Eldritch Wizardry

Eldritch Wizardry introduced psionics and the druid character class. The 60-page supplement added several other new concepts to the D&D game, including demons (and their lords Orcus and Demogorgon), psionics-using monsters (such as mind flayers), and artifacts (including the Rod of Seven Parts and the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords). A human character regardless of alignment or character class, with the exception of monks and druids, may have a chance to possess psionic ability. Each character classes has a separate list of psionic abilities which such characters might possess, and the book presents various psionic attack and defense modes. The druid, previously appearing in the Greyhawk supplement as a monster, is expanded in Eldritch Wizardry as a sub-class of the cleric, presented as a neutral-aligned priest of nature worship. The book introduces seven different types of demons, as well as creatures with psionic attack forms, and astral and ethereal creatures, such as brain moles, thought eaters, su-monsters, and intellect devourers. Eldritch Wizardry presents a modified combat system which utilizes new rules such as the type of armor for each character, weapon readiness, encumbrance, and level of spell being used. The supplement includes more than twenty artifacts and relics with incredible powers meant to be unknown to the players, who must learn about the items through rumor or trial and error. The book adds new wilderness encounter charts which also take the new monsters into account as well as the character classes included in the previously published game supplements and issues of The Strategic Review. ==Publication history==

Eldritch Wizardry was written by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume and published by TSR in 1976 as a sixty-page digest-sized book, and was the third supplement to the original D&D rules. The supplement was part of the continuing expansion of D&D in 1976, which also included Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes and Swords & Spells. It bears the designation Supplement III, following the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements, which were released the previous year, and its product number was TSR 2005. Illustrations were provided by David C. Sutherland III, Tracy Lesch, and Gary Kwapisz, with a cover by Deborah Larson. The booklet was edited by Tim Kask. Material from Eldritch Wizardry, along with the original Dungeons & Dragons and the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements, was revised by J. Eric Holmes for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1977). ==Reception==

Glen Taylor reviewed Eldritch Wizardry in The Space Gamer No. 7. He felt that, like the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements before it, Eldritch Wizardry introduces new material to the basic D&D game system "for a more intricate, complex playing experience. Like the other supplements, the new material in EW is organized around the original format for easy absorption into the basic structure of the game." ==References==