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Thread: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
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2012-10-29, 07:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
The title of the thread pretty much sums up the topic of the thread. Note that I'm not asking for an argument on which book is the best, just suggestions as to which ones are good. Basically, which third party books are comprehensive, interesting, and worth buying?
I've heard that Untapped Potential, Hyperconscious, Secrets of Pact Magic, and Bastards & Bloodlines are all good. Does anyone have opinions on those?You found the hidden text! Have a cookie.
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2012-10-29, 08:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
The first three are normally among my top recommendations, and even though I'm not a huge fan of B&B specifically, Green Ronin does good work.
If you're into monster books, Necromancer Games' Tomes of Horrors are a lot of fun - lots of traditional monsters like leprechauns and sea serpents, plus older editions' staples like nilbogs (snilbog?), flail snails and froghemoths, and other out-there monsters in the same spirit of the older games (my favorite examples are a maneating land-clam and an undead tornado with fists to punch things). Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary is also very useful on the monster front - it's essentially a full length monster manual-type book filled with templates.
The other book that really filled a useful niche was Bastion's Into the Green, which is a Sandstorm/Frostburn/Stormwrack-type environment resource about forests and jungles.Last edited by eggs; 2012-10-29 at 08:09 PM.
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2012-10-29, 08:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Last edited by Blueiji; 2012-10-29 at 08:58 PM. Reason: To add a tidbit concerning Flail Snails
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2012-10-29, 09:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Book of Erotic Fantasy is a great read. It is exactly what it says on the cover, but done quite well.
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2012-10-29, 09:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Nooooooo.....
Here's a quote that summarizes my thoughts on this book quite well:
BoEF has a lot of content that's maturely-written, balanced, or useful in an actual game. Pick two.
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2012-10-29, 09:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Well, the base classes all suck, (No pun intended) but the PrC's in there are well balanced and decently written. The Feats are about as useful as Heroes of Horror's, and the sample adventures are pretty epic.
Oh, and the spells are good.
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2012-10-29, 09:25 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
But how many times are you going to use those prestige classes in-game? For the same amount of money you could have gotten a book that's full of great content and is much more likely to be allowed.
Also, I reccomend anything by dreamscarred press (the guys who did untapped potential). The company was partly co-founded by 3 very famous optimizers of the old WOTC boards. This is why the content is much more balanced than is normal for 3rd party.Last edited by 123456789blaaa; 2012-10-29 at 09:27 PM.
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2012-10-29, 10:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
I rather like Guildcraft for a more urban adventure.
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2012-10-29, 10:58 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
You found the hidden text! Have a cookie.
Thanks to The Stoney One for the awesome avatar!
Spoiler: My homebrew!The Bladebound Martyr!
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2012-10-29, 11:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
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2012-10-29, 11:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Actually, my group has had some positive experiences using the BoEF. Analyze Ancestry is actually a really useful spell in a feudal society when people start trying to mess with the succession. Throw in Voice of the Prophet, and do the big reveal in open court, makes for a pretty compelling scene actually.
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2012-10-30, 12:26 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
BoEF has some nice stuff, some interesting stuff, and some not so nice stuff.
It's definitely aimed at a niche market within the PNP RPG market though. Unless your group is reasonably mature and fairly comfortable in their sexuallity, simply bringing it to the table can cause a bit of a row. Definitely way more suited to a group of close, long-term friends than your FLGS group.
I'm not big on 3rd party stuff for the most part, but if you wanna try a more political campaign (and are fond of feudal Japan) the d20 rokugan books are kind of interesting. Monsters of Rokugan can work in any game though, and one of the water-demon thingies lets you do the "Dark Link" fights from legend of zelda in a game.I am not seaweed. That's a B.
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2012-10-30, 12:37 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Pretty much the ones oriented toward DMs. The Advanced Bestiary I mentioned is probably their best and most applicable. Following that, Book of Fiends is well done in the vein of the Fiendish Codices, but I should probably qualify that by saying that its writers did go for a gross-out factor. Beyond that, it's pretty much just a question of whether you're into the premise of a campaign setting; if you are, GR usually has pretty good production values and adequate coverage of a setting to provide backstory, interesting plothooks and to answer any questions that might arise.
The major weak point in GR's materials is usually their player content. The classes just tend to be dry and somewhat weaker than related WotC material (in the case of casters, that's not a bad thing; when their Paladin-like classes crop up, it can be a problem).Last edited by eggs; 2012-10-30 at 12:44 AM.
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2012-10-30, 09:32 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
It is true base classes all are just a very small spin on something you already have, by I used water down Tantrist, for PG-13 games, as a blood mage. IT has worked out well so far.
Just think of it this way, when your g/f or b/f gets in the mood, bring out your BOEF and say to them with a straight face.
" How about we LARP tonight"Last edited by silverwolfer; 2012-10-30 at 09:33 AM.
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2012-10-30, 09:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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2012-10-30, 09:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
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2012-10-30, 10:08 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
hahah, I can just see someone having BOEF and a Trojan Catalog, trying to get the best items and stats.
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2012-10-30, 10:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Also, I reccomend anything by dreamscarred press (the guys who did untapped potential). The company was partly co-founded by 3 very famous optimizers of the old WOTC boards. This is why the content is much more balanced than is normal for3rd party.anything written by WotC.Last edited by Rejakor; 2012-10-30 at 10:37 AM.
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2012-10-30, 10:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
If you want to give Untapped Potential a test drive, most of its content is available on the DSP wiki for free:
http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/
Some of the other books' content (like Mind Divine) is there as well.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
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2012-10-30, 10:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
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2012-10-30, 10:47 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
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2012-10-30, 11:46 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
A great Spell from BoEF is a 6th level Cleric Spell: Body to Body. Cast upon the party at the begining of the day, Get your Persistent Spells cast on you, and spread them to the party as well. Need to heal that injured party member, cast a heal spell upon yourself, and it will heal everyone.
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2012-10-30, 06:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-10-30, 06:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
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2012-10-30, 08:25 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-10-30, 10:45 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Does Secrets of Pact Magic actually have more stuff for Binders, the class?
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2012-10-30, 10:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Best 3.5e Third Party Books?
Is the Rokugan stuff the same as the Oriental Adventures sourcebook?
So the current list of good third part books to acquire seems to amount to the following.
- Hyperconscious
- Untapped Potential
- Secrets of Pact Magic
- Tome of Horrors
- Advanced Bestiary
- Into the Green
- Guildcraft
- Book of Fiends
Did I miss anything?You found the hidden text! Have a cookie.
Thanks to The Stoney One for the awesome avatar!
Spoiler: My homebrew!The Bladebound Martyr!
Quasi-Elemental Genasi (Plus New Feats and a Subtype)!
My Extended Signature!