2010 Retrospective: 1Q Products

[Jhaelen]

Underdark (January)
Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn (January)
Martial Power 2 (February)
Hammerfast (March)
Player's Handbook 3 (March)

Did you buy them? Did you use them? Did they change your D&D campaign?

Looking back on them, which were the hits and misses of the first lot of D&D in 2010?

Of these I bought Underdark, PHB3, and Hammerfast. I have not used any of them yet (since we're not yet regularly playing 4e).

Hammerfast was probably _the_ best D&D product I bought in 2010. 'The Plane Below' being a strong contender. I liked the latter more than 'Underdark', though that is also a very good book. Similarly, I liked 'The Plane Above' a lot.

PHB3 contains a lot of great stuff (monk, seeker, skill powers) and a lot of meh stuff (psionic & hybrid rules), but overall it's still a good book, imho.

The books I'd consider misses are the ones I didn't buy I was also disappointed by the follow-up to 'Hammerfast' - how was it called again? Ah, yes, 'Vor Rukoth'.

The biggest disappointment in 2010 was the 'Essentialization' of 4e. It's similar to what happened when I started my 3e campaign: A month after we started playing, the first 3.5 book was released. Very annoying, since I don't buy half-editions. So, I'm again in the place that we're going to play with a ruleset that is already 'deprecated'.

 

[Nullzone]

So, I'm again in the place that we're going to play with a ruleset that is already 'deprecated'.

But they haven't deprecated anything. There haven't been any fundamental mechanics that have been completely superseded by anything in Essentials, as far as I know, and all the class options are just that, options. I don't think anyone complained when they released Martial Power as if their PHB Fighter was now invalid...

 

[Almacov]

I wasn't that interested in any of these apart from Underdark, which I still haven't picked up yet.

Hybrid classes have added some interesting options though, and some of the MP2 builds are kindof interesting.

 

[Joshua Randall]

PHR: Dragonborn was a huge disappointment. I have no use for 20 pages of lame fluff. I do have use for 4 pages of feats and items, some of which are quite good, but I can get those from my DDI subscription.

PHR: D was so lame that I didn't even bother with PHR: Tieflings when it was released.

Grade: F.

PH3 was a landmark book because it introduced both pisonics (to 4e anyway) and hybrid classes. I personally despite psionics, but hybrids are interesting and they scratch an itch.

Unfortunately psionics are borked, but I don't use 'em anyway.

Of the other classes, Runepriest is an interesting class with a neat mechanic (rune states) that has been sadly unsupported. (No, the recent article with 4 runepriest boons does not count as support.) Monks are popular with some players (not me), so them being in the game is good, I suppose. Seekers are pointless.

Grade: B.

MP2 is quite good with some excellent, interesting powers and strong feats. You can definitely see the evolution of the game in the difference between this book and its predecessor (which was the first "Power" book after the PH).

Grade: B.

Overall grade: C, but I'm going to bump it up to a B- because at least PHR: D wasn't a hardback.

 

[MrMyth]

Underdark

Heard good things about it, and may pick it up one day, but... have not had any need for an Underdark book, so it went unpurchased. So... didn't purchase, but glad it exists.

Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn

Didn't pick this up, though I've been considering doing so. Not really a fan of the format. Had a PC in my game with a lot of the options from this, who pretty much outshine even the other optimized characters. I felt they could have done a much better job balancing the content. Didn't purchase, wish it didn't exist in its current form.

Martial Power 2

Picked this up, very happy with it. The weapon feats are a good concept but ended up as one of the biggest offenders of feat bloat in the compendium. But this book gave a lot of cool new builds and options and concepts, and I'm a fan. Excellent purchase.

Hammerfast

Picked it up. Haven't needed to use it, but like having something like it floating around. I enjoy the concept and like the maps. Good purchase.

Player's Handbook 3

Picked it up, have certainly used any number of characters from it. Like the concept of psionics, but feel some of the specific powers of the classes are poorly balanced, and the overall execution left a bit to be desired. Very much liked the concepts behind Runepriest and Seeker, but disappointed with their lack of support. Like hybrids, superior implements, skill powers... overall, even if the book is something of a hodgepodge of random decent stuff, it adds a lot to the game. Good purchase.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I liked the MPII as it really gave Warlords a boost, that I felt they really needed. The addition of bowmanship to them made another reasonable bow-using class.


Underdark was great. I read a friend's copy and was quite intrigued, especially by the pockets of chaos below the round. That has serious potential.

I skipped Dragonborn as I skip all those books.

Hammerfast was a great idea. If the map was even slightly reasonable it would have been great. Surface only in a DWARVEN town? Yeah, right.

I originally did not get PHB the third, but picked it up a couple of months ago. Not bad. Psionics still has some problems, I think, especially with spamming low level 'Encounters' 10+ times a fight instead of using higher at-wills, but a simple house rule takes care of that.

Overall, 2010 was great until September.

 

[Mengu]

Underdark - Don't own it, but I use the occasional monster from there as a template thanks to DDI, though I reskin most anything.

Dragonborn book - Don't own it, but at least one of my characters uses a feat out of there, thanks to DDI. As far as I'm concerned it's just a glorified winning races dragon article (or what I would like a dragon article to be).

MP2 - bought it, use it. Didn't need to buy it. At least one of my characters uses powers/feats out of it. I don't recall if any of my players use anything out of it.

Hammerfast - don't even know what it is, don't care.

PHB3 - own it, use it. It added Wildens to my campaign (which I was looking for a nature race to add, so it was well timed), and I do play at least one class out of it. And where the players currently are at, I have possibility of a minotaur joining in. For me this one was the most useful of the lot, even if I'm not fond of the powere point mechanic.

 

[Imaro]

Underdark - Don't own it, but just from good word of mouth this will probably be my next purchase.

Dragonborn book - Don't own it, but from what I've heard... I'm not missing anything in not owning it.

MP2 - Didn't buy it, figured it wasn't necessary as I had the CB anyway... and the first 3 powerbooks weren't exactly great reading.

Hammerfast - Bought it... thought it was a great product.

PHB3 - Bought it... and I'll say this was the first edition to make me not want to play a psionic character... I also didn't like some of the races... Wilden & Shardmind... however there were some good things in it... some of the other races, hybrid rules, etc. All in all I liked PHB 2 as an overall book... better but PHB 3 was ok.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Underdark: Love it. Definitely one of my favourite 4E books.

PHB3: Also love it. I think WotC did a great job of psionic characters. I also like the runepriest (which puts me in a minority, I know!).

Martial Power 2: It was OK. I don't think there was enough in it to justify buying it rather than simply using the Character Builder.

Dragonborn: If Dragon had content, this would be three or so Dragon articles. Waste of money.

Hammerfast: I like the idea but the execution was flawed. I still don't like the orc/dwarf pact and I like the small surface village in lieu of a proper underground dwarven city even less.

 

[GreyLord]

I skipped most of those as I really am not interested in the Dwarven town, or more stuff on Dragonborn (give me an elf book, or eladrin book, or even a Gnome book, Dragonborn aren't really my thing).

The best of the lot that I enjoyed was Underdark, but like many responses here, haven't had a chance to really use it.

On the otherhand we did use PHB3. I didn't use it, but one of the players I played with played a Psion. I can't really see many ever playing some of the new races they introduced however, with the exception of MAYBE a minotaur if we ever play a Dragonlance campaign or similar type campaign.