The Best & Worst of 3rd Edition: WotC Core Rules & Bestiaries (Winners Announced)

[CanadienneBacon]

The original Deities and Demigods is what many people expected and didn't get.

I've got the original and still prefer the 3e version. It's funny/weird, the way some folks like certain things and others just can't stand the same item. But, hey, that's what makes the world the whacky, interesting place it is.

 

[Greg K]

I don't consider it to be one of the best simply because I'd already been using many of those house-rules before the book was ever published.

I was using a few such as the wilderness rogue since shortly after 3e was released. However, I admire the book despite some flawed sections and material that I didn't care for

Its also very good for playing an evil party.

I suppose if that is something you enjoy. Personally, I don't like evil PC parties and refuse to run such games.

Ehh - I found Complete Arcane to be a bit boring - heck - I wouldn't lump any of the other 3.5 splat books together with Complete Warrior.

Complete Arcane is a weird book to me. How I rate it depends on my mood. There are days when I would rate merely as decent. Today wasn't one of those days.

I think A&EG would've been better had they provided more information in the same vein as the 3rd party From Stone to Steel or Kenzer's equipment book.

I completely agree about From Stone to Steel. I haven't seen Kenzer's equipment book so I can't comment one way or the other.

OA would've been better had they made it generic (or even better, used Kara-Tur as the setting).

Honestly, I don't know what would have made it rate higher for me. I think it was a lot of little things, but I can't place my finger on what they are.

Hmm - I liked some of the stuff from Complete Adventurer and really like the Magic Item Compendium everything else listed - I agree with.

About the only things that I liked from Complete Adventurer were the Expanded skills, a couple of PrCs, a couple of spells and a couple of feats. Overall, I found it very disappointing.

With regards to magic item compendium, I love magic item books like Rolemaster's Treasure Companion, but there is something about MIC that just prevents me from getting into it and makes me want to put it down.

What is wrong with Book of Exalted Deeds, other than it being over-powered?

You mean other than I didn't like anything in the book?

 

[Greg K]

I am still dumbfounded by the sheer number of folks who dislike Deities and Demigods. I used that book all the time and loved it.

I think a lot of people, myself included, wanted more cleric related information similar to books like 2e Faiths and Pantheons. Then, there was the small number of pantheons covered.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I love Faiths and Pantheons (was that the title? thought it was something else). That book is actually my all-time favorite D&D book, bar none. The PHB is essential but as far as how well I ever liked anything, Faiths and Pantheons was and is my favorite. I still use it!

 

[jaerdaph]

Heroes of Horror didn't make the list - I really liked that one.

Savage Species didn't make the list either - sort of on the fence on that one, but overall I found it useful.

 

[Set]

[Add an IMO to the end of every line.]

Favorites;
PHB II - best new classes, best new feats, some cool new ideas, a breath of fresh air
Draconomicon - first and best of all monster splatbooks, the others knew they were beaten before they even started

Really good;
Unearthed Arcana - awesome variations, all optional, many fun
Heroes of Horror - coolness all around, and the two best new core classes outside of PHB II
Libris Mortis - very cool, loses only a few points for that creature progression nonsense from Savage Species
Dragon Magic - lots of interesting dragon-themed concepts, such as draconic pacts
Complete Arcane - Warlock, the most *novel* new core class of all the Complete books (up there with the Tome of Magic classes, but, ironically, more generally useful)
Complete Warrior - hard to beat, lots of cool PrCs and feats, hampered by a sad, sad Samurai attempt
Arms & Equipment Guide - best 3.25 book
Oriental Adventures - if this book was set in Kara-Tur, it'd be up in the favorites, instead WotC set it in some other companies setting that they've lost the rights to use. Genius!

Honorable mention;
Complete Mage - for the Reserve Feats, once again taking a concept introduced by a 3rd party publisher (that called them Locus Feats) and turning it up to 11. That's what an OGL is for, tapping the vast creative market out there to find out what we want and give it to us!
Expanded Psionics Handbook - for making the Soulknife a core class, and an interesting one at that!

Kinda hated;
Races of Whatever - meh, each and every one of them
Book of Nine Swords - for trying to make D&D into Exalted
Epic Level Handbook - for taking the game to ludicrous speed, and failing to do it well
Savage Species - for not quite getting it with the LA thing
Magic Item Compendium - for making Christmas Tree Syndrome a selling point
Dieties & Demigods - Cthulhu has no need for these 'statistics' you speak of, and Euclidean dice will not avail you in any event...
Magic of Incarnum - interesting concept that was missed by this much, leaving me hungry for a book that takes the Totemist concept and expands it to Animal Totemists and Dragon Totemists and Undead Totemists and Elemental Totemists and Outsider Totemists, 'cause Magical Beasts, as a theme is kinda like 'every bizarre freak monster that doesn't fit in any other category and isn't quite hideous enough to call an Aberration...'
Heroes of Battle - for not being a patch on the rump of Heroes of Horror, and for introducing an interesting sounding Commander Rating mechanic that isn't actually available to use in game by any class that I've yet found...

 

[prosfilaes]

I am still dumbfounded by the sheer number of folks who dislike Deities and Demigods.

It wasn't 1ed Deities and Demigods, with tons of options for pantheons. It wasn't an indepth study of religion in D&D that would have helped a DM. About the only thing of value I found from it was a table of things to cover when making a D&D pantheon. The rest overconcretized the gods and what they could do and gave us some warmed over pantheons.

 

[TerraDave]

Deities and Demigods was the most disapointing book of 3rd edition for me.

At that I still feeling the love for 3.0, and thought "3rd edition meets the old Deities and Demigods, this will be great!"

It wasn't. It was a lot of blah text. Too few pantheons and deities. Too little useful info. And a bunch of stated-up deities that where hardly usefull.

 

[TerraDave]

Heroes of Horror didn't make the list - I really liked that one.

Savage Species didn't make the list either - sort of on the fence on that one, but overall I found it useful.

More polls are coming.

They will ALL make the list. At least for WotC.

 

[messy]

allo

i thought the dmg2 and unearthed arcana (and the omitted phb2), with their wealth of information and options, are some of the best books ever written for the game.

i thought the draconomicon, manual of the planes, and epic-level handbook were wonderfully creative.

the book of vile darkness and book of exalted deeds rubbed me the wrong way, and don't a place in my game.

weapons of legacy had some good ideas, but introduced some mechanics that bugged me.

messy