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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Dragon Compendium Table of Contents
- Thread starter GVDammerung
- Start date
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Grimstaff said:
You know, I didn't even think of that. Are there any spellbooks ala Pages from the Mages or ?
IronWolf
blank
I think I am on the fence on this one. There is some interesting stuff, but seems pretty crunchy and I tend to like the "fluffy" Dragon articles of yesteryear. Of course I guess it only makes sense, the crunchy parts of the older Dragon mags is what needed updated to 3.5 standards as the fluffy stuff tends to more applicable across versions. ::shrug:: I'll wait for the full deal to be released to see if this one sneaks onto my bookshelf.
I'll admit, I am disappointed. Erik asked us many times what we wanted (and it is all about us, right?) and I know I indicated almost exclusively less crunch. He has said that there is plenty of crunch out there....and then the ToC looks like it is nearly all crunch. I'll certainly pick it up and look at it, but it is no longer on the automatic buy list.
Mouseferatu
Hero
I don't particularly see myself as "forgiving." I look at the ToC, and I see enough material that I want that it's worth buying the book. Can't ask more than that.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Mouseferatu said:
What in particular is enough material for you? How about your thoughts on the ToC?
Mouseferatu
Hero
JoeGKushner said:
At least half the new base classes are things I remember and want to have for 3.5. Ditto the "classics" and appendices. I don't recognize a lot of the monsters, but some of them sound interesting. Ditto the PrCs.
Is there stuff I wanted to see that's not here? Sure. I'm not claiming this is exactly the book I'd hoped it would be.
But at the end of the day, it's a simple binary question. Does this look like a book I'll use enough to be worth the price? It's a yes/no answer, and to me, it looks like a "yes."
There are two reasons why things that you might expect to see there didn't make the cut:
* It's already in 3.x in some form. The alternate paladins article falls into this category. Dragon ran a 3.5 article on alternate paladins, and there are also alternate paladins in Unearthed Arcana.
* The article simply didn't make sense in 3.x. The witch and the archer fall into this category. Both of those classes had core, class-defining abilities that are defined by feats in the PH. The witch can make magic items. The archer had the equivalent of Point Blank Shot and a few other feats. Neither really had a role in 3.x.
It was very interesting to look back and watch how Dragon progressed through the years. So many of the early, interesting articles made their way into the core rules and are now an accepted part of what D&D is.
I think that migratory path - rules show up in Dragon, spread amongst players, work their way into core D&D - is something that's missing from the magazine today.
* It's already in 3.x in some form. The alternate paladins article falls into this category. Dragon ran a 3.5 article on alternate paladins, and there are also alternate paladins in Unearthed Arcana.
* The article simply didn't make sense in 3.x. The witch and the archer fall into this category. Both of those classes had core, class-defining abilities that are defined by feats in the PH. The witch can make magic items. The archer had the equivalent of Point Blank Shot and a few other feats. Neither really had a role in 3.x.
It was very interesting to look back and watch how Dragon progressed through the years. So many of the early, interesting articles made their way into the core rules and are now an accepted part of what D&D is.
I think that migratory path - rules show up in Dragon, spread amongst players, work their way into core D&D - is something that's missing from the magazine today.
This doesn't look too bad. I will be buying a copy. Oh, and for those disappointed with the lack of fluff maybe Erik knew that a book like this would sell enough copies so that his other volumes would get off the ground. Lest we forget, 3.5 is a crunch driven genre.
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