July 2006 WotC Releases--MM IV, Secrets of Xen'Drik, d20 Super Heroes

[I'm A Banana]

Xen'Drik may tempt me. I'm not a huge Eberron fan, but I'm always on the scout for things I can crib, and FR takes WAY too much effort to get into at this point.

MMIV *might* tempt me. If there's a reason for the monsters. But I've got an XLS file listing over 3,000 individual monsters. I'll be lucky if I use a handful of them. So it might just be a pass because YE GODS, THERE IS AN UPPER LIMIT. Now, monster books have to give me a reason to use them.

 

[Nightfall]

BK,

I'm not asking for stats of gods. I just want a book that EBERRON clerics, druids, paladins and rangers can use more than "ooh a little spell here, a magic item there." kind of deal. The stuff you mentioned, that's the book I'd like to see.

John Mayhem,

Yeah well I know that but it's kind of hard to convince your DM to use Scarred Lands sources in an Eberron game. Some how doubt I'll be getting access to something like Divine Weapon Focus or Virtue of Mithril. That of course excludes the Body of Corean spells, Demonsbane, and my all time favorite, Sacred Journey.

*doesn't care if they give away the landrights of all the giant cities, just hope Xen'drik has some ideas for fighting daelykr(sp.)

Al,

Got your email. You package was sent but I checked with my PO. They assured me it was received or at least sent. Rest assured, I'll be checking further AND getting that second one off to you soon.

*thinks he'll wait and see about MMIIV* It has to surpass ToH3 for me to consider any good. MMIII wasn't bad but I've seen better.

 

[Pants]

It has to surpass ToH3 for me to consider any good.

Errrm... is ToH3 even out yet?

Glad to see a MMIV and a Xen'Drik book. More monsters is always good and I sure hope that WotC has learned from MMIII. Talk about a good book brought down by craptastic editing.

 

[Steel_Wind]

MM4, eh?

Sounds good.

A new Weis & Hickman Dragonlance series?

Hmmm...

I didn't really like their last trilogy, though I do love the original 6 books.

We'll see...

It's not a new series. It is revisiting of **the original Chronicles**, recounting the part of the story originally left out of the series so that certain modules were left "unknown" by players/readers.

So yes: Raistlin, Caramon, Tanis et al live again.

Azrius overplays the Dark Chronicles "through the eyes of the bad guys" theme. It is not only that - but it is a part of it.

The original heroes get lots of face time as well. Dragons of the Dwarven Depths will deal with Thorbardin (DL3/4).

The Dark Chronicles also will explore the War of the Lance from the perspective of the Dragon Highlords. Worm's eye view of the Bad Guys, as it were.

The story of Raistlin's coming to power is going to be told there as well it seems. (*sigh* he does have his following).

This was well done, for example, in parts of the Raistlin Chronicles' "Brothers in Arms" novel by Weis. (Where the focus was on Kitiara - as I expect Dark Chronicles will often be as well).

Say what you want about the other offerings in the post above - but I expect that this novel will easily outsell all the other offerings mentioned therein - combined.

 

[Jdvn1]

Gotta say, I was not expecting a MMIV to come out. Pleasant surprise.

 

[GAAAHHH]

"Here's to hoping the MMIV is more of the same, and not like the MMII, which IMNSHO is the runt of the MM litter."

I personally thought the MMII was one of their best books. Corpse Gatherer, Death Knight, Gem Dragons, Hook Horror, Spawn of Kyuss, Thri-kreen, and Raggamoffyns are some of my favorite monsters. Monster Manual III didn't have much that grabbed my interest.

Edit: The picture of the Moonrat is hillarious.

 

[Ranger REG]

Amazon's got 'em up. Time to start the speculating.

I'm speculating if d20 Super Heroes is actually Powers Overwhelming fan-brewed material?

If not, why?

 

[delericho]

That type of book really isint suitable for Eberron.

Unlike Greyhawk and FR, the Eberron deities really truly are more of an "idea" then a "fact".

They havnt walked the soil of khorvaire and they really are only legends and stories.

It really is true faith that gives power to clerics and other casters.

There simply wouldnt be ENOUGH for such a book without making up stuff that I dont feel would fit the flavor of the campagn

I don't know about the "and Avatars" bit, but the lack of manifest gods should in no way limit the feasibility of a book on the major faiths. In fact, given the lack of alignment restrictions on clerics in Eberron (IIRC), this book could even be more interesting than its Forgotten Realms equivalent.

The key is to realise that it wouldn't really be a book about the gods, as such, but far closer to being a book about organisations - in this case the churches of those gods.

Sadly, I don't know enough about Eberron to be able to give concrete examples of what you might see.

 

[Staffan]

There simply wouldnt be ENOUGH for such a book without making up stuff that I dont feel would fit the flavor of the campagn

The standard length of a WOTC book these days is 160 pages. Eberron has seven religions listed in the core book (Silver Flame, Sovereign Host, Dark Six, Blood of Vol, Dragon Below cults, Path of Light, and the Undying Court). The Host consists of nine gods, the Dark Six of, well, Six. If we give each separate god the equivalent of half a section (so, 7.5 sections for the gods) as well as a full section for each of the Host and Six, as well as the other religions, plus one section for general stuff and one section on clerics powered by faith alone, that's 16.5 sections or about 9 pages per section (4.5 pages per god). I don't think it would be particularly hard to fill out that page count, especially if you include a prestige class per faith (not necessarily for each deity) as well as some spells/feats/magic items.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey all!

D20 Super Heroes - brilliant! Count me in!

Monster Manual IV - can we have some epic monsters WotC!? Go on, you know it makes sense!