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Worst book WotC made for 3.0?

Worst WotC 3.0 book(s) ever?

  • Fiend Folio

    Votes: 3 0.7%
  • Monster Manual II

    Votes: 10 2.4%
  • Deities & Demigods

    Votes: 88 21.2%
  • Psionics Handbook

    Votes: 60 14.5%
  • Book of Vile Darkness

    Votes: 40 9.6%
  • Manual of the Planes

    Votes: 12 2.9%
  • Arms & Equipment Guide

    Votes: 95 22.9%
  • Savage Species

    Votes: 29 7.0%
  • Epic Level Handbook

    Votes: 96 23.1%
  • Stronghold Builders Guidebook

    Votes: 75 18.1%
  • Book of Challenges

    Votes: 101 24.3%
  • Oriental Adventures

    Votes: 18 4.3%

  • Poll closed .
Interesting that the two biggest rules expansion excursions (PsiHB and ELH) seem to be largely considered flawed. Maybe it's not so easy to successfully expand on D&D as it seems?
 

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ELH just doesn't have the flava...it's a good ruleset, but it gives me a big 'meh' feeling to the whole thing.

My vote was Deities and Demigods, because even though I love the book, I'd have to agree that godstats are mostly to entirely useless (sure, a few people might fight Thor or Lolth....but who's going to find an excuse to use, say, Imhotep, as a main villain in their campaign?).

And with any luck, with the SRD'ing of that bad boy, you'll see god-books done right, like the one I'm writing and supposed to be keeping secret and....
 


I voted D&DG, for the many reasons pointed out above.

Other:
- Hero Builder's Guidebook
- Sword & Fist (as mentioned, the number of errors was astounding)

I was smart enough to not buy D&DG and HBGB - the misfortune of going through it in the store was quite enough. I was not so lucky with S&F.

I was pleasantly surprised with the Book of Challenges.
 

arnwyn said:
I was pleasantly surprised with the Book of Challenges.

The list of most useful spells makes it worth SOMETHING. It's not like they weren't clear, but it gives you something to list as goals for your spellbok.
 

I was kind of surprised to see the Book of Challenges winning here! Sure some of the encounters are a bit "out there", but many are actually very good, illustrating many possible approaches to combat utlizing the gamut of the rules set.

A good book for any GM new to 3.0

Of course, I really liked the Dungeon Magazine - "contest of champions" issues too...

Hero Buliders Guidebook was indeed very poor, but again, I think it has a lot to offer a novice player.

The "God" books, filled with all the avatar stats are perhaps the largest waste of paper in 3.0
 

I'm guessing BoC's position is due to answers being cheap in a multiple choice poll and lots of people saying "yeah, I don't use that I'll check it." I can't think that most people who panned BoC actually own or have read it.

Betcha the percentages would look a bit different if you could only have one answer.
 


I really had a hard time with this poll. Even though some of WotC books are better than others, I really have a hard time deciding which one is the worst. After all, to me even the "worst" official 3e book is still better than 90% of all 3rd party d20 stuff.

I really liked the ELH. Complaints about "munchkin's paradise" are just personal opinions. I think the epic level rules work fairly well, with a few exceptions. The only thing that I really didn't like about the book was the silly epic setting found in the back of the book. I run epic campaigns where epic characters are legendary heroes and men of renown, not ordinary police men in some city where every one else have 20+ levels.

Dieties and Demigods was fairly good in my opinion. I am one of the few people who likes the "deity monster manual" idea. I like to run epic campaigns where heroes can challenge the gods, like in so many fantasy stories and legends. My complaint comes in that it seemed incomplete. I was expecting the Japanese, Chinese, and Babylonian Pantheons. I'm still waiting for a web enhancement.

I guess my vote for the worst 3e book would have to go to Monte's BoVD. (Sorry Monte!) It's stuck in some weird middle ground that's not vile, or dark enough for fans of hard core vileness, but it's too vile for more conservative minded players. The big problem, IMHO, comes from a lot of the PrCs and feats. I always expected evil to give some great benefit at a terrible cost. From what I've seen, most of the PrCs and feats, seem almost underpowered. I can't imagine any villian taking anything from the book.

Of course the worst 3e product is 3.5e. Wizards making us shell out another $90 for the same books with some minor changes.;)
 


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