Not so with Relics & Rituals. This is a book bursting with ideas, and most of them were handled well in the rules. I have a few rules quibbles.

For example, the spell flame bolt has no maximum number of missiles, making it better than some spells of higher level for high-level casters. Dead man's eyes, at 2nd level, is better in many ways than 3rd-level speak with dead and can be an even greater murder mystery ruiner. Similar spells, like * blackflame, Ilajam fire, and purifying flames, all do basically the same thing, that being forcing a target to burst into flame and remain on fire for 1 round/level, sustaining further damage, but they are not handled similarly or balanced with each other. Overall, however, this is a book that will see use in my game. In fact, it already has. I've used holy channel, life shield, and animate shadow in my Ptolus campaign already, and that's just for starters. Life shield, in particular, is an interesting method for a wizard to make himself tougher.

It's wonderful to see so many fine examples in this book of people outside Wizards correctly designing for the d20 game. I found the vast majority of spells to be pegged at what I thought were the right levels, and the associated rules handled just as the D&D core books indicate they should be. DMs can feel pretty comfortable, I think, introducing the vast majority of these spells into their campaigns.

Sword and Sorcery Studios has found its niche. Each spell comes with a flavorful bit of color text that places it in the history and context of the Scarred Lands campaign setting. This extra bit of description adds to the "coolness" of each spell, and it's a level of flavorful detail you most likely won't ever get from WotC. I'm not saying that I'd write a long bit of flavor text in front of a spell that I would create (although back in my Planescape days, I loved experimenting with just such flavorful additions), but I do realize that some people are going to really like it. SSS is smart to take this step to distinguish itself from Wizards products, thus cutting out its own good-sized piece of the d20 pie.

But it's not just a book of spells. The prestige classes, with one exception (the Incarnate), are all seemingly well balanced and full of interesting ideas. I'd gladly use the Blood Witch, the Crypt Lord, the Penubral Lord and the Summoner in my campaign (the Sea Witch and the Vigilant, while not bad, hold little interest for me), so the prestige class chapter has considerably more good than bad. The True Rituals are really cool and add a very interesting aspect to high-level play, both from the player's point of view and the DM's. These are powerful spells that require multiple casters and explain how you create flying castles, immortal sorcerers, and other staples of fantasy.

The only real serious disappointment in this book are the magic items. I can't stress enough what a mistake it is not to include prices. Prices are not only necessary to show the relative power of the various items, but they're needed so PCs can know how to make them -- without prices, the book invalidates any character who took an Item Creation feat. It also makes it impossible for the DM to place these items as treasure or equip NPCs with any hope of balance.

Giving prices to magic items is hard, I grant you that. But published products should do the hard work for the DM. If I'm shelling out thirty bucks, you'd better have done the crappy stuff for me. Otherwise, why am I paying you?

Worst of all, most of the items are simply conglomerations of the spells or variations on other items (the everseeing eyepatch, for example, is an interesting variant crystal ball, albeit a much more limited one). Many descriptions are overly wordy, such as when the blood bands of awakening text explains that the bands resize to fit the wearer when all magic items do that. Many of these same descriptions are overly complex (again, when you're browsing through the store, check out the blood bands of awakening and tell me you can't think of a way to shorten that write-up by at least 80 percent, just by simplifying the rules). There are a few interesting ideas. I like the book of knowledge, which gathers information for you, and the shackles of apathy, which calm those held within them, for example. Overall, however, the magic items are not the reason to buy this book.

(Oops! I didn't mention the relics. I should, since they're in the title. They're okay. Just okay. Better than the magic items -- mostly because artifacts aren't supposed to have prices -- but none of these seemed really groundbreaking. I did find it curious that in the Scarred Lands, a setting where magic is so rare that you can't put a price on a magic items, there are more than 20 pages of world-specific artifacts. Okay, no more jabs at that no-prices topic anymore, I promise.)

Buy this book. It's worth it just for the spells, the true rituals, and the prestige classes. Ignore the magic items section unless you want to create your own prices (damn -- I broke my promise), and to be honest, I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I have heard that there's an online initiative to get them priced, but I don't know much about it.

These Sword and Sorcery guys are good, and what's more important, they're getting better. Considering what a leap of improvement this book is compared with Creature Collection in terms of rules mastery, I'm really excited to see what Sword and Sorcery might have up next -- Creature Collection II, I understand. I predict that Wizards of the Coast might have real competition soon.

* The 8th-level blackflame inflicts 1d10 points of damage per round and forces the victim to cower, purifying flames inflicts 3d6 points of damage per round at 4th level, and Ilajam fire inflicts 1d6 points/level in a 20-foot burst, then half that much next round, a quarter the next and so on. It's 7th level. Do we need this many different ways to do the same thing? Check the descriptions if you're browsing the book in the store -- you'll be surprised at how differently the effects are described and handled, until you consider how many different authors and developers this book had.

Back to Reviews Archive Page / Back to Monte's Home Page