Adventurer's Vault: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement

Basically its a giant list of magic items and what they do. Very helpful for running a campaign, but there is little else of merit in the book.

How can a DM NOT buy a book chock-full of new magic items and options he can plug into his game, especially at this early stage in the new edition? Well, I figured I had to give it a try, so I did. Not only was I pleasantly surprised, this book has become my number one source for magic items and other PC rewards. But this is not just a book that pumps your players full of super-powerful magics; this book also includes rules for relatively mundane and simple character options that help the game develop a unique flavor and context of its own.

Mounts are given the attention they deserve. New options for mounts are provided including some very mundane choices (camels, etc.) and some fantastic ones skeletal horses, dire sharks or triceratopses anyone?). Rules for vehicles are present and whether those are longships or airships, they really give you a good idea not only of how these can be useful in your game, but how they can add a distinct flavor to your combat encounters.

Alchemy, in my mind, is the knock-down, drag-out winner of the "best bit of rules crunch introduced in this book" award. Finally! Something other than rituals for my wizard and cleric to excel at! (Actually, in my game, it will likely be one of the two rangers who picks this one up.) Whether it's poisons, traps, grenades (Alchemist's Fire, anyone?) or potions, Alchemy has a lot to offer. I really hope they continue to expand alchemical options in the next volume of Adventurer's Vault.

As for the magic items, yeah, they're great. And you'll find a lot of neat stuff in here, including some things you might not have thought you'd see, Including: magic items for your animal companion or mount, magic item mounts (figurines of wonderous power) that never have to feed or sleep (but have very, very low hp to offset their obvious usefulness), new potions that don't use up healing surges (but most still do), whetstones (providing a temporary encounter bonus to a weapon's usefulness), reagents (I really thought they'd be done with these after 3.5e's Unearthed Arcana) and other one-use magic items (an easy way for a DM to round-out a treasure hoard with something that will be of limited use to his PCs).

The section on making and improving magic items in Appendix 1 is super-useful, too. It contains a ritual that vied closely with Alchemy for that "most useful..." award I mentioned earlier: Transfer Enchantment. Ever find the right enchantment on the wrong armor? Maybe you wanted blackiron plate but only got blackiron scale? Now, a short ritual can move that enchantment from one item to another of the same type. Wow.

In short, great book. I'd really like to see more books like this.

My only gripe is that the editing is not what it could have been. I keep catching typos (like "telepot;" look for it, it's in there) and things that vary from their description on the list of magic items to the actual write-up of the item. Use common sense here: give "telepot" back its "r" and use the stats as they appear in the stat block, not in the list.

This book is a great addition to any DnD campaign. With the newly released 4.0 rules this book adds a ton of new items to any great campaign.. a must for any group that wants to expand their options for taking down all those monsters the DM has in store.

This book is the perfect source for any DM in trying to select treasure for your campaign. Lets face it, the treasure in the Player's Handbook was pretty lame. Plus, there isn't nearly enough to choose from. In the Adventure's Vault, you have more treasure options than you'll ever need. Plus you will find stuff to fit every type of character. I couldn't be more pleased. There are also charts and tables, which allow you to quickly find any item you are looking for. What's that? You need a level 3 armor? Well, it shows right here that you have 14 to choose from. Have fun.

My only real hope with the Vault was that it would have some added resources for mundane stuff as well as the obvious magical information. Just recently we were thinking about why there's no pricing on mules, pets, etc. This is the kind of thing that would have also been nice to have in this manual.

That said though, the information is clear and well thought out for the most part. The book is what was expected: it includes a LOT of new magical items and enchantments to work with, and also has some added mount types and so on. All in all a good product for a DM to have on hand, though in any group there's no real reason for everyone to go out and get this.