Good 3pp content

[XanaverForgedawn]

I'm a starting dm, & i'm looking to find some fun content for my games. Any suggestions?

Stuff I Already Have:

In the Company of Dragons

That's all

[Covent]

Anything by dreamscarred press.

If you ever play mythic then the legendary games mythic books.

[Snowblind]

Dreamscarred Press stuff is generally very well regarded. They are the guys who do Psionics and Path of war, among other things. Much of their stuff is up on d20pfsrd (and you can find more if you look around for playtest threads on GitP), so you can try it out without needing to buy anything.

[Ectar]

Spheres of power by Drop Dead Studios is really good if you want a different flavor of magic.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I'm a big fan of Dreamscarred Press, Kobold Publishing, Rite Publishing, and Raging Swan's products. Quite a bit of Rogue Genius's products are worth taking a look at, too.

[Grovestrider]

Ectar wrote:

Spheres of power by Drop Dead Studios is really good if you want a different flavor of magic.

I just wanted to second this.

[PK the Dragon]

Frog God Games
Kobold Press
Dreamscarred Press
Spheres of Power

I'm not going to lie, I'm not an expert at this third party stuff, but I can attest to those four being high quality.

[Lord Mhoram]

What I haven't seen mentioned already.

Ultimate Charisma from Everyman Games is something every table should have.

[Steve Geddes]

I'd recommend reading widely. I've found a number of 3PP products that are on "everyone's" list that don't do it for me plus some rarely mentioned gems.

As a general rule it's so cheap that even if you buy a PDF you don't like, you'll probably spend more on the coffee you drink while you're reading it. Don't be afraid to try something that tickles your fancy, even if it never gets mentioned in these kinds of thread.

[JiCi]

Alluria Publishing has been releasing great stuff lately ^_^
- New races
- An entire underwater setting, which can be added to any setting as well :D

[MMCJawa]

I don't have the money or time to really exhaustively evaluate different companies, but the following 3pp folks seem to produce well executed game materials with high productive value:

Dreamscarred Press: Have only looked at there Psionics material, which seems pretty well done and fills a different conceptual niche from Paizo's Occult Adventures. I am personally not interested in Path of War or some of the other systems, but they also seem well regarded.

Kobold Press: Midgard is a pretty kickass setting, and there work on various races is top notch (they are my go to flavoring for kobolds and dwarves). I haven't looked at it but Deep Magic and the new classes they have created also seem well regarded.

Alluria Publishing. I love the Cerulean Seas setting material, which does a good job of fleshing out underwater adventuring

I also give props to Legendary and Rite Publishing (Kaidan seems cool), and I want to try out eventually the Spheres of Power at some point. Also worth pointing the Advanced Bestiary by Green Ronin and Tome of Horrors Complete, both of which are frequently used in Pathfinder products.

(Apologies in advance for any mistyped product names...going off of memory here)

[Endzeitgeist]

I'd like to warmly recommend any product with the EZG Essentials tag or any of my best-ofs. They can be found here.

To the OP: If you require guidance pertaining anything 3pp-related, don't hesitate to contact me.

Cheers!

[Cyrad]

Depends whether you're looking for new classes, new rulesets, or new races.

[Baval]

Necromancers of the Northwest make really good content IMO.

Their books are priced amazingly with great additions that open up unique playstyles. I highly recommend the Wonders of Alchemy if you want to get more out of Craft Alchemy, especially at 40 pages for only $2.50

The Book of Martial action is also a tamer Path of War with a limited resource, so good if you want to buff martials without commiting to maneuvers (or can be combined)

[ericthecleric]

To the OP, I really do recommend listening to Endzeitgeist. He's written over 2,000 reviews of 3pp products.

And it's also worth mentioning if you have any particular topics you like.

[Bwang]

Kobold Press' Guide to Worldbuilding

A couple dozen essays that you might disagree with, but will help you pound out the mentals of generating a world to play in. As you go through, write down each thing that you have issues with and mull over them later. I did this with some of my players and it helped a lot.

[qaplawjw]

I'm a fan of the pact magic stuff from Radiance House; it's creepy and awesome.

[Wraithguard]

I'll also recommend reading over EZG's reviews. From there it is just finding what sort of stuff you are interested in checking out.

Xanaver, might I also suggest you enter into Taig's Twelve Days of Third-Partymas Year Two.

[Marc Radle]

MMCJawa wrote:

Kobold Press: Midgard is a pretty kickass setting, and there work on various races is top notch (they are my go to flavoring for kobolds and dwarves). I haven't looked at it but Deep Magic and the new classes they have created also seem well regarded.

Fans of the Midgard setting might want to keep an eye on koboldpress.com

You didn't hear that from me :)

[Marc Radle]

Hey everyone! For those interested in the Midgard campaign setting from Kobold Press, there is currently a rather successful Kickstarter going on to bring you an all new, updated and vastly expanded Midgard!

So ...

Be sure to check out the Midgard Campaign Setting: Dark Roads & Deep Magic kickstarter!!.

[GM Rednal]

My list, let's see...

For Campaign Setting:

> Frog God Games: The Lost Lands is a large, richly-detailed place to play - basically regardless of how you like to play. Do you want straight adventure paths? They have that. Do you want the most impressive dungeon ever published? They have that. Do you want to explore a ruined city, explore a vast region, or write your own adventures while your players enjoy the finest home city ever detailed? They have that.

> Kobold Press: The Midgard Campaign Setting is a little different than most fantasy worlds, and the differences are fun. XD And as Mr. Radle just mentioned, they've got a Kickstarter going on now, making it easy to jump in.

