This product is an addition to the Game Mechanics Artifacts of the Ages line which is based around the idea that a character can acquire an artifact and by bonding to it, slowly unlock its powers. This is represented by having the character take levels in the scion prestige class, of which there are four varieties (battle, faith, spell and swift), as the character gains higher levels in the class she unlocks greater and greater powers of the artifact. The full scion rules are not presented in this book which is why it requires one of the books listed above, but new scion rules are introduced allowing each of the scion classes to be customized by the class of the character taking it; this allows a barbarian battle scion to evolve differently from a paladin battle scion, not just because they use a different artifact weapon but because how they use them is different. This is an excellent addition to the scion class concept.

Weapons were chosen as the theme for this collection, which features weapons created by well-known writers from the gaming industry (such as Andy Collins, Sean K. Reynolds, and Owen K. C. Stephens), as heroes wielding fantastic weapons is a constant in fantasy adventure.

The cover art is a nice piece (apparently showing the arrival of the goblin artifact Godthump) and each of the 17 weapons is given its own crisp illustration by Jacob Elijah Walker except for a set of paired weapons which share theirs; other than the weapons, there is only one illustration in the book. The layout is clean and easy to read, as is expected from the Game Mechanics.

Each of the weapons is given a brief general description followed by its history and great deeds (along with the DC of the check required to find that information) and some have adventure hooks to introduce the weapon into a campaign. Since the weapons each have their own history and they are somewhat woven together into part of a whole mythology, the background stories will have to be tweaked to fit them into an ongoing campaign. But this is not a criticism; a full presentation of the item's background allows and encourages a DM to think about the myths and legends of their own campaign world using these as a basis.

There are weapons here for everyone: fighters, clerics, rogues and even sorcerers. There is a wide range of weapons from punch daggers and kama to great clubs and even a Dwarven urgrosh, along with the ubiquitous long swords; but there's only a single ranged weapon (a composite long bow).

Most of the weapons are heroic or could be in the right hands. One of my favorites is Godthump, a goblin great club made of the slag left from a meteorite that struck down a celestial during a great battle. Now it is in the possession of one of the goblin royal families and it is used by champions from that bloodline when the goblin race needs to be defended. There are so many adventure possibilities that spring from a goblin using a legendary weapon.

Stalwart is another of the weapons, a guisarme that was imbued with the ability to defend against great odds after its original owner, a civic militiaman, used it to hold off a barbarian horde at the main gate of his city. It is nice to see a magical pole arm in a supplement; pole arms and spears were some of the most common weapons throughout history yet they rarely show up in DSD games as anything other than as the choice of a poor fighter.

Artifacts of the Ages: Legendary Weapons is an excellent addition to the Artifacts of the Ages line of products, both for the expanded scion rules and the additional legendary weapons. If you are already using the scion/artifact rules, or are intending to start, this product is well worth getting.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Everyone likes weapons, right?<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

If you're a reader of the Artifacts of the Ages series, then I think you should definitely pick up this PDF. It provides expanded rules for the scion classes that help enable characters to tap into the extended powers of the artifacts and these rules can be used for previous installments in the series. It has stuff for bards and monks, etc.

Also, the art is an improvement over their most recent release. The art is bigger and more of a close-in shot of the item described. It also is more detailed and less sketchy.

Finally, it focuses on something that nearly all characters use: weapons. There's a really cool weapon for a duelist character that allows them to pick up many of the abilities of the prestige class and even some more, but there are some restrictions. There's also a fantastic dwarven axe.

Sean Holland of D20 Filtered had this to say in his review:

"Artifacts of the Ages: Legendary Weapons is an excellent addition to the Artifacts of the Ages line of products, both for the expanded scion rules and the additional legendary weapons. If you are already using the scion/artifact rules, or are intending to start, this book belongs on your shelf."<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: These Artifacts of the Ages seemed to be uniformly more useful. They fit into more pre-existing character archetypes that people seem to enjoy playing.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It was 40 pages. I think that you cannot have enough of a good thing, so I would have liked to see more. It is fairly priced as is, however.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

PRETTY COOL PDF, WELL THOUGHT OUT WEAPONS. -I LIKED IDEA ABOUT A WEAPON GROWING WITH IT WEILDER AND CERTAIN FEATS THAT ARE NEEDED TO PROPERLY USE IT HOWEVER... (SEE NEXT SECTION)<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: THE SCION IDEA'S WERE INSANE ENOUGHT TO LAUGH AT. IT IS STATED IN THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK -THE PLAYER USUALLY SELL A TRUSTY WEAPON FOR SOMETHING BETTER (CLOSE ENOUGH).- WHY? ALL U HAVE TO DO IS UPGRADE IT (COVERED IN THE DMG). HOWEVER A LEGANDARY WEAPON IS JUST THAT, SOMETHING ABOVE AND BEYOND. BUT THEY CAN BE DESTROYED JUST AS ANYTHING ELSE CAN. SO WHY WOULD A PLAYER CHOOSE TO WASTE 10 LEVELS ON A CLASS WHEN U NEVER KNOW IF U WILL KEEP THE WEAPON THE WHOLE TIME? BECAUSE U NEVER KNOW WHAT CAN HAPPEN. WHAT IS THE POSSABILITY OF COMING ACROSS ANOTHER ONE? NOT TOO GOOD. *AS A DM I WOULD USE THE SYSTEM OF LEVEL DEPENDANT POWERS AND BENIFITS FOR A WEAPON. BUT NOT TAKING A SEPRATE CLASS FOR IT,(WHICH COULD INCUR XP HITS) BUT STILL OVERALL A COOL PDF<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is the fourth product in The Game Mechanics "Artifacts of the Ages" line. The lines focus a series of magical weapons that grow in power as the character does while focusing his intention on mastering the weapon.

Characters devoted to a particular weapon develop through a slightly weakened class that is supposed to balance out the benefit gained by the weapon. Their are 4 main type, one for fighter classes, one for mages, one of clerics and one for thief classes. It is important to note that these classes have appeared in all the earlier AofTA releases and yet they are different here again.

On a disappointing note there is also not a mind scion to incorporate the psionic classes. Their is a download on their website but if the 4 classes have been changed then the mind scion needs to be updated as well.

The book presents 16 new weapons created by a wide range of industry professionals who provide a rich tapestry of legend and history for each of the items. The weapons are interesting and provide some interesting advancement options for pc.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: 16 new options A list of all available AofTA Broadening diversity of choice<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Lack of psionic support Required Prestige classes that seem to change abilities we each new release A Variant rule that is required for weapon advancement, (there is only one option presented)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Love the idea and the execution. Don't know how many players would devote up to 10 levels of their character to a single magic item (albeit indestructible) but the concept is great. The best part about this book is the potential it has for further development - th list of items and the variety could be endless. I recommend the series to anyone at this price<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>