Anybody else have problems with Spell compendium's indexing?

[Mystic Muse]

I'm trying to create a backup character and looking through the thing is a nightmare. The only indexing it has is 4 categories. Introduction, Spells, Spell lists, and Domain spells.

For those who don't have the book and don't know what I'm talking about, here's what it looks like.

Introduction: 3
Spell descriptions: 5
Spell lists:245
Domain spells: 271

That's all and it really irritates me. Would it have been so hard to index the spell descriptions by alphabetical order of which page they start on? Like so.

Spoiler

Show

A. page 6
B. Page 22
C. Page 41
D. Page 57
E. page 75
F. Page 87
G. Page 100
H. Page 108
I. Page 118
J. Page 126
k. Page 128
L. Page 130
M. Page 135
N. Page 145
O. Page 148
P. Page 152
Q. Page 163
R. page 164
S. Page 178
T. Page 218
U. Page 225
V. Page 228
W. Page 233
X. Page 244
Z. Page 244

Maybe this is just me. It's late, I'm tired, and this book annoys me almost as much as the indexing in the magic item compendium. (They couldn't have split "Clothing" into categories instead of making me look through 82 pages every time I make a new character?) The main reason I made this thread was for the index in case anybody else has trouble with the book. I hope the index helps somebody on here.

[BobVosh]

There is a reason that despite having two hard copies of the SpC I only ever use a PDF of it.

[Mystic Muse]

There is a reason that despite having two hard copies of the SpC I only ever use a PDF of it.

How does that help Indexing? Did you make your own?

[BobVosh]

I use the search function, although I guess if I really want to I could index it. In fact now that I have the page numbers...

[Acanous]

My main problem with the Spell Compendium is actually that they put the Spell descriptions BEFORE the Spell Lists and Domains.

All the other books do it in opposite order: Spell Lists and Domains, then Descriptions.

If I'm playing a Cleric, I kinda want to see what spells I get for domains BEFORE I look through the book for descriptions. If I'm a specialist wizard, I'd like to see my school spells before looking through the alphabet of spells.

It's a minor irk, but it gets me every time.

[Mystic Muse]

My main problem with the Spell Compendium is actually that they put the Spell descriptions BEFORE the Spell Lists and Domains.

All the other books do it in opposite order: Spell Lists and Domains, then Descriptions.

If I'm playing a Cleric, I kinda want to see what spells I get for domains BEFORE I look through the book for descriptions. If I'm a specialist wizard, I'd like to see my school spells before looking through the alphabet of spells.

It's a minor irk, but it gets me every time.

Yeah, I agree with that too.

[mikej]

It is very frustrating. My method ( also with other stuff ) of dealing with it is simple. I'm big on book-keeping, so when I make a caster that will use the SpC, I write down basically every "good" spell I'll ever need from that book. I write down the page number for quick reference. Did this a few months ago with my Druid. Just spent a few minutes researching through my SpC pdf and wrote the usefull stuff down. Not for every though. As people don't always put so much downtime on building their character.

@ Kyuubi: Your alphabetical order is pretty handy. Going to have to save that in a txt file.

[Mystic Muse]

It is very frustrating. My method ( also with other stuff ) of dealing with it is simple. I'm big on book-keeping, so when I make a caster that will use the SpC, I write down basically every "good" spell I'll ever need from that book. I write down the page number for quick reference. Did this a few months ago with my Druid. Just spent a few minutes researching through my SpC pdf and wrote the usefull stuff down. Not for every though. As people don't always put so much downtime on building their character.

This is what I plan on doing.

@ Kyuubi: Your alphabetical order is pretty handy. Going to have to save that in a txt file.

Yay! people are getting use out of this!

[Curmudgeon]

I've got a whole cabinet full of D&D books. But I always start on my PC, because I've got a huge amount of stuff indexed here. If I've needed to look something up once I figure I'll likely need to look it up again, so most everything is indexed by book and page number. And I've got a lot of excerpts of things I'll refer to frequently either typed up or cut and pasted from electronic originals, and saved for convenient re-use. From Spell Compendium I typed up all the domains, for instance; that's the part I refer to most frequently. (I added lists of the deities for those domains from other books, because the whole point was to avoid having to look in multiple places for that information.)

[nedz]

@ Kyuubi: Your alphabetical order is pretty handy. Going to have to save that in a txt file.

No - Print it off and paste it into the front of the book

[Seracain]

No - Print it off and paste it into the front of the book

I'm actually considering doing that.

[gbprime]

Personally, I'd like it if WotC put out one more 3.5 book... a compilation of ALL spells released. The problem with Spell Compendium is that they put out books with new spells after that. So to have all the spells you need PHB, SC, PHB2, Complete Mage, Dragon Magic...

Why not release one more book that has ALL of them, PHB included?

Oh... because they've washed their hands of 3.5. Sigh.

[Fax Celestis]

SpellGen fixes all problems.

[gbprime]

SpellGen fixes all problems.

Spiffy. Does that come in hardback?

[Tyger]

SpellGen fixes all problems.

This. Love that little program. Its a close replacement for Emma's (gosh rest its soul) which was my go to spot for all my spell lists and spell books.

[ShadowsGrnEyes]

I tend to use my pdf copy rather than my hardcopy. my pdf has alphabetical tabs under spell description.

[Yora]

My main problem with the Spell Compendium is actually that they put the Spell descriptions BEFORE the Spell Lists and Domains.

All the other books do it in opposite order: Spell Lists and Domains, then Descriptions.

That's not really a problem except for pedantics like us.

[Scorpina]

I find Spell Compendium nigh impossible to use for this very reason. If finding stuff is going to be that hard, why bother?

[Susano-wo]

I'm not really sure what the problem is...if you have class/level, then you can look it up that way, and if not, well, aren't you just fliipping through looking for cool stuff?

The reverse order hting has always struck me as wierd...also, if one does not use the SpC due to that....why would you use any of hte other books. NOne of hte others have an alphabetical spell spoiler list, do they?

[Boci]

I'm not really sure what the problem is...if you have class/level, then you can look it up that way, and if not, well, aren't you just fliipping through looking for cool stuff?

Its annoying when you want to check the exact wording of a specific spell.

The reverse order hting has always struck me as wierd...also, if one does not use the SpC due to that....why would you use any of hte other books. NOne of hte others have an alphabetical spell spoiler list, do they?

No, but they do not consist solely of spells.

[Frosty]

It'snot too bad forme. We know that the spells are described in alphabetical order, so if you kno what spell you want to look at, browsing thru the book and flipping to the right area shouldn't be that hard.

[Susano-wo]

^Yeah, that. IF you want to check Orb of Ice, you check Orb of Ice, as its listed alphabetically...its not like a spoiler list would have complete spell text anyway >.>

[Boci]

^Yeah, that. IF you want to check Orb of Ice, you check Orb of Ice, as its listed alphabetically...its not like a spoiler list would have complete spell text anyway >.>

Yes, but it would be nice to be able to look at the index andcheck where O spells start from. Its not a lot of effort to do without, but neither would have been adding what Kyuubi did in their first post to the book.