[3.x] 3rd Party Hidden gems?

[DMH]

I find it odd that not one book from En Publishing has been listed so far. The Fantastic Science is worth its weight in gold (and is dirt cheap as a POD).

And the same for Ronin Arts. There are scores of good pdfs on e23.

Primal Urge's Emerging Forms line is the best collection of races in pdf format.

Octavirate has several monster pdfs that are good to great, but the real gem is Feared and Hated- how to customize sorcerers.

Genjitsu doesn't have many products, but Metablades does martial/supernatural classes well and Shaping the Self is my favorite d20 product period. It is racial classes and similar ways of altering characters (mutations that aren't mutations).

Distant Horizons has more than The Practical Enchanter (which is awesome). Eclipse and Paths of Power I are both free and very useful. Paths II expands the idea of path magic (ie learning related spells rather than willy-nilly) and has ~200 spells to showcase the idea.

 

[Greg K]

I find it odd that not one book from En Publishing has been listed so far.

Reread the seventh post in this thread. I had listed five of them.

 

[Alzrius]

...and Shaping the Self is my favorite d20 product period. It is racial classes and similar ways of altering characters (mutations that aren't mutations).

Much thanks to you for mentioning this. I picked it up the other day, and am loving it so far.

 

[DMH]

Your welcome. There are two free Shaping the Self supplements on Genjitsu's website (one silly and one paragon classes for the other elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings).

 

[Alzrius]

Your welcome. There are two free Shaping the Self supplements on Genjitsu's website (one silly and one paragon classes for the other elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings).

Hm, I went to their website after purchasing the product, and while the web enhancement for the other races of demihumans was there, that was it (except for a product preview). Where was the "silly" supplement?

 

[Dr Simon]

Lazy GM series of 3.5 statblocks for generic humanoids of specific types. Super useful if using one race as big campaign enemy and want varieties of standard, appropriate enemies (warriors, skirmishers, shamen, mounted, at various levels/CR).

Yeah, they're great aren't they

Actually, there aren't just humanoids. We've got two books (Dungeon Beasts and Savage Creatures) that cover a wide range of the more, well, monster-y monsters. I'd love to know if anyone has used any of the wierder stuff (like the Otyugh crime boss, or the Phrenic Tyrannosaur) but that would be a bit of a thread-jack.

On topic, most of the third party stuff I've used are from the usual suspects of Malhavoc, Goodman etc. I'd echo support of Poisoncraft, and I like Fiery Dragon's Counter Collection and One Monk Miniatures for some cheap and snazzy cardboard minis.

 

[DMH]

That's strange, I thought Golems and Goldfish was for Shaping the Self but it is for Flock of Foes (another good product but not in the same league as StS). Best part of G&G is the art for the half-bronze dragon goldfish.

 

[scourger]

Omega World d20 is my favorite 3e supplement. It really captures the feel of the old Gamma World game. And, it does it about 40 pages. I would play it again in a heartbeat. It even beat out DragonStar for me; and I really liked DS, too.

Judge Dredd d20 is another 3rd party book that took 3.0 from fantasy into a totally different genre. I think it did it quite well. The idea of just having 2 judge classes & 1 citizen class with a bunch of different tweaks really took off for me.

The Vault of Larin Karr is one that I must mention since I still have it for my 3.0 game that I know I will reprise one of these days (or years).

Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia is in the same class. I hope I get to use it one day.

 

[DMH]

Since Emerging Forms are gone I have been digging around to find something else of use in my collection that is still for sale.

Plot Device's colour magic scheme. Chrome, which is the PrCs, is fairly meh, but the rest reorganize all the SRD spells into different themes than the schools 3.X uses. The classes are also usually very different from the wizard and sorcerer. They have limited spell selections but make up for it by their class features (like the black have a d12 HD and the use of armor, but can only cast when in contact with earth and stone and are restricted to mostly defensive spells).

 

[Alzrius]

Since Emerging Forms are gone I have been digging around to find something else of use in my collection that is still for sale.

Gone? Not hardly! Go look at them for free over at the Grand OGL Wiki!

Plot Device's colour magic scheme. Chrome, which is the PrCs, is fairly meh, but the rest reorganize all the SRD spells into different themes than the schools 3.X uses. The classes are also usually very different from the wizard and sorcerer. They have limited spell selections but make up for it by their class features (like the black have a d12 HD and the use of armor, but can only cast when in contact with earth and stone and are restricted to mostly defensive spells).

Ah, a great choice. I remember those, though I haven't looked at them in quite a while now. I also recall that I enjoyed Radical Re-Alignment.