Favorite 3.0 class book?

[scourger]

The Player's Handbook is my favorite for 3.0, so I voted "Other."

 

[Crothian]

Here's a hint when looking at old 3.0 books: don't look so much on the name (like Quint whatever) or the publisher (even Green Ronin had some that were not that great), check out who wrote the book. One name that you will find working for a lot of comanies is Mike Mearls. His stuff is very consistantly good. Some of books of the Quint series for instance he wrote (Rogue and Wizard). Another very strong auther is Patrick Younts. He did Quint Monk and Wuint Sorcer, two great books. Mike is now full time with Malhovic and Patrick is with Mongoose.

There are some other great authers out there (I feel bad to only be giving props to these two ), so don't forget to take a look at the authers when you read a book you really like. Many times that can help you decide on what new books will be good.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Here's a hint when looking at old 3.0 books: don't look so much on the name (like Quint whatever) or the publisher (even Green Ronin had some that were not that great), check out who wrote the book. One name that you will find working for a lot of comanies is Mike Mearls. His stuff is very consistantly good. Some of books of the Quint series for instance he wrote (Rogue and Wizard). Another very strong auther is Patrick Younts. He did Quint Monk and Wuint Sorcer, two great books. Mike is now full time with Malhovic and Patrick is with Mongoose.

Actually, I don't work with Mongoose anymore. I just work for myself, freelancing a few projects with Goodman Games currently, and publishing PDFs through Phil Reed's Ronin Arts.

But otherwise, you're right. The trick with any class book is to look at the names involved. Some individual companies have very strong reputations for overall quality, but that doesn't mean your own gaming tastes will necessarily mesh with those of the author(s) of an individual book.

I've been infinitely more satisfied as a consumer when I've followed the author name, not the company name.

That said, to throw my own vote in, I say 3rd party. There are some fantastic ideas out there in 3rd party land, and I think some of the work done by independant voices has really opened up the vistas of each individual class.

Green Ronin's Witches Handbook was a great book, for example.

However, I want to give props to some of WotC's old splatbooks. I really, really like Tome and Blood, primarily for some of the prestige classes - the Elemental Savant is my kind of spellcaster - and I also have a fond spot for the concepts behind many of Sword & Fist's PrCs, even though I found the execution wanting in many cases.

Patrick Y.

 

[Jolly Giant]

double-post

 

[Jolly Giant]

T&B for me, without a doubt! S&F a strong second. Both of those have seen plenty of use IMC, whereas the others has seen virtually no use at all.

Actually, I was surprised to MotW has gotten so many votes. I think I speak for everyone in my gaming group when I say that was our least favourite splat book. (And it's not that the classes it aims at havn't been used!) The few over-powered spells (Miasma etc.) caused some fuzz for the first 10 minutes, but once I ruled those spells out, there was nothing left that anyone wanted to use.

Oh yeah; one guy almost took the Power Critical-feat once!

 

[Alloran]

I personally was fond of Defenders of the Faith. Being a cleric player (I don't think there are many of us out there), I was happy for some of the spells, and I really enjoyed some of the church structures outlined in it. Sure, those could be make up, but since I DM as well, sometimes events turn completely upside down. Not to get into details, but that thing saved my ass once (as a DM ) Tome and Blood was my second-up, btw.

~Alloran

 

[Holy Bovine]

I only ever got the classbooks from WotC for 3E. If I had to pick one I would probably say Masters of the Wild. It had decent art and the best layout (although why all 5 couldn't follow the same layout is completely beyond me). The amount of 'suck' the classbooks had far outweighed, imo, the amount of 'cool' (and every book had some cool in it). They turned me off classbooks completely, much like the 'complete' series back in 2E did by the time they were making the Complete Book of Salt Mining.

Now when Sword & Socery Studios began making classbokks I was dubious to say the least. But I hadn't been burned by SS&S so i gave them a chance. I';m glad I did but sadly they are all 3.5E and while I don't think it would hard at all to convert them (some prestige class requirements mainly) they sadly fall outside this parameters of this poll.

But I like to pimp them nonetheless