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Tome and Blood: A Guidebook to Wizards and Sorcerers (Dungeons & Dragons Accessory)

Tome and Blood: A Guidebook to Wizards and Sorcerers (Dungeons & Dragons Accessory)

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $13.57
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Getting better
Review: Of the Guidebooks thus far produced, Tome and Blood is the best. WOTC has finally (it appears) to have settled on a format for these guidebooks and the layout is excellent.

The prestige classes range from the creative 'Acolyte of the Skin' (who willingly trades their humanity for a diabolic nature) to the Cthulhu inspired Alienist (who bargains with dark forces) to the Marvelous True Necromancer (who brings the Necromancer into their own). The Spell oriented feats are equally well designed and provide for a variety of opportunities and variations as well as allowing casters to tailor their spells to their favored element (Fire, Ice, Sound, etc.).

All in all, an excellent book that is (still) unfortunately priced a bit too high.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't forget: This material is optional!!
Review: This book, like all game manuals published by WotC for 3rd Edition D&D, is a set of options, so please keep in mind that all the prestige classes, feats, etc., presented within are not rules, but possibilities. If you don't like the options presented in Tome and Blood, if you think they will cause balance problems, don't allow them within your campaign.

Strive to use the material for inspiration, not justification. If you don't want a prestige class that allows arcane spellcasters to evolve into dragons, don't allow a player to use it. Don't allow prestige classes (or magic items, or feats, or spells) that unbalance YOUR game.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Avoid this one...
Review: This is without question the worst of the class books produced for 3rd Ed. No...let me rephrase. It is the worst class book, period, all editions, and the worst 3rd Ed product produced. Far too much of the book can only be described as munchkin. The editing also leaves a great deal to be desired; several classes, for example, have a skill listing of Knowledge (Int)...but that is not a skill. It's Knowledge (area of knowledge) (Int), or Knowledge (any, taken individually) (Int). There are similar ambiguities in other areas. Defenders of the Faith had potential for several similar ambiguities, but devoted a section to cover them; Tome and Blood does not. There are several individual points where the rules make no sense...for example, the Elemental Savant is a prestige class that, ultimately, lets the caster become an elemental. All the powers and abilities relate to this. The requirements include significant ranks in Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (the planes). So...why does this class have as a class skill, Handle Animal??? One might call this quibbling, and if it was unique, I would agree. It isn't unique.

That said: if you're willing as a GM to throw out at least half the book, there is some material in here I like a lot. I so INTENSELY dislike the bad parts, tho, that I can't give it more than 1 star.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The worst suppliment so far
Review: Useless metamagic feats or unimagitive ones (Greater Spell Focus, Cast without simple material components, etc)

Prestige classes that focus on evil characters (becoming a demon, summoning undead) or require multiclassing in thief/mage, fighter/mage, or cleric/mage. A totally overpowered one that allows you to become a dragon (at the end +8 STR, +2 CON, +2 CHR, +2 INT, +4 Natural armor, Breath weapon, d10 Hit die, claws, wings, low-light vision, darkvision, and more!)

Also contains a sample home for a wizard, some rules already in the Players Handbook, some description on familiars, and some really boring spells (damage, resist, damage, resist).

I did like the art though!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a good suppliment
Review: i have a strange tendacy to enjoy playing rangers rogues and arcane spellcasters, so i was very eager to see a guid to sorcerers and wizards. I looked through this book in the store and found it a very expansive guide to wizards and sorcerers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Class Book So Far...
Review: Tome & Blood is by far the best of the three class books that WotC has published. I believe that this book adds some excellent rules/depth to playing wizards or sorcerers in the 3e D&D world. There are 15 new prestige classes, and nearly all of them seem playable. Also, players of evil spellcasters will also actually have some prestige classes this time. The True Necromancer is a wicked class.

In addition to the new classes, there are new feats, metamagic feats, expanded rules for item creation, new spells, descriptions of wizardly organizations (although brief in some cases), and a few new magic items.

The most amazing new rule covers magic sneak attacks. Now a rogue/wizard can do sneak attack damage with ray spells. Ray of frost is amazing as a 1d3 +5d6 sneak. Wow!

Excellent Sourcebook!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Overpowered Rules Additions
Review: Tome and Blood continues in the vein of Sword and Fist and Defenders of the Faith. Much like the second edition class books, however, this presents some unbalancing rules. For example, one feat allows you to combine elemental damage in a single spell, so that a Fireball cast by a 10th level sorcerer could inflict 10d6 fire damage AND 10d6 acid damage simultaneously. Another feat turns any ranged attack into a chain spell (like chain lightning), so your characters can toss around Chain Magic Missiles or Chain Disintigrates with reckless abandon.

The prestige classes are also highly powerful. One, for example, mutates sorcerers into half-dragons.

Overall, the book has some good spells and campaign enhancements, but it continues the disturbing trend of 3rd Edition D&D devolving into a munchkinfest.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very useful.
Review: The book is interesting and adds many prestiege classes, many require some degree of arcane casting. Just like the Defenders of Faith, the guide adds feats, magickal items and new spells. Still I must express my disappointment that the book has no spells what so ever that affect psionics despite the fact that the book has a presteige class 'Mind Bender', which irritated me because a presteige class like that should have been put in Psionicis Handbook. One thing of note in my opinion is that this book does not provide major powers to the wizards/sorcerers as much as the Defenders of Faith did to Clerics/Paladins. A big plus in the book is the fact that there are a lot more support for 'evil' pcs in this book due to the presence of prestiege classes that require a none good alignment, such as Pale Masters and True Necromancers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great addon, but pricey
Review: Tome and Blood is great for those players who are thinking about taking on a prestige class for their wizard or sorcerer. It's also great for the DM to incorporate organizations in their world such as the Bleak Academy, as well as refinements to item creation costs and containing the official version of Polymorph Self/Other. However, the ~... price tag for a paperback addon book is quite steep considering that the core rulebooks are the same price. If you like to have all the options available for customizing characters then this book is a must buy along with all the other guidebooks.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Credible expansion, especially for seekers of the fantastic
Review: Relative to the other class books, Tome & Blood is superior, with an interesting array of unusual prestige classes and thoughtful ideas and considerations in playing a mage. There is the usual forgettable filler, such as eight odd pages squandered on a city wizard's dwelling. The additional Feats are a solid offering and increase the flexibility and variety of arcane spellcasting in an otherwise static magic system. The Spells are a mixed bag, but the sometimes bizzare prestige classes are a fairly creative, idea-inspiring, and balanced selection. Unfortunately the cursory attention devoted to magic item, spell, and golem creation is extremely disappointing. Most likely, given the buisiness-wise mercenary approach of WotC, the information will be issued in another overpriced "book of magic."
Final thoughts? Overpriced and a poor value, Tome & Blood is still a useful addition, but place it lower on your purchase list. The quality, though good for the guidebook series, really suffers compared to the well crafted core rulebooks.


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