ToV Other than "It's not made by WotC", what's the elevator pitch for Tales of the Valiant?

• Player Customization: Combining, lineage, heritages and backgrounds, to build what you want, and help make your character story, aside from just selecting to be an "Elf", Your and Elf, raised in the Fire Forge Community, because your father was maybe a dwarf.
• The Talents seem more balanced compared to the FEATS.
• TOV, likes to play around with manipulation on damage types. There are Talents and Lineage options that do that.
• I like how monsters are not bogged with Spells, just to use their Magical Abilities. They expanded on what 5e was trying to move to, by having some monsters such as Dryads and Unicorns, completely remove their list of spells in favor of Magical Abilities and Traits. These remind me of 4e, where all you need to run the monster is in their Statblock. There are still creatures that have spells, but they are either minor, or do not take much to look up what they do.
• Luck- What's not to like about this option.
• Doom, is great, and has expanded on many different ways of using it.
• Boons, This allows your Character to choose its own path. Reminds me of the 4e Epic Destinies and Paragon Paths. No two Clerics may have that same boon, creatures for more unique Characters.
• Growing Fast- Whether you want to leave WOTC, or use this adjacent. TOV is getting close to covering many lineage options that may mirror WOTC branded races/species. The Player Guide 2, will include Elemental Scions, DHampir, Shades, Drow, Duergar, Sea Elves and Goblins. These mirror some of the same in 5e, or things like, Genasi or Reborn. Northlands will include Giantkin and Werekin, which are great mirrors of the Goliath and Shifters. Labyrinth Worldbook includes the , Dragonborn, Minotaur, Derro, Satyr and the Gearforged which is their echo of Warforged. For those who love their Beasties, The Beastkin lineage can cover a wide range from Tortles, to Loxodons or Giff. Sydereans are the Generic Planar Folk. The Core game includes Fiendish and Celestial, that represent your Tieflings and Aasimar and their are expansions on the Spellborn, which can be slight elemental/magical theme and soon the Aberrant Syderean, which could be a good Gith Substitute.
• Backwards compatible is the Key, When it comes to their prior monster books, I would advise the Tome of Beasts 1 (2023), and Tome of Beasts 3, which require really no conversion. The older tomes, Creature Codex, and Tome of beasts 2, may require some updating on damage output or hp distribution, but very minor.
• MONSTER TEMPLATES: one of my favorite options, that I look forward to in each product. Where 5e, is now steering away, these templates and more flare to your monsters.

BigZebra said:

I bought the Starter Set - and it is fine, without being amazing. And on the expensive side.
I have heard many opinions on the core game - ranging from an anemic D&D copy to a more fun version.

The GMG, however, seems to get high praise from almost everyone who has read it. I even think @SlyFlourish ranked it as the #1 GM-book on his podcast episode where he compared books from the various 5e versions (i.e., ToV, 5e2014, 5e2024, and 5eLU).

I do think though that now after the dust has settled on the OGL-fiasco, and Daggerheart and Draw Steel has a lot of attention, it seems ToV are losing some of the spot light. Also there is no ToV on Roll20.

On the other hand Kobold Press is putting out more stuff it seems. Player's Guide 2 is coming. So is a new Book of Blades with many martial options. And that might drive som interest.

I really like Kobold Press, so I hope they' find success.

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bedir than said:

If there was only one reason to pick Tales of the Valiant it would be the split of nature and nurture. It isn't the only D&D-ish system to do that, but I enjoy the way they implemented.

My second favorite thing is every monster has a unique thing - again, not the only part of the 5e ecosystem that does it, but I like their version.

My third thing is the Mechanist. I like it as a core class.

I don't play a specific system anymore though. I play the 5e ecosystem. Sometimes that means Black Flag, others A5e and others 2024 D&D. They all mix rather well at the table and each has things I like.

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ghenxx said:

I think my original post was too long.

My new elevator pitch:

KP is still making books for ToV and they're selling kickstarters like gangbusters. There's more ToV books currently in the works that I am excited about than WotC books. I have also never been disappointed by a ToV or KP book that I bought. Its always more than I thought it would be.

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