17 Plants is just that, a PDF that presents 17 different types of fantasy plants to use in a game. Page one is an abbreviated table of contents, because it only provides the page numbers for the plants, which don’t start until page 7 of the product. It also includes ads on the first page promoting upcoming products. Page two is the “welcome page” explaining what the product is. Page three is “How to use this book”. And then some summary information on “ancient forests,” which reads more like filler than anything I really need. This continues to page four, and then some notes on using a Bardic Lore check to have heard some legend about the forests. Again, it just sort of reads like filler to inflate the size of the product. Page 5 and 6 explain how each plant will be presented and the general format the rest of the product will take.
The first plant is the Anyseed. The seed of this bush lets a spellcaster erase existing spells and then restudy to memorize new ones. In 3.5, can’t you do this anyway without a seed? It doesn’t cut down on the amount of time needed to study. It just erases spells from your mind. Personally, I think this would be more useful as a poison to force mages to forget spells. I don’t see why this is a benefit.
Some of the plants have interesting ideas. Devil’s Blood Weed is a carnivorous plant that feed on blood. It resembles a more benign weed (Yellow Heather) and has a sweet smell that lures in prey. But the description doesn’t make much sense. It describes someone under the effect of the plant as being “in complete reverie” as per a Dominate Person spell. But that spell doesn’t put someone in a state of reverie. It subjects you to verbal commands. Maybe the author doesn’t know what the word “reverie” means. But it makes the description hard to follow.
That is the problem I have with a lot of the plants in this product. They present interesting concepts, but the follow through on explanation falls flat.
Artwork is inconsistent. Some of it consists of photos of real plants. Some of it consists of what look like reproductions of woodcuts. Some of it is clip art. Again, it seems to be more for filler than to serve a purpose. The actual product ends on page 29. Two and a half pages take up the open game license, and the rest of the product is more ads.
Review Summary