Have you been disillusioned by the latest WotC books?

[Steel_Wind]

Not disillussioned at all.

I bought all three books under discussion: HoB, DMGII and Weapons of Legacy.

The weakest of the three, in my opinion, was the DMGII - but it still has a lot of very useful material.

Bullet points are:

1- WotC branched into new material with these books. HoB and WoL, in particular, have no parallel from previous editions of the game;

2- Crunch is well accompanied by fluff and mini adventure hooks in every product. The consensus on ENWorld has been that we;re being crunched out. We need more fluff in our books and WotC has striven to address this concern. Got to like a publisher who listens!; and,

3- Production values remain high on all of the products as we all expect.

The furor over HoB seems to have been directed from those who expected the book to be something it is not.

The *shrug* over WoL seems to me to be wholly misdirected. While the PrC contained therein is - admittedly - a waste of paper, the balance of the book in terms of crunch and fluff and adventure hooks is, in my opinion, excellent.

Rather than nay-say from the side-lines, I ponied up my money and I am a satisfied customer.

 

[delericho]

1- WotC branched into new material with these books. HoB and WoL, in particular, have no parallel from previous editions of the game;

An important and valid point, and something that I'm glad Wizards are at least attempting, even if I didn't really like these specific results. Better "Heroes of Battle" and "Dungeon Master's Guide 2" than "Even More Complete Warrior".

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Very disillusioned would be my reply. Somewhere along the line, I've become pretty anti- D&D 3e. Maybe it's because I've found the system that is what I wish 3e had been (C&C). Maybe I'm tired of every book featuring the same layout, the same order of presentation, the same features, and so on.

I didn't even think to look at the latest WotC books the last time I was in a gaming store. I am curious about Weapons of Legacy, but I'm not going to purchase it without look through it pretty thoroughly.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I can't think of a single WOTC purchase I've been happy with since Unaproachable East (FR). I've been mainly buying 3rd party books lately, and like Jyrdan, not even glancing at the WOTC stuff.

 

[danbuter]

For recent books, I love Libris Mortis and DMG II. Races of Eberron and Waterdeep are above average. I have little interest in any of the other books they've released, though I'm considering getting Lords of Battle. Overall, I'm fairly satisfied with WotC. Though I don't really care for the lower pagecount/price hike that's occurred.

 

[FireLance]

Well, for me, the WotC books tend to fall into three categories: decent, good and great.

Great: Five Nations
Good: DMG II, Weapons of Legacy
Decent: Heroes of Battle, Waterdeep

Five Nations had exactly the right mix of flavor and rules for me. It helped flesh out the campaign setting and presented a number of very interesting prestige classes.

DMG II had a lot of useful advice. Of course, I mostly like it because it ties into my idea of what D&D should be. Sample quote:

"A successful Dungeons & Dragons setting is neither an authentic portrayal of medieval history nor an exercise in logical extrapolation from a fantastic premise. Instead, think of it as a medieval-flavored game environment. Your players expect to play in a world resembling the Middle Ages, but with the harsh, brutal, depressing, and serious elements stripped out. They want to explore an idealized realm of virtuous kings, shining armor, colorful tournaments, towering castles, and fearsome dragons. The setting might have its dark and challenging corners, but overall it offers a positive, escapist vision of good against evil. Historical accuracy should be ignored when it interferes with the game's spirit of light-hearted fun."

I didn't like Weapons of Legacy at first, but it's starting to grow on me. The book isn't just a laundry list of magic items. In some ways, it's an entertaining read, similar to a series of short legends. The encounters that it contains also have several interesting elements which can be adapted into any campaign to spice up the battles. Even the part that I'm most unhappy about, the personal costs for owning a legacy item, I can work around. Essentially, I'll allow any PC who owns a legacy item to undertake "legacy offset rituals" to reduce the personal costs of owning it by paying a gp cost. The costs I've come up with seem to be fairly close to each other at all levels and across the various penalty tables, so I'm quite happy with them.

I think I'll probably get less use out of Heroes of Battle and Waterdeep, but I've still found good ideas and useful mechanics in them.

One thing I like about WotC is that they take game development seriously and are actually improving the game (IMO, anyway). For example, one of the magic items in Weapons of Legacy acts similar to a monk's belt, giving the user the AC and unarmed strike damage of a 5th-level monk. However, it specifically states that the user does not get the monk's Wisdom bonus to AC. Although WotC has not released official errata for the monk's belt, I will house-rule it in my game based on this.

 

[Turjan]

I cannot really say that I'm disillusioned with the latest WotC books. My buys from WotC slowed down quite a while ago, because most of their offerings didn't interest me in the first place. I'm not interested in Eberron, my ventures into the first books of the Complete series didn't excite me at all, I've already got enough 'races' books from other publishers, and the same is true for books about warfare or legendary weapons. Anyway, I enjoyed 'Lords of Madness', because I'm somehow fond of aberrations . I'm thinking about getting the DMG II, and I may have a look at the Waterdeep book. The books that really excite me come from other companies, though. Perhaps, I'm not part of the major target group .

 

[Wormwood]

Weapons of Legacy and Dungeon Master's Guide II redeemed the abomination that was the Complete series.

 

[Serendipity]

Illusion intact, thank you.

No, but then I haven't bought any of them either. Not a one of them called to me. Not even a little.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Weapons of Legacy and Dungeon Master's Guide II redeemed the abomination that was the Complete series.

Wow. I rather think that WoL and DMG2 are the abominations.

I've liked Champions of Ruin, Waterdeep, Races of Eberron, and Five Nations, though, so it's not a complete loss. And I'm looking forward to the rest of the year's stuff.

Brad