For Rules:

> Drop Dead Studios: Their Spheres of Power system is a popular alternative to traditional Vancian casting - it works like many people think magic should work, and it's easy to make the kind of character you want to play. They're currently working on a martial companion book, Spheres of Might, and that's looking like fun as well.

> Dreamscarred Press: Dreamscarred Press is sort of the inheritor of material from 3.5 that Paizo didn't pick up - offering both Psionics and Path of War, they provide some of the most well-written alternatives to normal rules.

> Legendary Games: This company generally focuses on expanding the main rules of the game - in addition to their support for Mythic rules (which are basically a must-have if you're using that ruleset), they offer a great deal of support for various published adventure lines and some original content of their own. They're also currently working on the Legendary Planet Adventure Path (which is going to fit in quite nicely with Starfinder, methinks), part of their own Campaign Setting and a good choice if you want to travel the stars.

> Interjection Games: I don't think this company is as well-known as some of the others... but it puts out a lot of fun, well-balanced systems that can support some of the more unusual character concepts. I'm particularly fond of Ethermagic, a system similar to the Kineticist that runs off of a recharging energy pool.

> Rite Publishing: In addition to the Pathways E-zine, Rite Publishing puts out a lot of expanded options for classes, and they're a fairly reliable source for new and alternate versions of classes.

Honorable Mentions: Alluria Publishing, EN Publishing, Radiance House, Rogue Genius Games, Sandy Petersen

...

Truth is, there's actually quite a lot of excellent 3PP material out there. XD This list isn't even comprehensive - there are other good publishers out there as well. To put is simply, though... if you enjoy the game, it's worth seeing what other publishers have been putting out. Regardless of what you're looking for, chances are you're going to find something you'll love.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I don't know much about Legendary Games' Mythic rules, and can't afford to invest in purchasing anything by anyone at the moment. What can you tell me about them? If I like what I hear I'll try to save up and get them.

[GM Rednal]

The basic Mythic Adventures book is, somewhat unfortunately, kind of a beta. To sum it up briefly, though... Legendary Games' supplements basically come in two forms. First are the three big books of the Mythic Mania trilogy, and then there's a bunch of small, stand-alone supplements that each deal with one specific topic.

The Mythic Hero's Handbook is the main book of the trilogy, covering things like new mythic paths, additional path abilities, mythic class abilities (taken in place of normal class abilities), toooooons of mythic feats, and Mythic Psionics. It also includes what may be the most important part of the entire lot: Mythic Solutions. This bit notes some of the common problems in mythic games and offers a variety of solutions - it's also available separately (for about $3), and if you're going to play Mythic at all, it will help.

The Mythic Spell Compendium is a big book of the mythic versions of spells, drastically expanding on what's in the core book to help support other concepts. Of course, not every mythic spellcaster uses mythic spells in the first place, so it's probably the least important of the three... although for GM's, giving enemies mythic versions of their spells is a good way to buff them up if the party's getting too strong. This book is useful if you can afford it, but not a must-have.

The Mythic Monster Manual is a Bestiary of many popular and iconic foes, transformed into mythic entities. It's almost totally crunch, since there are really only so many kinds of mythic origins, and they didn't want to repeat the same stories over and over. Basically, it's just stuff to challenge players with - and since many of the creatures have entirely new and unique powers, chances are even experienced players won't be able to predict everything they'll do.

[DungeonmasterCal]

OH, ok. Thanks! The Mythic Solutions is in my budget, so I may pick it up, for sure.

[Jason Nelson]

DungeonmasterCal wrote:

OH, ok. Thanks! The Mythic Solutions is in my budget, so I may pick it up, for sure.

Hope you enjoy Mythic Solutions! Another great pick-up for mythic to help balance things out vs. the PCs is the Path of Villains, which gives you both advice on creating and playing villains as well as dozens of new villain-specific path abilities that both play with iconic villain tropes from fantasy and fiction and also mechanically help offset the advantages heroes have not just in mythic games but also in Pathfinder campaigns in general.

[Tim Emrick]

I don't buy a lot of 3pp books except for titles by Green Ronin Publishing, who I've been a huge fan of since they started producing OGL material back at the dawn of the v.3.0 era. The company puts out consistently high-quality stuff, and they hired Owen K.C. Stephens (also of Paizo and Rogue Genius Games) to oversee PF development when they decided to enter that market.

Their Advanced Bestiary is a collection of 100+ templates designed to help you get extra mileage out of all your other monster books. Some are about as easy to apply as a typical simple template, while others take more work (but trust me, it pays off). The original was one of my all-time favorite v.3.5 books, and Paizo liked it enough to convert a few of its templates (like the broken soul and devilbound) for their own PF Bestiaries. I'm even more pleased with the PF version.

Freeport: The City of Adventure updates Green Ronin's award-winning setting to Pathfinder. Because this setting was always designed to be highly modular, the book contains huge amount of material that can easily be borrowed for other campaigns, including new classes, archetypes, feats, spells, an optional sanity system, and more. If you want more pirates, dark urban fantasy, and Lovecraftian horror in your games, you'll want to take a look at this book.

Pathfinder Short Cuts is a series of short PDFs, each around a specific theme: new inquisitor spells; new magic firearms; new witch patrons; new cavalier orders; etc. Most are directly tied into the Freeport setting, but like the new crunch in FCA, they don't have to be limited to it.

Return to Freeport is a six-part adventure series designed to showcase the updated setting book. Parts 1-3 are out in PDF now, and take characters from 1st to 7th level. The complete series will be gathered into a print volume later this year after Parts 4-6 are finished.

Green Ronin also has a Freeport Bestiary planned for release in the spring. This will update Creatures of Freeport and other setting-specific monsters, as well as offer some brand-new beasts.