From the Laboratory of the Mad Wizard Shadmar is a 15 page pdf in the Creatures & Chaos line from Nitehawk Interactive. This pdf product features nine new magical items created by the wizard Shadmar. The product comes complete with bookmarks and a table of contents, and contains some good art of each of the nine items presented in the pdf. Presentation-wise this pdf looks good, although one of the tables for the Potion of Mutilate Self looks a bit clumped together. Of the 15 pages of the pdf, only 6 pages are actually devoted to the descriptions of the nine items - not the best ratio of content to page count.

The wizard, Shadmar, we are told, was once a respected wizard and a powerful spellcaster. His downfall came when he found a powerful item called the Amulet of Creation that gave him the ability to create any magical object of his desires. Unknown to the wizard, though, the amulet was in fact cursed in such as way that each item created using the amulet contained a minor curse of its own. The pdf details nine such items, all cursed items, that were created using the amulet, and include the details of the amulet itself. The appendix to the pdf contains the details on cursed magical items normally found in the d20 system reference document (SRD), thereby enabling DMs to create cursed items of their own should they wish to use the amulet in their campaign world.

Each of the nine items is presented with a brief background, including details on the reason for its creation and other background elements. There are some good and interesting details here, making each of the item concepts useful to a game. Examples of the nine items include the Jumping Blade that jumps out of your hand after an attack, the Flute of the Farmer that can cause devastation to local fields, the Potion of Mutilate Self that can harm your appearance and social skills, and the Wand of Reciprocal Paralyzation, that does exactly what the name implies. Some interesting ideas for cursed items, and certainly useful in game.

The pdf, however, suffers from some rather incomplete and poor mechanics. For one, none of the items listed include crafting or creation details, such as caster level, pricing, and the like. In addition, the pdf makes references to concepts like 'metamagic Craft feats' and 'Insanity scores' that aren't explained or properly detailed in the case of the latter. While I can understand that a 'metamagic Craft feat' actually refers to a Craft feat, this isn't the only example of some poorly referenced or executed mechanic.

Lastly, the pdf contains some useful adventure ideas and plot hooks. I think the pdf has some merit in the concepts and ideas that it present, but the execution is poor and could certainly have done with complete mechanics and corrected mechanical descriptions.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Some interesting and useful ideas amongst the nine magical items. I liked the idea behind the Amulet of Creation, and it's certainly something I can see using in a campaign. Small minor curses within items can make for interesting gameplay.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The pdf contains no crafting or creation details on the various magical items, and contains undefined or ill-defined references to several mechanical terms.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>