D&D 5E Do you ACTUALLY use 3rd Party Books?

[Micah Sweet]

This is more of a complicated question than I originally thought:

3pp classes and spells? Not really, I've seen some good stuff but my "ugh, not yet another book at the table" is too strong nowadays. Never say never though...
3pp monsters? Yes, I have Tome of Beasts 1 and 2 on my desk right now.
3pp adventures? All the time. I've learned WotC can't seem to write adventures I enjoy any more.

I fix this problem by not bringing WotC books to the table anymore.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

The secret is to see why people bring 3PP books to the table. Is it because the class fits the theme of the homebrew setting? Do the monsters? Or does the player want the class because it is so overpowered...you'd be surprised how few times that reasoning is given and how often role players will sacrifice their combat capabilities for a well-rounded character.

Often the 3PP offers the tools for GMs to create homebrew settings and the players the means to play in them. My biggest product, Ultramodern5, simply offers a toolset to create non-fantasy games.

Want space opera? We can do that.
Want mecha in your 5E game? We can do that.
Want steampunk? We got that too.

There are many games people want to play which required 3PP products to do so.

 

[Scottius]

I fix this problem by not bringing WotC books to the table anymore.

Same here. When I was still running 5e before switching systems I removed Tasha's from my allowed list and included various Kobold Press items.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Same here. When I was still running 5e before switching systems I removed Tasha's from my allowed list and included various Kobold Press items.

I am at this point mostly using Level Up and a couple books from Mage Hand Press (along with my own homebrew documents).

 

[Scottius]

I am at this point mostly using Level Up and a couple books from Mage Hand Press (along with my own homebrew documents).

I haven't checked out Mage Hand Press before but I did back Level Up and if I ran another 5e style game I'd likely use it versus vanilla 5e.

 

[Vael]

I don't know if we've ever used 3rd party monsters, but I did play a Maverick Artificer from Exploring Eberron. And someone tried a Dragoon from a Final Fantasy homebrew, though admittedly it was later considered a poor choice and not the best class. Way too pigeonholed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I haven't checked out Mage Hand Press before but I did back Level Up and if I ran another 5e style game I'd likely use it versus vanilla 5e.

Mage Hand Press has a huge array of supplemental material meant to offer more options to 5e players and DMs. The main things I'm using from them are Valda's Spire of Secrets (a large mostly-player-facing book with a dozen new classes and a bunch of other stuff), and Dark Matter, a sci-fantasy setting that form a good chunk of the DNA of the homebrew sci-fi setting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I haven't checked out Mage Hand Press before but I did back Level Up and if I ran another 5e style game I'd likely use it versus vanilla 5e.

Mage Hand Press stuff is really polished and fun. A lot of it has a bit of a sense of humor to it, so they shouldn't be your first stop if you were doing a grim world on the verge of the apocalypse or something.

But for general D&D, books like the Mimic Book of Mimics is well worth checking out.

 

[Scottius]

Mage Hand Press has a huge array of supplemental material meant to offer more options to 5e players and DMs. The main things I'm using from them are Valda's Spire of Secrets (a large mostly-player-facing book with a dozen new classes and a bunch of other stuff), and Dark Matter, a sci-fantasy setting that form a good chunk of the DNA of the homebrew sci-fi setting.

Mage Hand Press stuff is really polished and fun. A lot of it has a bit of a sense of humor to it, so they shouldn't be your first stop if you were doing a grim world on the verge of the apocalypse or something.

But for general D&D, books like the Mimic Book of Mimics is well worth checking out.

I'll have to check them out. Looking at their website it seems like they have some interesting stuff.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Mage Hand Press stuff is really polished and fun. A lot of it has a bit of a sense of humor to it, so they shouldn't be your first stop if you were doing a grim world on the verge of the apocalypse or something.

But for general D&D, books like the Mimic Book of Mimics is well worth checking out.

I do think some of their work is a little undertuned for my tastes, but I don't blame them for it (they have to overcome 3pp stigma) and the ideas they're coming up with are great.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I do think some of their work is a little undertuned for my tastes, but I don't blame them for it (they have to overcome 3pp stigma) and the ideas they're coming up with are great.

Yeah, I always keep my hands on the dials as DM, rotating stuff up or down as needed. (I'm a big fan of flipping hit points to maximum or slashing it down to one hit away from dead, as needed, for mid-combat balance adjustments.)

But the Mimic Book of Mimic offering me, I think, six or seven additional mimics of different CRs and abilities is great for my purposes, even if I need to tweak something. (There's no way the bard isn't picking up the mimic lute, for instance.)

 

[Mistwell]

Can't vote in poll because it doesn't include a correct answer for our group. We use a third party book for item crafting rules. Not a player options book, nor a monster book. We've also used a third party adventure, which is also neither a monster book nor a players book. Weird poll options.