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.

You can read information and reviews about product from Silven Publishing and many other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

I have fond memories of some of the earlier Xanth novels. I worship Terry Pratchett as a minor deity. All of which is just a long-winded way of saying that I like humorous fantasy. So the promises made by books like The Pun is Mightier Than the Sword attract me like a moth to the flame.

Not that everything in the book is slapstick, or even funny for that matter. The feats in particular are presented as rather standard fare, with an effect adapted from the name. I'd be at a loss if asked to explain how some of them actually work, and you may not always agree with what effect the writers have assigned to a given saying, but they're all presented as normal feats.

The spells provide us with a bit more in the silliness department. It's also here that we encounter some sayings which are a little more modern and culture specific. All Your Base Are Belong to Us is a perfect example; it did certainly seem to catch on widely, but the actual audience was fairly limited to internet/geek culture. There's nothing wrong with this, but for gamers of more recent vintage, among others, might miss the references.

Many of the spells are both amusing and useful. High on Life ranks among my personal favorites, as if Kentucky Fried. As for Light as a Feather... let's just say that the other half of that particularly saying is missing from the spell lists.

Chapter three is given over to items. Here I was a bit disappointed with the jury rig, as they just limited it to traps rather than making it something that applied to all devices. The rest of the chapter features such items as the slapstick, the uglystick and just to prove everyone wrong ? the free lunch.

There are four new prestige classes ? the all around handy jack of all trades, the not always so funny jokesmith, the spit and polished knight in shining armor, and the proverbial proverbial. Some of these have fairly powerful abilities; particularly the ability of the jack of all trades to stack prestige class levels to class levels for a number of class abilities.

As a bonus, a brief appendix provides information on a few spells from two of the publisher's other products.

I didn't always agree with the writer's interpretations of a given saying. I also would have liked a little more slapstick to some of the selections, but at the same time that lack of outright goofiness makes the product usable in a wider variety of games.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Lots of fun new toys.

Nature's Calling.

For such a short product, it's well bookmarked and has a hyperlinked table of contents.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The cover of the print version is just the cover for the screen version turned grayscale ? which isn't all that printer friendly.

Some of the feats just seemed inexplicable.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>