Magic Item Compendium - Contents

Contents

The book contains over 1,000 magic items for Dungeons & Dragons, many new, others taken from various 3rd edition books like Arms and Equipment Guide, Magic of Faerûn, and Complete Divine. The book eschews the old classification of magic items in favor of four broad categories: armor (covered in Chapter 1), weapons (Chapter 2), clothing (Chapter 3), and tools (Chapter 4). Clothing is any item other than armor that can be worn (i.e. takes up a body slot); rings would fall in this category. Tools are items that don't take up a slot; potions, scrolls, staves, and wands are all considered tools. Chapter 5 covers item sets, which are collections of items that have their own powers, but can create stronger effects the more items in the set the owner has. Chapter 6 is about using magic items and also covers the placement and creation of items. There are two appendices; a list of all the items in this book and the Dungeon Masters Guide by price and new random treasure tables.

Each item description starts with a price and item level, what body slot the item takes up, the caster level, its aura (school of magic), what type of action (standard, free, swift, etc.) is used to activate the item, its weight, a physical description, written in italics, its effects, and the prerequisites and costs to create the item. There are also items for character classes not in the Player's Handbook.

Runestaffs are special staffs that allow a spellcaster to substitute an uncast spell slot of the appropriate level for a spell on their spell list in the staff. This can be done 1-3 times per day per spell, depending on the staff. Spontaneous casters can use runestaffs to expand their spells known, while casters who prepare spells can prepare their more esoteric spells (which they can substitute for more generic spells in their runestaffs).

Augment Crystals are small trinkets that can be attached to a suit of armor, shield or weapon (depending on the crystal). In effect, weapons, armor and shields have an additional "item slot" of their own to allow players to customize their weapons for situational benefits without drastically adding to the cost of the item.

A revised magic item upgrade system has been released which separates miscellaneous powers (such as continuous and charge/day spell effects) from standard bonuses. These bonuses can now be quickly added to any appropriate item without the "additional powers" multiplier. This has a number of benefits. First, players typically get magic items at a fairly low level and then upgrade them with ability bonuses. Any item looted during later levels, even one that is highly desirable, is often discarded because it would be too expensive to reproduce the level-appropriate bonuses on their existing item. Second, it allows players to invest in interesting non-bonus items without losing the bonuses that CR-appropriate encounters assume the players have. Finally, it allows the magic items listed to have more variety and be available at lower levels; dungeon masters can apply upgrade costs quickly to allow an item to appear in higher-level treasure hoards.

Finally, the Magic Item Compendium offers an optional gear-selection system that is vastly simplified while remaining compatible with the existing system. This simplified system makes it easy for dungeon masters to quickly design non-player characters with level-appropriate gear and equipment, without the arithmetic currently required.