Most interesting recent rules?

[The Souljourner]

So I've been out of D&D for the holiday season, started a new job and all that. I just ordered the latest 4 D&D splat books - Races of the Wild, Races of Destiny, Complete Arcane, and Complete Adventurer. So here's my question - with all this new stuff to read, whre should I start? I've taken a look at complete arcane before, briefly, but everything else I didn't even know was out until I looked online yesterday.

Cool feats, PrCs, options, etc. What new crunchy bits most interest you? I don't mind if it's cool stuff, broken stuff, or whatever.

Thanks,

-The Souljourner

 

[Jdvn1]

I think the Races books are hit-and-miss, but I thought Illumians were neat (although they seem unpopular).

The Complete Arcane has some great spells. They really beefed up Conjuration, and the orb spells are really nice. Neat prestige classes, too, but I'd house rule the Elemental Savant so that he can take Energy Substitution in order to cast a different element. The Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil also very popular, as his abilities are immediate actions. A lot of the prestige classes are repeats, though. I also like the Maester, as Identify is a useful ability. The feats... I remember there are good feats in there, but other than reprinted metamagic feats, the only one I can think of at the moment is Mage Slayer. Good for Fighters, bad for casters. Some people don't like it, but.

A lot of people really like the Complete Adventurer -- it has tons of options. Not just for Rogues, but for multiclassed characters too. There are three pairs of prestige classes that come in teams -- it's not a big thing, but I like the color. Neat feats, but Rogue stuff often seems cool because Rogues are cool.

This is all from memory, so it's kind of unorganized, sorry.

Ooh, the new core classes are cool too. The Warlock is cool, as are the Scout and Spellthief. Warlock gets at will (Sp) abilities, the Scout is all Rogue/Ranger-like, and the Spellthief is what Bards should've been. Well, that's what I think.