Green Ronin's Advanced Players Manual?

[Acid_crash]

This is going to be a pick it up and look at it book before purchasing.

 

[Macbeth]

I don't own the psychic book, or the mass combat book, so this could be a good way to get both in one package. Nice.

If you don't hve either of these books, this is indeed great. Cry Havok is Alright, but Psychic's Handbook is the best skill based magic system I've seen.

 

[Crothian]

If you don't hve either of these books, this is indeed great. Cry Havok is Alright, but Psychic's Handbook is the best skill based magic system I've seen.

I like it better then the Psion since it actually makes psionics different from magic. I thought that was a good thing.

 

[Macbeth]

I like it better then the Psion since it actually makes psionics different from magic. I thought that was a good thing.

I feel the same way. I play a psychic in Bard Stephen Fox's game, and it works great. The character can be both a front line fighter and a decent caster, and it all works great. I'm sure the system could be broken, but it seems balanced so far, and it makes a great break from normal Magic/Psionics.

 

[TDRandall]

The inclusion of Chapter 7 & Appendix 1 bugs me a bit as I already have Cry Havoc & The Psychic's Handbook.

That alone downgrades the book from "pick up sight unseen" to "be sure to look at and then decide".

It completely flips it for me. I don't have Psychic's Handbook or Cry Havoc but they were both on my "buy when I make a windfall" list. This book has now moved far up that list so that it will likely be in the next shipment or the one after that.

Now if I could just find the time to actually loving READ these things rather than steal some furtive glances through them in some rare in-between seconds of life!

 

[JoeGKushner]

I like it better then the Psion since it actually makes psionics different from magic. I thought that was a good thing.

I can agree with that but I found them a little underpowered.

Is anyone playing one in your campaign? I've offered it to players and none have jumped on it but there have been a few NPCs.

Perfect for magic low games or to introduce a society where magic is 'really' different as opposed to some new PrC or spells.

 

[BryonD]

If you don't hve either of these books, this is indeed great. Cry Havok is Alright, but Psychic's Handbook is the best skill based magic system I've seen.

Cover price on Psychic's Handbook was $17. And it really is a great system. If you don't already have that then to get it plus everything else for $17 in pdf or $35 in print is a very good deal.

 

[Li Shenron]

About half of these things seems interesting to me...

Chapter 1: Abilities: THis is mostly on a new ability called luck. It is interesting and allows for a better reason on why things happen to the PCs then just becasue they are PCs.

I'm not fond of action points, is this a similar mechanic just more random?

Chapter 2 Races: THis chapter has a point system of race constructed to create balanced races. It is an interesting idea that I nee3d to really look more into.

This can be interesting, but mostly for academic discussion about how much Half-Orc still suck BTW, what are the results for PHB core races? If the system here proves solid enough, its best application may be for the DM to check non-core races and modify the LA or outright ban them...

Chapter 3 Classes: Eldritch Weaver, Evangalist, Scout, Spellmaster, Thanemage, Warpriest. And it has epic versions of them all.

I'm not very fond of new base classes either, unless they are enough different from the core ones. Spellmaster IS different, but also hard to estimate how balanced it could be (and a little too complicated IMO). The EW sounds like a very cool idea tho, and I am curious to know more about it.

Chapter 4 Skills: No new skills, but more uses for the old ones as well as good expandings on them. Like blance checks for creatures of different sizes.

I always look for expanded skills. I haven't seen the CAdv yet, so I'm not sure if that already has some. 10 pages is not very much, but this is definitely useful.

Chapter 5 Feats: Only 11 new feats, but some interesting ones like Rapid Sniping that allows shooting from a hidden position with a full attack action and hiding agian (at -10) in the same round.

I also like new feats, they are never too many. This one you mention is quite odd anyway: you can already shoot from behind cover (ok, not total cover) without penalties, or you can use Shot on the Run to do the above without -10, but of course with lots of prerequisites. What are the reqs of this feat?

Chapter 6 Descriptions: This has the alignment system in it,

In a way, I'm eliminating alignment completely from my next game. OTOH, this sort of system can be used in different ways, such as helping players thinking better of what their PCs would react to alignment-related situations.

Chapter 7 Mass Combat: Needs a good read before I can form any opinions. It is a bit less then 40 pages long.

Never adopted a mass combat system, but always looking forward for a good one...

Chapter 8 Spells: This is the bulk of the book at about 80 of the 225 pages.

Like feats, there are never too many spells (except for clerics!). But if these are more damage-based of other offensive spells, I have no need for them. I'd love lots of new divinations anyway, and secondarily some new enchantments and abjurations.

Appendix 1 Pshycic. This might be the one presented in the Psychic Handbook, I don't recall the details of that exactly but they look close. It also has a section on customizing pshycic abilities.

Psionics never attracted me at all. At least this one seems not to be just a copy of magic.

 

[Turanil]

[RANT] Anyway, I was in fact irritated by the illustration, presenting an Eberron-like character, an elf with a pair of glasses. Exactly what I needed to see, to get the desire to immediately forget this book foerever.[/RANT]

Wait, being practically attired and needing vision enhancement make one Eberron-like?

Right, I was to quick in labelling Eberron elves. My rant (and it's just that: a rant), is that I hate this neo-punkish look in D&D, that for some reason I associated with Eberron (whether I am right or wrong; and just lets say I currently play in an Eberron campaign). Having played D&D since it's inception, I am used to, and want to, see it a game in a medieval fantasy world inspired by Europe from the middle ages, where this attire doesn't belong at all. This attire belong to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen maybe, but not D&D IMAO. And I have nothing against Cyberpunk stuff, but I play OGL Cybernet for that. Okay, I am going to begin a new thread...

The comment about the art just shows that there are some people who refuse to let themselves get enjoyment out of anything. They have to nitpick it to the point of them hating it.

I respectfully disagree.

The art in ShadowRun and Planescape made half the setting for me. Both settings had, well, a questionable ruleset. Especially 1st edition ShadowRun.

I also think that art is extremely important in a rpg, as it conveys the feel of the setting, the characters, etc. Then, as I like D&D being a fantasy medieval stuff, I want to see appropriate depiction of characters.

 

[Crothian]

I'm not fond of action points, is this a similar mechanic just more random?

Not action points, an attribute like strength, intelligence, etc.

I also like new feats, they are never too many. This one you mention is quite odd anyway: you can already shoot from behind cover (ok, not total cover) without penalties, or you can use Shot on the Run to do the above without -10, but of course with lots of prerequisites. What are the reqs of this feat?

Remember this feat allows a full attack action, that is very good. need a good dex, some ranks in hide, and a good BAB.....