Magic Item Compendium (D&D) (Dungeons & Dragons) [Hardcover]

During the course of a dungeons and dragons campaign, the game can tend to stagnate for players as they gain levels and grow in power. When the challenges facing the characters increase, so too must their means of overcoming those challenges. This escalation of force leads to a boring trail of upgraded magical equipment. The +1 longsword that the party's fighter acquired at the second level of experience is replaced with a +2 longsword at level five, that ring of protection +1 found in the ogre's treasure hoard becomes a ring of protection +2, and so on. While most of the supplemental rule books that have been released for dungeons and dragons over the years have contained a pittance of unique or exotic magical items, most of these items usually are either campaign or theme specific, or focused on a small range of higher level characters. The problem of magic item stagnation has been handily defeated by the authors of the Magic Item Compendium (coincidentally, the problem of magic item stagnation in the D&D game was a challenge rating 12 encounter, so the authors all receive 1,400 experience points. Bruce Cordell probably gained a level). This new source book provides an exhaustive reference of magical equipment both new and old, covering every kind of item from rods, staffs, and books to armor, weapons, potions, and pendants.

The Magic Item Compendium provides a huge range of equipment for characters of every class, race, alignment, and level of experience. Special attention has been paid to inexpensive items that would be useful to lower level characters, which was a facet of the game that had been sorely lacking until now. The opening pages of Chapter One, Armor, and Chapter Two, Weapons, each contain several pages of magical properties that can be applied to any given weapon or suit of armor. These various properties alone will give a dungeon master enough magic item ideas to fill the biggest dungeon or the largest wizard's enclave. Many of these properties have been augmented from original printings to better balance them out against similar properties. Several of them have also been changed so that rather than adding a bonus of +1 to +5 to the items overall magical "level", they instead simply add an additional gold piece amount to the item's overall market price. This change was long overdue, as it now allows minor effects or abilities that don't increase damage or "to-hit" capabilities to be added to an item without artificially raising it's level, which is helpful as items have a maximum level of +5 or +10, depending on which version of the rules are being used.

Besides the magical properties that can be applied to items, the Magic Item Compendium has hundreds of specific named items, which actually comprises the bulk of the book. A few of these items use rules from the Eberron Campaign Setting or Magic of Incarnum source books, but the vast majority of the are campaign neutral and could easily be placed in any setting. The sheer variety of the items presented is almost mind boggling. Any given character, regardless of their class, alignment, or preferred weapon and armor combination, will find multiple magic items that their players will be salivating over. One of the most useful sections of the book is an extensive chapter on Tools, which are basically any item not expressly a weapon or armor. A good balance is struck between combat oriented tools such as the runestaff of frosts, non-combat oriented tools like the daylight pellet, and the "flavor" style items such as the everfull mug. A chapter is also devoted to fourteen different magic item sets, which are themed groupings of items that increase in power if the entire set is carried by one character.

The coup de grace that will destroy any question of whether or not the Magic Item Compendium is worth the money are the two appendixes and the artwork. The first appendix is an index of every item in the book, arranged by market price or overall level of the item, which allows a dungeon master to quickly locate an appropriate item for his group of adventurers. The index also gives a brief description of the item, its name, and the source book and page number it originally came from if it is a reprint. The second appendix is a set of tables for generating random magic items, arranged appropriately by level. The artwork is also uniformly outstanding throughout the book, and is liberally sprinkled through all of the 285 pages. While some art, such as the picture of the chromatic rod, has been reprinted from previous material, a surprising amount is newly created solely for this book.

The only problem with the Magic Item Compendium is that the dungeon master will probably overload the next adventure in his campaign with far too many new magic items. The players, of course, won't see this as a problem at all.

This book makes up for the lack of "crunchy bits" in a lot of recent D&D book publications. In other words, they publish a 300 page book, like Cityscape, of which perhaps 10 pages are prestige classes, feats, etc. The rest is fluff.

The MIC, on the other hand, is 100% crunchy bits. Hundreds of pages of magic items, tables, and rules on using the magic items. The book fills in a pretty major need in D&D, which is that: 1) Low level characters generally couldn't afford magic items, and 2) That a few magic items in every slot generally overshadowed all the others. In response to this, about 75% of the new magic items are low level items, things that usually have limited scope or charges per day, but are still useful. For example, 1,000gp buys you a headband that makes you immune to the fire effect of prismatic sprays (limited scope) and deals 1d6 fire damage as a swift action three times per day (limited charges). Overall, a pretty solid item for 1,000gp. At the level at which you can afford it, the extra 3d6 damage is nice, and the immunity to the fire effect of a prismatic spray still makes it useful, in a niche sort of way, later on in an adventurer's career.

OTOH, since I generally tend to play high level D&D, it was lacking in high level gear, but with all the new weapon enhancements and such, it's possible to build your own 200,000 weapon that does just what you want it to do.

Overall, a great buy for all D&D players, and, unlike the Spell Compendium, isn't just a pure reprint book, but has tons of new material.

What is it with Wizards of the Coast? Books are squeezed out of the printing press so fast that many of them lack any real substance or usefulness... BUT every once in a while, they put out a truly fantastic book. I've reviewed numerous books, including Monster Manuals, Complete ..., PHB2, and Spell Compendium. I haven't always been nice but I love the Spell Compendium and now I can say I love the Magic Items Compendium. This is literally a treasure trove of goodies that you can deal out without sticking to the +1 type of weapon or armor, or other general magic item from the DMG which any player generally knows just what it does. In here is a virtual plethora of wonderful items that have side abilities rather than increasing the 'to hit' effect. There's just so much it's hard to pick out some of the best items such as Belt of One Mighty Blow, Ring of Nine Lives, or Domain Draughts just to name three. The final appendix is fantastic in the it breaks the items into the "where it's worn" table with quick reference descriptions. Also, on the last page is a copyable page with a silhouette of 'your character' with reference boxes as to what items you have donned [head, face, shoulders, throat, torso, arms, hands, legs, feet, and rings](when you see it you'll understand what I mean). This is a great tool for players to give to their DMs to avoid confusion and arguments as to what they are wearing and when.

The artwork is superb. However, my only gripe is that the artwork is spread throughout the book in no real order. Such as, you could be in the "rings" section and the artwork is for some bracers or gloves (that's not exact but you should catch my drift). The art is great but isn't necessarily on the same page as the actual item it is portraying. The items are alphabetized and possibly could have been organized into a 'where it's worn' chapters instead.

Overall, of the WotC books being published, this and the Spell Compendium are the jewels in the junk. Absolutely worth getting for your game.