Which "Races of" sourcebook is best?

[Mieric]

None of the above, at least for flavor text. The mechanics are ok I suppose, but we don't use substitution levels anyway.

In the not too distant past, a dwarf bounty hunter made a terrible mistake. While pursuing a fleeing half-elf foe, he came upon an elf hamlet. He wrongly assumed it to be the home of the half-elf culprit. Nothing would satisfy him that this was not the case, and he grew ever more enraged that the elves were "hiding" his rightful prey from him.

In the dwarf's anger and his lust for the reward money, he cruelly slew a woodsman—using the elf's own axe to cleave the widower in two. The elf's four children, who had been playing nearby, froze in fear. Ignoring the grief-stricken children, the ruthless dwarf turned once more to the woods. There he found old tracks made by the fleeing half-elf, and the dwarf set off after his foe again.

Elves being elves, the children were taken in and nurtured as best the hamlet could. Most were eventually fostered away to other villages, for the hamlet couldn't support children whose provider had passed on. Despite being separated, the four children nursed a private longing for vengeance in their hearts. Each trained diligently to understand the ways of the forest and of tracking, learning its subtle nuances that they might avenge their father.

Fifty years passed after the death of their father before the young elves deemed they were ready. They reunited and swore a solemn oath not to rest until they found the slayer of their father. The four then split off, each heading in a direction of the compass. Burned in their minds was the image of the dwarf. They questioned all they came across, and some sought certain magical items. Finally, one of them found a lead and left word for her siblings to follow as soon as possible.

The old dwarf had retired from bounty hunting to live alone in the mountains. The four elves swooped into his house and stole him from his doze by the fire. None ever saw the dwarf again, but his house still stands. Hacked limbs are left on the doorstep every few years—the hacked limbs of an old dwarf. To date, there have been 17 arms and 12 legs.

A ring of regeneration can work wonders in vengeance.

The above is much much more fitting with our groups view of elves (and the other 2e complete race books rock too) than anything in the new 'Races of' books. So while we play 3e ... we still use the 2e supplements for 'da flavor' as they present stuff in a much more colorful way (at least as long as you stay away from the 2e FR elven stuff - like Evermeet and C: EoE.)

 

[megamania]

As an Eberron player / DM I use mainly the Eberron Races book but voted Stone for best general use. Have not bought Wild and heard enough about Destiny way back to avoid it. I have races of Faerun but can't remember anything about it so I guess that isn't such a good book either.....

 

[Crothian]

Ebberon is by far the most useful...if you are playing an Eberron game of course.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

The moment I read the whisper gnome I knew the PHB gnome would never get played again.
After that I wrote off any future Races of books.
So Races of Faerun.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Races of Stone and Races of the Wild are the ones I like the best in the series. RoF is good for the info on the Avariel.

 

[Minicol]

So the question is, which of the "Races of" sourcebooks are worth buying? Most bang for thier buck, most useful overall.

Cheers!

I'd say : NONE of them. Unless you are a mad collector like me. I bought every wizards product since ... too many years ... and they truly are some of the worse.

They are full of useless information : "ya know, humans love dice" "ya know, dwarves love beer". But you do not develop any kind of empathy for these races.

In every case, they introduce new races, which look ugly and seem to have an enormous potential for abusing the balance of power in your games. The pretense for some of them existing is rather thin, and unconvincing. Spellscales, Illumians ...

They also contradict a lot of previously published information, such as replacing the whole dwarven Pantheon we've known for years, by ... roughly the same thing, but with different names. How original.

So the fluff is pretty bad. How is the crunch : well, there is almost none.

In the end, I voted for Races of the Dragon, since there are the rules inside to play a sneaky, dirty, vicious little kobold. "We are going to kill them, my precious, oh yes, we are SO going to kill them". At least you can salvage that, but that is not much.

That may sound harsh, but I really have no use for them in any of my games, if you are short on money, don't waste it on these.

 

[Psion]

Races of Stone.

There is some decent material in other books, but it's more of a matter of hunting for the few good peices than it is other books.

(I exclude races of Eberron from this analysis, not owning it.)

 

[Wyrm Pilot]

Didn't vote. "They all sucked" was not available. I suppose "Stone" sucked less than the others.

Did vote. None of them sucked. Dragon and Destiny came closer to sucking than the others, but both have useful & cool content, depending (as with the others) as what kind of character you're playing & in what kind of campaign. Stone is far & away the best of the bunch, but none of them is intrinsically without value.

Observation: When some people say "it sucks," they're not actually evaluating the quality of a product, but rather giving a value judgement based entirely on their own tastes or utility. I personally don't have any use for Races of the Dragon, and Races of Faerûn is not to my taste at all, but that doesn't mean that the products themselves are sub-standard in any way.

Cheers,
Wyrm Pilot
____________________

Am I the only species in creation that doesn't thrive on conflict?
-- Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan

Blue Beetle: "It's a basic rule of the trade that levity lightens a serious situation!"
Black Canary: "Is that why you wear that costume?"

 

[Particle_Man]

I haven't read them all and don't own any, so didn't vote. I liked some of the feats in Races of Stone, and the Arcane Heirophant in Races of the Wild. Other than that, I stick with the "Complete" books and the "II" books, for the most part.

But you might want to add in "Expanded Psionics Handbook" as that had some good races in it, IMHO. Thri-keen, Githyanki, Xeph, etc.

 

[AdamBomb]

I voted Faerun just for the sheer number of races - there's a ton of stuff in there.
I voted for Destiny because it has the half-ogre in it.
Yeah, that's it. I bought the whole book for one half page entry.
That's when I realized I may have a problem with supplement addiction.