Penumbra D20

[Knightfall]

Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary. 3.0 monster book but a huge collection of well described monsters including a bunch of neat fey and oriental style among more medieval fantasy feeling monsters. A lot of good stuff to add to a fantasy setting.

That's too bad that it is v.3.0. I rarely risk purchasing 3.0 books anymore. It's too much work to tweak an entire book of monsters, which is sort of unyielding habit for me. Plus, I have more than enough monster books; I just passed over Tome of Horrors III because I just don't feel like I need anymore new monster books.

 

[Knightfall]

Crime and Punishment, which was written by Keith Baker, is a v3.5 book. It's a great book and works really well with urban adventures.

This one sounds like a must for me.

 

[Psion]

Okay, it sounds like Occult Lore is worth my time. How does it relate to Touched by the Gods? Are the two books linked in any way?

Whoops, actually, I was thinking of Touched by the Gods.

Occult lore... with a few bits of supporting lore, is mostly a crunch book.

Now that I am home and time to ponder more clearly, 7 Civilizations and 7 Strongholds are good on fluff, though the former might be a tougher fit if your world already have all major civilized areas fleshed out.

 

[Knightfall]

Whoops, actually, I was thinking of Touched by the Gods.

Occult lore... with a few bits of supporting lore, is mostly a crunch book.

Ah ha! See I thought maybe you had made a mistake because the description of Occult Lore on Atlas Games' website sure looked crunchy. No worries.

Now that I am home and time to ponder more clearly, 7 Civilizations and 7 Strongholds are good on fluff, though the former might be a tougher fit if your world already have all major civilized areas fleshed out.

Well, my main continent for World of Kulan is quite detailed, so I likely wouldn't be able to drop entire civilizations or cities into it. The stronghold book might be of better use, but I'll have to do some more research about the four "7" books.

What about Love and War? Any opinions about that one?

 

[Crothian]

What about Love and War? Any opinions about that one?

Very good for Chivalry and Knights in the way of Camelot if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

This one sounds like a must for me.

Did I mention that the bounty hunter class gets poison use?

Here's the index of d20 game materials.
[sblock]
INDEX OF D20 MATERIAL

CLASSES

• Bounty Hunter 36
• God’s Eye 110
• Inquisitor 11
• Investigator 7
• Justice 89
• Lawkeeper 106
• Magehunter 39
• Spellbane 42

EQUIPMENT

• Ball and Chain 58
• Bloodhound 27
• Flareshot 58
• Flashstone 59
• Investigator’s Kit 28
• Iron Hands 59
• Leather Gag 59
• Mithral Net 59
• Mithral Rope 59
• Mother’s Milk 60
• Poppy’s Kiss 60
• Silk Net 60
• Strolga 61
• Thundershot 61
• Torturer’s Lab 28
• Truth Serum 28

FEATS

• Bondsman [General] 44
• Careful Listener [General] 14
• Group Tactics [General] 45
• Hard to Fool [General] 14
• Improved Grapple [General] 44
• Indomitable [General] 14
• Net Master [General] 44
• Slippery Tongue [General] 14
• Spellsense [General] 125
• Suppress Spell
• Energy [Metamagic] 127
• Twist the Knife [General] 45

MAGIC ITEMS

• Blood Drinking special ability 29
• Bottled Spirits potion 133
• Circles of Thought 64
• Clinging special ability 64
• Cloak of Shadows 30
• Collar of Dreamless Sleep 64
• Collar of Pain 64
• Collar of Pain Control Ring 64
• Death Coins 30
• Enchanted Manacles 65
• Figurine of Wondrous Power (Bloodhound) 29
• Gloves of Subtle Casting 133
• Greater Sentinel Stone 138
• Honor’s Seat 30
• Key Talisman 156
• Magical Nets 63
• Mana Manacles 65
• Manacles of Ghostly Binding 65
• Manacles of Maintenance 66
• Mantle of the Inquisitor 30
• Message Stones 66
• Monocle of Aura Comparison 30
• Orb of Dimensional Stability 66
• Orb of Silence 66
• Phantom Blade 31
• Portable Cell 66
• Powder of Power 134
• Ring of Truth 31
• Robe of Deception 134
• Rod of Containment 156
• Sentinel Stone 138
• Silent Passenger 67
• Sleeper Net 67
• Spectacles of Speculation 31
• Spellbane’s Bolt 67
• Stone of Wit 31
• Tentacle Rope special ability 67
• Thought Disruption
• special ability 67
• Trackless Boots 134

