Do you allow feats/PrCs from Dragon or non WotC products

[mmu1]

I've gotten to the point where I usually just allow stuff from the core books, and select material for whatever campaign setting/material we're using.

I'm just sick of the glut of unnecessary and campaign non-specific material flooding the market... Sometimes makes me want to yell "Just role-play a $#*^!(% character for a change, would you?!" when people come to me convinced it's absolutely vital to their character concept to be able to play a FR race with a PrC from Dragon and feats from Swasbuckling Adventures that fits my world about as well as a "Starfighter Ace" PrC from Star Wars...

 

[Davelozzi]

Anything beyond core requires my approval. WotC stuff might be a little more likely to get it, but it's certainly not a shoe-in. Stuff from Dragon gets no special treatment. I see some good stuff there but also a lot that would be totally out of whack in my campaign.

As for the question of one player having more books than the others, in my group pretty much no one besides me buys anything unless I recommend it to them. No one seems upset because one guy has stuff from optional books and another doesn't. The players that don't are generally not interested in putting money or time (outside sessions, obviously) into the game anyway.

 

[Destil]

Met a couple of DMs who said they don't allow feats and PrCs from Dragon magazine and other WotC sources. To them, they find some of the stuff unbalancing. They also say it's just too hard to reference some of the stuff.
Most of the time, they'll allow stuff from just the WotC books. What about your campaign?

Given some of the stuff I've seen in WotC book (uneratted Sword and Fist weapons, Ninja of the Cresent Moon, Hosplitilar) I don't really think who makes a supplement is any indication of balance. Anything outside the core rules & psionics handbook I allow in on a case by case basis and will always change if I don't like it. I really don't care where it comes from, WotC, Green Ronin, Sword and Sorcerery, Malhavoc, some random website or the player's own design.

 

[ForceUser]

Met a couple of DMs who said they don't allow feats and PrCs from Dragon magazine and other WotC sources. To them, they find some of the stuff unbalancing. They also say it's just too hard to reference some of the stuff. Most of the time, they'll allow stuff from just the WotC books. What about your campaign?

Very rarely and on a case-by-case basis. There's so much unbalanced crap out there, even in WotC products. My DM allowed me to take the Radiant Servant of Pelor from Dragon #283 and he's regretted it ever since; the class is way broken. I am converting to straight Cleric for 3.5.

 

[Voadam]

Everything gets reviewed and is subject to DM approval both in the game I ran and the ones I play in.

The two of us with lots of d20 stuff give advice to others on making choices to meet their character concepts.

For example I advised the arcane trickster on some feats from Traps and Treachery and some spells from Tome and Blood.

The elven archer got the descriptions of the Librum Equitis archery classes, the Sword and Fist Order bow archer, the MotW Deepwood Sniper, and the arcane archer, and he ended up taking 7 of his ten levels as a military archer from LE compiled.

I gave the dwarven cleric fighter an e-mail with the dwarven earth-thing from LE and even though he didn't take the class he used the flavor text as inspiration for his character and his background.

I lent the paladin my printouts of Forgotten HEroes Paladin, and Call of Duty and the DM lent him DotF, then the PC wrote up a dozen feats and prc ideas himself, a bunch of which got thrown out but some made it in.

And then for my character I was heading towards the harper mage prc from MaoF because the DM said he would work it into the campaign, only to find out after taking the prereqs that he reduced the skill points for the class (I still took it). I also took feats that I wrote myself, some of which got modified by the DM.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

I'm playing in three campaigns right now and DMing one myself.

In the first, our DM allowed anything, provided he could see it and approve it first.

In the second (the same DM), also allowed anything, pending approval, aside from spells and items from the Book of Eldritch Might, as he was using them against us.

The third DM; well in this campaign we are playing a character that had died previously, so we were allowed to bring it in from any campaign world, so anything goes.

As for myself, after seeing the first DM get annoyed at some of the combinations our resident powergamers were able to pull off, I restricted race and class to the PHB, and mundane equipment to a short list of books.

 

[Arnwyn]

Met a couple of DMs who said they don't allow feats and PrCs from Dragon magazine and other WotC sources. To them, they find some of the stuff unbalancing. They also say it's just too hard to reference some of the stuff.
Most of the time, they'll allow stuff from just the WotC books. What about your campaign?

I generally have no problem with allowing 3rd party stuff into my game. I certainly don't restrict feats and/or PrCs based on just the source.

I do, however, have my own restrictions: I have to own the book, it has to fit my campaign, and it has to fit the character as well (no multi-PrC wacky abominations).

With that said, it usually is only from WotC stuff simply because I play a FR campaign, and I avoid 3rd party "accessory" type products like the plague. Also, experience has taught me to be wary about any book, WotC (eg. S&F) or otherwise (the Malhavoc Press books - has anyone seen the Hallowed Mage PrC from BoHM? WTF is up with that?!).

 

[Yeoman]

Re: Re: Do you allow feats/PrCs from Dragon or non WotC products

As to the question, my group allows just about anything as long as we review it in some form first. Dragon and most Wotc books are in by default.

Very rarely and on a case-by-case basis. There's so much unbalanced crap out there, even in WotC products. My DM allowed me to take the Radiant Servant of Pelor from Dragon #283 and he's regretted it ever since; the class is way broken. I am converting to straight Cleric for 3.5.

Question for you, my group has been using this for awhile. We've seen people say it's overpowered, but we've never really heard why. Could you tell me what is wrong with the class?

 

[Nine Hands]

I use more non-WotC products than WotC products. Pretty much anything is allowed, but I tend to check on it and of course, I reserve the right to change anything that I feel is unbalanced. Some of the stuff from Mongoose Publishing is somewhat overpowered, but I place an additional cost (in action dice) to balance the benefit of the feat out.

 

[sithramir]

That should work, but it sometimes gets complicated depending on the group. Some group members may not be the most punctual about returning books. Some may just not be interested themselves in combing through third party material. I've loaned stuff out to members of my group but still I'm the only one using a lot of options from non-WotC material.

I've got a hundred or so d20 books all on PDF. and print out lists of the PrC's, feats, spells and put them all together in a binder. That way any player has use of it if they ask and its no biggy if I lose it. I also offer to send them any books they want to "preview" but still strongly urge them to buy it. This way noone suffers from someone who owns all the books. Unfortunately I'm not sure what to do with 3.5 all the PrC's and feats in other books are going to be "different". Sigh