races of destiny --has D&D 3.5 jumped the shark?

[Arcane Runes Press]

You mean, I AM NOT ALONE!!!

And here I was afraid of voicing a contrary opinion on this steaming pile of turgid dreck (IMO) because everyone else seems to love it so much (and so irrationally, IMO). You've made my virtual day....

There are quite a number of good monsters in Tome of Horrors I (haven't seen II). But yeah, there are some REAL stinkers in there, monsters which are "classic" only by virtue of nostalgic memories of being 9 years old.

And no, WotC hasn't "jumped the shark". There are always elements of books I can't use, but if anything, WotC has markedly improved in the last year.

Compare Complete Warrior to Sword and Fist.

Compare really anything from the last year to Deities & Demigods, or as I like to call it, "Sawdust & Algebra".

WotC books are still a bit dry for my tastes, but they're getting better.

 

[Turjan]

Not if you have a high enough jump check...

I suppose it's the balance check that applies here .

...you can have your opinion on railroading, and I'll have mine.

I always thought that adventures and plot hooks comprised an undue restriction of my creativity...

j/k

 

[coyote6]

There's the Grimlock,

Interestingly, I thought the Ecology of the Grimlock in the last Dragon seemed to hint that they were descended from goliaths (from Races of Stone).

"In the distant past, grimlocks lived on the surface as a race of stony-skinned, mountain-dwelling barbarian." Then, "Grimlocks often ritually scar their bodies with intricately tattooed spiral patterns . . . some scholars believe this practice might be an extreme reinterpretation of one of the grimlocks' lost surface traditions" -- and aren't the goliaths big on markings?

(I actually kind of like the idea; better than, as you say, Yet Another Band Of Degenerate Humans. And it makes the goliaths more interesting to me.)

 

[Acid_crash]

I think that WotC, just like any other company, has it's ups and downs... Each company has periods of adjustment, and WotC has definately had it's share of adjustments in the last four years with all the people they have let go after they have what they wanted from the writers. How many people have WotC let go in the last three years that worked on D&D, and now they are doing their own thing and coming up with some amazing and creative talented works...

Still, they cater to the masses, and the masses say more PrC, more Feats, more Classes...unfortunately, whoever is writing for WotC must be losing it's creative juice as far as PrC and stuff like that go... we can only have so much before it gets tooooooo cluttered, and in my opinion it is way too cluttered already.

 

[Turjan]

Interestingly, I thought the Ecology of the Grimlock in the last Dragon seemed to hint that they were descended from goliaths (from Races of Stone).

Funny. I always thought Grimlocks were humans who survived an atomic war...

 

[mhacdebhandia]

"In the distant past, grimlocks lived on the surface as a race of stony-skinned, mountain-dwelling barbarian." Then, "Grimlocks often ritually scar their bodies with intricately tattooed spiral patterns . . . some scholars believe this practice might be an extreme reinterpretation of one of the grimlocks' lost surface traditions" -- and aren't the goliaths big on markings?

(I actually kind of like the idea; better than, as you say, Yet Another Band Of Degenerate Humans. And it makes the goliaths more interesting to me.)

That is awesome by a significant proportion.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Or, maybe if his name was on the cover of this book, it would have been better.

I doubt it. The only book I can think of that is worth its salt and has his name on the cover is UA.

IMO the 3.5 splatbooks are vastly superior to the 3E ones.

An opinion I do not share.

I don't see any reason to credit Andy with that. But blaming him for lower quality makes far less sense when the quality is mostly equal to and in some cases better than what is was before.

It is easy to remain at the same quality level when you are lifting the greater part of your book from a similar book published just 2-3 years ago.

 

[warlord]

Whoa!! they brought back ecology of X feature. (Takes Eric Mona of WoTC employees I hate list) Anyways the way to solve are problem is get rid of the guy who made Races of destiny. I mean guys with letters floating around there heads is cool to 5 year olds not adults and ECL 2 half-ogres! the Complete Book of Humanoids had ECL 0 half-ogres. A little advice Wizards I know your a subsidary of Hasbro but little kids don't like your game. You only know about D&D for 3 reasons:
1. You played in 1974
2. You played in when it was popular (mid-80's early-90's)
3. A older relitive introduced you to the game
so we mature gamers don't like guys with letters floating around there heads its dumb. P.S. Raptorans are not a new race they are winged elves elves with a makeover they came out in 2ed.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I doubt it. The only book I can think of that is worth its salt and has his name on the cover is UA.

Libris Mortis also has his name on it. Great book. I also seem to think that Draconomicon might have his name on it, too...though that isn't with me at the moment so I can't check.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Whoa!! they brought back ecology of X feature. (Takes Eric Mona of WoTC employees I hate list) Anyways the way to solve are problem is get rid of the guy who made Races of destiny. I mean guys with letters floating around there heads is cool to 5 year olds not adults and ECL 2 half-ogres! the Complete Book of Humanoids had ECL 0 half-ogres. A little advice Wizards I know your a subsidary of Hasbro but little kids don't like your game. You only know about D&D for 3 reasons:
1. You played in 1974
2. You played in when it was popular (mid-80's early-90's)
3. A older relitive introduced you to the game
so we mature gamers don't like guys with letters floating around there heads its dumb. P.S. Raptorans are not a new race they are winged elves elves with a makeover they came out in 2ed.

Ugh...is anyone else ready for this holiday season to be over in hopes that all this damned negativity will die down at least slightly? We insult RPG.net, but ENWorld isn't being any better these days.

I didn't get into D&D for ANY of those three reasons. I got into D&D after playing the WEG Star Wars RPG. No one introduced me to EITHER. I saw them, was curious, flipped through the books, then bought them. I did NOT play in the early 90s(heck, I'm only 18).

You know, there's not a thing wrong with not liking Illumians, but obviously some people do. And that doesn't make them kids. I don't like Illumians as is, but I plan to alter the background so that the runes are the key, not the human history(as another poster commented earlier in this thread).