Which Complete book is the best?

[Shade]

I think that all are excellent, with the exception of Complete Divine. Too many things were rehashed in that book, still in their 3E format. And the editing is atrocious (almost as bad as the MMIII, but not quite).

 

[Testament]

Complete Warrior. More than even Complete Bastard, it has something for everyone.

 

[Pants]

Complete Arcane does it for me.

Complete Adventurer is good as well.
Complete Divine is... not good.
Complete Warrior is kinda blah in the content. Very little gets my creative juices flowing and it doesn't have the same semblence of balance that CA and CAdv have.

 

[MerricB]

I think that all are excellent, with the exception of Complete Divine. Too many things were rehashed in that book, still in their 3E format. And the editing is atrocious (almost as bad as the MMIII, but not quite).

You know, I keep hearing that CD had lots of things still in their 3e format.

Can anyone give me some examples?

I know that the Geomancer still had Scry as a class skill (but Wilderness Lore got changed to Survival, so that seems to be a partial oversight...)

What else was there?

Cheers!

 

[Sejs]

Complete Warrior. More than even Complete Bastard, it has something for everyone.

Yeah, but just wait until Complete Breakfast comes out.

And for the record, CW for me.

 

[atra2]

They're all pretty cool, adjusting for the fact WotC was using unusually less competent out of house editors through CD, and went in-house for CA and CV.

My homegame Dungeon Delver (rogue4/ranger4/delver2) was middling on the 3.5 update, but happy DD was used as the sole 3.5 Epic class translation I thought about asking the DM to switch to scout8/delver2, but I've come to rely on my particular class mix and high reflex save for evasion, plus it's too much retcon.

Scout and Spellthief are the best new base classes though. Swashbuckler was not as well done as Scout by a longshot. The alternate caster classes, feh. Wiz and Sorc are enough.

I have a wizard/elemental savant in Living Greyhawk, and hope to get more use out of CA than just the PrC update. (lost another caster level to Daitek Funding! ;-) I've played ten levels with just PHB spells, and never missed any of the Tome and Blood spells I had access to. I might pick up a few CA spells. There are some nifty PrCs here.

My Roguelike 9 might cherry-pick a feat or two, but as a Dwarf and an archer, his first 3 feats (PB shot, precise shot, rapid shot) simply aren't replaceable by any builderbook feats.

I just made a new Fighter 1 who is making heavy use out of the Shield feats and Shocktrooper Tactical feat path in his level plan through 9. (ftr6/exotic weapon master 3)

My cleric 2 will slurp up all cleric spells in all these books and might try to snag augment healing or other nifty feat from CD.

my cleric 4 will do likewise with spells, but has a feat path leading to picking up a little pious templar and holy liberator.

my ranger 4 was already on the polearm-feat path from complete warrior, grabbing combat reflexes to start, adding quickdraw, and Hold the Line is for 6th, and I might consider the Shield tactical feat that lets me step into the square of a downed ally, even out of turn. I can Quickdraw a wand of CLW (weaponlike object) and heal the
ally on my turn. The various new/reprint Ranger spells are also welcome.

So, I'm using a little bit of everything. I'll make a new level 1 Scout at some point,
possibly a Spellthief too.

And no, I have no characters following the bbn2/ftr2/rgr1/Prc2/PrC2/PrC2 formula,
why do you ask?

 

[Pants]

You know, I keep hearing that CD had lots of things still in their 3e format.

Can anyone give me some examples?

I know that the Geomancer still had Scry as a class skill (but Wilderness Lore got changed to Survival, so that seems to be a partial oversight...)

What else was there?

Cheers!

Several spells were just cut-n-paste jobs (or almost cut-n-paste jobs), like fricken Miasma (a spell I loathe...). That's actually all I can think of.

It's too bad, I was initially looking forward to Complete Divine. I wanted a book for some good Divine class options, but when it came out... I was underwhelmed.

 

[MerricB]

Several spells were just cut-n-paste jobs (or almost cut-n-paste jobs), like fricken Miasma (a spell I loathe...). That's actually all I can think of.

It's too bad, I was initially looking forward to Complete Divine. I wanted a book for some good Divine class options, but when it came out... I was underwhelmed.

Divine options are just so world-dependent, I think.

I've been getting great use out of CD with a cleric of Pelor - love the Augment Healing feat - but generally I'm underwhelmed by CD. There are definitely good things in there, but not enough of them.

Cheers!

 

[Eremite]

Divine has to be the worst of the group and it looks like I am not alone in saying that. I thought that the other three books were particularly solid and essentially good value for money... unlike the turgid dreck that is the Races of... series....

 

[Psion]

My favorite is complete adventurer. The fact that I think the Eldritch Weaver makes a better warlock than a warlock diminished CArc a little more. I find Warrior the worst. It had a few nice, usable feats and classes, but the Samurai (and it's follow on PrCs) were really a waste, and I have seen better takes on the Swashbuckler concept. CD isn't all that bad, though again, I like versions of things in it that appear elsewhere, and the 3.0-isms are annoying. (Geomancer is a shining example. Not only does it have scry as a skill, it's special abilities refer to the old rules, and it's design seems a little weak when compared to the Mystic Theurge.)