This would be AWESOME! Monte's my favorite rules designer... Hope this colaboration brings in Paizo's twisted minds into it too.
Do Want! *squees uncontrollably*
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As a clueless gamer, can you fill me in on what's the deal with the Book of Experimental Might?
Man, I had to pay extra to get Lulu to print mine!
Anywho, the first Book of Experimental Might was a bunch of house rules that Monte uses in his home game, including versions of the Wizard, Cleric, Druid and Ranger who lose a few of their class abilities (Turn / Rebuke, Familiar, Animal Companion, Wild Shape) but gain instead a menu of special abilities that they can choose from every few levels, and the more choices they spend in a particular 'tree,' the better those abilities get.
For Wizards (and this is from memory, 'cause I'm at work) the 'trees' looked something like;
Magic Shield (+X deflection bonus to AC, scales with level), enhancements included some energy resistance, faster AC bonus scaling, some DR and changing the deflection bonus to an insight bonus.
Magic Blast (d6 / three levels damage), enhancements included faster scaling, long range, multiple blasts, more accuracy, energy types, etc.
Bolt of Bedevilment (dazing blast), enhancements include longer duration, greater range, stronger effects (fascinate or stun).
'Familiar' (mystical entity, not a real creature, a fragment of the spellcasters soul that manifests and gives them a small bonus to spellcasting while it's manifest), enhancements include ability to manifest as an elemental of small size for a brief time (with more choices making it even bigger), travel at a range for 'scouting,' manifest as an imp, etc.
Sense Magic (detect magic, read magic), enhancements include faster analysis, IDing items, greater range, etc.
Telekinesis (mage hand like effects), enhancements include Unseen Servant level effects, better control, more carrying capacity, all the way up to telekinesis-spell level effects.
Telepathy (simple messages), enhancements allow multiple targets, greater range, etc.
Debilitating Touch (touch can sicken), enhancements include damage, nausea, irritability, certain sexual side-effects, contact your doctor if you experience bleeding, an erection that lasts more than four hours or an uncontrollable urge to buy Magic cards.
It seemed like the Wizard options included one for each 'school' of magic save Illusion. (The Familiar thing could serve as a Conjuration, the Magic Sense as Divination, the Magic Blast as Evocation, the Bolt of Bedevilment as Enchantment, the Debilitating Touch as Necromancy, etc.) Most of the abilities were usable at will, which made the Wizard who choose to beef up Magic Blast into a pretty decent Warlock-wannabe, for instance. Others, like the Familiar being able to manifest as an elemental, might have more limited daily uses.
The Cleric abilities included Turning Undead, healing with a touch, setting up a healing aura that allowed *other people* to spend an action to touch you and be healed (while you did whatever with your own action!), Magic Sense, a version of Magic Shield, a Smite type effect, etc.
For Druids, Wild Shape and Animal Companion were both options, along with Healing Touches and a Natural Sense/Bond ability (pass w/out trace, etc), which would allow a character to replicate the core features, but have the option to specialize and be less 'Animal Companion guy' and more 'natural healer guy' or blow all of his choices on Shapeshifting and have a greater selection of options than a standard Druid, but no Animal Companion or Nature Walk type abilities at all! Note that Clerics and Druids take quite a hit here, potentially, having to buy back some of their class abilities (Turn Undead, Wild Shape, Animal Companion)! I don't think it underpowers them at all, and it allows for two different Druids or Clerics (or Rangers or Paladins, who use a subset of the Druid/Cleric options) to be *significantly* different from each other, far more so than 'I have different Domains' or 'my Riding Dog is a Rottweiler!'
Every one of the house rules could be taken out and used independently, which I loved. So I could use the above stuff, and ignore everything else, if I wanted.
Other house rules from BoXM1 that I recall (some of which I love, some of which I could care less about and some of which skeer me);
1) One feat every level, for everyone. Fighters get way more, obviously, because of their Class feats. The class features I mentioned above would come from these feats, so Wizards, Clerics, Druids, Rangers and Paladins might end up not benefitting as much from this Featapalooza, since they are spending choices to regain and advance features like Wild Shape and Turn Undead.
2) Hit points are divided into Health points (which you get at 1st level and could equal your Con, under one variation) and 'Grace points' (which are the class gained HD). Grace points represent skill, luck, training, etc. and come back faster, and you can even get a few back by taking a standard action to 'take a breather' and 'regain your focus.' Once you start taking Health damage, you might suffer penalties (similar to M&M's Injured condition or 4Es 'Bloodied' condition), and those are harder to heal. I would use this house rule in a second.
3) Cleric, Druid, Wizard spells are divided into 20 levels. Former Cantrips are now mostly 1st level spells. *Every level,* a spellcaster gains access to a new level of spells, and Lightning Bolt might be a 5th level spell and Fireball a 6th level spell (for instance, and I'm just guessing, since this is from my unreliable memory).
4) A *slightly* tweaked skill list. Less tweakage than the Pathfinder consolidation, IIRC. Mostly just Hide/Move Silently mergering and Use Rope getting the long walk off the short pier, from what I remember.
