Your Favorite Things from the Tomes

[Lokathor]

awww, i just checked the PDF.

[Dean]

Another one for the Monk. I think the Tome Monk is about the best class mechanic ever made. Very well done.

[Judging__Eagle]

Pretty much everything.

From necromancy, to Wish Economy; from PCs looking at a Dragon's horde and making sad faces when they hear about the pile of ten mill gold pieces (a group of entirely non-casters was super happy that a magic staff was part of the loot; everything else they left behind for the non-wish Econ monk... who promptly entered the Wish econ via sheer wealth).... to PCs being able and willing to bribe NPCs with everything from gold to gems, to minor magic trinkets.

The fluff... srsly, I've yet to read a better set of fluff for a fantasy campaign. In Tomes, the mechanics drive the fluff, and the fluff explains the weird stuff, like why Titans haven't conquered the world; or why people build dungeons.

The Classes; all of them. From Samurai to Monk, to Conduit and Fighter; Fiendish Brute and a big shout out to being able to play monsters in your game, and not have it explode (dragons are still a fucking pain to turn into PCs though). Either I, or a player at my table, has played one, or an other of the Tome classes, and been satisfied at how their character could do what they were supposed to do.

The fiddly little details. Hot fixes to Polymorph, Wish, the entire Magic Item economy and system (I'm personally using a kludge; the +1 sword exists, and is 2k gold; the +2 sword is 16k gold; the Magic Sword is 15k; as is every 'scaling' magic item).

But, really, it's the fundamentals, the bare skeleton that helps me to think about what I need to think about in an environment about which a [Tome] has not yet been written for.

Like, reading the rules of a game system, and determining what each species is 'generally' going to be able to do; or what the world's ancient history, or current economy looks like. In some games, silver or gold is the currency of trade, in others, it is raw magical energy.

Or being able to search for, identify, and use the mechanics of a game to achieve a goal that I want, especially if it's easier than the conventional method (why change your race, when you can spend 1/50th of your magical resources to be any creature for 10 hours? Why spend 300 units of 'mana' to make a weapon always magic, when the buff costs 1 'mana', and lasts 10 minutes? or costs an equivalent amount, and lasts 24 hours?).

Ultimately, while, I appreciate the content of the Tomes, I actually am much more a fan of how The Tomes got me to look at games in a different manner. In understanding how

Once I was leery of challenging my players too much, and a large group of PCs took about 12 sessions of roleplay, and fairly easy combats (srsly; 6 PCs, +1 NPC; vs a kenku and a CR 2 Goblin war cheif; or 2 Ogres, faced in an open field)... but, now I'm at the point where I can just run a game for level 20 PCs, and I, as the DM, will help the players do as much as I can to ramp up their character's power level and abilities (want to play a Yakfolk Conduit? You'll have to be Fiendish or something though; want to play a part-construct Half-Red Dragon Ogre? Sure, I've got a bunch of stuff on how to make such a character. Want to play a Shadowrun Street sam caught in a planar rift? No problem; and yes, those were the character concepts that were eventually pitched to me).

[Aktariel]

Stranger with the Burning Eyes.

Balance discussions and the semi-item fixes.

Pretty much all of the Tome base classes, + a few of the new community sourced material.

[K]

I must say, it has been fascinating reading what people have most liked about the Tomes. Some of the things I knew people would like because it needed to be said (like our discussion of the two views of negative energy) and some because they needed to be written (Monk).

But there were things I enjoyed but didn't expect others to enjoy. It seems that other people appreciated them as well, so that makes me happy.

[Red_Rob]

My group had never tried 3.5 until we read the Tomes, it was through them that we decided to give the game a try.

I'd have to say the two things that we notice most whilst playing are that scaling feats are awesome and the new martial classes make you want to get to the next level just as much as the casters.

Really though its the philosophy that runs through the Tomes that most affected me. I would sum it up as "Characters should do cool things, balance makes the game more fun, when things make sense the game works better."

[bosssmiley]

Single favourite thing?

The scaling feats of "Races of War"; what "Iron Heroes" meant all along.

[Vebyast]

The well-thought out consequences of everything. Sahuagin rule the world, for example. The entire idea of the wish economy. All the little details that require taking what's given and extending it to its logical conclusion. Those parts are awesome.

[Agrinja]

To explain just a bit, I'm going to tell a little story. I started playing DnD with the idea that it would be all that cool fantasy I like to read about with all the PC's being great world changing heroes. Then reality kicked me in the ass so hard it nearly knocked my teeth out from the back. Stumbled a lot from game to game, fighting to find a way to play the kind of things I wanted to play, largely governed by rule of cool. Sadly, what was often cool also sucked mechanically without resorting to some silly tactic to try and be useful. Not to sound like a powergamer, but I -want- my axe wielding guy to be so fucking hardcore that they can lay down a path of bodies straight up to the bad bossman and feed him his entrails with the intent of creating some kind of gastronomic infinite loop, all set to the sounds of distortion guitar and drum blastbeats. Not some little prick playing tank for the elf in a dress hurling explosive save or die death. Tome...did this for me. I didn't -have- to play certain classes to make a character that was both entertaining, and effective.

In the broader sense, the discussions tickle me to no end!

And last, but certainly....probably should have been first. I'm that guy in the party who doesn't want to play an elf or a human or a dwarf or a gnome. Dammit this is fantasy! I want to be orange and have big teeth, or black as coal and gank people in uncomfortable places down somewhere in a dark alley. The outline of nice monster races without bullshit retarded LA's has solved so many problems for me. I don't have enough fingers, toes, eyes, ears and testicles to count how many times I've been in a game where I've been playing a character I liked that was ultimately screwed and doomed to be stuck behind everybody else because I decided to play as a hyenaman.