Arms and Equipment Guide (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Accessory) [Hardcover]

Eric Cagle (Author), Jesse Decker (Author), Jeff Quick (Author), Rich Redman (Author), James Wyatt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Heroes need to be prepared for anything, which means having the right weapons and gear on hand at all times. The well-stocked pages of this book hold an impressive inventory of merchandise to get you into and out of all manner of trouble, including:

A caravanload of equipment, trade goods, alchemical items, poisons, mounts, and vehicles.

Over 230 magic weapons and armors, such as the flameshroud axe, lance of the unending charge, and vampire hunter armor.

Over 125 magic items, including new artifacts, such as elixir armor, rings of the hive mind, the ghost rod, and the bag of endless caltrops.

Rules for vehicle combat on land, sea, and air.

Within these pages, players and Dungeon Masters will find what they need to outfit their characters for nearly every contingency.

To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide. A player needs only the Player’s Handbook.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Cagle works for the R&D staff as an administrative assistant. He has edited several AD&D® and D&D game products.

Jesse Decker is currently the managing editor of Dragon® Magazine. He has written numerous magazine articles in relation to the D&D game.

Jeff Quick helped launch Star Wars Insider magazine as its new editor and simultaneously helmed Star Wars Insider magazine as its editor-in-chief.

Rich Redman's recent credits include contributing to Deities and Demigods, Defenders of the Faith, and Monster Manual II.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078692649X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786926497
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming > Dungeons & Dragons

More About the Author

James Wyatt is an award-winning game designer at Wizards of the Coast and one of the designers of the Eberron Campaign Setting. He wrote the City of the Spider Queen and Oriental Adventures game supplements, and co-authored numerous roleplaying game products. He grew up in Ithaca, New York, and now lives in Washington State with his wife and son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's like Nicholas the Gift-Giver left his sleigh!, March 27, 2003

By 

Brad Smith (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Arms and Equipment Guide (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Accessory) (Hardcover)

I love equipment books. They give you more options, more TOYS to play with. Properly done, they're great for any game.

This is fairly well done, too.

Arms and Equipment Guide (A&EG) descends from a long line of D&D equipment/specialized rule books, such as Aurora's Whole Realms catalog, Of Ships & Sea, and, of course, the AD&D2 Arms and Equipment Guide. It also collects a lot of things that have appeared in print in other supplements, like weapons from Sword & Fist and magical vehicle equipment from Dragon magazine; while you're (possibly) paying for the same thing twice, you get it all in one place, which is quite handy.

If you're looking for anything that can be remotely construed as a possession, this is for you. There are new weapons, new armors (and materials for each), new adventuring gear, detailed rules for mounts, hirelings, and vehicles, and the required magic item section...at 56 pages, the longest section of this 160-page hardcover.

The magic item section has elicited most of the comment. There are a bevy of new special weapons, the special properties of which are easily reverse-engineered for use elsewhere. There are a lot of new wondrous items, rods, and rings as well, many of which are rather cheap for what they do. And, of course, you can also now add armor enhancements to your Bracers of Armor, which will be loved by rogues and wizards everywhere. New rules for creating intelligent magic items are included, which have long been needed. Many named intelligent items (such as Black-razor) are included, and there are a few new artifacts (like the Regaliae of Good and Neutrality).

In summation, really, it's a nice, nifty book. Just take the things in it with a grain of salt, and get your DM's final say before you make your paired Ringweapons so you can wear four rings at once.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some useful stuff, but also ommissions, April 12, 2003

By 

Rabbitbait (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arms and Equipment Guide (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Accessory) (Hardcover)

This book is what it claims to be. No more, no less.

It has a lot of new equipment for PC's and some handy rules for the use of it. The most useful part of the book and the only part that really differs from the Players handbook and the DMG is the vehicle rules and stats which I had felt was lacking greatly in the original core books.

Unfortunately in the charts for weapons, items, magic items etc, this book does not include any of the stuff from the Players Handbook or the DMG which means you either have to make your own lists or refer to both books if you want the basic stats for any items. This is a small niggle but, it is always nice to know which chart to refer to when you need to know something.

It is a good sourcebook, but if you are wanting anything that is particularly new or exciting then it is not worth the cover price. This book is more an expansion on the old stuff than anything new.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good stuff, some not so good, April 3, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Arms and Equipment Guide (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Accessory) (Hardcover)

I end up buying too many sourcbooks as i like to collect them. What i actually use from these books rarely justifies the cost. That's the case with the 3rd edition AaEG, a book that has some solid rules and some stuff that makes you scratch your head (such as flippers and a snorkel). Although many people don't care, the art is the same as the splatbooks, and despite being hardcover the book is completely b/w, and not especially great. Sometimes i really miss the full-page color templates from 2nd edition. Anyway, the book is broken down into mundane adventuring items, magical items, and vehicles. The biggest section is the magic items, and while many of them are nice, such as the manticore blade +3 that fires projectiles, a lot of the items are just tried and true and generic "it lets you cast true strike twice per day."
Many of the items are gleaned from Dragon and other sourcebooks, but as i lack most of those so it's all new to me. Still, I just can't shake the feeling that i could have thought of that magic item myself without paying someone to tell me...