Updates to the Spell Compendium?

[Narse]

I was trying to find some information concerning the Premium Spell Compendium that is out, and I'm having a lot of trouble. If anyone who has it could help answer some questions, I'd appreciate it.

My opinion of a Spell Compendium would be that it has all the spells, which I believe the original Spell Compendium did up until its printing. However, there were some books printed afterwards that had new spells. Does the new Spell Compendium have these new spells in it? If so, does it have everything in it that the original did, plus more? Or are certain spells no longer in it? The description on WotC site says it has "the most popular spells", and it also says it's only 160 pages, whereas the original one had 285 pages. Is this accurate?

Is the new Spell Compendium worth buying if you have the original?

Thanks.

[Flickerdart]

Pretty sure that the SpC did not have all the spells even when it was published.

[Narse]

Pretty sure that the SpC did not have all the spells even when it was published.

You're correct, it doesn't have spells from PHB, which I always found annoying... Regardless, the questions concerning the reprint don't really hinge on whether or not the original one had every spell up until that point.

[WhatBigTeeth]

Amazon lists it at the same original 288 pages, which seems more plausible, given that it calls itself a reprint and editing it down would imply that WotC is hiring staff to actively update a dead edition.

[Daftendirekt]

You're correct, it doesn't have spells from PHB, which I always found annoying.

I would find it annoying if it did. The PHB is already the 2nd largest compendium of spells apart from the SpC. SpC's purpose was merely to take the dozen or so new spells each from buttloads of splatbooks and put them in one convenient place.

[Narse]

I would find it annoying if it did. The PHB is already the 2nd largest compendium of spells apart from the SpC. SpC's purpose was merely to take the dozen or so new spells each from buttloads of splatbooks and put them in one convenient place.

I would love to have a source that has every spell in one convienent place, PHB and all. However, I would be very happy with everything minus the PHB. If this book offers that, I'd get it. If its just the same book I have already with errata, I'll pass.

[Marnath]

I would find it annoying if it did. The PHB is already the 2nd largest compendium of spells apart from the SpC. SpC's purpose was merely to take the dozen or so new spells each from buttloads of splatbooks and put them in one convenient place.

Which splats exactly? It doesn't have the PHB2 spells, or RoD, or CM, off the top of my head I can't name any splats besides complete arcane and complete divine that were added to it.:smallconfused:

It would have been better if it had all spells in it. How many books should you really need to sort through to equip a caster optimally?

[Carth]

It doesn't have chain contingency in it. Which might be a good thing, casters have enough toys already, keep that one swept under the rug :smallbiggrin:

[Mithril Leaf]

I would love to have a source that has every spell in one convienent place, PHB and all. However, I would be very happy with everything minus the PHB. If this book offers that, I'd get it. If its just the same book I have already with errata, I'll pass.

Well, there's always The Spell Book (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=5044). But due to the fact that it's like 2000 pages, that's not really practical for print. There's a lot of spells.

[Mnemnosyne]

Yeah, I really miss the 2nd Edition compendiums. The Encyclopedia Magica, the compendium of every magic item ever published...the Wizard's Spell Compendium, that had every mage spell ever published...and the Priest's Spell Compendium, with every priest spell ever. And all of those included spells going back to 1st Edition and even OD&D and they compiled stuff from Dragon Magazine and every other possible source.

If they had released a version of each of those for 3.5, you bet I would have bought it. All of them would be incredibly useful. And as far as practical for print...the Encyclopedia Magica was a four-volume set, so was the Wizard's Spell Compendium, and the Priest's Spell Compendium was three volumes.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Mnemnosyne
Yeah, I really miss the 2nd Edition compendiums.... If they had released a version of each of those for 3.5, you bet I would have bought it. All of them would be incredibly useful.

A compendium of the 3.5 Completes is something I'd love to see. Or "The Best of the Completes," with Complete Warrior, Complete Arcane and Complete Divine.

--Maybe two omnibus volumes? Any way you slice it, there'd be a market.

[Khedrac]

Which splats exactly? It doesn't have the PHB2 spells, or RoD, or CM, off the top of my head I can't name any splats besides complete arcane and complete divine that were added to it.:smallconfused:

It would have been better if it had all spells in it. How many books should you really need to sort through to equip a caster optimally?
Well yes, but it would be hard for it to have spells from books published after it...

Spell Compendium has all spells for the first 4 Complete Books, the "Monster" books (Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness etc.), Miniatures Handbook, BoED, BoVD, quite a lot of Forgotten Realms source books (probably updated from 3.0?) and some Dragon Magazines, all of it potentially updated when edited for the SpC.

The twist is it only contains spells for Core classes. There is no casting information for any other class, which leads to questions where spells changed levels for Sorc/Wiz or Cleric/Druid - do they change levels for Hexblades or Wu Jen as well?