The Adventurer’s Vault has been out for some time now. However, that isn’t going to stop me from giving it a solid review.
The first thing you need to realize about the Adventurer’s Vault is that it is a much needed addition. By including magic items into the PHB, Wizards of the Coast handicapped themselves with the amount of space they could dedicate to each subject. A few area’s got the short end of the stick, one of them was the amount of magic items available for players to drool about.
Knowing this the good people at WotC provided what we all needed, more magic loot. Let’s be honest in a game of D&D there is never too much magic loot! The more there is to hand out, the happy we players are. OK now on with the review.
The Adventurer’s Vault provides all the new goodies you could ask for. It also shores up some area’s that got the short end of the stick namely potions and wondrous items. Regarding potions I couldn’t believe the PHB only listed four! I was used to seeing a potion for every spell that could be cast and the new edition delivers four potions? Yes, I was disappointed I like my magic potions.
One of the things I like about the Adventurer’s Vault is that the game ending items disappeared. As much as I enjoy the Deck of Many Things, player greed being what it is I’ve never played a campaign that survived past the night the item was introduced.
What makes the Adventurer’s Vault a needed accessory is it fills that gap that the items in the PHB left. It provides more options for weapons, armour, and body slots than you can shake a stick at. That being said your entire gaming group doesn’t need to buy one. In fact it might be that only the DM or the completist needs to buy the Adventurer’s Vault.
Yes, you read that correctly. If you are a DDI subscriber you don’t need to buy this book. It’s entire contents are available in the Character Generator that WotC has provided. Just click the item type you are looking for and scroll through the items complete with descriptions.
While the Adventurer’s Vault provides a much needed update to magic item as mentioned above it is hardly a mandatory purchase. In fact if you are subscribing to the DDI you don’t need to purchase it at all. I know I won’t be buying the AV for this very reason.
Dungeon’s Master Rating: 8 on a d10
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2 replies on “Review: Adventurer’s Vault”
I enjoy this resource as well. As DM it makes the magic loot options a lot more interesting. I must say that I was a bit surprised to see ALL the items appear in the Character Builder. Adding the items to your character sheet/power cards is a snap but I feel like I wasted a bit of money on the book. As nice as it is to have a hard copy in my hand, I’ll be thinking twice before I buy AV2.
Suddry I’m with you on that. I was thinking further on the redundancy of the physical book. All the items are listed in the DDI Compendium. Sure having the book means you know the item name, but a search for magic item combined with some patience is money in my bank account. This combined with the items in the CB makes the book a non-buy.