Designed for those who feel the need to be funny in their games, this product dives straight in. Chapter 1 presents a whole batch of feats which are not so much amusing in themselves, it's the titles they have been given that are supposed to be funny or at least based on commonly-used phrases. Most are actually quite useful - for example, 'needle in a haystack' gives a bonus to your search skill, or 'with a grain of salt' makes it far harder for others to deceive you, by granting a bonus to sense motive checks and to will saves against illusion spells.

Chapter 2 presents a list of spells in similar vein. You may feel vaguely silly announcing the name of the spell you are about to cast, but the results are generally useful or advantageous to you and your party. Cast Kentucky Fried and conjure up a rather greasy order of chicken complete with sides... or Silent but Deadly to create a cloud of vile-smelling gas, or Full Monty to cause your target's clothing to mysteriously fall away from his body!

Chapter 3 explores some of the more unusual items you'll find. Try a 'dead ringer' - a black onyx ring that sounds a chime when undead approach (and provides protection from undead into the bargain!). Or if you are suspicious about someone, ask him to place his hand on a roll of parchment called a 'rap sheet' - and see a list of the crimes he's committed appear upon it.

Chapter 4 looks at prestige classes. A jack of all trades is the arch-dabbler, with at least one rank in every skill in the Player's Handbook and able to cast both arcane and divine spells - generally they have levels in 5 or 6 classes and seem to have tried a bit of everything. Next comes the jokesmith, a spellcaster who has turned his talents towards playing tricks and generally causing amusement for himself or for others. Many jokesmiths are bards, but they are not alone in thinking that the world could use a few belly-laughs. There's also the knight in shining armour - basically one who 'follows the impossible dream' - he's obsessed with the story-book ideals of honour and adventure embodied in the concept of chivalry and does his best to live up to it. It's an affliction that mostly catches paladins, but fighters and clerics also catch this obsession... most others cannot fight well enough (or wear the shiny armour) to qualify. Then there's the proverbial, a spellcaster who studies proverbs. You need to be good at knowledge skills and able to case divination spells to qualify... oh, and you have to be at least middle-aged! All these prestige classes are accompanied by a sample character, so that you can see how it works in practice.

Finally, an appendix lists apposite spells from other Silven Publishing products, Curses! and Libem Liborium: The Complete D20 Guide to Books.

Not being too keen on humour in games, I opened this book with some trepidation... and was pleasantly surprised. Much of it is usable and useful in an ordinary game of D&D, and keeps the jokes to something reasonable that could well happen within a fantasy world.

Return to The Pun is Mightier Than the Sword page.

Reviewed: 30 December 2005