Eytan Bernstein
Explorer
DM_Jeff said:
Gosh! I worked on this book and still haven't seen a copy.
Exemplars of Evil 3.5 lite?
- Thread starter catsclaw227
- Start date
Gosh! I worked on this book and still haven't seen a copy.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The previews make it look like a good book full of evil crunch, supporting the villains. The feats in particular look pretty great. (The spells I'm mixed on: Is a villain magically pushing his wounds onto a minion really using a "willing" subject?)
And the previewed villain makes me want to grab Lords of Madness before 4E hits.
And the previewed villain makes me want to grab Lords of Madness before 4E hits.
Gilladian
Adventurer
If I don't own most of the "more than 20 sourcebooks" that this book pulls from, am I going to be able to use most of these villains?
I mean, I have the PH II and Spell compendium, but I don't have splatbooks, and I have only a few others. Are the class abilities, feats, and such described, or just referred to?
I mean, I have the PH II and Spell compendium, but I don't have splatbooks, and I have only a few others. Are the class abilities, feats, and such described, or just referred to?
Asmor
First Post
Wow, my interest in the book just quintupled after hearing that it uses more than 20 sourcebooks.
One of my biggest peeves about 3rd edition has been their lack of willingness to expand upon and utilize non-core options, something they've thankfully (if belatedly) started fixing.
Does it actually give a list of the books it uses material from, or does it just say "more than 20 sourcebooks," or are you just guessing at the number?
Gilladian: I doubt you'll need them... See for example Monster Manual 4, which had monsters with classes from the complete books but gave full rules for using them.
One of my biggest peeves about 3rd edition has been their lack of willingness to expand upon and utilize non-core options, something they've thankfully (if belatedly) started fixing.
Does it actually give a list of the books it uses material from, or does it just say "more than 20 sourcebooks," or are you just guessing at the number?
Gilladian: I doubt you'll need them... See for example Monster Manual 4, which had monsters with classes from the complete books but gave full rules for using them.
DM_Jeff
Explorer
1) There are actually 23 D&D 3.5 sourcebooks referenced and used to build the villians. My guess was pretty good. Except for Book of Vile Darkness, which is 3.0. 
2) It's the same you see in every recent WotC book. "If you have these other books it will 'enhance your enjoyment of this book' but they are not strictly necessary for play".
3) In looking at the stat blocks, they draw HEAVILY from these other sources, with everything explained in the stat blocks, and even descriptions of the many feats from other sourcebooks placed in a sidebar. So, yeah, you don't need these other coursebooks, but I'm sure glad I do.
4) I too ADORE the fact they are using their past stuff to build new material. It's a shame we won't see more like this. :\
-DM Jeff
2) It's the same you see in every recent WotC book. "If you have these other books it will 'enhance your enjoyment of this book' but they are not strictly necessary for play".
3) In looking at the stat blocks, they draw HEAVILY from these other sources, with everything explained in the stat blocks, and even descriptions of the many feats from other sourcebooks placed in a sidebar. So, yeah, you don't need these other coursebooks, but I'm sure glad I do.
4) I too ADORE the fact they are using their past stuff to build new material. It's a shame we won't see more like this. :\
-DM Jeff
Gilladian
Adventurer
Thanks!
That means I will probably pick it up and have lotsa fun with it.
I've just not been a big sourcebook buyer. I just bought PHII, but I only have 2 monster manuals, none of the splatbooks and wasted my money on Heroes of Battle. Frostburn was all right, but my cold-climate campaign fizzled before they went north, so I've hesitated to pick up much else.
Since I'm not switching to 4th ed, I probably will eventually pick up all the 3e stuff, but slowly. I didn't want to make another big investment for something I couldn't fully use for years.
That means I will probably pick it up and have lotsa fun with it.
I've just not been a big sourcebook buyer. I just bought PHII, but I only have 2 monster manuals, none of the splatbooks and wasted my money on Heroes of Battle. Frostburn was all right, but my cold-climate campaign fizzled before they went north, so I've hesitated to pick up much else.
Since I'm not switching to 4th ed, I probably will eventually pick up all the 3e stuff, but slowly. I didn't want to make another big investment for something I couldn't fully use for years.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Jhaelen said:
Hmmm, don't have those 2 books, so I can't really say. I'd imagine that enough of the illithid material has been around for a while that there's a fair amount of duplication. Someone else can probably answer better than I can. At the least, I'd expect the sample lairs to be new. And besides mind-flayers and beholders, you get chapters on the aboleth, grell, neogi, and tsochar, along with 3.5 updates for some 3e monsters and other new to 3e aberrations (and player options, etc) if you stick with 3e for a while.
Eytan Bernstein
Explorer
Whizbang Dustyboots said:
It's really only one chapter of crunch, followed by a whole bunch of chapters detailing different villains.
One of the purposes of this book is to give DMs NPC villains that are built as optimized as many of the player characters are. These characters aren't necessarily using combos from the optimization boards on the Wizards website, but they are built with the same feats, alternative class features, PrCs, and other mechanics that the PCs are taking. I definitely understand DMs that don't possess all the books finding this more difficult. I don't know if it made it into the final cut, but in writing the book we wrote out which class features were used that came from other sources. Thus, they could be replaced with an alternative feat or other mechanic as necessary.
