6.8 /10 1 Votes
Publication date 1994 Originally published 1994 Page count 126 Illustrator Sam Witt | 3.4/5 Goodreads Pages 126 Publisher TSR | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genre Tabletop role-playing game Similar Al‑Qadim: Arabian Adventures, Land of Fate, Cities of Bone, A Dozen and One Adventures, Ruined Kingdoms | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1994.
Contents
Contents
The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook covers sha'irs and also the elemental mages of Zakhara. Presented in the familiar "Complete Handbook" format. it gives role-playing and campaign advice (apprentices, dueling practices), new wizard kits (astrologer, numerologist, clockwork mage, and others), almost a dozen secret magical societies, and ten pages of new spells and proficiencies. The Mechanician, for example, crafts clockwork automata to cast his spells.
This book details the wizards of the Al-Qadim setting, including the core kits of Sha'ir, Sorcerer, and Elemental Mage. It also introduces a number of additional kits.
Publication history
The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook was written by Sam Witt and published by TSR as a 128-page softcover.
Reception
Allen Varney reviewed The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook for Dragon magazine #219 (July 1995). Varney comments: "The kits work well, especially the Mechanician [...] But the societies come out of nowhere, adding a needless layer of campaign complexity ungrounded in Arabian folktales or the Zakharan campaign. If you want a secret society of desert mages, play in the Dark Sun world. Flatly written and wordy, The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook offers some useful advice on topics like genie prisons and caring for familiars, but its new spells look unusually powerful, as does the wizard assassin called the Spellslayer. Look before buying.