Recommended sourcebook for familiars?

[Laszlo]

Fellow RPG-ers.

I was wondering if any of you had either of the following d20-based sourcebooks:

Dweomercraft: Familiars (Dark Quest Games)

Encyclopedia Arcane: Familiars--Crouching Monkey, Hidden Toad (Mongoose Publishing)

If so, would you recommend the sourcebook you have? Or would you not recommend it? (Would you please post a brief "why" as well?)

Thanks.

 

[Treebore]

Fellow RPG-ers.

I was wondering if any of you had either of the following d20-based sourcebooks:

Dweomercraft: Familiars (Dark Quest Games)

Encyclopedia Arcane: Familiars--Crouching Monkey, Hidden Toad (Mongoose Publishing)

If so, would you recommend the sourcebook you have? Or would you not recommend it? (Would you please post a brief "why" as well?)

Thanks.

No, but I have Troll Lords games Book of Familiars on order. should actually be mailed to me in a week or two.

 

[Moulin Rogue]

I have the Mongoose one. I was pretty satisfied with it as it touches on everything I wanted it to, though it doesn't go real deep into too much at 64 pages. Like Mongoose's Constructs book also from the EA line, it feels like a "workbook".

 

[Crothian]

The mongoose one is nice but when I read through it there was noth ing that really grabrbed me. I have the other one just haven't read it yet.

 

[cleaverthepit]

Oh yes, we have The Familiar book!

Just follow the link here ( http://www.trolllord.com/familiars.htm ) and read about it. Joy oh joy to those who like familiars or animal companions. This is a book for ALL classes.

And don't forget the Sale on this product (should be on the webpage)

Davis Chenault
Troll Lord Games

 

[trancejeremy]

Fellow RPG-ers.

I was wondering if any of you had either of the following d20-based sourcebooks:

Dweomercraft: Familiars (Dark Quest Games)

Encyclopedia Arcane: Familiars--Crouching Monkey, Hidden Toad (Mongoose Publishing)

If so, would you recommend the sourcebook you have? Or would you not recommend it? (Would you please post a brief "why" as well?)

Thanks.

Oooh. Oooh. Oooh. I just wrote a review of the Dark Quest Games one...

http://www.geocities.com/nofrills_reviews/d20dweomerfamiliars.htm

(Should be up on RPG.net soon, and once I get feedback from there, I'll revise it a bit and add it to the reviews section here)

Yes, I'd recommend the Dark Quest one. To briefly sum up, it has over 100 different familiars of many different types, has lots of info and ideas on the role-playing aspects of them, and has pretty good rules for them. I'll be using it when I get around to running a Redhurst inspired game. I really liked it.

Can't directly compare it to the others, though IIRC, I did flip through the mongoose one at a store and wasn't terribly impressed one way or the other. And the other is well, from Troll Lord, whose products I generally find don't fit my tastes (but some like, so YMMV)

 

[tensen]

[note from editor on high... this public post is not edited for content. Any mistakes in the post should not be reflected as an indication of editing talents of said game editors.]

It is time to send my Ooze Familiar against Davis.

I'll just provide a few more links to reviews for Dweomercraft: Familiars
http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=977

http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=940

Please note that we spent a lot of time converting this document to 3.5, when it was originally designed under 3.0. It took a lot of time and effort, but as the reviewers show. We didn't catch all the changes properly and I'll accept all the blame for that.

As Jeremy noted in the review, it has an ISBN number and as such is available where books are sold. Amazon however is offering a really good deal at the moment.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0974664502
30% off our MSRP, so $13.97 is the price through them.

 

[cleaverthepit]

I've been ooooooooooooooozed.

ohhh

squishy

davis

 

[Nellisir]

I've got Dweomercraft, and am quite pleased with it. It covers a wide variety of familiars, and introduces some new stuff -- Mr. Creech is one of my preferred authors.

The rules for humanoid familiars (seneschals) are particularly appealing - I'll likely make some changes for my campaign, but I change everything.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[Troll Lord]

To Compete or Not to Compete

Good evening Gentle Folk,

Looking over the review for Dweomercraft I quickly realized that this product and The Book of Familiars are not competing projects. Dweomercraft obviously focuses on expanding the role of the familiar in the game through fleshing out the familiar or companion itself and strengthening the bonds between said creature and its master.

The Book of Familiars is a different animal altogether. The Book of Familiars brings familiars and animal companions to ALL the character classes. The wizard, the sorcerer...but the bard as well, the barbarian, ranger, fighter, cleric, druid, rogue, paladin and the monk. Each class is looked at and appropriate familiar choices given. The Muse for the bard, the steed for the paladin and so on. And the Rogue's choices are just down right sweet.

Once again, the Book of Familiars is not a competing product with Dweomercraft, Mongoose's Familiar book, nor Bastion's, but rather a book for all players to use to flesh out their Familiar and their character...no matter what their class.

To further illustrate this, I've linked a short pdf on the webpage. Stop by and check it out. I'll put up a few more as time permits in the coming weeks.

Thanks,
Steve