Complete Arcane confirmed

[MerricB]

However, after the books for warriors, divine, arcane, and expert come out, it would be cool to see a Complete Monster. If there's one book out there that needs a 3.5e overhaul, it's Savage Species.

Why does it need one?

Cheers!

 

[Olive]

Why does it need one?

Because so many monsters changed from 3e and 3.5, and the attempt to anticipate 3.5 didn't work so well...

 

[Felon]

Oh, there are quite a few reasons to take a second look at the options for playing monsters. Olive pointed out a good one. Another is that many of the monster classes were way more "broken" (i.e. too good in some instances, too lousy in others) than any of the prestige classes that were repackaged in the Complete Warrior--Trumpet Archon, anyone? Extensive playtesting has made it safe to say that second-level characters should not be able to fly, at least not all the time.

There's also been a lot of new monster material that could stand to be collected in a single book. The concept of template progressions has been fleshed out in a series of web articles, along with this month's brand new feature on how to handle level-adjusted races at 1st level. There's also been some good articles in Dragon (like the one on lycanthrope monster classes), and some content from the Draconomicon, particularly the feats, would be handy for monstrous PC's to have access to. And let's not fail to mention paragon races from Unearthed Arcana.

And most of all there just needs to be some major improvements in how to create a monstrous PC. In many cases, the level adjustments are so damn harsh (arbitrarily so in some cases) that the "paper tiger" effect really takes hold. There's nothing sadder than seeing an ogre mage and vrock that have so few hit points that they have to hide behind the party wizard.

IMO, the entire system for playing monstrous characters needs to be seriously re-examined.

 

[d4]

And most of all there just needs to be some major improvements in how to create a monstrous PC. In many cases, the level adjustments are so damn harsh (arbitrarily so in some cases) that the "paper tiger" effect really takes hold.

yes, i quite agree.

take for example some of the progressions in the WOTC web article mentioned above. would you give up an entire character level (hit points, BAB and save increases, skill points -- everything) for:

* +2 Wisdom, the ability to cast daylight once per day, and acid / cold / electricity resistance 5 [Aasimar]

* charm person once per day (with a save DC that does not increase with level), immunity to mind-affecting effects, and +2 to Hide and Move Silently [Feytouched]

unless you're really determined to play one of those races and don't mind being incredibly weaker than everyone else in the party, i can't imagine anyone actually thinking that's a good deal.

i too think that most level adjustments are way, way too harsh. however, i don't have any ideas on how to make them less harsh without overbalancing them in the other direction.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ooh, just thought of a core class that's almost a must for Complete Arcane: Bring back the Sha'ir! A full write-up of the DMG witch would also be cool. (Although I think they might be divine casters, or am I just thinking of Adepts?)

 

[I'm A Banana]

And in response to that, they've got new ways to do LA, including buying it off with XP, the use of negative levels instead of LA, etc.

Basically, this could be solved, but it would require another massive overhaul of how monsters act, so that every monster HD is at least equal to a character level. This way, spending a level will get you more than just a few abilities; those abilities would be tied to the HD of the monster.

Either that, or de-value the HD or abilities of the monster...

Basically, it's iffy at best. A simple way would be to grant some 'free' HD that dissappear as the monster gains more levels......

The low-LA races don't hurt from this as much...it's the ones that have 5 or more LA levels, that are 'empty.' that hurt a lot. These are the ones that need some random HD abilities somewhere...

 

[Olive]

Ooh, just thought of a core class that's almost a must for Complete Arcane: Bring back the Sha'ir!

Do you mean a different version tot he one in Dragon recently? Or did you miss that one?

 

[Felon]

Hmm. Sounds like The Complete Monster almost merits another thread, eh? Shouldn't hijack this one.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you mean a different version tot he one in Dragon recently? Or did you miss that one?

I saw it, but I think it misses the diplomatic angle of the original class. And my Dragon magazines get tattered/lost fast enough that I think truly worthy stuff is better off in an official hardback.