3rd party books that inspired 4th edition

[Gundark]

As we know there were a listing of WotC books that playtested certain concepts for 4th ed. But what about 3rd party books? On of the reasons for the existence of the OGL was that the d20 rules were supposed to evolve as new companies took interesting ideas and made them open source. The extent to which this took place is up for debate (and not the reason for this thread starting).

There are little parts to 4th ed. that we saw in other 3rd party books.Here are some concepts from companies that first intro'ed future 4e concepts (or at least these are who I first saw them intro'ed by)-

Spycraft intoduced the concept of rolling "criticals" on skills checks.

Several other books intoduced the concept of per encounter spells (True 20).

True 20 also introduced only having one attack a round (except for TWF).

What are theories?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm going to say the Diamond Throne setting (Arcana Unearthed/Evolved) is probably a pretty strong inspiration for the route the team is choosing in having a large amount of fluff implied in the Core. AU/AE took a pretty strong stance with the "implied setting" in the game, and I think 4e is taking that to heart.

 

[HeinorNY]

Book of Iron Might -> Iron Heroes -> Book of 9 Swords -> 4E Fighter class

 

[Rechan]

DIdn't R&C mention something about the Tome of Magic classes being inspiration, to an extent?

DMGII and MMV has been mentioned.

 

[Dausuul]

DIdn't R&C mention something about the Tome of Magic classes being inspiration, to an extent?

DMGII and MMV has been mentioned.

Those aren't third-party...

I'm pretty sure Iron Heroes had a huge influence, since WotC hired Mike Mearls right off his work on IH to help develop the new edition.

 

[Stalker0]

Book of Iron Might -> Iron Heroes -> Book of 9 Swords -> 4E Fighter class

Don't forget the AE ritual warrior, I think that was a strong inspiration for the Bo9S

 

[Glyfair]

There are little parts to 4th ed. that we saw in other 3rd party books.Here are some concepts from companies that first intro'ed future 4e concepts (or at least these are who I first saw them intro'ed by).

The big complication here is that just because something appeared elsewhere doesn't mean that's where 4E got it from. For example, rolling a critical on a skill check isn't something that's pretty hard to come up with (in fact, it's been around since at least Runequest in 1978).

 

[The Little Raven]

Spycraft intoduced the concept of rolling "criticals" on skills checks.

3.0 and 3.5 both had optional rules in the DMG for "critical success" and "critical failure" for skill checks.

 

[Sadrik]

Iron Heroes- lower magic item requirment, skill challenges
Mastering Iron Heroes- combat zone stuff
AU/AE- Ritual warrior for "spell-like" martial maneuvers, giant fluff, mojh (dragonborn)
Complete Arcane- the obvious warlock
Star Wars Saga Edition- too much stuff
d20 modern- action points

 

[HeinorNY]

Dracha = dragonborn