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So, it's been a little while since I've inquired of the boards at large on anything, so I feel jumping back in with both feet is probably best.
Let's talk about favorites. I've gone on about a few of mine, but I'm going for the gusto now.
1) What's your favorite SINGLE supplement gaming book? For any system, any era of gaming, any single non-core (eg. PFRPG Core Rules, Players Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, etc) book. Campaign settings, splat books, etc. are all valid.
Mine would have to be either Book of Exalted Deeds or Eberron Campaign Setting.
Oh, and why is this your favorite book? Book of Exalted Deeds for the awesome Good vs Evil fluff and crunch, Eberron for all around awesome, innovative and superlative design.
2) What is your favorite Prestige Class/Advanced Career/etc? Why?
Mine would have to be either Divine Crusader or Holy Liberator. I'll just say that I LOVE Paladins and both of these PrC's really capture the good stuff therein while either building on the Paladin or substituting a Chaotic Good variant.
3) What is your favorite base class/starting build? Why?
Paladin. Lawful Good doesn't mean 'stick up the arse', and it's fun to explore the variations possible. And kicking tail for $DEITY never gets old, somehow.
4) Who is your favorite 'megacharacter'? What makes them 'mega' and why are they your favorite?
Hildebraun Relicseeker. Several knighthoods, has a very 'been there, done that' background but can still be amazed at the good or bad within people. And, well, (s)he's heading for demi-godhood. Currently Paladin 10/Divine Crusader 10/??? 1. Has done truly epic things, and lived (and sometimes died and come back) to tell the story.
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1) What's your favorite SINGLE supplement gaming book?
For D&D - Al-Qadim core book. So much flavor, it's just amazingly cool. There are even Rogue and Fighter kits that appeal to me, and I'm very much not a Rogue / Fighter guy. What setting could make me *want* to play a slave? (Mameluke!)
Otherwise - Aeon / Trinity core book. Every type of science fiction I could want to play, from Transhumanist to alien contact to mech-combat to space-combat to exploration to post-apocalypse to straight-up bug-hunt, you can do it in Trinity. The game world is that broad, with places that are glisteny corporate espionage cyberpunk and places that are radioactive monster-haunted ruins.
2) What is your favorite Prestige Class/Advanced Career/etc? Why?
Not a big fan of them, in general, but I like the flavor of the Master of Shrouds. Creepy, powerful, evocative.
3) What is your favorite base class/starting build? Why?
Human Cleric. I could care less about CoDzilla, and have never cast Divine Power or Righteous Might, taken Divine Metamagic or Persistant Spell, or used a Nightstick. What I love is that every setting includes dozens, perhaps *many* dozens of diety choices, each of which has a unique combination of ethos, RP options, Domains and / or favored weapons. (Heck, back in the old days, they even had holy animals and favored colors!) The Cleric becomes a dozen classes in one, and you can make two Clerics of the same diety very different, by focussing on different Domains and alignment choices.
(Example: Nethys, god of magic for Golarion. The CN Cleric has Destruction and Protection as his Domains, focused on pure power, both to blow things up and to build them back. The LN Cleric has Magic and Knowledge as his Domains, and is all about discovery, invention and philosophy. To the first Cleric, magic is a power tool, ruff, ruff. To the other, it's a way of life, sacred, mysterious and divine, and the exploration of magic, like the path of the ancient alchemist-philosophers, is the exploration of self with the 'transmutation of lead to gold' as a metaphor for the perfection of self and the transcendence of earthly matters. And that's just one diety, of dozens, *many* of whom are appealing to me.)
4) Who is your favorite 'megacharacter'? What makes them 'mega' and why are they your favorite?
Sammae Deepsong. 2nd edition elven Cleric / Wizard. Worshipper of a goddess of magic, she cast Continual Light willy-nilly, and researched Continual Warmth and Continual Chill versions, to use to replace hearths and cold storage areas. She single-handedly, through the use of magic, transformed the way of life in her area, and got herself thrown out of elven society because she kept polymorphing monsters into fey creatures, animals and elves, turning the local raiding orcs, etc. into new allies. (Turns out the elves weren't keen on having former orcs, now with new elven bodies and minds and memories, joining their society...)
Ah, the damage one can do playing a good-aligned character, who finds herself philosophically opposed to slitting throats!
By the time of her excommunication, she was high enough level to carve out her own kingdom from a formerly monster-dominated region, to resettle her 'new elves.' When the campaign ended, there was a very real possibility that the elven nation was going to send an army to exterminate her 'abominations.' Fun stuff.
This was, of course, 2nd edition. Her most dramatic moment ever was when grappled by a Mind Flayer. She had no way of killing the thing, and no way of breaking free, so she continued fighting as it extracted her brain. The DM warned me on the last round that this was it, and I had her use the last charges from her Rod of Ressurection. There was a six-segment delay, IIRC. Three segments after she activated it, her brain got ripped out. Three segments after that, the Rod went off, and she got back up.
The Mind Flayer was startled, and kind of pleased, as it was hoping for seconds... The rest of the party, thankfully, shut him off. :)
In retrospect, it probably shouldn't have worked, since she wasn't dead when she activated the Rod, but, this being 2nd edition, and there being no real concept of 'not a legal target for this spell,' the DM allowed it, because it was funny.
1) What's your favorite SINGLE supplement gaming book?