5) Other stuff I don't remember at all. I *know* there was more...
BoXM2 was more of the same, but focused heavily on Fighters, with a dozen different weapon style feat trees that a Fighter could invest in, each of which gave him *meaty* bonuses and combat options with a particular weapon or style (TWF, sword and board, mounted combat, archery, etc.). Unlike BoXM1, which was more compartmentalized, it felt like you pretty much *had* to go with the 1 Feat / level optional rule to take real advantage of these Fighter options.
I think Monte's strength is in the magic stuff, and, IMO, the difference between BoXM1 and BoXM2 reflected that. I am also heinously biased, since *I* vastly prefer casters to melees, so it's entirely possible (and, indeed, *likely*) that I'm not the target audience for BoXM2 and wouldn't recognize it if it was the second coming of Man to Man.
Man, this turned into a mini-review! Note to self; shut the hell up!
As a clueless gamer, can you fill me in on what's the deal with the Book of Experimental Might?
Clueless gamer? I find this veeery hard to believe!
*sighs*
Here's another one to add to the list. I can almost hear my poor bookshelf groaning in anticipation of the additional strain.
My bookshelf silently curses you, Paizo & Monte, as does my bank account. Oh well, thanks from me anyway.
Great! Any other old (exclusively) pdf products from Malhavoc that Paizo wants to print up for Monte, I'll buy those too!
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No offense to Paizo, but.....you folks know you can buy it at lulu print on demand, right?
Thats where i got mine....
Wow, I'd love to see these edited together into a single book, tweaked and expanded for use with the Pathfinder RPG :D
Which brings to mind a question: Would this be printed under the Pathfinder label? Gamemastery? or just as a stand-alone product?
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Wow, I'd love to see these edited together into a single book, tweaked and expanded for use with the Pathfinder RPG :DWhich brings to mind a question: Would this be printed under the Pathfinder label? Gamemastery? or just as a stand-alone product?
I'd love to see it released as something I subscribe to, that way I get a free pdf too...any chance of that? ;p
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I find a lot of Monte's work rather hit and miss. On the surface, his stuff sounds really cool, but often lacks in the backward-compatibility department.
To be fair, I'm basing my judgements on Arcana Evolved, and Monte Cook does D20 World of Darkness, which are great(!) systems within their own little sandbox, but don't tend to be very compatible with other 3.5 elements without some conversion effort.
If BXM 1 & 2 were edited to play well with Pathfinder RPG, eg designed to be backward-compatible, then I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
A lot of what was mentioned above (thanks Set!) does sound very appealing, and easy to integrate. However, things like one feat every level, and spell levels 1-20, are going to be difficult in terms of backward-compatibility and playing nicely with other material from existing 3.5 books.
I guess I'll purchase it and pick-and-choose what to incorporate and what to leave behind, which is probably as this book was intended. I just feel these rules could hit a much larger market with a little more attention to compatibility, and be regarded as a recommended upgrade rather than "experimental" house rules.
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A lot of what was mentioned above (thanks Set!) does sound very appealing, and easy to integrate. However, things like one feat every level, and spell levels 1-20, are going to be difficult in terms of backward-compatibility and playing nicely with other material from existing 3.5 books.
My thoughts as well. I don't want *more* feats, so much as I want the feats that exist to be *worth buying.* (Which far too many of them, particularly the '+2 to two skill' feats, and junk like Dodge and Toughness, are not, IMO.) And while the idea of 20 levels of spells is revolutionary, and I would have loved it as a brand new game concept, something about introducing it to D&D just rubs me wrong.
But the Disciplines concept for Clerics/Druids/Wizards is just so beautiful that I might just end up using it instead of whatever Pathfinder ends up finalizing for Specialist abilities...
For that matter, I think I'd be quite content to play a Wizard who had no spells at all, just the Disciplines (at an accelerated rate, obviously)! Sort of a poor man's Warlock.
I guess I'll purchase it and pick-and-choose what to incorporate and what to leave behind, which is probably as this book was intended. I just feel these rules could hit a much larger market with a little more attention to compatibility, and be regarded as a recommended upgrade rather than "experimental" house rules.
I think of it as Monte Cook's version of the Unearthed Arcana (which was also loaded full of sidebars mentioning various designers house rules), full of stand-alone ideas that I can pillage and use. More of a toolbox than a complete system overhaul.
Then again, I regard a lot of game supplements with an a la carte mentality. Page X, yes, please! Page Y, hell no!
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I was lucky enough to score the 3.5 BOEM in hardback, BORL and BoIM are staples printed and bound (Book of divine might, never interested me.
The two books of Hallowed Might (the divine versions) are actually quite good. The second volume in particular has some really neat, offbeat stuff in it. (Fetish charm sets, masterpiece weapons - like masterwork, but more. Almost nonmagical magic weapons, really) and other cool bits.
Do Want! *squees uncontrollably*
While this is indeed good news, I think my ears are bleeding...