Here’s a sneak peak at the back cover text:
Within this tome you’ll find over 1,000 of the best magic items created for the Dungeons & Dragons® game, including hundreds of new low-cost items. In addition, this supplement contains rules for augment crystals, which grant new abilities to existing magic items, and item sets, which provide collection benefits when you have all the items in a set. This tome also presents new and improved rules for item creation, an updated treasure generation system, and more!
I’m not sure how the crystal thing will work out. Traditionally, when they release a new “magic item type” it kinda sucks, isn’t worth it or is grossly overpowered. We shall see.
Improved rules for item creation is exciting since there are a lot of issues with the current rule set. Hopefully we can find something that helps plug some of the holes and delivers a fair and balanced approach to magic item creation.
I still have my 2nd edition Encyclopedia Magica on my bookshelf. This won’t be able to match it’s faux-leatherbound goodness, but for sheer usefulness, it’s going to get pre-ordered real soon!