I normally have this "If it's not from WotC, it's not in my games" attitude, but lately I've been allowing only a few 3rd party products at my table...with strict reviews, of course!
So I am looking through my first purchase of a 3rd party d20 book, Tome of Horrors 3.5, and I have to say it's pretty damn good. I got it only because of the many 1E/2E creatures updated to 3.5e that I can use until WotC comes out with a more official version to replace it with. I mainly got it, because, I too cannot sit and wait for a particular creature to be converted. Might as well take it from here until then, right?
One thing I have to point out that's got me chuckling badly. The fact that quite a number of these creatures are already converted by WotC. What makes it funny is this quote in the book:
You won’t find any of the monsters in Tome of Horrors in any other official Wizards of the Coast product!
We worked directly with Wizards of the Coast to make sure that no monster in this book (well, only a handful) would be included in a later Wizards of the Coast product. So, you can
rest assured that the contents of this book will not be superceded by any later “offi cial” book.
Going through the list, more than a handful of monsters were converted already and WotC hasn't stopped. I find it, also, rather absurd that the writers of this book made sure WotC won't officially produce these creatures in their books. It's their monsters, they can do whatever they want and whenever. Apparently, they already did, since (like I've said before) numerous creatures in that book have already appeared in the pages of WotC products since ToH's first release and in the pages of Dragon and Dungeon Magazine.
Still, this book is a good "Use these in the meantime until WotC gets around to them" type book and I'll be making good use of it.
So I am looking through my first purchase of a 3rd party d20 book, Tome of Horrors 3.5, and I have to say it's pretty damn good. I got it only because of the many 1E/2E creatures updated to 3.5e that I can use until WotC comes out with a more official version to replace it with. I mainly got it, because, I too cannot sit and wait for a particular creature to be converted. Might as well take it from here until then, right?
One thing I have to point out that's got me chuckling badly. The fact that quite a number of these creatures are already converted by WotC. What makes it funny is this quote in the book:
You won’t find any of the monsters in Tome of Horrors in any other official Wizards of the Coast product!
We worked directly with Wizards of the Coast to make sure that no monster in this book (well, only a handful) would be included in a later Wizards of the Coast product. So, you can
rest assured that the contents of this book will not be superceded by any later “offi cial” book.
Going through the list, more than a handful of monsters were converted already and WotC hasn't stopped. I find it, also, rather absurd that the writers of this book made sure WotC won't officially produce these creatures in their books. It's their monsters, they can do whatever they want and whenever. Apparently, they already did, since (like I've said before) numerous creatures in that book have already appeared in the pages of WotC products since ToH's first release and in the pages of Dragon and Dungeon Magazine.
Still, this book is a good "Use these in the meantime until WotC gets around to them" type book and I'll be making good use of it.
