Crunch time?

[osarusan]

I don't really consider new PrC's to be crunch... they just pump them out so often that they hardly seems special anymore. Everyone and their grandfather has a PrC class now. Pretty soon they'll come out with Commoner PrC's like "Master Baker" and "Blood Librarian."

Frankly, I want to see much more crunch that makes the current rules deeper. More "new uses for old skills," more rules dealing with terrain and existing concepts. More rules expansions, and more rules variations.

PrC's (and to some extent the maddening number of Feats) just end up clogging the game up. They should make more options to allow the core classes to be more flexible rather than just making up for it by creating a new PrC for every little idea someone gets.

oh wow.. did I just rant?? :\ I'm sorry...

 

[TerraDave]

I want more good stuff, and less bad stuff

"fluff" came to be seen as bad in part because TSR released products with filler that wasn't crunchy. Now a lot of people feel WotC (and many others) is using curnchy Prcs and feats as filler.

But in fact the divide is a little arbitrary, and a good book will have all sorts of crunchy flavour. And no filler.

 

[saethone]

i think there are entirely too many presteige classes - but the DMG says it best...those PrCs aren't meant to be used in every campaign...the PrCs you should be using are ones made tailored for your campaign. You know, where it makes sense to have them.

 

[Henry]

There are too many prestige classes and too much emphasis on planning a character out for 20 levels for my liking. The more prestige classes and feats released, the ever-slower-and-closer they edge towards more and more powerful characters. When I see characters who have taken maybe ONE feat from the player's handbook, warning lights go off in my head about the increased power of non-core material.

 

[der_kluge]

I don't know if you'd call it "fluff" (which was how I voted), but since I've kind of taken with the HARP system lately, I find myself looking for rules-light "idea" products. Things like Phil Reed's "Dozen" series, or "101 mundane treasures" - that kind of stuff. XRP's Magical Medieval Society is a good example. It's a great product, but really has nothing in it that makes it a d20 product. In fact, I'm not even sure it really is a d20 product. It's just a book, and a damned good one. I can use it in any system.

So, I'm specifically looking for anti-crunch, non-campaign specific "idea" products.

 

[derelictjay]

I don't care, fluff or crunch. Just so long as its quality.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

There are too many prestige classes and too much emphasis on planning a character out for 20 levels for my liking. The more prestige classes and feats released, the ever-slower-and-closer they edge towards more and more powerful characters. When I see characters who have taken maybe ONE feat from the player's handbook, warning lights go off in my head about the increased power of non-core material.

If that one feat isn't "Natural Spell" or at least "Power Attack" then nine times out of ten (more like ninety-nine out of one hundred in 3.5), the characters in question are going to be much, much weaker than core-only characters.

 

[Shemeska]

The pendulum of fluff/crunch swung far FAR FAR too much towards the side of crunch with 3e when I entered the hobby. I looked back at the 2e products (Planescape, Darksun, Planescape, Ravenloft, Planescape) and found books that were just damned fun to read, and not filled with chapters of PrCs like the 3e books.

I honestly think that WotC has started to realize that they went too far in one direction and are now trying to find a balance between the two, and I applaud them for this.

To the people who want more crunch because 'fluff is easy' or 'all it takes is an imagination'. I call Shenanigans on that. I might read a book of mostly flavor text and never actually use it or play in the setting it's for, but if it inspires me than it's worth the cover price on that alone. 3e books have, for the most part, not inspired me one bit and I've gone back to some of the more fluff oriented 2e material for that. I'm still using the 3e rules obviously, but the 3e material just isn't covering all of the bases for what I want in a gaming product.

Slowly they're coming around to seeing this, and not a moment too soon. *smiles and waits for the Shadowrun 4e release, or for when I win the lottery and buy WotC*

 

[IronWolf]

Had to go with more fluff, *especially* in campaign source books or accessories. I want background information, information about organizations, governments etc. I get bored reading about feat after feat, prestige class after prestige class. But fluff, I can even read fluff from settings I am not playing in, just because it makes for an entertaining read.

 

[fafhrd]

Ditto to the Ambassador from Fusang.