Monte's 3.75? (A sequal is on its way)

[Turjan]

No problem for me, Aus... This new book's abbreviation shall be BoXM (at least, according to me... Or, is it the Helm.... Darn thing has a mind of its own, most of the time...).

I'm looking forward to The Book of eXperimental Might.

That's also the abbreviation used on the website for the cover illustration (BOXM_Coverart.jpg).

I have more problems with the name per se. Experimental Might? So, maybe might? Maybe failure? I hope this is not a sign of a lack of self-confidence regarding the contents of the book .

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

No problem, Aus!

I like Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press stuff. His Arcana Evolved was the first non-WotC book that I bought for 3/3.5e. It set a very high standard for others to aspire to. Ptolus went way beyond that.

Monte's houserules will be considered extremely valuable by me (or the Helm...).

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

That's also the abbreviation used on the website for the cover illustration (BOXM_Coverart.jpg).

Hmmm... Clearly the archmage, Malhavoc, is using The Book of Inverted Darkness to control the Helm.

I have more problems with the name per se. Experimental Might? So, maybe might? Maybe failure? I hope this is not a sign of a lack of self-confidence regarding the contents of the book .

I hope not. It shouldn't be because of a lack of self-confidence in the houserules, unless he hasn't had time to test all of them in actual play. And, I doubt that.

 

[Turjan]

I like Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press stuff. His Arcana Evolved was the first non-WotC book that I bought for 3/3.5e. It set a very high standard for others to aspire to.

The (Complete) Book of Eldritch Might was also groundbreaking. And Malhavoc Press has usually better editing than WotC - a rare trait in 3rd party companies.

I hope not. It shouldn't be because of a lack of self-confidence in the houserules, unless he hasn't had time to test all of them in actual play. And, I doubt that.

His stuff is not always completely balanced, but it's playtested and usually worth looking at. And that's important to me .

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

The (Complete) Book of Eldritch Might was also groundbreaking.

Very true.

And Malhavoc Press has usually better editing than WotC - a rare trait in 3rd party companies.

But, a major complaint that I have... Typos, misprints, etc... really bother me. So much so that I actually refused to buy a certain book that I was really looking forward to (from another third party company) because of the typos that were reported in reviews.

His stuff is not always completely balanced, but it's playtested and usually worth looking at. And that's important to me .

Thorough playtesting is important to me, too. And, his stuff is most always worth looking at.

As to balance, I don't know. I like to think I have a pretty good grasp of what's balanced (but that could be the Helm, too).

 

[BASHMAN]

So does anybody have this yet? How is it?

 

[adamda]

I just got it and read through briefly - it's a fun read, and there's a fair amount of content. Same quality presentation I expect from Monte as well.

He pretty much makes the cleric, druid, wizard, ranger, and paladin brand new with the addition of disciplines. Some disciplines replicate old abilities (magic missile, lay on hands...) while some are new twists.

He throws in a second wind mechanic, more starting hit points, and a way to differentiate between serious wounds and just battle-worn heroes (using what he calls Grace).

I'm a little sad that he doesn't spice up the paladin beyond replacing turn undead, lay on hands, and spellcasting. I was hoping that the mount would be optional, cure disease removed, a new take on smites... but he really did wonders with what he did go into. He doesn't touch upon fighters, rogues, bards, monks, barbarians or sorcerers unfortunately.

All in all though, I'm really excited and would love to run a game with his revisions.

 

[jasonbostwick]

I just finished reading the BOXM, and it was very enjoyable. I'm going to start using his spell system for the last three months of my 3.5 campaign (I've been using the Grace/HP rules and 1 feat/level variant since he mentioned them in his blog).

When Monte says that the rules increase the power level of a party, he's making a bit of an understatement.
In my experience with the feat and HP changes, the power of the characters increased dramatically. I've only got two PCs in my Ptolus campaign (a rogue and an urban ranger), and I figured that with these boosts they'd end up being as effective as a standard party of four. They completely outperformed my expectations, and ended up bulldozing through encounters in modules designed for their character level. The CR system in 3.5 is built on the idea that you can slowly wear down the party with a few speedbump encounters, but with more resources this isn't an issue.

Once I got a handle on what they were capable of, I was able to redesign my encounters so that they would be a proper challenge, which entailed stripping away all of the extraneous fights with random monsters and beefing up the final encounters so that they would be huge and cinematic.


The tl;dr
The BOXM is well done and has a lot of good design philosophies in it (many mirroring 4e's), but if you want to use it in a campaign you'll have to put a lot of thought into changing how you design adventures - something the book doesn't offer much advice on.

 

[Jaws]

http://enworld.rpgnow.com/


j.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

The (Complete) Book of Eldritch Might was also groundbreaking. And Malhavoc Press has usually better editing than WotC - a rare trait in 3rd party companies.

This would be Sue Cook's doing. She's an editorial ace.