Surprisingly good D&D products.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:16 pm

As I've said in previous threads, the packaged adventure paths (with one grievous exception, but it's fucking Bruce Cordell) for 4th Edition D&D are surprisingly good.

I've already intimated my feelings on the Pathfinder boxed set.

The Heroes of Horror book, despite being something I only bought for the Archivist, is surprisingly well-written. The fact that it's 90% fluff might have something to do with it.

I also enjoyed the DMGII much more than I enjoyed the PHB2 and MM2. This fills me with shame.

Libertad · Post by **Libertad** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:21 pm

Tome of Battle: Book of 9 Swords is one of my favorite D&D products.

I really liked Libris Mortis and Lords of Madness as well, especially the example undead monsters in the former and the fluff text on aberrations in the latter.

Sharn: City of Towers is one of the best books for a city locale ever.

I got a lot of use out of the Magic Item Compendium, especially the rechargeable ones. Healing Belts and Eternal Wands are beloved by my party.

I cut my teeth on extraplanar adventures with Manual of the Planes.

Juton · Post by **Juton** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:48 pm

I liked the old Shackled City AP, replayable and reasonably challenging. I also liked UA for 3.5, it had a lot of interesting options and didn't seem bloated with filler. Book of Nine Swords because it was innovative and it made melee viable.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:51 pm

Encyclopedia Magica. That might be one for a four-parter OSSR...

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 11:35 pm

N4 - Treasure Hunt. one of the best things to help people learn and understand D&D and how all its parts come together.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 12:15 am

Ancient History wrote:Encyclopedia Magica. That might be one for a four-parter OSSR...

+1 (and I'd love to read the OSSR)

Even just as a thing to mine for ideas (for any kind of fantasy game), it's a great product.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 12:22 pm

I really like the 3.5E Unearthed Arcana and I like Pathfinder's Advanced Player's Guide.

Aryxbez · Post by **Aryxbez** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:25 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote:As I've said in previous threads, the packaged adventure paths (with one grievous exception, but it's fucking Bruce Cordell) for 4th Edition D&D are surprisingly good.

I've already intimated my feelings on the Pathfinder boxed set.

What 4th edition adventure paths are those, there any for Paragon/Epic, and what makes them good?

Unless I missed it somewhere, still been waiting on your Pathfinder box review, other than the Ninja, Summoner?, class, sounds like the only other truly good thing to come out of that game.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:09 pm

echoVanguard · Post by **echoVanguard** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:13 pm

Ancient History wrote:Encyclopedia Magica. That might be one for a four-parter OSSR...

I think you just volunteered, AH.

echo

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:38 pm

Yeah, I'm gonna do it. I just need to find the right box and dig them out. Gimme a week or two, eh?

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:14 am

Aether & Flux.
It's basically a third party take on Spelljammer, for 3E. It's also simpler, more sensible, usable, and very reasonably priced. Also, and this is key, it has goddamn ship plans (in five foot squares even!).

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 1:08 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote: The Heroes of Horror book, despite being something I only bought for the Archivist, is surprisingly well-written. The fact that it's 90% fluff might have something to do with it.

I'll second Heroes of Horror. I still like going through it occasionally to see if I can find some interesting ideas for encounters or adventures.

FatR · Post by **FatR** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:01 pm

All three of the big APs from the Dragon magazine (Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide) are good. Not without major flaws, but good.

Voss · Post by **Voss** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:50 am

Aryxbez wrote:
Lago PARANOIA wrote:As I've said in previous threads, the packaged adventure paths (with one grievous exception, but it's fucking Bruce Cordell) for 4th Edition D&D are surprisingly good.

I've already intimated my feelings on the Pathfinder boxed set.
What 4th edition adventure paths are those, there any for Paragon/Epic, and what makes them good?

Curious myself. I played several of the early ones, and they were utter ass, especially the first, Keep on the Shadowfell, which especially with just the PH options, is a fucking murder boat for the party. The kobold/goblin waterfall cave is a TPK if played as written, and the final battle isn't winnable at all if the party aren't all ranged or fucking monster-juggling masters. Even then, if they haven't already read through the encounter, they should still lose to a solo monster 5 levels higher than them with extra bonuses to defenses, regeneration, an area zone of defense (that makes extra attacks on its own) and a full encounter's worth of level appropriate critters on top.

Pyarmid of Shadows was fucking stupid, with a lot of railroad shit, nonsensical happenings, and handwaved wtf abilities on traps and monsters.

And richard baker deserves a kick in the teeth for the Trollhaunt warrens, and the sublime mastery of complete tedium involved. Narrow tunnels and large monsters? Awesome, Rick. You've made the defender role valid, but it is boring as fuck to be the guy standing in the way while the party burns the monsters down.

I think I also played thunderspire labyrinth, but that was so forgettable to be largely unworthy of mention at all. All I remember at all was the 'bridge of death' over a bottomless chasm, and a fight that largely just involved rounds of trying to shove people off. Any push effect was 'die, no save'.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:59 am

I am completely going to take back my '4th Edition adventure paths' are good comment. Trollhaunt Warrens and Keep on the Shadowfell were so bad that they tainted the product line. Oh, and don't forget Kingdom of Ghouls, where convincing an old man to help you out is an EPIC-LEVEL SKILL CHALLENGE.

What was I thinking...

icyshadowlord · Post by **icyshadowlord** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:38 pm

FatR wrote:All three of the big APs from the Dragon magazine (Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide) are good. Not without major flaws, but good.

Seconded. Now if only my groups would let me fucking run them...

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:09 pm

icyshadowlord wrote:
FatR wrote:All three of the big APs from the Dragon magazine (Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide) are good. Not without major flaws, but good.
Seconded. Now if only my groups would let me fucking run them...

Why won't they let you run them?

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:05 pm

FatR wrote:All three of the big APs from the Dragon magazine (Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide) are good. Not without major flaws, but good.

I agree with that assessment. The latter two are particularly good, IMO.

Antariuk · Post by **Antariuk** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:25 pm

My official D&D 3.5 products have been mentioned aldready, so here are my d20 favorites: When the Sky Falls and Requiem for a God, both from Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press. I really enjoyed those books, even though the mechanics tend to be somewhat awful - nothing surprising here, I mean we talk about d20 products. But to get some cool ideas for a new campaign, or to revive a stalled and boring game, you could do a lot worse.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:00 pm

hogarth wrote:
FatR wrote:All three of the big APs from the Dragon magazine (Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide) are good. Not without major flaws, but good.
I agree with that assessment. The latter two are particularly good, IMO.

Is there any place you can still buy them?

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:24 pm

You can buy back issues of Dungeon from the Paizo web site store. I'm pretty sure some of them are sold out, though.

EDIT: PDFs are available for purchase for the sold-out issues. For Shackled City, there's a hardcover collection available for $30.

BearsAreBrown · Post by **BearsAreBrown** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:09 pm

It's also pretty easy to 'acquire' digital editions from the Internet.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:52 pm

BearsAreBrown wrote:It's also pretty easy to 'acquire' digital editions from the Internet.

I'm not saying for sure, but there might or might not be a folder on a website called 4shared, where you could (hypothetically) download pretty much all of them.

I am idly speculating here.

Post by **fbmf** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:36 am

[The Great Fence Builder Speaks]
Enough with the theoretical discussion.
[/TGFBS]

The Gaming Den

Surprisingly good D&D products.

Surprisingly good D&D products.

Re: Surprisingly good D&D products.

Re: Surprisingly good D&D products.

Re: Surprisingly good D&D products.