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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pants" data-source="post: 3248174" data-attributes="member: 8849">What 3rd party sourcebooks were released this year? I can't think of many...Oh, I bought PP's Five Finger's book. And there was Ptolus, but that's way too expensive and the megatome fetish going 'round is not one I care for personally...Anyways.... my favorites1. Fiendish Codex I - For all the reasons previously mentioned. Great resource that finally gathers and updates a host of demons from older editions AND creates some cool new ones too. The obyriths are great, the expanded statblock actually FEELS like it's being put to good use, the write-ups on the abyssal layers rock, and the Black Cult of Ahm provides a bunch of cool little artifacts along with being an organization that could easily be either friends or enemies of the PC's. Great stuff.2. Player's Handbook II - FINALLY provides some real oomf to high-level fighters, along with some cool design twists and some new spells that are actually kinda neat. The new base classes are pretty cool too (duskblade and beguiler are great!). The alternate class features are just icing on the cake.3. Tome of Magic - Mechanical quirks aside, I feel that this book really adds a lot of interesting options to the game. Unfortunately, I think that those options would be best used in a campaign divorced of the 'standard' D&D magic rules. A binder and shadowcaster become a lot cooler if sorcerers and wizards aren't around, IMO at least. In fact, I could see building an entire campaign around having binders and/or shadowcasters being the only 'spellcasters' in the world.4. Expedition to Castle Ravenloft - Not a perfect entry, but an interesting campaign toolkit with some cool encounters and some great ideas. I'm interested in seeing where the Expedition series goes after reading this (Ruins of Greyhawk and Demonweb Pits in particular!).5. Five Fingers: Port of Deceit - As with all Privateer Press Iron Kingdom's books, this is a well written, evocative, and fairly easy to port city. The art is great too!Honorable Mention: Complete Mage, Dragon Mag, Dungeon Mag, Fiendish Codex IIWorst/Most Disappointing:1. Complete Psionic - The fact that this will probably be the ONLY psionics exclusive supplement makes this even worse. Boring prestige classes, boring/redundant feats, and fairly blah powers. The Ardent is, at least, pretty cool, unfortunately the lurk and the... other base class that I can't remember the name to, just suck.2. Cityscape - A book that tries to do too much and accomplishes little. It's too bad because this book has some generally good content, it's just mired in some questionable content. The PrC's are fairly blah, the feats are okay, and the districts chapter is hit-or-miss. The monsters are actually pretty cool, the sidebars are actually, the best and most useful parts of the book, and the sample NPC's will most likely be seeing some use. This is a book that sways back and forth for me. Sometimes I'm pretty disappointed with it, other times I feel that it does a good job with what it was dealt.</blockquote>

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