Top Ten Reasons to Buy Sandstorm

[reveal]

Fear the War Camel. I wonder if that's one hump or two?

How much are you willing to pay?

 

[Gez]

Is the Marlboro man a paladin? Hm, interesting.

Well, he didn't have the immunity to disease class feature... Maybe an ex-paladin?

 

[Ryltar]

Kinda rantish:

This looks ... bad. Really, really, unimaginative and boring stuff.

May I suggest to everyone who is even slightly interested in Egypt and African flair to pick up Hamunaptra (just ask the Mouse With Teeth about it! ) or Nyambe instead and leave this product where it rightfully belongs ... on the shelves?

Honestly, what is wrong with this type of book is that it might or might not contain a random number of between 2 and 20 pages of useful fluff material and new ideas (Yeah, I made that number up. But it isn't really far from the mark ...), while the rest is an unnecessary clutter of repetitions, redundancy and filler crunch ... WotC really ought to take a look at what some 3rd party books have to offer, and rethink if they as the self-proclaimed market leader really ought to set such a poor standard in terms of "creative content per buck". I won't buy a book for the art and the "Official!" seal alone.

 

[Hammerhead]

Ironic, since I most fluff to be filler and crunch to be the tasty parts. And as a DM, I'm not interested in either Egypt or Africa...I do have a large desert that with a few plot hooks and a Favored Soul worshipping a fire goddess, so Sandstorm sounds cool. I hope that it's as cool as its predecessor Frostburn.

 

[Ryltar]

I would agree with you if the crunch were either a) innovative or b) balanced. Mostly, it isn't, and that is what I meant when talking about redundancy earlier. New feats today mostly seem to be of the "well, let's see what the limitations of a class are. Ah! There! Now well give them access to a feat which will totally kill that limitation off! And in turn, we can develop a new monster feat which provides resistance against this new class ability. And the other way around ... " kind.

Confer the feat from Frostburn (IIRC) that lets a character do cold damage vs. creatures that are immune to cold. Stuff like that, and I bet there is the exact equivalent in Sandstorm (Hey! Let's do that again, just this time with fire!) ... Lot of conjecture here, and also lots of bitterness, that I'll admit, but I am so fed up with this kind of book ...

 

[Saeviomagy]

Confer the feat from Frostburn (IIRC) that lets a character do cold damage vs. creatures that are immune to cold. Stuff like that, and I bet there is the exact equivalent in Sandstorm (Hey! Let's do that again, just this time with fire!)

The problem is that without that feat, there should be no cold mages in the frostfell, because tactically it's far inferior to being, say, a fire mage. Or if the DM has put in some "fire spells don't work well in the frostfell", an acid mage. Same goest for the desert - when half the monsters you meet will be immune or resistant to fire and heat, a fire mage seems a really stupid choice.

If you want cold mages in cold lands, then you NEED a feat that does this, and even then, the feat they have simply doesn't do enough (IIRC it does nothing to [cold] creatures).

Otherwise, feel free to have your fire mages in iceland, ice mages in the desert, and fluff that doesn't fit your campaign...

Finally... I do not think that confer means what you think it means. I think you were perhaps after consider.

 

[The Shaman]

I agree with Ryltar about a design principle which surfaces over and over in 3.x products: make a rule, then make a new rule (i.e., PrC or feat) that nerfs the first rule, then make another new rule (i.e., monster ability) that nerfs the rule that nerfs the rule. So many of the feats and abilities in the supplements and accessories seem to be for the express purpose of negating the rules that came before them.

That said, the preview looks kinda bleh, but this is a book I will get anyway, as using environmental hazards as challenges and encounters is a big part of my GMing style, so I am likely to find a lot more inspiration here than say something like the Draconomicon or Manual of the Planes.

 

[Pants]

May I suggest to everyone who is even slightly interested in Egypt and African flair to pick up Hamunaptra (just ask the Mouse With Teeth about it! ) or Nyambe instead and leave this product where it rightfully belongs ... on the shelves?

May I suggest that we wait until the book is in our cynical hands before passing judgement. If it is bad, then do as you will. Until then, I suggest we wait with the allegations of 'overpowered, broken, underpowered, too much crunch not enough fluff.'

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

May I suggest that we wait until the book is in our cynical hands before passing judgement. If it is bad, then do as you will. Until then, I suggest we wait with the allegations of 'overpowered, broken, underpowered, too much crunch not enough fluff.'

I'm sorry, but that's just not the way things are done on the Internet.

(And anyway, I think most people were mostly reacting to the preview. A number of people mentioned how unrepresentative the "Frostburn" preview was in that regard.)

 

[Pants]

(And anyway, I think most people were mostly reacting to the preview. A number of people mentioned how unrepresentative the "Frostburn" preview was in that regard.)

And I was one of those people.

Still, when a claim is made that Nyambe or Hamanuptra are 'better' than a book that isn't even out yet, well that's jumping the gun a bit eh?