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

[Shawn_Kehoe]

I think Drow of the Underdark was accidentally left off the poll, since the other Ecology-like books were included.

 

[kromelizard]

Manual of the Planes was a work of mad brilliance in 1st edition. The 3rd edition iteration was a weak retread with improved mechanics but little inspiration. I credit it's dullness with WotC's decision to abandon the Great Wheel cosmology for 4th edition, which is unfortunate, because making the alignment axis into an integral part of the setting turns one of the sillier elements of the game into one of it's more intriguing. Instead of a weird moral straitjacket, alignment becomes a vehicle for complicated storytelling with a great deal of moral depth and complexity, because the forces of chaos and evil aren't aberrations but integral parts of the world that have their own places and must be contended with as equals.

 

[TerraDave]

I think Drow of the Underdark was accidentally left off the poll, since the other Ecology-like books were included.

I probably should have put it and the fiend codexes on this.

I put them on the "adventure and location" poll instead.

 

[Psion]

Most of the supplements I really liked polled much better than the much ballyhooed and venomously defended Book of 9 Swords. I feel vaguely vindicated.

 

[Voadam]

It does surprise me. I never even been remotely interested in the book at all. Isn't it just a bunch of odd house-rules?

Yep.

But lots of good ones

Variant classes, paragon races, planar race variants, buying off LA, spontaneous divine casters, options for VP instead of hp, armor as DR, recharge magic, taint, craft points, alt skill mechanics, weapon groups, action points, etc.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

I'm a bit disappointed by Elder Evil's poor showing here, in both approval and just voting. A friend of mine picked it up, and our entire group paged through it, agreeing that it was just the right amount of campaign to be supplied -- more direction than the DMG toolbox, but not so railroad-y as an adventure module. It should age well, too.

 

[Psion]

I'm a bit disappointed by Elder Evil's poor showing here, in both approval and just voting.

I don't have it yet, myself. Seemed like I wouldn't get much use out of it, and other things were screaming louder for my gaming dollar.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'm amazed at how good the Magic Item Compendium is doing. One thing people always seem to hate on the Bo9S for is power creep, and the MIC is pretty much the embodiment of pure power creep.

I hate the Spell Compendium for the stealth errata, as many people have heard me complain about before, but I can understand why people love it for usefullness.

 

[Psion]

I'm amazed at how good the Magic Item Compendium is doing. One thing people always seem to hate on the Bo9S for is power creep, and the MIC is pretty much the embodiment of pure power creep.

I hate the Spell Compendium for the stealth errata, as many people have heard me complain about before, but I can understand why people love it for usefullness.

I blame Spell Compendium for power creep more. But then, it's pretty easy to ban troublemaking spells and still get use out of the rest of the book.

As for MIC, I'm not as super in love with it as some players are, but I see most of the power creep occurring in spots in the power curve where there is sort of a droop. Low cost items tend to be really weak because the designers seem to want to guard them against abuse by rich characters... which made a certain amount of sense, but made for boring magic item selection for lower level characters.

 

[prosfilaes]

I credit it's dullness with WotC's decision to abandon the Great Wheel cosmology for 4th edition,

I think that's putting the cart before the horse. WotC abandoned the Great Wheel cosmology for Forgotten Realms and Eberron in 3rd Ed., and since they abandoned Planescape, that left the Great Wheel cosmology in the generic doldrums. If WotC wanted it not to be dull, they needed either to make a part of their current settings, or let its heart beat as its own setting, neither of which they were willing to do.