Worst book WotC made for 3.0?

[Teflon Billy]

Sword and Fist.

Amen brother.

I thought Sword and Fist had all the hallmarks of a "rushed to press" cluster when I picked it up.

I was utterly convicned of this fact when I saw the transcript of the wonderful "Online Chat" with it's creator where he...

• Flat out lied about the reasons it was screwed up ("I intentionally left a BAB out of the Halfling Outrider prestige class"..."But sir, commoners get a BAB progression"..."yes well, it was a a risky move; but I was willing to take it") --this "deliberate choice by the author"was fixed in the errata.
  
• Ignored the "Design Philosphy" (Balance across the board) that had been described to us by every developer who had ever spoken on these boards. In its place he (keep in mind this was WotC's first post-Core book release) chose the more money-grubbing "Power Creep" design philosophy aimed directly at he munchkin hack and slasher..."You find the Mercurial Greatsword over powered? Well somehting has to be the most powerful weapon. Now it's the Mercurial Greatsword! Enjoy!
  
• Included abusable crap that was ill-conceived, ill-executed, and leaves me still uncertain as to what it was trying to model. I'm talking about the Tactician feat that allowed extra attacks if somebody was next to you or something blah blah blah. It ook the En World braintrust about 10 minutes to decide tat having a Blind Kobold next to you at all times was the secret t winning any combat. How this was Tactical was beyond my comprehension

I voted for the Epic Level Handbook from the above list. I know it's just a personal quirk, but I think the last thing my game needs is a way for players to amass more raw power...at level 20 the game is more "Superhero" than "Swords and Sorcery", and I personally have no need to ensure that my players have the ability to leave the Genre in pursuit of "Ass-Kickingness" even further.

I think the high water mark for WotC excellence thus far has been the Manual of the Planes, but by and large their work is nearly always the standard against which other companies work is held.

 

[DonAdam]

I'll second everything TB said about S&F.

My players and I still laugh about the examples above. "Some weapon has to be the best?" Um, doesn't that violate the very definition of balance?

And the spiked chain, simply because it was so weak, clearly needed its own PrC.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

Re: book of vile darkness

[Band judging by the art bobbies and piercings must be evil. [/B]

Bobbies *are* evil. Those silly helmet hats and billy-clubs are just frighteningly awful. Not to mention their insipid "Stop or I'll say stop again!", or their feared ultimate weapon - the whistle.

 

[Sanackranib]

I had to go with savage species. it was a weak bridge between 3.0 and 3.5 and frankly I was looking for more in it. it would have been simple to actually break down the races and thier 1/2 varients ie: 1/2 ogre. and I found it to be poorly done overall. If a local gaming store hadn't of been going out of business and marked it 50% off I would not have ever got it. If I had read through it prior to my purchase I still wouldnt have it.

 

[rounser]

I think the high water mark for WotC excellence thus far has been the Manual of the Planes

Haven't seen it, but in lieu of that, the FRCS is their best book, IMO.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

*clutches his Hero Builder's Guidebook in his hands and whispers to it*

It's okay, my precious...I still loves you, I do. We knows you're nots as silly as Swords and Fistses.

 

[JeffB]

Haven't seen it, but in lieu of that, the FRCS is their best book, IMO.

Yep, FRCS & MotP are the high water marks IMO. The only two hardcovers I still own by WOTC barring the 3.5 core books and TUE.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

snipped a lot of stuff about S&F I'd forgotten

Y'know, I like to defend the post-errata version of S&F, but TB has hit upon some of the best examples of what was screwed up about that book. I distinctly remember that chat transcript, now that TB has posted about it again. I loved the Halfling Outrider, which seemed to model a character type in my campaign world pretty closely, but the lack of BAB was ludicrous especially if it was intentional. Maybe the author was kidding around, but it sure didn't seem like it.

But I will never stop defending my beloved mercurial greatswords! Never!

Overall, I liked many of the concepts and gewgaws in S&F. The errata was just so egregious, though, that it keeps a lot of people from seeing the potential of the book.

 

[Psion]

Originally posted by ColonelHardisson
The errata was just so egregious, though, that it keeps a lot of people from seeing the potential of the book.

I didn't think they errata was as egregious as some people made out. At least someone with a brain fixed the halfling outrider instead of claiming it was intentional...

People invoke the "6 pages of errata" thing to show how awful S&F was, but of those 6 pages, much of that was double spaced lines adding descriptors (like su, ex, or sp) to PrC abilities, one per line. Call me crazy, but I'm just having trouble getting worked up over that sort of ommission.

 

[WizarDru]

Personally I think that this merely speaks to needing a hard bound volume collecting the classbooks into a single revised and erattaed book. I would be glad to lay down money to have S&F, DotF, T&B, S&S and MotW in one volume, with necessary corrections to some egregious mistakes and then revised for 3.5.

Personally, for my money, Defenders of the Faith had far more problems with it than Sword & Fist did, which is not really a race one wants to win. As Homer Simpson points out, "No one wins a butter eating contest."

And I keep hearing how the HBGB was terrible because people who've been playing for 20+ years found it redundant, with no crunchy bits, and featuring information that could be gleaned from various websites and shareware programs. Which, I reiterate, misses the point. It could be lots better, I agree. But it wasn't written for someone who hangs out at ENWorld. It was written for my 14-year old cousin who doesn't go on the 'net, but plays on his PS2. It was written for that guy who pops on over to the Barnes & Nobles and wants to try out this D&D he's heard so much about. It's for the girlfriend at college who wants to try out the game that her boyfriend has been playing, but is having trouble with this 'character creation' business, and trying to figure out what 'role-playing' is, other than a tool psychologists use.

The same applies for Enemies&Allies. Yes, I could get NPCs from the Rogues Gallery forum, or from a dozen other locations...but for many DMs, this place may as well not exist. But a tool from WotC with a premade set of opponents or NPCs is a Good Thing (tm). Busy DMs can find this a handy tool to have. The Book of Challenges even more so.