Not all Kickstarters are worth it.

[gridlore]

The Ultimate Guide to Alchemy, Crafting, and Enchanting by Andrew Geerstein, Chris Haskins, JVC Parry, Megan Roy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I'm sorry I backed this on Kickstarter.

It's supposed to be a D&D5e book, but there is almost no integration with the D&D rules. OK, I'm a Crafter. The section on being a crafter has no connection to the game rules. Is there a minimum STR to be a blacksmith? DEX for a jeweler? Do I get experience points for the various "quests" in each specialty?

There is a text box that links experience level with the various ranks in each of these specializations, but that's it. Can a fighter take up enchanting as a side gig? Are these character classes? It's very frustrating.

But let's move on. We do get a long list of tables of materials for the various recipes, which is odd because they include both a DC to find and a random number. I'm not sure what this means, as it isn't clearly explained. If I need water, do I roll to see what kind of water source I have access to, and then roll to see if I can collect it? Madness.

The actual recipes aren't that bad and give some adventure possibilities. But there's nothing there about experimentation. If I'm an alchemist, I'm going to be blowing up my lab in pursuit of some new breakthrough. If I'm an enchanter, I'm going to try making something new. All the recipes are for existing items.

Finally, there's a list of new magic items, which is moderately useful. But all in all this book was water of my money. I should add that as part of the Kickstarter reward I received four Magic Item Compendium decks with details of most of the items found in this book and the Dungeon Master's Guide. I like using cards like this, as they are an easy reference for the players using the magic doohickeys. But in several cases, the item description runs off the end of the card and is continued on the little booklet that comes with each deck. That really lowers the utility of the cards in play.

So this was a swing and a miss. I cannot recommend it.



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