Magical items are always fun. They have potential to be item of interest and to be used in new and creative ways. I personally prefer magical items that move themselves away from the plain numbers. A sword +4 or an amulet of Health +2 does not have a lot of interest to me. Sure, they are useful weapons in game but there is no flair or excitement to them. They do not offer interesting new abilities or mysteries powers to be figured out. At times it seems that magic has become mundane and that is never a good thing. This book introduces nineteen new magical weapons and hopefully it will be more then just numbers.
The Le Games has developed quite a few PDFs in the past year or so. I have had the privilege to review most of them and while I can be a bit critical of them at times they always have good ideas. I have not said that enough about the products in the past. Their books are not the prettiest in the world but the game information is usually usable and occasionally exciting. They are not up to the standards of the high quality companies like a Green Ronin, Goodman Games, or Malhavok, but they do continual improve at a nice steady rate. I have seen a nice improvement over their products. So, this is my little pat on the back for them. They have stuck with it and hopefully they will continue to improve and get even better.
17 Magical weapons is a new PDF by The Le Games. This twenty page PDF is the first in the new line of books. They also have 17 Magical Armors out as well. The art and layout are okay. There is nothing really great or really bad about it. The book is nicely book marks and has a print and on screen version of it.
Oddly enough there are nineteen weapons to be found in 17 Magical Weapons. The weapons have an interesting feature in them. They have abilities that apply with the weapon on the person and not just when it is being welded. These offer some interesting and new abilities that are good for certain classes. The book advises that campaigns change fro m DM to DM and has some general guidelines for altering the weapons to make them fit better into different campaigns. Here ar ea few examples of weapons from the book:
Arcane Wizardry: This allows rerolls once a day and lets a Wizard force a reroll on someone they just cast a spell at
Barbarian Rage: This allows others to rage, but grants Barbarians bonus to attack and damage and lets them enter a Paradoxical Rage.
Bardic Harmony: Gives a bonus to will saves and has a chance to let Bards deafen opponents.
Clerical Restoration: It helps heal the person with the weapon and lets a cleric be more effective with their own healing spells.
Dragon Perception: This is actually ten different weapons one for each of the five metallic and chromatic dragons. They offer abilities in theme with the dragon the weapon is named after.
Druidic Vision: The weapon allows welders to leave people staggered and lets Druids speak in different forms.
Exhaustion: This weapon has a chance to exhaust people it hits.
Fighters Lament: It can panic people but in the hands of a fighter it can help dispel magic.
Knockdown: Once a day it has a chance to knockdown people it hits.
Leaf Giving: This odd ability can improve the welder’s armor class and make fruit become ripe.
It has a nice mix of items for different classes. They can easily be used by NPCs and PCs alike and for the most should offer some new and different magical weapons that the PCs are not going to be familiar with.
