Spell Compendium (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) [Hardcover]

Matthew Sernett (Author), Jeff Grubb (Author), Mike Mcartor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2005

An important reference to the most popular spells in the Dungeons & Dragons® game. A must have at every D&D game table!  
Spell Compendium provides players and Dungeon Masters with quick access to the D&D spells they need most. Drawing from a treasure trove of sources, Spell Compendium is the one place to find spells that are referenced time and again: the best, most iconic, most popular, and most frequently used. This convenient reference introduces a new spell format that includes descriptive text.  

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matthew Sernett worked for Paizo Publishing as the editor-in-chief of Dragon® Magazine before joining Wizards of the Coast, Inc. as a game designer. His previous design credits include the Monster Manual™ III, Fiend Folio™, and the d20 Menace Manual™ roleplaying games.
 
Jeff Grubb is a legend in the RPG industry, having designed numerous games and game supplements. 
 
Mike McArtor is the Assistant Editor of Dragon® Magazine and the writer of numerous D&D magazine articles.  Spell Compendium™ is his first roleplaying game product for Wizards of the Coast.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (December 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786937025
• ISBN-13: 978-0786937028
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid reference at last, January 8, 2006

By 

over and under - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Spell Compendium (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Hardcover)

Wotc is notorious for padding their books because let's face it, in the last year or so, Wotc has released more hardcovers than every book printed for the entire 1st edition. While each of these books contains patches of solid, if not essential material, one can't help but think Wotc could have compressed all this info into fewer volumes.

Could have, but that's not the nature of capitalism, now is it?

Quibbling aside, this is one volume that dispels the notion of padding and then some. Not since the Player's Handbook has any single book been so essential to the game. Sure, prestige classes are nice, but we dump 90% of them into the garbage and wonder why we bought the book in the first place.

But that's not the case with spells.

Spells rule the world of D&D. There's a spell for every occasion and players can never have enough at their disposal. In the past, if you wanted that choice spell to fight the lich you needed to have the right book handy, a book you most likely carried about simply for that four sentence spell description. Well, now you have more than a thousand at your beck and call and the cumbersome Complete series, not to mention the Bovd and Libris Mortis, can just stay at home.

Let me just say this book is solid, well constructed, and lays out everything you'll want to have for a spellcaster (unless perhaps you're a warlock). The only drawbacks are that the original sources are not referenced and there is no index or table of contents for the spells themselves. The former seemed like a bad idea at first, but now we have a host of new core spells to play with, spells that can't be thrown out because they originated in the Forgotten Realms or other campaign settings. The latter problem of no index is solved simply by looking at the spellcaster tables at the back, which doubles as the index, anyway.

This is the first book I have bought from Wizards in more than a year that I feel wholly satisfied about. It's nice to see a solid compilation that lightens my tote-bag and introduces new material at the same time.

65 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you are carrying more than two books for spells-itsgood, December 30, 2005

By 

MICHAEL BEAVERS (Brisbane Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spell Compendium (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Hardcover)

The spell compendium is the latest book from WOC.

This book contains spells from the following; the complete series, Draconomicon, Liber Mortis, Magic of Faerun, Manuel of the planes, Miniatures Handbook, Planar handbook, Players Guide to Faerun, Savage Species, and the Underdark. There are spells from the Dragon,and from the wizards website.

The book includes divine and arcane spells from all of these sources. It also includes the new domain spells and granted powers for them. All the spells according to the book are updated to 3.5.

My only complaints are that the spells dont have an indication from which source they came from. Its a small complaint but it would have been nice. The second complaint is the renaming of many of the spells. Aganazzars scorcher is now scorch, bigbys slapping hand is just slapping hand, harmony is now inspirational boost. Im not sure why and didnt think it was necessary.

Like I said in the title, if you are carrying two or more of the books to your games, its worth it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many but not all spells, in a great but not perfect book, March 25, 2007

By 

Walter D. Pullen (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spell Compendium (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book for Wizard characters wanting to expand their spellbook, Sorcerer characters wanting to find effective spells to learn, and Cleric and Druid characters wanting access to additional spells to pray for. It also includes spells for less common classes such as Assassin. Not all DM's allow their players to use spells from supplements, but if they do, this is one book you don't want to do without.

The Spell Compendium does not contain every spell ever published. For example, it doesn't contain spells from newer books, such as Player's Handbook II and Complete Mage. Since this book is a supplement, it also doesn't contain the spells from the standard Player's Handbook. Hence, as a Wizard player, I still find myself needing to carrying four separate books to gaming sessions to have full information on the spells I can cast. I'd like to see a Spell Compendium II, that has the newer sources as well as Player's Handbook spells all in one volume.

Some spells have been renamed or changed in behavior. For example, Greater Mage Armor no longer has a material component, even though you had to pay 25 gold each time you cast it in Complete Arcane, the book that originally introduced this spell. Since the Spell Compendium is the newer book with hopefully more errata and balance, DM's should probably rule that spells have the newer behavior.

I have noticed several typos in the book, which is unfortunate. But they're usually pretty obvious and won't interfere with proper use of the material.