Just curious.
I was interested in hearing what people liked from the recent Races of .... books from Wizards.
Was there a particular section, spell, feat, new rule or flavor that enhanced your character and or game?
What section should have been fleshed out more?
I was interested in hearing what people liked from the recent Races of .... books from Wizards.
Was there a particular section, spell, feat, new rule or flavor that enhanced your character and or game?
The Races of Stone left me feeling a little flat. Just wasn't a particularly huge fan of it. The new race didn't do much for me, and while it was nice to see some more fleshed out material for gnomes, it just don't add much for me.
Races of Destiny, on the other hand, was good. I REALLY liked the Illumians, and the background material presented was fairly well presented. This book also introduced the new format Wizards' is using for their prestige class listings, and I'm still struggling to "accept" this newer format. (It seems to make a lot of the prestige classes too "world specific," limitting some of the flexibility of the prestige classes themselves.)
Races of the Wild - This one is a great book. I was originally looking forward to this book based on the strength of the Illumians in ...Destiny; I had hoped the Raptorans would be just as good. I was't disappointed, and I'm eager to work the raptorans into something soon. I was also most impressed with the section of "other" races of the wild. While the other Races... book had some nice entries (and it was good to see the skulks represented in ...Destiny), ...Wild had the better "other" races of the three (especially the Cat Folk and the Killorens). And we FINALLY got the cooshee updated all official-like for v.3.5 (although the accompanying artwork was a little disappointing - never thought of the cooshee as being so . . . reptilian?)
I don't know if I'll be picking up Races of Eberron. I don't play in an Eberron game right now, and I already have Monster Manual III, and can pick up the shifters and changelings from that . . .
I looked at Races of the Wild yesterday in the store, and I think I'll be picking that book up soon. I only really looked at the Raptoran section, and that briefly, but it impressed me. I've always wanted to have a character capable of flight (I'm personally fascinated by things that fly), but any such races I've encountered before have level adjustments. Since I almost always play some type of spellcasting character I'm quite loathe to give up class levels (and the increased spellcasting that they bring) for that level adjustment. Since they have very little racial bonuses aside from flight and even that takes quite a few levels to fully develope, they aren't unbalanced compared to other races. I want that book and I want to whip up a raptoran character...plus, at least from what I saw in the contents, the rest of the book looks quite good as well.
I don't look at the books as sources for PC races, necessarily (after all, I do run a Greyhawk 3.5 campaign).
But they do make a great resource for NPC races. I liked the Goliaths in Races of Stone, and plan to use them in my campaign as a recurring NPC race.
That said, the books are not as good as the Complete Whatever books (generally speaking).
Telas
Generally speaking, no. I see no reason to purchase other "Races of..." books, having looked through them all except Races of Eberron (I don't use that setting anyways), but I couldn't resist with the Raptorans. They're just so damn cool, at least to me. I like their flight abilities, their general attitudes, their society, everything. I'm fairly certain I've found a new favorite race.
Races of Stone was pretty awesome. I love Goliaths, especially the Barbarian substitution levels. The exotic armors and psionic armor feats were also great
I enjoyed Races of the Wild mainly for the Halfling fluff. The new God that is the dark aspect of Yondalla fit my character perfecly. Not a great book for crunch though, don't like Raptorians at all.
Races of Destiny had the Half-Ogre and a couple of awesome feats like Able Learner. The Illumian section was wasted on me since I didn't really care for another human race that has a bunch of new rules to keep track of. Just my feeling, YMMV.
Races of Faerun was truly great book. It added lots of new lore on the various Forgotten Realms races and sub-races.
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I agree with BrotherD regarding the 'Other races of...'-entries.
In RoW and RoD i found this section even better than the chapters about raptorans or illumians.
I would've been glad if the cat folk race had been given the place of the raptorans.
But i don't really know why there have to be new PC-races at all.
It would've been cool to take a known race from the MM and give it the PC-race treatment instead of developing entirely new races (which didn't turn out very good imho).
What i'd really like to know is, if there are plans for other books in the 'Races of..'-line.
