Thought on 3.5 (death of the splatbooks?)

[jester47]

It occured to me that the 3.5 will effectively make the builder books mostly useless. I was looking at them and if you only take four PrCs from each, the feats, the spells and the gear, you could fit it all into the PH and DMG. The DMG gets anlmost a 100 page expansion, and the spells can get squeezed in when the the PH gets revised.

If so that will be great as the builder books are really annoying to carry around.

Aaron.

 

[Apok]

I certainly would like to see all the feats & gear compiled into the new PHB, but I don't think they will do a full reprint of all the splatbook PrCs. I also hope they will include more new feats that we haven't seen before.

 

[megamania]

Good points about the "Splat" books.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm sure that there will be very little overlap from the splatbooks into the revised manuals (the Dragon article mentioned a total of what, 4 PrC's total added?). WOTC doesn't want to stop selling products.

OTOH, I'd probably be willing to purchase a hardback book that was simply an errata'd compilation of all 5 splatbooks. It would make a good player's supplement.

 

[jester47]

I think they will have the choicier PrCs, and I think they will have a lot of the feats and some of the "why isn't this in the PHB" equipment.

I will be willing to put money on it that Hunter of the Dead made it(comon its in Dragon and a Splatbook), and I will also be willing to put money on the Energy Substitution feats from Tome and Blood.

I think they will add 2 - 4 Prcs from each, judgeing by the way they are classifying them now. Seeing as how they were able to cram 6 PrCs into @ 8 pages (with art) and the builder books have more space between the lines of text in the layout, I think they will be able to fit quite a few into the Revised DMG.

We already know that we are going to see The Red Wizard, the Spellsword and the Dragon Desciple and the original six, so I suspect we will see a few more. Like one PrC for each race, one for each party role, a couple of situational PrCs a few more Iconic PrCs, thief acrobat for the game function classes and somthing from MoW to keep the Dragon Desciple happy in the Transformation sectoin. My guess is 22 PrCs in a 40 page PrC section. That leaves 60 pages to do other things in the DMG.

Aaron.

 

[jester47]

OTOH, I'd probably be willing to purchase a hardback book that was simply an errata'd compilation of all 5 splatbooks. It would make a good player's supplement.

Remember this, because I did it with RttToEE. I said hey, I think they are going to come out with RttToEE. Everyone said nooo waaay. Then 3 months later BOOM.

Now, what do you think Unearthed Arcana is gonna be?

Yes Monte is comming out with Acana Unearthed, but that wont stop WotC.

I think we are going to see that book and I think it will be a book of Feats, PrCs and Equipment, spells and magic items. It will be a "best of" for all the stuff that comes out after the Revisions. My guess is Mid 2004. Maybe sooner since they know what they are putting in the revisions (I would not be surprised if the revised were nearing galley stage.) and the last splat book came out was MoW and it came out almost a year ago. That gives them a lot of info for such a book. I am even willing to go so far as to say that there will be a UA2 UA3 etc. until 4th ed.

Also, anyone notice how much the splat books recycle each other? I bet that you could condense the spells and feats found there into the PHB pretty easily. I figure that there are not more then 10 pages of non-feat/PrC/equipment rules in there. And that is easily placed into the Core Books.

Aaron.

 

[Apok]

Now, what do you think Unearthed Arcana is gonna be?

Well, according to montecook.com, its...

...a "variant player's handbook," meaning that it contains all the material needed to game in complete compatibilty with the Open Game Content material presented in the 3rd edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game.

But this isn't just a re-presentation of material already familiar to hundreds of thousands of gamers worldwide. Arcana Unearthed contains new material in the form of all-new classes and races, and hundreds of new spells, skills, and feats. In essence, the core of the game remains the same, but all the modular pieces are entirely new. The new material is balanced to work with existing Open Game Content, but it has also been carefully designed to stand alone. You can play using only with the Arcana Unearthed, if you desire.

Basically, it's an alternate PHB with new classes, races, rules and concepts. You can use it as an option book if you so desire but it is built to stand alone quite effectively.

 

[Staffan]

Now, what do you think Unearthed Arcana is gonna be?

Yes Monte is comming out with Acana Unearthed, but that wont stop WotC.

Well, Monte did check with WOTC if he could call his book Arcana Unearthed, and they OKed it. I doubt they would have done that if they were planning an Unearthed Arcana of their own.

 

[jester47]

Well, according to montecook.com, its...



Basically, it's an alternate PHB with new classes, races, rules and concepts. You can use it as an option book if you so desire but it is built to stand alone quite effectively.

Um no. I am talking abut somthing completely different. I am talking about a theoretical WotC (not Malhavoc) product that I am saying will eventually be released. I think said product will comply with the trend of using 1st edition book names, one of those is Unearthed Arcana.

If WotC was not planning on doing a book called Unearthed arcana, then why would Monte feel the need to switch the words in the title? No, there is a good chance there will be an unearthed arcana.

The seer has spoken.

Aaron.

 

[jester47]

Well, Monte did check with WOTC if he could call his book Arcana Unearthed, and they OKed it. I doubt they would have done that if they were planning an Unearthed Arcana of their own.

Yes because Arcana Unearthed is not Unearthed Arcana. One is name recognition the other is semi name recognition. I think even if monte checked WotC attitude is "well, its not the same as one of our old core books from 1e so yeah call it whatever you want monte." Remember that the Tome of horros working title was coing to be the Creature Catalog. However that is an OAD&D title and the WotC montersmiths are going to need "another old book the Fat Beards remember" in short order. You could call somthing the Folio of Fiends and WotC would not give a dire rats ass.

Aaron.