D&D General Help Me with My Pathological Aversion to Third Party D&D Products

[James Gasik]

I saw some votes for Kobold Press upthread. I'm impressed by a lot of their ideas, save for one thing.

Spells.

Kobold Press spells are either too niche, too weak, difficult to parse, poorly edited, have exploits and loopholes that were never considered, obvious corner cases that were never considered, or are absolutely busted, lol.

I have a thread about Last Stand, but I've also run into such fun spells as a cantrip that can stun every creature adjacent to you unless they make a Cha save (but if they make the save they are immune for 24 hours), a 2nd-level version of Bane that imposes a d8 penalty to attacks and saves, which stacks with Bane, a spell my Druid used last session that...oh I'll just post it:

And finally, a bizarre spell that has a greater effect if you succeed on a Con save!

(Ice Burn, at least, had errata, requiring a successful ranged spell attack, but since monsters don't get much healing in combat, it's a punishing effect with a potentially long duration, despite being an instantaneous spell!)

So yeah, Kobold Press is great, but you'll need to vet every spell your players may wish to use.

 

[Zardnaar]

I saw some votes for Kobold Press upthread. I'm impressed by a lot of their ideas, save for one thing.

Spells.

Kobold Press spells are either too niche, too weak, difficult to parse, poorly edited, have exploits and loopholes that were never considered, obvious corner cases that were never considered, or are absolutely busted, lol.

I have a thread about Last Stand, but I've also run into such fun spells as a cantrip that can stun every creature adjacent to you unless they make a Cha save (but if they make the save they are immune for 24 hours), a 2nd-level version of Bane that imposes a d8 penalty to attacks and saves, which stacks with Bane, a spell my Druid used last session that...oh I'll just post it:

View attachment 382640

And finally, a bizarre spell that has a greater effect if you succeed on a Con save!

(Ice Burn, at least, had errata, requiring a successful ranged spell attack, but since monsters don't get much healing in combat, it's a punishing effect with a potentially long duration, despite being an instantaneous spell!)

So yeah, Kobold Press is great, but you'll need to vet every spell your players may wish to use.

Spells are their big weakness

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shout out to the very focused products produced by Mage Hand Press and Cawood Publishing.

Need a book of magical cats or variant mimics? Want a menagerie of urban NPCs and monsters? They've got you covered.

 

[guachi]

I went in the opposite direction with regards to A5e. It was the first RPG that I had ever backed on Kickstarter. I've since backed several more of its' books and bought several 3pp-related books over the years. I've also mentioned a lot about this RPG on EN World's forums over the last 3 years.

So, I am a bit of an avid fan of this RPG.

I just remembered I must have been a Kickstarter backer right from the start as I have the fancy leatherette covers with built-in bookmarks. I own Adventurer's Guide, Trials & Treasures, Dungeon Delver's Guide, To Save a Kingdom, Adventures in Zeitgeist, Gate Pass 2022 & 2023, Memories of Holdenshire, and the Level Up boxed set.

The last WotC product I purchased was Candlekeep Mysteries with a print date of March 2021.

 

[Incenjucar]

The 3P Manual of the Planes was dramatically better than the official 5E Planescape set. I've read every non-adventure PS book and have been a Planescape fan since the day it launched, so this isn't a casual opinion.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

The 3P Manual of the Planes was dramatically better than the official 5E Planescape set. I've read every non-adventure PS book and have been a Planescape fan since the day it launched, so this isn't a casual opinion.

I read the entire 3e Manual of the Planes, and I've got to say it was a good read.

 

[Zardnaar]

I read the entire 3e Manual of the Planes, and I've got to say it was a good read.

Good read mostly niche. Still better than Deities and Demigods or ELH.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I read the entire 3e Manual of the Planes, and I've got to say it was a good read.

He means the third-party one published for 5E.

 

[Voadam]

So what do you guys think are good adventures, settings, or rule books for D&D 5th edition?

The OGL 5e setting ones I use now in my mashup homebrew were mostly around in the 3e d20 era too.

Ptolus, Midgard, and Freeport all have 3e/Pathfinder versions as well as 5e stuff.

I have found great stuff to plunder from each.

From Ptolus I love the decaying henotheistic Holy Lothian Empire for D&D catholic church with a lot of underlying D&D polytheisms. I like the big Greyhawk like Ptolus city. I like the politics of the religious civil war and set that as my campaign timeframe. Also there is a great free 32-page player's guide, which I used as the basis for a Ptolus campaign years before the 700 page monstrosity city setting book came up. I dislike the planar closed thing and the extra moons thing and have never included them.

Midgard has lots of really neat individual elements, multiple cultures of dwarves, their Baba Yaga stuff and her grudge against all gnomes that has driven them to be refugees, the fantasy middle eastern dragon empire, a vampire ruled horror land. Also a neat idea of gods using masks to fit into different cultures and various cultural pantheons so it is not clear which are truly accurate ideas about gods so it could be that Odin the Norse one-eyed all father with death magic is also Moradin the Dwarf All Father, and/or Gruumsh the one eyed spear wielding Orc warleader god, and/or Vecna the One-Eyed god of death magic and secrets. I have used the Baba Yaga gnome thing in my games, I use the masks theory as some in world theological speculation for my more Eberron cosmological setup and I have considered using the dragon empire as an over the border thing.

Freeport is a D&D island trade city with a strong pirate past(?) and an undercurrent of Mythos cults. It also has loose history that ties well into the civil war. The statless Pirate's Guide to Freeport is very good with multiple city districts that are distinct and work together with a lot of narrative elements a DM could use as a basis to freeform adventuring in the city.

 

[GMMichael]

I have a pathological aversion to third party products designed to be compatible with D&D. When I go to the local game store, if I'm considering a product for use with D&D I won't look at anything that hasn't been published by WotC. I say it's a pathological aversion because my most favorite (original) D&D campaign produced in the last twenty years was Rise of the Runelords by Paizo. My reluctance to even look at third party products has almost certainly meant I've missed out on some good stuff.

Hey, at least you don't have an aversion to first-party D&D products! But now that I mention it, having this aversion does make it easier for me to look at 3PP. So, give it a try?