Best *balanced* 3rd party publisher?


Product Discussion


Looking to include some 3rd party content into future games but with all the material out there it is tough to go through it all.

So I ask you, What 3rd party publisher tends to have balanced content?

Sovereign Court

Super Genius Games

To be honest though, it's pretty easy to find out if an individual release is well-balanced because reviewers and commenters will highlight imbalance.

A Fistful of Denarii is a good example of a product whose balance issues were thrashed out in the product thread.


Second everything he said honestly. They're usually extremely careful of balance and it shows in every product I've bought from them that comes to mind off hand.


First off, balance is an illusion. Make of that what you will.

To ask what third party publishers I think produce quality material is different. The only 2 publishers so far that have not offended my sensibilities in some fashion are Legendary Games and Minotaur Games. I buy everything they produce. The only other companies that I will occasionally buy from are Super Genius and Kobold Press, and then only if the concept interests me. Either way, everyones opinion is different, so YMMV. Good luck!


Call me biased but Rite Publishing consistently produces balanced material, and I'm just a freelancer, with some IP published as an imprint under the Rite label. Though I certainly cast a votes for SGG and Kobold Press as well.


"Balanced" is a subjective term that means very different things to different players.

Unless you define your idea of what balanced is, nobody is going to be able to make an informed recommendation to you that falls in line with it.


Legendary Games and Minotaur Games, IMHO.


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I'd suggest Dreamscarred Press. Their material is easily the most heavily playtested and refined. Not to belittle the suggestions that have been made so far... those are excellent publishers.


Dreamscarred. You may as well consider DSP as Core - their stuff is usually even better balanced anyways.

Liberty's Edge

The ones I've had the most luck with are:

Dreamscarred, Legendary, Minotaur, Kobold, Raging Swan Press, Super Genius Games, Rite Publishing.

From the above I can only think of one actual class I'd ban from use and no products I'd ban from use. (Excluding certain works which specifically don't attempt to be balanced, such as the Super Genius Games guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats.)


What sort of 3rd party material are you looking to add? Feats? Classes? New races? GM material like monsters or rule systems?


Forgot Rite Publishing. Add that to my list and also Dreamscarred (with a few exceptions for me though).

Liberty's Edge

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From the GM side of things (monsters and adventures) I like Frog God Games.


Anguish wrote:
I'd suggest Dreamscarred Press. Their material is easily the most heavily playtested and refined. Not to belittle the suggestions that have been made so far... those are excellent publishers.

Seconded.


Balanced kind of depends on how badly you really want to break things.

If you are someone who plays nicely and wants to have fun with everyone I find most things are pretty closely balanced.

If you are someone who likes to break the game as hard as you can, just about anything can turn into a DM's worst nightmare.

As far as fun and interesting stuff goes. I like the stuff Dreamscarred and Super Genius have put out.

Dreamscarred is good quality material through and through, have not been disappointed by anything I've gotten from them so far. Can not wait for the new Psionic book.

Super Genius can be hit or miss but the do have some really nice things in their stuff.

I've also gotten some stuff from Dreadfox. Again a little hit and miss but there is some interesting stuff there. I've included some of their spells in my last campaign and they went over pretty well, still looking for a chance to try out some of their character classes though. Look neat on paper just haven't had to chance to see how they really play

The Exchange

I've only actually run adventures from Legendary Games, but they seemed fine (balanced).


Balance is entirely relative--to a greater deity almost everything in all the books out there is underpowered (and therefore not balanced). From a commoner's perspective all the PC classes are overpowered.

Under the extremely broad category of stuff that is "balanced" with the core rules, almost anything published for PF is going to fit--the range of power within the CRB is so great that most classes, 3PP or otherwise, fit somewhere in the middle. If you are actually concerned about game balance you probably aren't using absolutely everything in the CRB, but you'll have to specify which portions you are using--do you want things to be balanced against the upper end of power in core or the lower end?

If you are looking for content with is balanced with itself (e.g., classes contained within the same book are reasonably close in potential), Dreamscarred Press, Rite publishing, and Legendary Games are all great.

Usually, though, publisher is not a great indicator of product quality...that's what reviews are for:)


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Balance is tricky. I think SGG does a great job working within the existing paradigm. Owen is the bomb. However, I think some of the material only highlights the relative weaknesses of the fighter and monk classes, and the mindless versatility of clerics and wizards.


In case you don't know it, I'll just point to this thread:

"Which 3PP are balanced?"

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Jon Brazer Enterprises has been making Pathfinder Compatible products now for four years. In that time we have had quite a few reviews. Not a single one made even one complaint about unbalanced material. Not a single complaint.

The Book of Beasts are some of most highly rated monster books for Pathfinder. Available in both Print and PDF.

The Book of Multifarious Munitions: Vehicles of War was described as possibly one of the best books of 2013.

Shadowsfall has been described as, "downright genius," "drip with flavor and coolness" and "well-written."

And there many others where those came from.

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