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Necrosnoop110
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« on: August 21, 2010, 10:24:13 PM » |
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What are the best line of non-WotC books for 3.5 D&D? By best I mean production value and game use.
Thanks,
T-bone
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KellKheraptis
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« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2010, 10:31:19 PM » |
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I mess my pants any time the Quintessential line is allowed, particularly for Metamagic Cradle  |
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Senevri
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« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2010, 11:00:40 PM » |
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Well, I hear good things about Dreamscarred Press's Psionic books. And they seem okay, on a skim. In general, stuff under sword&sorcery title. (Cry Havoc, Dragonmech, Chasitech).
Paizo, naturally, does good stuff.
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I keep forgetting my threads... |
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snakeman830
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« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2010, 11:12:57 PM » |
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Well, I hear good things about Dreamscarred Press's Psionic books. The main reason for this: They were written by folks from the 339 Char Op boards before it became crap. |
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I am constantly amazed by how many DM's ban Tomb of Battle. The book doesn't even exist! Quotes: By yes, she means no.
That explains so much about my life. hiicantcomeupwithacharacterthatisntaghostwhyisthatamijustretardedorsomething
Why would you even do this? It hurts my eyes and looks like you ate your keyboard before suffering an attack of explosive diarrhea. If using Genesis to hide your phylactry, set it at -300 degrees farenheit. See how do-gooders fare with a liquid atmosphere. |
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The_Mad_Linguist
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« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2010, 11:46:41 PM » |
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I actually like The Nightmare War (won it in a raffle), but the modern setting could be a bit of a turnoff.
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PhaedrusXY
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« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2010, 12:18:34 AM » |
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I like the Rokugan books, but I'd hardly call them balanced. The stuff in them is kind of all over the place.
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A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?
Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
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telehax
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« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2010, 12:33:24 AM » |
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Hyperconscious ftw
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Smokey_the_bear
Domesticated Capuchin Monkey
Posts: 94
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« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2010, 01:21:10 AM » |
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Torn Asunder by Bastion Press
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skydragonknight
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« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2010, 02:12:54 AM » |
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Well, I hear good things about Dreamscarred Press's Psionic books. The main reason for this: They were written by folks from the 339 Char Op boards before it became crap. Radical Taoist and Tempest Stormwind, to name two. But yeah, for a psionics heavy game those (and Hyperconscious) are a no brainer. Is this for a particular style of game? Because I'm sure we could narrow the field a bit for you. |
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It always seems like the barrels around here have something in them.
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Widow
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« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2010, 02:46:00 AM » |
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I mess my pants any time the Quintessential line is allowed, particularly for Metamagic Cradle Along those lines, the book of Ultimate Feats and The book of Ultimate PrC's from mongoose are excellent. I really like Black Company which has nice flavor and some low magic Master work equipment rules. If you are into drow, Plot and Poison is a good book. The book of errotic fantasy also has one highly broken PrC, but beyond that is useless. |
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rasmuswagner
Ring-Tailed Lemur
Posts: 84
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« Reply #10 on: August 22, 2010, 05:03:29 AM » |
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Along those lines, the book of Ultimate Feats and The book of Ultimate PrC's from mongoose are excellent.
Actually, I was going to warn the OP away from everything Mongoose, and especially the book of Feats. Poor game balance, piss-poor editing (there are feats in the same chapter - on the same page spread - that do exactly the same, or A does everything B does and thern some, with no difference in prerequisites), and poor production values. Almost everything by Malhavoc press is good. Green Ronin is very popular among people whose opinion I value. |
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Tenebrous Apostate
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« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2010, 07:26:14 AM » |
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Along those lines, the book of Ultimate Feats and The book of Ultimate PrC's from mongoose are excellent.
Actually, I was going to warn the OP away from everything Mongoose, and especially the book of Feats. Poor game balance, piss-poor editing (there are feats in the same chapter - on the same page spread - that do exactly the same, or A does everything B does and thern some, with no difference in prerequisites), and poor production values. Almost everything by Malhavoc press is good. Green Ronin is very popular among people whose opinion I value. On that account.. try the Unholy Warrior's handbook kiddies!!! There are some wicked things in there (and I don't mean the flavor of the book). And about Nongoose, yeah the ultimate books are kinda poorly outfited but there are some pretty solid (or broken, depending on perspective) stuff in there.. To those who have access to the ulti prestige book I suggest looking at the Soulforger PrC  |
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Dead mortals feel no Dread
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SorO_Lost
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« Reply #12 on: August 22, 2010, 10:21:38 AM » |
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Nymphology.
