Relics & Rituals (Dungeons & Dragons D20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying, Scarred Lands) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)

                
              
Relics & Rituals (Dungeons & Dragons D20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying, Scarred Lands) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
A 3rd EDITION HARDCOVER CORE RULEBOOK NEW SPELLS AND MAGIC ITEMS! What wondrous blade is this? What strange incantation is captured on that scroll?? Ready to outfit your 3rd edition campaign with a host of new magic items and divine and arcane spells? From trinkets to artifacts, from curious cantrips to devastating rituals, RELICS & RITUALS has something new for every fantasy roleplaying gamer and campaign! This is the 2nd core rulebook release in the SCARRED LANDS setting. Please also see the title: CREATURE COLLECTION For Players: OVER 200 NEW MAGIC ITEMS FOR YOUR 3RD EDITION CAMPAIGN! OVER 300 NEW DIVINE AND ARCANE SPELLS NEW RULES ALLOW SPELL-CASTERS TO WORK TOGETHER TO CAST MORE POWERFUL RITUAL MAGIC. A PREFACE BY GARY GYGAX! SWORD & SORCERY books are published under the Open Gaming License and are 100% compatible with 3rd Edition rules and the D20 System.
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing; First Edition edition (February 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1588461599
ISBN-13: 978-1588461599
Product Dimensions:  8.5 x 0.6 x 11.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
Average Customer Review:  4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #478,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)   #58 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming > World of Darkness > General   #266 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming > Dungeons & Dragons   #6275 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games
I was a bit skeptical about this book, especially since I was not impressed with the Creature Collection (by this same publisher). I mostly bought it to check out the tattoo magic rules and new spells. Once I started reading this book I read halfway though it before my wife finally pried it away from me so I could do some chores! While I found the prestige classes and artifacts interesting to read, none of them will see play in my campaigns. The classes are too specialized for any of my players, and the artifacts are unbalancing (like all artifacts...) But the SPELLS!!! They were great! And the rules for ritual magic and tatoos will be put into play immediately! I liked the little Scarred Lands specific blurbs about the items and spells, because they triggered tons of great adventure ideas. Some DMs prefer generic stuff, but I say bring on the neat historical details! I can edit them for my world if they stink, and I can be inspired by them if they are good (and most of the Scarred Lands descriptive stuff here seems very good, unlike with the Creature Collection). Some great feats were here as well. And ritual magic makes metamagic feats finally useful to my players! None of them would waste the higher level spell slots to use them before, so nobody took the feats. Thank you, Relics and Rituals!
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.
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!
I must admit that the Sword and Sorcery supplements are very good supplements to the D&D lineup and prove that the open gaming liscense is in fact a great idea. As long as the quality retains the high values of the Sword and Sorcery books I can see no downfall to the liscense. That having been said the newest book by the studio, Relics and Rituals, is a great book. Most people by now are probably wondering why I only gave it three stars if I think this book is great. Firstly, let me add a qualifier and say this is a great book if you don't let the contents get out of hand. The spells and magic items may be of limited use to some who do not use the gods of the Scarred Lands setting and the book over all is very powerful. Many of the magic items are more powerful than the basic ones in the DMG but actually have a lower level listed for creation. All of the spells in here can be altered to fit an existing realm or personally created one just by switching names, but that takes a lot of time. The flavor text in this book is wonderful and makes the book worth reading if nothing else than to get ideas for your own setting. While a great source of spells and magic items, it fails to add anything to the game itself except ritual magic, which isn't all that great. Overall the book is useful if you either need new spells to entertain the players or just want to spice up your games, but otherwise will end up sitting around collecting dust like the previous wizard compendiums for 2nd edition. Moreover it has the same problems that those compendiums have, over powered spells and magic items that if not carefully used can easily make your life as a DM a living hell.
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.
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