D&D 3E/3.5 What great third party 3E product did I miss?

[TarionzCousin]

I enjoy Monte Cook's Complete Book of Experimental Might. It's somewhat like Unearthed Arcana geared toward spellcasters.

 

[Eminence_Grise]

Many of the products mentioned, I've been aware of, but it's just not grabbing me. I know that Dragonstar was somewhat popular but the setting doesn't work for me.

Rappan Athuk - A great megadungeon that is fun to read and play. Beware the Dung Monster!

I bought the first module and never got around to reading it until I had to spent a few days in the hospital looking over my youngest daughter (she's fine now). Long live the dung monster!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I always end up mentioning the same four books any time this is mentioned.

Green Ronin's "The Book of the Righteous" is probably the best religion supplement for D&D ever written, and one of the best supplements of all time. I'd highly recommend it as a starting point for a novice DM wanting to integrate religion into his campaigns, and its a good example of what a cleric focused book should be like.

I cannot agree with this enough. Excellent book.

 

[HobbitFan]

In terms of non-Wotc stuff I lliked:

the Dragonlance stuff by margaret Weis' company, Green Ronin's Thieves Worlds sourcebooks, Fantasy Flight's Midnight setting, Sword and Sorcery's Scarred Lands, Sword and Sorcery's Ravenloft, Green ronin's Freeport.

 

[Eminence_Grise]

I shall hunt down the book of the righteous right away.

I didn't follow Dragonlance or Ravenloft at all in the third edition era. I still have difficulty figuring out how to do adventures in Dragonlance outside the main events.

 

[Voadam]

I shall hunt down the book of the righteous right away.

I didn't follow Dragonlance or Ravenloft at all in the third edition era. I still have difficulty figuring out how to do adventures in Dragonlance outside the main events.

Dragonlance had neat sourcebooks. I particularly liked their bestiary and the gods book (Holy Order of the Stars) in addition to the core campaign setting book. They have a trilogy of mega adventures to go from 1-20 set in the current dragonlance era that was well received, in addition to the classic mega adventure path trilogy.

Ravenloft was all about sourcebooks in 3e with almost no adventure support. The campaign setting was fairly fantastic with things like half orc player race stats being used for calibans, humans who were cursed in the womb, since the setting does not generally include orcs.

I will be a contrary voice on the Book of the Righteous. It has a decent cosmology I liked (mostly appealing to me for the fiend tie ins) but I did not find the gods themselves that interesting and it never really drew me in enough to read most of it. Green Ronin's Book of Fiends however is fantastic for the fiend lords and cosmology, that one I've read cover to cover and used in my games. The fiend stats themselves are sometimes mechanically low powered and sometimes wonky much like most fiends in 3.0 but great flavor with tons of story hooks to use.

 

[Greg K]

My typical list of third party 3e (not Pathfinder) products

Alternate Rules, Variants

• Fewer Absolutes (Sean K Reynolds): 2 free web articles of what was supposed to be a three part series
• Trailblazer (Bad Axe Games)
• Book of Iron Might (Malhavoc): for the maneuver system and cool things for fighters to do
• Poisoncraft (Blue Devil Games): revises the poison rules
• Artificer's Handbook (Mystic Eye Games): Alternate Magic Item Creation System that does away with XP costs

Classes

• Cavalier's Handbook (Green Ronin): not a fan of the core class (I prefer Hong's Knight which is available for free online), but the rest of the book is gold
• Psychic's Handbook* (Green Ronin): different mental power system and great sourcebook for mental powers
• Shaman's Handbook *(Green Ronin): awesome source book on shamanism for D&D and a great class
• Witch's Handbook*(Green Ronin): awesome source book on witchs for D&D and a great class
• Holy Warrior's Handbook (Green Ronin): a 3.5 update of the Holy Warrior class from the Book of the Righteous (see World Building section below)
• Unholy Warriors Handbook (Green Ronin)
• Mercenaries (AEG)

*In my opinion, these are how class source books for D&D should be done and formatted- much better than anything WOTC has done for 3e or 4e

Equipment

• From Stone to Steel (Monkey God/Highmoon Media)

Combat

• Torn Asunder (Dragonwing/Bastion Press)
• Grappling for Beginners (EN Publishing) was collected in Advanced Rules for Beginners
• Advanced Grappling for Beginners: How to Master Your Chi (EN Publishing) collected in Advanced Rules for Beginners
• Fighting with Flair (EN Publishing) collected in Advanced Rules for Beginners
• Book of Iron Might (Malhavoc): For the combat maneuver system and Fighter Fighting Styles
• Torn Asunder (Bastion/Dragonwing)
• Grim N Gritty Rules by Ken Hood (Sleeping Imperium)
• Skills-N-Feats Martial Arts by Ken Hood (Sleeping Imperium)

Alternate Magic rules

• Elements of Magic: Revied (ENPublishing): alternative magic system
• Elements of Magic: Lyceian Arcana (ENPublishing): Companion to Elements of Magic: Revised

Spells

• Behind the Spells (Tricky Owlbear): lots of variant spells

Monsters and Animals

• Book of Fiends(Green Ronin): Combines and updates Armies of the Abyss and Legions of Hell to 3.5 with a third unpublished book.
• Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin): A big honking book of templates
• Book of Templates (Silverthorne/Goodman Games) (the pdf is Deluxe Book of Templates Revised): another big honking book of templates
• Noble Steeds (Avalanche Press): a primer on horses in d20 terms, also includes rules for other mounts, creating NPC horses like Trigger and Silver, and magic items for mounts
• Predators (Betabunny): real world critters, but also great for modifying with templates to create new monsters.

World Building
NPCs, World building and Misc.:

• Airships (Bastion Press/Dragonwing)
• Alchemy and Herbalists (Bastion /Dragonwing)
• Beyond Countless Doorways (Malhavoc Press)
• Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)
• Experts 3.5 (Skirmisher Press)
• Frost and Fur (Monkey God/Highmoon)
• Ink and Quill (Bastion Press/Dragonwing)
• Magical Medieval Society Western Europe (Expeditious Retreat)
• Medieval Players Guide (Green Ronin)
• Redhurst Academy (Human Head)
• Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns (EN Publishing)
• The New Argonauts (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info....1&filters=0_0_0_0_0&manufacturers_id=50)(Sean K Reynolds): This is free pdf

Misc

• Hot Pursuit (Adamant): Chase rules
• Hot Pursuit: On Foot (Adamant) a companion to Hot Pursuit

 

[Vicente]

Elements of Magic: Revised: awesome and very flexible magic system. We used this a lot.
Cry Havoc: a supplement for battles and war. Really liked it even if it was a little crounchy.
D20 Empire and Fields of Blood: I can't read enough supplements about domains and ruling kingdoms.

Regards!
Vicente

 

[was]

I'd second:
...From Stone to Steel (Monkey God/Highmoon Media)
...Noble Steeds (Avalanche Press)
...Torn Asunder (Dragonwing/Bastion Press)

and add:
...Complete Guide to Werewolves (Goodman Games)
...Faeries (Bastion Press): this one surprised me

 

[Luce]

Quintessential guides (Mongoose Publishing) Fleshing out and providing additional options. Some examples are: mass combat for fighters, running a thief's guild for rogues, various martial art styles fro monks etc.

Legends and Lairs series (Fantasy Flight Games) Customizing your setting. I particularly like the "Monster's Handbook" and the "Portals & Planes" for correspondingly ways to modify+ customize existing monsters and giving me something complementary to the Manual of the Planes with Planescape feel.