Urklore said:
and actually 90% of the books that moongoose publishing puts out, are far better in content that the stuff wizards put out. Though the layout and artwork are not the same quality as wizards (they are bigger and got more cash), the content of the books is far superior to that of what wizards produces.And I have hardly seen any erratta for their books that our out now on the market, compared to just one of the class books by done by WoTC!
Far superior? That's silly. Imaginative, yes. But many of Mongoose's books, especially their earlier ones, have a serious hurting point with rules fidelity.
I do like Mongoose's new bigger books (hint: the smaller book format, which they still also use, are NOT a better value than wizards). Similarly, the newer books are fairly good rules fidelity wise (and I am sure with Mearls on the team, it will continue to get better.) But the early books like Gnolls and hobgoblins, that do things like make up its own stats for the creatures that they claimed they were going to tell us about, and seem to totally ignore the rules for creatures with classes. By contrast, the Slayer's Guide to Sahaugin is a much cleaner, more usable product. They have gotten better.
But then so has wizards. Song & Silence doesn't have near the errata in it that Sword & Fist did. If you are going to compare them, compare apples to apples.
Further, just because Mongoose doesn't HAVE errata and clarification doesn't mean that they don't NEED errata and clarifications. For example:
- Do the Chaos Magic prestige classes count as chaos mage levels for the purpose of casting spells? It never says that it does, but some of the class abilities would be counter productive if it doesn't.
- Lets say in OMCS you have an 80 man unit and a 10 man unit (both of 1 HD creatures). The 80 man unit loses 70 unit hit points. Now it goes to fight he 10-man unit. Per the rules, there is nothing that states that the 80 man unit loses its damage bonus for losing 70 unit hit points.
- Amazing agility - "taking 20 when you wouldn't otherwise be able to" is entirely nonsensical. Taking twenty is shorthand for "trying something until you get it right" and is a mechanical convenience. The idea that you can use it in the same context that a rogue can take 10 with skill mastery is rather silly.
Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of Mongoose stuff. I gave Seas of Blood a "5", a score that no WotC classbook has earned to date. I even think their latest batch of artists matches or exceeds WotC artists. I'll take Danilo Moretti's artwork over Roach's and Cramer's artwork 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.
But I think that since you appear to be a playtester and your efforts went into the final product, you are more than a little biased and see Mongoose's stuff through rose colored glasses and your claims of vast superiority are vastly exagarated. Likewise, I don't think that Mr. Ibach (a fellow playtester) should have written a review of Chaos Magic as he is similarly biased.
