This is pretty much the same rating as I gave to the first Spelljammer monstrous compendium. Overall, it presents a solid block of creatures with some especially neat ones (like the astro sphinx and the witchlight marauders) along with the occasional dud (instead of space gorillas, we have space penguins this time). Unfortunately, the scan quality just isn't that good compared with the uploads of newer D&D material. The text isn't sharp and the black-and-white monster pictures often look either faded or too dark. As with the first Spelljammer monster collection, I would only purchase this if you're extremely curious or if you have fond memories of playing Spelljammer and you no longer have your physical books.

Like its description says, this book provides a system for using items that become stronger depending on their wielder's experiences. There are roughly 50 of these so-called legacy items detailed here, each of them with its own history and stats. Most also have a mini-adventure that players can go on to acquire them, often including a small map that shows their location. Each legacy item (most are weapons, but there are some armors and a few miscellaneous things like amulets and instruments) has its own illustration as well, and while all of the artwork is well done, some drawings in particular are just beautiful and really give a sense as to the item's story. On top of legacy items, the book also provides mechanics for legacy heroes, monsters, and even epic legacy weapons if a DM is crafting a campaign for high level PCs. Overall, this is an excellent book with great ideas, top-notch art, and some interesting new mechanics. The legacy items also seem like they could easily be converted to the new 5th edition or even to a different game (like Pathfinder) with relatively little effort. The quality of the pdf is excellent, and it's also indexed and searchable.

A solid product let down by poor scanning. There's really no other way to put it. The creatures in this compendium are creative and interesting for the most part, though there are occasionally a few that are just plain silly. (A race of space gorillas? Really?) I especially like the Plasmoids--curious, blob creatures with human intelligence and some surprisingly interesting quirks. The infinity vine is another standout and demonstrates the neat mechanics that went into Spelljammer. Unfortunately, this entire product is let down by the quality of the pdf. Even at 100%, the text just doesn't look very clean. The pictures of the creatures that go along with each entry have also suffered and sometimes are so dark that it's hard to pick out the details that exist in the physical edition. To be fair, I know it's not always easy to scan a black and white document, but when comparing this compendium to the gorgeous scans of 3rd and 4th edition products on this site, the different really is obvious. Ultimately, I would only purchase this if you're extremely curious about Spelljammer or if you have fond memories of playing it back in the day.

As an addendum, if this product gets updated with a higher-quality scan, then my rating would rise to roughly a 3.5.

This is one of my favorite 3.5 books. The artwork is gorgeous, and there is plenty of it--the major dragon types all get their own full body drawing in addition to head studies, anatomical doodles, and even in-flight sketches. The amount of "fluff" is super high as the book includes descriptions of dragon lairs, life cycles, languages, gods, even more down-in-the-weeds info like a dragon's metabolism and senses. If you prefer rules to fluff, the book offers tons of that as well: dragon prestige classes, feats, spells, and a ton of sample dragons (with full stats) in addition to over two dozen new dragon-based monsters. There are even example hoards and tables to help you build unique treasure troves for dragons in your campaign. The end result is that this is one of those rare books that's not only super useful for anyone who wants to add more mechanics in a gaming session, but it's also a ton of fun to read. PDF quality is excellent, even at very high zooms, and the whole package is bookmarked and searchable. Highly recommended.