Customer Reviews
A thorough, efficient and well-edited (!) accessory... it just scrapes five stars. - By: Mr Ghostface, 15 Mar 2007 
Why only just? A few reasons reallly... Wizards of the Coast seem reticent to provide indexes in their D&D supplements. Why is this? I have absolutely no idea, other than they are in such a rush to put out product that they don't alllow enough time for the compiling of indexes. Another thing is that the Magic Item Compendium is about three years overdue and, though obvious by its name, is not much more than a compilation of previous items from many other source books. It's not that this isn't necessary, but it feels like this sourcebook was put off in order to alllow others to be released first (Weapons of Legacy springs to mind, for one).
Don't get me wrong, it's a great book, & has the feeling of a "pure" sourcebook, the sort that would be considered a Core Book if they expanded that range beyond the original three. Others I would put in there would be the Spell Compendium, Epic Level Handbook, the Draconomicon & even the Tome of Magic. It has that kind of aesthetic... a gathering of many sources into one clean supplement covering one of the fundamental aspects of Dungeons & Dragons. Sounds like a core book to me!
When I say clean, I mean it. This book is one of the most well organised I have seen from Wizards in a hell of a long time (Spell Compendium excepted). Someone with some smarts decided to break down the magical items into four very simple sections, which I applaud, meaning that you should be able to locate what you want pretty quickly - this is, of course, why we need indexes! Item page numbers are listed in the appendices, with the sourcebook code before the number, but you still have to know where to find the item in the relevant appendix! Indices, people, indices!
But that point aside, the editing reallly is top notch by recent standards (you'll see from my other reviews that I'm not one to mince my words about bad editing!). And, what's more, we have appendices for the items, too. Could it be that someone at Wizards is paying attention to the feedback they get?
The chapter & appendices for your perusal:
Chapter 1: Armor (p5-27)
Chapter 2: Weapons (p27-67)
Chapter 3: Clothing (p67-149)
Chapter 4: Tools (p149-191)
Chapter 5: Magic Item Sets (p191-217)
Chapter 6: Using Magic Items (p217-235)
Appendix 1: Magic Items by Price (p235-265)
Appendix 2: Random Treasure (p265-285)
Magic Item Record Sheet (p286)
The appendices are nice & thorough, & the whole book has a feeling of fluidity, the writing has a uniformity that surpasses most collaborative efforts. Most of the items listed are fairly simple, with very clear information on each one:
ITEM NAME
Price & Item Level
Body Slot (where it is held or worn on the body)
Caster Level
Aura (the item's aura strength when subject to a detect magic spell)
Activation (the type of action required, if any, to use the item)
Weight
It's that simple, reallly. I'm sure I'll be referring to this book very, very often in future, although that does underline the niggling feeling that WotC supplements could be organised more uniformly overalll, rather than taking every aspect of the D&D game & splitting into 50 different sourcebooks, only to then be gathered back into a compendium like this! Believe it or not, there is even a RULES Compendium slated for release in late 2007. I ask you! Will it be useful? Yes, but it's terribly cynical.
If you want a nice, clean collection of magic items, I don't see how it could be much better than this. Keep it up, Wizards.
