Relics and Rituals 2: Lost Lore [Hardcover]

Now don't get me wrong, i'm a huge fan of forgotten realms and dragonlance settings, but, Scarred lands has won my heart with this book. Imagine, adding the zodiac into your campaign, mixing arcane and divine with cabals, new prestige classes like the Sage and the High Astologer, of course great new spells weapons and all in all cool stuff, but also...(are you sitting down?) yes psionics! finally we learn about the Slarcians and how they... well, read the book. also, some great tomes. all in all the book is great. wonderful stories, great gameplay material. as always a little ~enh on the artwork, but definately not too bad. and of course, find it hard to keep track of what spell is where? yes the spell list tells you where to find all the coolness!... enjoy.

I maybe a bit prejudiced since one of spells in here is one I sent to White Wolf as part of their Open Call for writers. My first impression is that they took the format they used in the first Relics and Rituals(which I loved, especially the Vigilant prestige class) and repeated much of it with new material. Among the great new features includes Astrology as part of the game mechanics for play and a Prestige Class that is basically an old kit from the Shair's Handbook of the old Al-Qadim campaign setting for 2nd Edition(based primarily on 1001 Arabian Nights, good campaign setting to run that kind of campaign) revamped and made a little more divorced from that setting. Spells are nice, I like a few of the enchanted stuff and the rituals are always nice. Tattoo magic was interesting concept and they expanded it in this edition slightly but not at the expense of other sections. All in all, it's a great rescource for the Scarred Lands in particular and D&D/D20 in general.

If you want a bunch of spells that would allow a team of a half dozen low-level wizards to take out epic level fighters effortlessly, this is your book. If you want amazingly powerful (and comparatively very cheap) magic items for your mid-level wizard to create, this is your book again. If you want amazingly over-powered prestige classes, this is your book. If you want skill points that duplicate very high level spells, this is your book

If you want something that is in balance with the core rules, avoid this like the plague. I don't know if this was simply never play-tested, or was play-tested by a bunch of uncreative people. I'm looking at it from the perspective of a 3rd level wizard (because I always play wizards). There's nothing like having spells to give me a basic armor class of 27. Nothing like having spells which can render high-level fighters helpless or pacifist -- for months! -- and subject to coup-de-grace with their own swords. Nothing like having spells this early which allow you to fly, invisibly spy upon enemies, and remove armor from any opponent (or transfer it onto an opposing wizard). Yeah, an epic-level fighter might make a saving throw, but with a team of 6 wizards, he will fail one of them.

The authors have a lot of interesting ideas to be sure, but if I was a dungeon-master, I would not allow this book to be used. I can only hope my DM will allow it (insert evil laughter).