I could imagine a 'Races of Rage' book focusing on races like orcs, hobgoblins or similar creatures.
Maybe a 'Races of the city' book would be cool too with a large section on kenku for example.
What would you guys love to see?
I would like a book on underground races. Like drow and those evil dwarves.Derro! Derro! Derro!
I love those vicious little buggars.
Three words:
Svirf neb lin!
Hi-
For a player, the Complete Books of.... and the Races of....books are great, for a DM, they are a nightmare. Not only do ya have keep track of the story, the rules but now you gotta try and keep track of what pristige class or new base class the players are taking. I pretty much gave up on that with the only exception being what level they are.
Personnaly, I would prefer to rule zero such books out of my campaign, but I hate to do that to someone who spent their hard earned cash on such books. So I just do what the Army used to tell me: Suck it up and drive!
Scott
Hi-
For a player, the Complete Books of.... and the Races of....books are great, for a DM, they are a nightmare. Not only do ya have keep track of the story, the rules but now you gotta try and keep track of what pristige class or new base class the players are taking. I pretty much gave up on that with the only exception being what level they are.
Personnaly, I would prefer to rule zero such books out of my campaign, but I hate to do that to someone who spent their hard earned cash on such books. So I just do what the Army used to tell me: Suck it up and drive!
Scott
Require the players to provide you with Complete Stat Blocks for their characters (per requirements in Dungeon) if they want to use those abilities. That way you have a reference to turn to, since you shouldn't be required to shell out the cash for the book, or to lug it around with you.
- Ashavan
I love the Complete books(still need to get around to buying Complete Divine), and the only Races book I have it RotW, but I really like it, for reasons stated above.
I DM at least as much as not, and I actively encourage my players to use classes, prestige classes, feats, items, background material, etc from any supplement book I have. Among my friends and acquaintances who play D&D, I'm the only one sufficiently "into it" to spend money on non-core books, but they do appreciate it when I share those books (at least enough that I don't have to bring my own caffeinated beverages, and that works for me), and in any game we now usually have at least one character using a Complete class (often at least one or two using a Complete PrC), a Savage Species or Unearthed Arcana race, or some other material from the supplements. I think it adds a lot of flavor to the game. I never have difficulty keeping track of what characters can do what, partially because I've usually already read the book(s) they're using (they are *my* books, after all) and if I don't know everything off by heart, I just make a note of it on the general reference page of my campaign notes. No biggie. The players are happy and they help me get my money's worth out of the supplements by having them used in the campaign; it's a social game so what makes it better for one player usually makes it better for everybody, and vice versa.
And Aerie, I'm sorry that you can't find other female gamers. I guess my experience is abnormal, but I've never been part of a group of at least three players that didn't include at least one female. Heck, in half of the campaigns I've played at college in the past few years, female players outnumbered male players(3 females in a 5 player group, or 4 out of 7). Then again, in my experience, gender doesn't really mean much for the purposes of gaming because a gamer is a gamer, regardless. Anything that could be applied to one gender (even in stereotypes) I can probably come up with a true example of a member of the opposite gender doing it. Even the stereotypical "male geek makes and plays a lesbian character;" my ex-girlfriend had a male wizard that was as gay as they come. But anyway, good luck if you're trying to find other female gamers. My suggestion is if you can't find any, make some! Got a friend that liked the Lord of the Rings movies or something like that? Try to talk her into trying out just one game of D&D. Down at college, my group has about five people to D&D this way, and three of them decided that they liked it enough to keep playing.
I only have the Races of the Wild, but I love it. I don't really like the Raptoran because my setting is already chock full of enough races (course as a DM there can always be secrets) but the section on the Elves really helped me out. In my world there was a schism between elves and half retiend their tie to arcane magic and nature whereas the otber half took on a militiristic and well, human standpoint. This book helped me out rather well to further flesh out those two races.
Beyound this the section of new gear was a favourite, and the inclusion of the info on Mithral armors makes my work a whole lot easier. All in all, great book.
Only thing that makes me sad is that there weren't very many racial feats, which I was kind of hoping for.