Next Expanded/3.5 book should be

[William Ronald]

what we really need is a book that takes the elements from ELH not already covered in the 3.5 DMG and other books, and combine that with the first few chapters of D&DG and get them all right and properly working together this time.

When I picked up Deities and Demigods, I hoped for information on faiths, and how the various deities and their followere interact. Instead, most of the book was dominated by stat blocks. The writerrs could have used historic examples, or make a few things up. This would probably have been mosre useful to most gamers than seeing a god's stats.

SOLD!

Yeah, I'd love to see a revised and updated ELH, combined with D&DG, and maybe even combined with an updated Manual of the Planes. As for a revised ELH - keep the critters, drop the setting.

The setting was not interesting in the least. There seems to be a habit to do some sort of "Greyhawk" or "Lankhmar" on the planes. I wanted a setting that caught a sense of wonder. Instead, I got a city that desperately wished it was a quarter as interesting as Greyhawk or Waterdeep. (We have more interesting epic settings, such as Sepulchrave II's Wyre story hour, on our message boards.)

 

[ColonelHardisson]

The setting was not interesting in the least. There seems to be a habit to do some sort of "Greyhawk" or "Lankhmar" on the planes. I wanted a setting that caught a sense of wonder. Instead, I got a city that desperately wished it was a quarter as interesting as Greyhawk or Waterdeep. (We have more interesting epic settings, such as Sepulchrave II's Wyre story hour, on our message boards.)

Yep. I was really surprised that a city that was essentially made up of epic-level characters was so boring. Given how exciting many of the new monsters introduced in the book were, it seemed to be a strange dichotomy.

 

[kolikeos]

i don't see any need to update anything from 3.0 to 3.5
there's not such a big difference that needs an update

i didn't know there was such a thing as al-qadim
i thought it was al-qaeda on first look

an expantion to manual of the planes would be good
or maybe not considering how bad the planars handbook was
i wouldn't buy a simple update from 3.0 to 3.5

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey A'koss mate!

Sample tactics are good, particularly those with set abilities, but having pre-set tactics have limited utility with NPCs, monsters with classes when there are so many options available and different synergies.

Yes but its a step up in the right direction, and coupled with a small paragraph of tactics for detailed NPCs it could grow to cover a broad spectrum that DMs could draw upon.

There are certainly many ways to skin this cat. The one I've liked the best so far is turning Save or Die/Nerf effects into spells more like Holy Word. Against weaker foes it is very good, but with diminishing effects as you target higher level opponents. For example, domination might affect several weak targets, 1 more powerful (but still weaker) target, control someone close to your level for 1 round or befuddle a more powerful opponent for a round as he shakes it off.

That could be an interesting revision, although Holy Word itself is broken at epic levels, but I already have a solution for that. I'll toy with the idea and see what happens. My initial impression is that you would have to mix and match a handful of status effects, like:

Fatigue/Exhaustion/Sleep/Coma

Shaken/Frightened/Panicked/Coronary

etc.

Which is akin to an idea I am using as part of Divine Aura.

So while the mechanic could work, it might be too much of an upheaval for spell lists themselves...that said, you probably only need to address all condition summaries once.

You don't have to be stupid, just being caught by surprise is enough.

I think the revision to save or die spells will act as a buffer for this.

That's not the point. The point is that the disparities between the classes at very high levels means your weaknesses are, IMO, inordinately weak for your level and are too easily taken advantage of.

Well I definately think theres a case for not 'throwing all your eggs in one basket' at epic levels.

There's not much I can really comment on though regarding your template/feat suggestions without actually seeing them in action.

Thats true.

Just straight damage output is enough IME. Power Attacks, spell damage, uber magical weapons in hands of Warrior-types with power-up suites, etc.

Wizard and Rogue types are especially vulnerable to heavy hitters with power attack. Disintegrate, especially maximized, is another killer for those with weak Fort Saves.

Certain spells should be more dangerous to certain classes, however, disintigrate is something of an anomaly in that it generates about 3 times more damage than it otherwise should solely on the principle of the failed save.

Disjunction?

(squish)

I see no disjunction here...

 

[Arnwyn]

I voted ELH and AQ.

The FRCS has already been done - it's called Player's Guide to Faerun.

 

[Simplicity]

I voted for the ELH. I don't even *use* epic-level rules. I'll probably *never use* the ELH rules. But, I hate the fact that the D&D degenerates into total nonsense at the higher levels. The epic-level rules are terrible.

Just give me very flexible level 10 spells that require a DC check to succeed. The "epic spell seed" garbage is worthless.

I've heard the manual of the planes could use a reworking... But I don't think they need a *rules* rework. They could probably use more info... More fluff-content. But I think the rules are fine as is.

 

[Jaerom Darkwind]

ELH. Definitley the ELH.

 

[Kain Darkwind]

I'll second my dear 'cousin' on this one. The ELH needs the biggest revision. The psionics handbook was excellently redone...I'd like to see something on that magnitude of improvment.


U_K, you are one of my allies in the old "keep BaB progression minus extra attacks" issue right? Fighters need that extra attack bonus to throw into damage, AC, and anything else their feats let them. I didn't see spellcasters getting a CL cut, why should melee characters get an attack bonus cut?

 

[balam_br]

i voted for OA and AQ for sure.

I would really love a cultural series featuring D&D in different kinds of scenarios, moving away from the miscelaneous fantasy that we are accostumed to see.

oriental book, Arabian Book, maybe a pre colombian book, or Hindu book would be good to...

 

[Hussar]

I'd love to see a "cultural" series of books. Perhaps in a similar vein to the "Climate" books like Frostburn and Sandstorm.

I must admit though, seeing people's takes on an expanded ELH, I would love to see this. The main reason that I've been reluctant to get into the very high levels is simply one of complexity. At very high levels, it just takes so bloody long to do anything. If this could be drastically simplified by a template system, I'd be over that like white on rice.