None of the broken book of erotic fantasy stuff but all of it's porn.
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Tiers explained in 8 sentences. With examples!Tiers break down into who has spellcasting more than anything else due to spells being better than anything else in the game.
6: Skill based. Commoner, Expert, Samurai.
5: Mundane warrior. Barbarian, Fighter, Monk.
4: Partial casters. Adapt, Hexblade, Paladin, Ranger, Spelltheif.
3: Focused casters. Bard, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Martial Adapts, Warmage.
2: Full casters. Favored Soul, Psion, Sorcerer, Wu Jen.
1: Elitists. Artificer, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
0: Gods. StP Erudite, Illthid Savant, Pun-Pun, Rocks fall & you die.
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Unbeliever
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« Reply #13 on: August 22, 2010, 10:39:42 AM » |
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Some of Green Ronin's setting stuff is quite good. Their Thieves' World series, which is only about 5 books and can be got for like $20 now, is a lot of fun. It's a great setting, and also easy to get into since they're short stories and not huge tomes.
I like some of their other setting books, but we've never really used them for rules, we always end up just grafting D&D onto the game rules.
We have played an all-Psionics game off and on for a few years, and Hyperconsciousness has been easy to use, and not thrown game balance out of whack at all.
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jameswilliamogle
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« Reply #14 on: August 22, 2010, 07:05:47 PM » |
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I prefer really focused 3rd party books, and haven't looked too far into it since hardly anyone around here allows 3rd party. There are 2 third party books for Binders which were pretty flavorful and worked well. They both used new classes for their vestiges, though, but worked just fine with normal Binders. Secrets of Pact Magic and Villains of Pact Magic: http://www.pactmagic.com I also own Hyperconcsious and I agree that one's pretty good, too. The Book of Feats is pretty decent, but there are some really broken things in it. |
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Gavinfoxx
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« Reply #15 on: August 22, 2010, 07:16:20 PM » |
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Has anyone made a 3rd party expansion book for Tome of Battle?
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BG's other resident furry!
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Sinfire Titan
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« Reply #16 on: August 22, 2010, 07:22:17 PM » |
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Paizo, naturally, does good stuff. I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my rage. Could you repeat that? Seriously, Paizo doesn't know shit about class/feat/item balance. They make good (read: challenging) campaigns, but their classes and such are utter garbage. Has anyone made a 3rd party expansion book for Tome of Battle?
I'm trying to, but have had a noticeable lack of time to work on it. |
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Senevri
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« Reply #17 on: August 22, 2010, 08:41:17 PM » |
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Paizo, naturally, does good stuff. I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my rage. Could you repeat that? Seriously, Paizo doesn't know shit about class/feat/item balance. They make good (read: challenging) campaigns, but their classes and such are utter garbage. Well, I was mainly thinking of the adventure paths and the campaign setting. And I don't care that much about balance, most of the time. Looking at PF Core and APG, most of the things are sort of 'meh' - which is a good thing, but even then, there are some options which are very obviously better than others, so... Then again, ToB, which is probably my favourite splat, is, in fact, a very mixed bag between average stuff and OMG stuff. |
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I keep forgetting my threads... |
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hobo
Monkey bussiness
Posts: 4
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« Reply #18 on: August 22, 2010, 11:29:14 PM » |
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I'm very fond of Privateer Press's Iron Kingdoms line, one of the best steampunk settings I've ever played. The books are extremely detailed and the fluff is all good. The rules mechanics are all fairly solid its generally par for the course for a d20 supplements. It can be a bit difficult to find a physical copy these days but there are pdf's available cheaply.
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Suzerain
Bi-Curious George
Posts: 523
is on extended leave
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« Reply #19 on: August 22, 2010, 11:39:32 PM » |
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There are 2 third party books for Binders which were pretty flavorful and worked well. They both used new classes for their vestiges, though, but worked just fine with normal Binders. Secrets of Pact Magic and Villains of Pact Magic: http://www.pactmagic.comHave you ever written significant amounts of commentary regarding your use of those two books? I'd be very interested in hearing how you adapted the (apparently just a teensy bit dissimilar) system to the standard ToM binder. It's not the first time I heard you talk about them however, so I guess I may have missed something. Any highlights? Something we'd love to use, which cannot be (easily) reproduced or is just cool? Like Naberius' ability healing. Or Malphus' bird. |
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