2010 Retrospective: 1Q Products

[TerraDave]

I have a player who likes hybrid charecters. I think we have one MPII feat or power in play.

Thats it.

 

[Plaguedguy]

I've only purchased Underdark and Hammerfast out of those. Underdark ended up not quite being what I was hoping for, but given the overwhelmingly positive reviews and feedback it received I think it's safe to say it was a win overall. I've used material from it here and there enough to warrant the cost. Which is more than I can say for some 4e material I own.

Hammerfast performed quite well as the base of operations for a high heroic/low-mid paragon tier run. Background-wise it's pretty unique. Plenty of detail and material to work with, enough that I'd be happy to re-use it. The included overland maps and quest line gave a lot of extra meat for the cost. Sadly Vor Rukoth didn't follow as closely in format (but I still got use out of it.)

 

[Barastrondo]

The brawler fighter from Martial Power 2 is unadulterated love. UNADULTERATED.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Underdark is among their best books of the year. IMO the reason for that is because it does a pretty good job combining new and old elements of D&D, and it relates the story of Torog in an imaginative, engaging way.

I liked MP2. What I think is most notable about it is that it really played with the idea of alternative builds. We have new class features (the battlefront warlord is most notable to me), new secondary stats (Dex for fighters, Wis for warlords, Int for rogues) and tried to patch the ranger a bit by giving Dex-based melee attacks and Str-based ranged attacks.

PH3 also shook up power design. The most obvious are the power point using classes, but even the monk has some interesting things going on mechanically. However, I wasn't hugely impressed with the fluff, and the seeker and runepriest are so niche that IMO they should have been alternate builds of other classes.

The other books I never picked up, but I never thought the dragonborn book would be all that great and I didn't hear many interesting things about Hammerfast.

 

[Lancelot]

Underdark (January)

• Bought it, and used it extensively (20+ sessions in Underdark locales since purchase)
• Excellent book; well-illustrated, good crunch, interesting read.
• Especially enjoyed seeing Erelhei-Cinlu (Vault of the Drow) again.

Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn (January)

• Did not buy it; didn't appeal at all.
• To the best of my knowledge, none of my 8 players have bought it either.
• Spending NZ$30+ for a flimsy softback that only focuses on one of the 20+ playable races in the game just seemed like a waste.

Martial Power 2 (February)

• Did not buy it because I usually DM; however, several of my players bought it.
• They seemed to enjoy it, and have made use of many feats/options contained therein. However, I get the feeling that the original Martial Power is more heavily used.

Hammerfast (March)

• Did not buy it; already have my own campaign world that I DM, and didn't need a dwarven settlement. Also, already swimming in poster-sized battlemaps.
• I think one of my players bought it, but hasn't used it in any way.

Player's Handbook 3 (March)

• Bought it, as did most of my players.
• Excellent book. Skill Powers have seem tremendous use, as have many of the new feats.
• Races: both the minotaur and shardmind have seen extensive use.
• Classes: all of them have been played, except for the Seeker. The monk, battlemind and psion have seen the most play.

PH3 has clearly been the #1 contributor to our games from this quarter, and has been very popular. Underdark has been a great book for me as DM. Honorable mention to MP2 for my players. And "meh" to the other two releases.

 

[jbear]

Not a great batch, frankly.

PHB3 suffers, I think, from following the exceptional PHB2. It does add Superior Implements and Skill Powers, which are both excellent. The classes, though...

* The monk is exceptional

* The seeker and Runepriest proved to be unpopular

* the core psionic mechanic is interesting, but it was executed poorly. All three classes have level 1 at-wills that they should continue to use all the way through level 30. Considering that a ton of space went into publishing at-wills that are supposed to be acceptable replacements, this was a disaster.

The races were somewhat mediocre in my mind as well. The minotaur has great flavor, but the core reliance on charge limits its appeal.

Martial Power 2 was full of interesting ideas, but simply not as useful as martial power 1. That's to be expected, I suppose.

PHB Races was a dud because of the extremely narrow focus. Put out a race book covering each of the PHB1 races in detail and you'd probably have a hit on your hands.

The seeker and the runepriest proved to be unpopular?

(edit) Ah... I see. You mean amongst those you play with currently, right?

I think the Runepriest is an awesome class.
I think the idea of the Seeker is attractive, but its lack of good at will powers is what lets it down for me. With even minimal support that issue could be quickly addressed.
Out of all the PHB3 classes they are definitely the most attractive to me personally.

If what you meant that they haven't received any additional support since publication, hence the choice to play them may not seem as attractive as other classes, then sure.

Personally I'm waiting for my PCs to hit Paragon tier to use the Underdark book in combination with P2 Demon Queen's module. One of my PCs is Drow and has unfinished personal business down in the Dark that I want to tie into it. Drool! Can't wait!

MP2 gave some nice class options to martial classes that I'm glad are in the CBuilder but I didn't buy the book.

As for Hammerfast and Dragonborn, I never gave them a second thought to be honest.

 

[DragoonLance]

Underdark: Great book for ideas, a bit too focused on Torog for my tastes, but still very good overall, one of my faves along with Open Grave to just read for game ideas.

Dragonborn: I had a new player with one, so the book was useful if for no other reason to give some good plot hooks for his character and some backstory/racial development that was really missing in the PHB. If I had to pay full price for this I might not have liked it as much, but I get a hefty discount at my FLGS. I really liked the Tiefling book but then I have far more interest in playing one of them.

Martial Power 2: Excellent book IMO. Love the Grappler and the Stab and Throw ranger; really, really pissed it got nerfed almost right away. Still think it wasn't as bad as people thought, especially with TS still kicking in original form.

Hammerfast: Didn't buy as I had no need for it, might pick it up if I ever sandbox in the Nentir Vale. I did buy Vor Rukoth, and if Hammerfast is anything like it, it's awesome. VR is probably one of the best supplements for 4th I've seen yet: tons of open ended stuff for sandboxing but enough info to build encounters, plot hooks and character/location backgrounds. Awesome book for anyone that needs a creepy deserted city in their campaign.

Player Handbook 3: Hit and Miss for me. Psychic stuff was badly implemented, Runepriest and Seeker are awesome concepts with horrible mechanics, Monk was good, Races were a mixed bag, but the Hybrid rules are fun to play with if nothing else.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

The only one of these books I purchased (being a DM), was Underdark. Although I have yet to bring the campaign to the underdark, the book was IMHO excellent; evocative illustrations (except the large piece opening the monster-chapter, I hated that illustration) and equally evocative writing and ideas. Comes highly recommended. I just wish it was released a little later so that it got the benefit of the new statblock and damage-expressions from MM3.