Musings: Early 2006 releases from Wizards

[Henry]

There's this fellow called Eric Noah...

No, seriously! Eric posted the links!

Eric, you really should see a doctor about this "news addiction" of yours...

On second thought, no you shouldn't!

 

[Psion]

January 2006
Races of the Dragon - 160 pages - us$29.95 - Tier B

:\

Dunno exactly what to think of this. I have half-dragons playing an important role in my game... but I just know that the default D&D philosophy re: half-races is going to bugger with the product and turn out some things I am not going to want to use. But my dracophile players are going to want to use it...

Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow and True Name Magic - 288 pages - us$39.95 - Tier B

The question I pose here is will this have good flavor and nicely dovetail with existing d20 stuff, or be the overly-mechanistic style that have marked WotC books of late.

If I were a betting man... let's just say I am hopeful, but wary.

Complete Psionic - 160 pages - us$29.95 - Tier C

/me does happy dance.

The Future Releases forum on the Wizards boards has been discussing the possibility of this book for months. I was in the camp that thought it would never get made, precisely because it was a Tier C product, requiring both the core books and the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Maybe you need four tiers, putting "non-core but widely accepted" in the second tier.

Eberron has made an impact on the acceptability of psionics. We now have a setting where the use of psionics is accepted as a normal part of that world.

You wouldn't know it from the campaigns of defamation psionics haters engage in, but hey, if Eberron is helping make it a more central part of the game, viva la Eberron!

I hope this book addresses the problems faced by the Soulknife,

Its existence as a core class? I thought Cordell already took care of that with the plangent?

 

[Kanegrundar]

Granted, we don't really know squat about any of these books beyond the titles, but from that I'm at least interested.

Races of the Dragon: I'm hoping this will be exactly what I think it will be: a race book dealing with playing races like kobolds, half-dragons, dragonkin, and so forth. They may go a slightly different direction with it, but it does interest me. (I'm a sucker for races.)

Complete Psionics: It's about time that psionics gets an expansion book. I never expect psionics to become a widely accepted part of D&D, but there is a good amount of players that use them, so give us some love!!!

D20 Future Tech: Excellent. While I really like the treatment that sci-fi got with D20 Future, more material to expand upon the base is a good thing. Plus, this will be the 3rd expansion from WotC for D20 Future. This leads me to think that it's selling very well.

While I'm curious about Player's Guide to Eberron and Tome of Magic, I'd like to know some more information about these books.

Maybe now that the cat's out of the bag we'll hear some more about these offerings. Plus, it looks like the current edition isn't losing steam, which makes me very happy. (Not that that will slow down any of the 4E rumors any. )

Kane

 

[tetsujin28]

Nope. No interest in that stuff.

 

[MerricB]

I *like* the soulknife. I just think the enhancements it can add to its mindblade are weaker than they should be. I prefer core classes to prestige classes when there are abilities that should be there from first level - such as the mindblade.

Of course, as the "Mind's Eye" column on the Wizards boards is also starting up again, Psionics is definitely back on the agenda for Wizards. (Psion already knows this, but the ENworld link is here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=140504 )

Maybe you need four tiers, putting "non-core but widely accepted" in the second tier.

Indeed. What I don't know is what is widely accepted! I think Wizards have a much better idea than I have on what the acceptance level is, which is why Complete Psionic is on the list of products. The massive amount of market research they do has to be good for something.

Cheers!

 

[Psion]

Indeed. What I don't know is what is widely accepted! I think Wizards have a much better idea than I have on what the acceptance level is, which is why Complete Psionic is on the list of products. The massive amount of market research they do has to be good for something.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I suspect that if you boil it down to simply marketing numbers, setting specific products are going to show up in the mix.

 

[Li Shenron]

slow server...

 

[Li Shenron]

Investigated Dungeon magazine recently?

It's something I wanted to do since quite some time, but I have never found it around here in the FLGS, and I'd like a preview before buying one.

But anyway I thought that Dungeon only had short adventures, not 4-6 levels long which quite require some tens of pages to print...

 

[evildmguy]

It's something I wanted to do since quite some time, but I have never found it around here in the FLGS, and I'd like a preview before buying one.

But anyway I thought that Dungeon only had short adventures, not 4-6 levels long which quite require some tens of pages to print...

I have #125 in front of me and here are page counts:

New Path of Adventure Age of Worms:The Three Faces of Evil - 30 pages (1st - 5th)
Pit of the Fire Lord - 12 pages (6th - 12th)
Seekers of the Silver Forge - 23 pages (13th - 20th)

There is more pages, devoted to articles for the DM, letters, comics, ads, etc.

The Paths of Adventure have been quite popular and IIRC they did a "mini" one that was over 3 issues, so I am sure its page count is up there as well. The original one they have made into a book that is 416 pages!

I think you might be pleasantly surprised by Dungeon but that's me.

Have a good one! Take care!

edg

 

[Desdichado]

It's about time that psionics gets an expansion book.

*ahem* Expanded Psionics Handbook.

But yeah, I agree. I've been a bit ambivalent about psionics since the 3e release, but for whatever reason (probably thanks to the whole really cool Dreaming Dark idea in Eberron) I'm starting to really like them. My next character has a good chance of being psionic.