A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Avalon’s Mystic Treasures, Five Rods

Avalon’s Mystic Treasures, Five Rods by A. J. Kenning is a role playing game supplement published by the Avalon Game Company for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, one in a series of supplements detailing magic items. The supplement is covered by the Open Game License and therefore some of it is considered to be Open Game Content.

This is a nine page PDF which lacks bookmarks. The PDF is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $4.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1. One page is the colour front cover, one page is the front matter, one page is the Open Game License and one page is an advert for other Avalon Games products. The remainder of the supplement covers the five rods, at one page per rod.

The Corpse Rod is a rod intended to help with animating the dead, not by doing so itself but by preparing the corpses. The Rod of Reloading is a device that magically reloads gunpowder weapons in its vicinity. The Rod of the Blesséd Saint is used to bless, bless water, and purify food and drink. The Rod of the Owl Spirit has a number of owl-related powers. Finally, the Torchlight Rod is a singleton that can affect the ammunition of weapons.

The PDF lacks bookmarks, which aren’t really needed for one of this length, but which would have been a nice addition. The text maintains a one column format and seemed largely error free. Each rod has an illustration, which is both unusual and nice, although two vastly different artistic styles were used, as three were, presumably stock, from one artist, and the other two were designed specifically for this supplement.

Both the Rod of Reloading and the Torchlight Rod are designed to work with gunpowder weapons, decreasing their utility, and that of the supplement, in a campaign that doesn’t use such, although the latter rod will also work with normal ones.

Each rod has its regular details and description, but also has a history and adventure hooks, a nice addition. At $4.99, the supplement is priced a bit on the high side, but at $1 it was definitely worth it. Avalon’s Mystic Treasures, Five Rods is a decent collection of magic items that are thoroughly detailed, and it can be found by clicking here.