Unearthed Arcana *hugs her copy*

[woodelf]

Another angle here, and a personal hope of mine, is that those companies that really struggle to "get the rules right" will borrow and build on ideas out of UA so that there is least some semblance of balance vis a vis the core rules.

I don't see that. First of all, WotC supplements haven't, historically, been perfectly balanced--i've heard as many or more complaints about their splatbooks than about, say, Mongoose's, WRT balance issues. Second, a fair number of the variants in Unearthed Arcana are explicitly unbalanced (they say so), and a few more are less balanced than they claim. You can't tell me that using gestalt classes, vitality/wounds, recharge magic, and armor as DR wouldn't change the balance of the game significantly. So i don't see how using these versions is gonna improve balance--if a game writer was getting things balanced before, she doesn't need these, and may have to alter them significantly if she's trying to create a game that balances at the same points as D&D3[.5]E; and if a game writer wasn't doing a good job of balance before, using these variants instead of creating her own is far from a guarantee of good balance.

 

[woodelf]

I got guilted into buying this book by the owner of the FLGS (who might be dropping RPGs later this year if sales don't pick up).

So I paid a lot of money basically on the hope that the FLGS will keep stocking RPGs, but if this is the level of books available, I'm not sure it is worth it.

So don't buy WotC books. IMHO, WotC's books (yes, including the core PH/DMG/MM) have been consistently middle-of-the-pack. They're not dreck, but neither are they awesome. They sometimes have me saying "ooo! i wish i'd thought of that" or "damn, that's cool!" but they far more often have me shaking my head, wondering how they could take such a cool idea and make it so boring, or broken, or complex. Pretty much any time WotC does something, someone else does it better (and sometimes first), so go buy those books. [and that's without even stepping outside of the D20 System market--if you're willing to do that, you've got even more choices.]

Before i get flamed into oblivion: yes, this is partly a matter of personal opinion. But Wombat is, like me, underwhelmed by a book that has most people raving, so i think it's a safe assumption that a solution that works for me may help him. Moreover, i think that WotC books get an automatic boost to their perceived value. Based on reading reviews here and elsewhere, it seems to me that books that are described in similar terms are often rated a bit lower if they're not from WotC. Much the way another poster in this thread felt that people using the rules from Unearthed Arcana would improve their game design, when a lot of the rules in Unearthed Arcana are clearly not balanced with the core rules (and identified as such--i don't think WotC's trying to pull a fast one here, just acknowledging the obviousfact that radical changes to the system will affect balance).

So, to Wombat and any others like him: don't damn all RPG books for one book's flaws, and don't assume that WotC is the pinnacle with everyone else producing lesser-quality books. You haven't sampled the best there is to offer and found it wanting, you've sampled some point in the pack and found it wanting. Look at something better, and you'll probably be happy.

 

[Psion]

Another angle here, and a personal hope of mine, is that those companies that really struggle to "get the rules right" will borrow and build on ideas out of UA so that there is least some semblance of balance vis a vis the core rules.

Hmmm. In some cases, in some lower tier and erstwhile companies, I could see that.

But there are a few things I have seen done significantly better in third party books than UA. Like class based defense bonus and flaws/traits.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Except that Mage Armour IS an armour bonus just like worn armour

Right, but IMC, it won't have the DR or DC of true armor...it'll just up your AC. Which is useful (hey, it gives you the same AC as full plate!), it's not AS useful (Full Plate has advantages that the spell doesn't give you). Otherwise, there's two options for dealing with mage armor: have it give all the benefits of +4 AC (4 DR, 4 DC), or have it do half that (+2 AC, 2 DR, 2 DC). I think I like the idea of Mage Armor being markedly different from *actual* armor. But then, I'm trying to restore some honor to the walking tin can character concept.