More reasons to love Monte

[Ravellion]

Hmmm... this could be food for though, if nothing else, in order to adapt certian tidbits of my own campaign...

Rav

 

[Psion]

What didn't you like about them?

Bard -- I just didn't see the point. It basically just repackaged the existing bard by stuffing all of the existing abilities and spells into a new, renamed spell category called spellchords. So essentially, the bard was the same, but now you had a whole different type of magic to keep track of.

Sorcerer -- I did like the revised sorcerer class skill list -- it makes sense. But the revised sorcerer spell list makes the sorcerer into a blast mage and little more. I always pictured sorcerers, with their high charisma, as sort of hedge mages, and many NPCs in my game had subtler magic than Monte's sorcerer would permit. In short, I think BOEM II sorcerers are much more pidgeonholed.

 

[Aaron L]

It all looks cool to me. I'll be getting it/them/everything/stopmenowplease!

 

[EricNoah]

Bard -- I just didn't see the point.

One important difference (as I recall it) is that multiple bards working together can contribute to a spell effect by providing notes and chords. That's more than simple repackaging in my mind.

If Monte's altPHB can provide a coherent, easy magic system that's different from the norm and yet not "one different system for each class", that will be something to look forward to indeed.

 

[mkletch]

The Bard gets 6 skill points, but the big change is the magic is completely redone. It has a much more musical feel to it.

I was thinking of redoing the Bard for an upcoming campaign. I have a player (my wife, actually) who really likes bards. If his variant makes sense, then it could save a lot of work for me. Is that in BoEM2?

I would really like to see the alternate combat section of such a book. I'm in the process of combining Vitality/Wound Points, armor as DR, lower death-by-massive-damage threshold and other variant combat rules into a coherent system. Right now, it's spread across 4 hardcovers in different settings/genres.

-Fletch!

 

[Old Fezziwig]

yep, the alt.Bard is in the BOEM2 (as is the alt.Sorcerer).

Best,
tKL

 

[Tom Cashel]

Finally, a real use for my sig.

 

[Mistwell]

I was thinking of redoing the Bard for an upcoming campaign. I have a player (my wife, actually) who really likes bards. If his variant makes sense, then it could save a lot of work for me. Is that in BoEM2?

I would really like to see the alternate combat section of such a book. I'm in the process of combining Vitality/Wound Points, armor as DR, lower death-by-massive-damage threshold and other variant combat rules into a coherent system. Right now, it's spread across 4 hardcovers in different settings/genres.

-Fletch!

I found Monte's alt. Bard to be his best work ever, personally. I would strongly encourage you to give it a read.

 

[kenjib]

I had recently been thikning about someone (Monte in particular) making use of the OGL to produce "alternate" core books or core-type books. Guess he was way ahead of me.

/me heads off to buy any and all Malhavoc products

Slaine and the Everquest RPG are already doing this by going directly OGL. There are also other d20 books with alternate classes/races, like Sovereign Stone, and WotC closed content products like Wheel of Time. I honestly don't see Monte's entry as anything at all new in the OGL/d20 world (I don't mean this negatively), but I still think it would be great to have more choices like this.

It could be interesting if it is different enough, but if it's only stuff like his variant PHB classes and a bunch of new spells and feats, without really changing the standard D&D flavor or providing a radically different spell system, I think it loses a lot of the potential that going OGL provides and probably won't be very interested in the book myself. If this were the case, the aforementioned books would have more bang for the buck in this regard. Hopefully the changes are drastic.

 

[Apok]

Just to chime in, I love Monte's alternate Bard class. Much more interesting and cool than the standard D&D Bard, though in order for it to stand up power-wise to the normal Bard you'll need to convert alot of spells to spellsongs (chordes, notes, and melodies) since there were a few areas left out of the BoEM2, notably illusion and some transmutation spells.

I'm actually quite excited about this new product since I've liked Monte's take on the varous PHB classes (haven't really looked at his Ranger, though) and I'd like to see what else he can come up with. If nothing else, it should provide some neat ideas for alternate or cleaned-up rules.