MISCELLANEOUS

• Grey Chain sample party 72
• Influencing NPC Attitudes 77
• Justice domain 109
• Magehound magical beast 125
• Silver Book deity 112

SKILLS

• Diplomacy to throw off pursuit 133
• Gather Information for urban tracking 15
• Gather Information to reveal specific info 15
• Heal for forensic pathology 16
• Heal for torture 19
• Intimidation for torture 16
• Knowledge (arcana or religion) to decipher sentinel stone or mark of justice 139
• Knowledge (law) to determine legality of actions 17
• Knowledge (local) for basic local info 18
• Sense Motive to spot Sense Motive or spell use 18
• Survival to hide your trail 133

SPELLS

• Agony 20
• Anathema 145
• Animate Net 54
• Aural Disruption 54
• Ban 145
• Blood Spilled Anew 20
• Bumble 54
• Cloak of Silence 127
• Cloud the Guilty Mind 21
• Detect Bloodtraces 21
• Detect Heretic 22
• Detect Magical Residue 23
• Detect Mystical Streams 24
• Direct Conversation 24
• Endure Pain 25
• Excommunicate 146
• Final Vision 25
• Follow the Bloody Trail 25
• Form Bloodstone 25
• Garble 55
• Greater Mark of Justice 137
• Hinder 55
• Indelible Mark 141
• Induced Illiteracy 55
• Light of Truth 26
• Malediction 147
• Mystic Opposition 55
• Mystical Manacles 56
• Mystical Void 128
• Opposing Currents 56
• Painful Truth 26
• Pins and Needles 56
• Read the Guilty Face 27
• Scatterbrain 57
• Scourge 147
• See the Face 27
• Sever from the Source 148
• Sleep of the Unjust 57
• Steal the Painful Memory 151
• Testimony of the Broken Window 27

[/sblock]

 

[Knightfall]

Very good for Chivalry and Knights in the way of Camelot if I'm remembering correctly.

Hmm, I was hoping it was more than that. I use the deity Inanna in my campaign and she is a goddess of love and war, but she's not much of a goddess of chivalry.

And I am officially annoyed! I canot find any of these books at my LGSs. Frustrating.

I'm going to have to hunt for them; I just know it.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

I posted the OGL content for the investigator class on the EN Wiki if you want to take a look. I planned to post the bounty hunter eventually, but I've been busy these days.

Done. Go check it out!

 

[Aus_Snow]

I forgot to mention that Love & War is also good. The equal of D&D (heh) and C&P, in fact. Another stylish and thoroughly useful take on a highly relevant subject (relevant to some of the types of campaigns I've run, or might run at some stage - YMMV.)

 

[Yair]

I really liked Love & War. Not so much for the mechanics, which I haven't gotten to implementing, as for the wonderful treatment of chivalrous ideals. It really showcases the range of possible "knights" well, playing with putting the emphasis on various ideals - from honorable dwarven knights to dark knights abusing love. I think you'll find some neat ideas there for making knights of a love deity, including rules for courtly love (which will at least inspire, even if you don't wish to use them).

I also found Seven Strongholds neat, having used one of them to great success (an elven castle).

I didn't like Occult Lore. Fluffwise, it recycled ideas from Ars Magica's The Mysteries, which were far more fitting there and better presented. Mechanics-wise, the presented classes seemed too strange or too banal to me; either weak NPC magic (like gypsies) or practically flavoreless (elementalists). Some were outright not-appropriate, I'm surprised they transported the nightmare that is the "Realm of Reason" (as anti-magic) to D&D.