Quintessential Cleric II. This particular book convinced me that playing a cleric could be a whole lot of fun and a whole lot more than just a healbot. The different ideas in there for clerics that help customize them make me want to play a few more clerics, things like alternatives to turning undead, greater domains, etc.
2) What is your favorite Prestige Class/Advanced Career/etc? Why?
Complete Warrior version of Bladesinger. I feel that this version has the right degree of power of all versions while still retaining the feel of a bladesinger. It's not perfect-I modified that version a little as well for one of my characters-but of the various 3.5 fighter/mage PrCs, I think this one got things right first.
3) What is your favorite base class/starting build? Why?
Wizard. I like the versatility of the wizard spell list and the innate flexibility in character design it permits. I can be a bookworm of a diviner one campaign (supported by lots of divination spells) and a charming enchanter the next. I also like having the solution to problems in the palm of my hand and wizardly magic does that.
4) Who is your favorite 'megacharacter'? What makes them 'mega' and why are they your favorite?
Lady Darley of the Silver Rose. The last child of Iggwilv and Graz'zt, born an alu-fiend, redeemed and fallen and redeemed again, born and lived to see herself born, Chosen and lover of Chosen...a character that has existed for me since 1st edition and inspired by the NPC drawn by Clyde Caldwell in the original Temple of Elemental Evil. She's currently in retirement and the acting Spell-Major of Myth Drannor. Her children are wandering Faerun in 2 cases and starting a school of wizardry in Myth Drannor in the 3rd case. Despite her demonic origins, she is polite, kind, compassionate, and slow to anger. But oh, when she finally gets angry....I haven't converted her to Pathfinder yet, but she's something like a Diviner 30/Divine Oracle 10/Loremaster 10. She's survived battles with gods and demon lords, braved the Abyss, the character that's done it all (including remaining friendly with a few archdevils and demon princes).
1) What's your favorite SINGLE supplement gaming book? For any system, any era of gaming, any single non-core (eg. PFRPG Core Rules, Players Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, etc) book. Campaign settings, splat books, etc. are all valid.
For D20 related purposes, I'd have to say the ORIGINAL 1st Edition Unearthed Arcana. Why? All that glorious new information and spells and the original CANTRIPS! Finally a wizard could use spells for petty things such as lighting his pipe, cleaning his desk, all those little fantasy tidbits.
2) What is your favorite Prestige Class/Advanced Career/etc? Why?
Hmm, this is difficult. Overall favorite? Archmage. I'm an arcanist at heart.
3) What is your favorite base class/starting build? Why?
Unless I have a specific build in mind, I have to go with wizard. Again, I'm arcanist at heart, no matter the game.
Other than that, I have at least a dozen builds currently on my laptop for various characters. One I keep playing with is the 'fuzzy buzzsaw of doom', using a homebrewed adaptation of the Kercpa from 1ED.
4) Who is your favorite 'megacharacter'? What makes them 'mega' and why are they your favorite?
Marcus the Chromatic Thief 2 / Wizard 18 (1ED / 2Ed). Snarky, practical joker. Preferred spell to start combat - Snilloc's Cream Pie Swarm (3rd level spell - Reflex save or be blinded for 1d4 rounds as you wipe the pie from your face; 1d6 damage). Successfully hit a dragon in the face with a cream pie, spent the next 5 months running from it.
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1.) HEROES OF HORROR. There's a TON of useful material in this book.
2.) Purple Dragon Knight. They've got cool abilities conducive to keeping a group of characters alive.
3.) Bards. I don't care what their detractors say. Bards are tons of fun.
4.) Emperor Kabori, from the Kingdoms of Kalamar. Self-made ruler of an entire continent who isn't an archmage, lich, half-dragon, or whatever.
1. Dragonlance d20 supliments are just plain fun, a good deal of "fluff and crunch" as the parlance is.
2. Love the Frostrager, only 5 levels but they are five levels of fun
3. Straight Fighter for d20, but in 2nd I will have to go with Thief
4. Shadeloke "The unwanted shadow" - He was my longest run character and I still pull him out time to time for a 2nd ed NPC. Born a Shadow Genasi he took to the shadows and found that stabbing people in the back was easier than a frontal assault. Joined an adventuring party decided that he wanted to add magic to his skills he decided to apprentice under the shadow mage that was the "leader" of the party. After enough time and tutelage he stabbed his master in the back and took his stuff.
1) What's your favorite SINGLE supplement gaming book?
2) What is your favorite Prestige Class/Advanced Career/etc? Why?
3) What is your favorite base class/starting build? Why?
4) Who is your favorite 'megacharacter'? What makes them 'mega' and why are they your favorite?
1) I'll go out on a limb and say the AADA Vehicle Guide for Car Wars. Always fun to bust out some vehicles from there, or to get an idea for my own custom car.
Or maybe the first "Enemies" book for Champions. Again, lots of cool bad guys and lots of ideas for making your own heroes or villains.
2) Pass.
3) In D&D -- a cleric, maybe. In Car Wars -- a box of armor armed with a couple of linked rocket launchers. :-)
4) I remember one summer facing off against wave after wave of bad guys with my favourite Villains & Vigilantes character (whose name escapes me at the moment). I believe he had Power Blast, Heightened Str and Con, and maybe Adaptation. Good times...