Volo's Guide to All Things Magical

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Material
Review: I found Volo's Guide to All Things Magical to be an excellent resource on magical item creation for Second Edition D&D. The type face is small, and the style is cramped, but to me that indicates that a lot of effort went into packing as much material into the book as possible, while keeping the page count and thus cost down.

The sections on magical woods, gems and metals are perfect for putting those little extra touches that take a magic item from the humdrum to the extraordinary. Since it's all there ready for you, it can also help you give consistent hints to players about what a magic item does by it's description. For instance, your player may eventually learn that magic items bearing alexandrite almost invariably have good luck powers, while those with onyx inlays are often either cursed or unlucky.

The item creation spells are probably the best feature over all. Unlike the Complete Book of Artifacts, and the Second Edition Dungeons Master's guide, this book actually gives a detailed process for magical item creation, including an example item preperation.

The book is a must have for the detail oriented person or any Dungeon Master running a First or Second Edition campaign that is going to involve magical item creation in any way. The gems and woods section above provide plenty of inspiration for adventures when your would be enchanter has to collect some of his materials by hand.

Unfortunately, the magic item creation system in Third Edition does not work at all with this book. I consider that a failing of Third Edition. It has made the construction of magic items exceptionally mundane.

So let me finish with a few words of caution, if you are not a Dungeon Master or are not interested in fleshing out the magic in your campaign you probably don't want this book. But for the Dungeon Master who is, this book is invalueable.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Material
Review: I found Volo's Guide to All Things Magical to be an excellent resource on magical item creation for Second Edition D&D. The type face is small, and the style is cramped, but to me that indicates that a lot of effort went into packing as much material into the book as possible, while keeping the page count and thus cost down.

The sections on magical woods, gems and metals are perfect for putting those little extra touches that take a magic item from the humdrum to the extraordinary. Since it's all there ready for you, it can also help you give consistent hints to players about what a magic item does by it's description. For instance, your player may eventually learn that magic items bearing alexandrite almost invariably have good luck powers, while those with onyx inlays are often either cursed or unlucky.

The item creation spells are probably the best feature over all. Unlike the Complete Book of Artifacts, and the Second Edition Dungeons Master's guide, this book actually gives a detailed process for magical item creation, including an example item preperation.

The book is a must have for the detail oriented person or any Dungeon Master running a First or Second Edition campaign that is going to involve magical item creation in any way. The gems and woods section above provide plenty of inspiration for adventures when your would be enchanter has to collect some of his materials by hand.

Unfortunately, the magic item creation system in Third Edition does not work at all with this book. I consider that a failing of Third Edition. It has made the construction of magic items exceptionally mundane.

So let me finish with a few words of caution, if you are not a Dungeon Master or are not interested in fleshing out the magic in your campaign you probably don't want this book. But for the Dungeon Master who is, this book is invalueable.

Rating:
Summary: OK supplement; not a standout
Review: This game supplement is a departure from the other "Volo's Guide" books. Rather than being the somewhat tongue-in-cheek tourist guides that the other books are, this is a reference guide to magic in the Forgotten Realms. This broad purview covers a wide range of topics. Included in this book are guides to magical legends (both people and places) in the Realms, discussions on magic items and their creation (the lion's share of the book), and a study of certain spells.

The most value you will probably get out of this guide is for its detail on magic item creation under the 2nd edition rules. This was always something the core rulebooks remained rather vague on, and this guide takes a good step towards laying down some more concrete details (but just a step). It includes some "recipes" for magic items and walkthroughs for the creation process. If you are interested in magic item creation for 2nd edition AD&D, this is a worthwhile supplement.

Beyond that, it introduces some new magic items, some new spells, a few artifacts, and a monster or two. Some interesting stuff, but nothing particularly spectacular. Given the changes to 3rd edition D&D (which lays down its own clear and straight-up magic item creation guidelines), there probably isn't that much of value here for players who have moved on from 2nd edition.

Rating:
Summary: OK supplement; not a standout
Review: This game supplement is a departure from the other "Volo's Guide" books. Rather than being the somewhat tongue-in-cheek tourist guides that the other books are, this is a reference guide to magic in the Forgotten Realms. This broad purview covers a wide range of topics. Included in this book are guides to magical legends (both people and places) in the Realms, discussions on magic items and their creation (the lion's share of the book), and a study of certain spells.

The most value you will probably get out of this guide is for its detail on magic item creation under the 2nd edition rules. This was always something the core rulebooks remained rather vague on, and this guide takes a good step towards laying down some more concrete details (but just a step). It includes some "recipes" for magic items and walkthroughs for the creation process. If you are interested in magic item creation for 2nd edition AD&D, this is a worthwhile supplement.

Beyond that, it introduces some new magic items, some new spells, a few artifacts, and a monster or two. Some interesting stuff, but nothing particularly spectacular. Given the changes to 3rd edition D&D (which lays down its own clear and straight-up magic item creation guidelines), there probably isn't that much of value here for players who have moved on from 2nd edition.