Magic Item Compendium was another sign of that … as would be affirmed in the coming months by the announcement of D&D 4e at Gen Con Indy 2007, then the production of the final capstone book, the Rules Compendium (2007). By now, Wizards was producing nostalgic products like the Expeditions series (2006-2007) and 4e-leaning rulebooks like Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords (2006). That wasn't the case when Magic Item Compendium appeared. Though the 4e team had already begun work, the new game was still three years off. When the first 3.5e capstone, Spell Compendium (2005), came out a year and a quarter earlier, it wasn't necessarily a sign of 3e's end. It was published in March 2007.Īnother Hint of 3e's End. Stephens, and John Snead, is the second of three capstone Compendiums for D&D 3.5e. Magic Item Compendium (2007) by Andy Collins with Eytan Bernstein, Frank Brunner, Owen K.C. Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. This tome also presents new and improved rules for item creation, an updated treasure generation system, and more!įor use with these Dungeons & Dragons core books: In addition, this supplement contains rules for augment crystals, which grant new abilities to existing magic items, and item sets, which provide collection benefits when you have all the items in a set. Within this tome you'll find over 1,000 of the best magic items created for the Dungeons & Dragons game, including hundreds of new low-cost items.

More Magic Items Than You Can Fit in a Bag of Holding.

Dungeons and dragons magic item compendium