Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Bag of Tricks
Review: Let me start off by restating what a few other reviewers have said about this release: many of the prestige classes, spells and magic items presented here are powerful. That said, this book creates a slew of new options for DM's to use in their campaigns. There are literally 100's of new spells and magic items that range from the mundane to the very interesting. There are even several new Minor and Major artifacts for your perusal. The benefit of this sourcebook is that the players can have a wider range of spells available, as well as the dm, in order to specialize their characters. That being said, the villians can have them to present new challenges to the characters. The same can be said of the magic items. While many of the ideas presented are interesting and quite possibly very useful, they also tend to be powerful and may need to be used very carefully in order to not unbalance a game. As for the appearance, the book is well done, obviously a quality piece of work. I was very pleased with it's appearance and overall layout. A good work for DM's to inject some new blood into their campaigns, just watch where you place some of the goodies.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic work, one annoyance
Review: Of all the official and third-party expansions that have come out since the release of 3e, I have to rate this as my #1 favorite as both an indespensible reference and a fun read.Although written for the very-specific "Scarred Lands" world, most of what can be used directly or adapted easily to your own world. In fact, it is much more adaptable than most other works I've found for 3E or other systems. Like any expansion, you will need to consider the impact of items and spells to your campaign, as some of what is presented is quite powerful. The highlight of the book is the descriptions of spells and items. The level of detail, the thought behind the entries, and the insight it gives you into the Scarred Lands is just fun reading, whether you ever use the item or not. The book has the added bonus of being inexpensive for a hardcover game supplement, and especially compared to Wizards' official expansions. The only annoyance of the work is the magic items. There is no "cost to create" numbers associated with any work, and while you can rederive this using the standard 3e tables, it's exclusion deprives you of the ability to spot-check the power of an item, relative to other items in the book. ...
Rating:
Summary: A Plethora Of Campaign Options
Review: Relics and Rituals holds an amazing wealth of ideas for any campaign, not just one set in SSS's Scarred Lands setting. The spells and magic items are very good, and over 2/3rds can be used without modification. The rest only take a little tinkering to fit in your game world. Being based on 3E fan contributions after the Official Rules have come out, they are all consistent with the d20 System, and are well balanced. Also, there are a number of prestige classes (fun ideas, probably the weakest area of the book, and they still have potential), rules on Ritual Magic (great plot devices), rules on Tattoo magic (that blend in very nicely with the official rules), and some interesting Artifacts. All in all, I'd have to say that I highly recommend this book to any active gaming group, and hope that SSS continues to release quality products like this one!
Rating:
Summary: WOW!!!!
Review: The best of the Open Gaming Licence, by far. This book details 7 new prestege classes (Most of which are very campaign specific), 220 new spells (Most of which are not grossly over or under powered), new magic rules for ritual magic (The best of the book), and a huge list of new magic items (Without costs sadly). It is my wish in reviews, no matter how much I like a book, to talk about the bad points of the book. Because me blabbering on about how "cool" something is, really doesn't tell you anything. But this book was GREAT. The only problem I have had with it is this. The new prestege classes are very much tied to White Wolf's "Scarred Lands" campaign setting. For my personal campaign I could only use two. Also the magic items do not list the costs to buy them under the standard 3rd Edition pricing system. This is because the "Scarred Lands" are going to use a different pricing system, or so White Wolf says. But beyond that, this book is GREAT. If you are playing any form of spellcaster in the new system, and you cannot wait for "Tome & Blood." I would suggest picking up this book. For [the money] it is a steal.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have Relic For Any DM
Review: The book, Relic and Rituals has to be one of the most well done 3rd party game books out for the Dungeons & Dragons, 20 game system. The book adds many intersting and worth while spells to acheive for any arcane or divine spellcaster. Wizards, Clerics, Paladins, Rangers and Bards or any other character can benefit from this book as it can be incorperated into any game world. The material in the book overall is excellent and I cant stress enough that it is a MUST BUY, it also adds new spell option called "Rituals". While very interesting I have not found a great use for this; yet. The prestige classes are small but was very pleased with the quality of there prestige classes. One Example is the "Blood Witch" which sacrifices his own or his enemies blood for more powerful spells. Overall I give this book 5 stars for spell design, magic item, and overall usefullness. No matter what game setting you play; IT CAN BE INCORPERATED IN ANY SETTING which makes it worth while no matter what you might use or not use from the book. Dont be dissapointed with the mildly lower quality book printing and detailed art compared to Wizards of The Coast, as big money and flashy design, cant compare to R&Rituals useful content. Honestly to say this should be on every DM's game shelf. A must buy. PERIOD.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, not outstanding
Review: This book fleshes out several areas, such as ritual magic, and provides a host of new spells and magical items. The spells are, for the most part, workable and not out of balance with the rest of the campaign world. Many of the Prestige Classes are out of whack, but that is a trend that Scarred Lands is just echoing from a great many of the D&D 3 class sourcebooks. Most of the magical items are overpowered and are not well explained as to function. The section on Ritual Magic is good and provides a new set of options of characters, particularly at a low level, who would like to stack metamagic feats but lack spell levels to do so. The rules are fair and balanced, but often-times are not clearly explained. True Rituals are interesting, but difficult to incorperate for anyone other than Dungeon Master as a plot-hook. If you are a Dungeon Master looking for an interesting expansion to the magical rules, I can recommend this book just for its sections on ritual magic, even neglecting the spells (which aren't half bad). For players, there really isn't a need.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile Purchase
Review: This is definitely a worthwhile buy if you're willing to incorporate material that isn't canon published by the D&D publisher. There are many creative ideas here, including those for tattoo and ritual magic. One downside is that it has a heavy leaning to the Scarred Lands setting. This is no obstacle if you are willing to rename or rework some spells/artifacts. This book is especially nice for druids, paladins, bards, and to a lesser extent rangers. They seem to get many of their own spells instead of overlapping wizard/cleric spells which the Player's Handbook seems to do. It also has about 8 new prestige classes. The reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars is because the layout isn't as eyecatching as official D&D material, and the art is of dubious quality, not to mention lacking colors. This should not be a strong deterrant to purchasing this useful book, but should be noted. Overall, a very useful buy.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile Purchase
Review: This is definitely a worthwhile buy if you're willing to incorporate material that isn't canon published by the D&D publisher. There are many creative ideas here, including those for tattoo and ritual magic. One downside is that it has a heavy leaning to the Scarred Lands setting. This is no obstacle if you are willing to rename or rework some spells/artifacts. This book is especially nice for druids, paladins, bards, and to a lesser extent rangers. They seem to get many of their own spells instead of overlapping wizard/cleric spells which the Player's Handbook seems to do. It also has about 8 new prestige classes. The reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars is because the layout isn't as eyecatching as official D&D material, and the art is of dubious quality, not to mention lacking colors. This should not be a strong deterrant to purchasing this useful book, but should be noted. Overall, a very useful buy.
Rating:
Summary: decidedly NOT a relic
Review: top notch work, typical of Swords and Sorcery Studio. This adds a corpus of new spells and magic items,plus new rules about a form of ritual magic. this can definitely add a plus to most campaigns (and certainly mine). The only drawback may be that the whole work is keyed to the authors "scarred lands" campaign setting, possibly needing some work to adapt it to another campaign world
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