Rating: Summary: Disappointed Review: I have to say I'm sorry I bought this book. I guess it was nostalgia, I recalled the excitement and value of the Unearthed Arcana back in ver 2 era, and I thought this would have the same impact. Mostly, having gone through it page by page, I'm disappointed. It is MOSTLY a list of modifications of existing races and classes that anyone could do at home without a book. I didn't find anything really NEW, exciting, or inspiring in it at all.
Rating: Summary: Disappointed Review: I have to say I'm sorry I bought this book. I guess it was nostalgia, I recalled the excitement and value of the Unearthed Arcana back in ver 2 era, and I thought this would have the same impact. Mostly, having gone through it page by page, I'm disappointed. It is MOSTLY a list of modifications of existing races and classes that anyone could do at home without a book. I didn't find anything really NEW, exciting, or inspiring in it at all.
Rating: Summary: Not a bad rescource for the DM on the go Review: I'll agree with a few other reviewers that the price can seem high, and much of the content is available elsewhere. However, if you're no longer a HS/university student long on time, short on money, I think the book is well worth it. With a personal life, career, family and home, I don't have the time I used to have, so having this nice little compilation of options (some are very similar to ones already in use by my group) is worth the $20some I spent on it. I'd rather spend my precious free time creating a good adventure for my players than on creating optional systems for everything, and that also goes for scouring the web and bookshelves for the tweaks and options in this one book. It's like going to Jiffy Lube; sure I can change my own oil, but for $20 I'll go across the street and hit the bank, get a coffee and otherwise enjoy my free time while they handle it :) I'm sure someone will flame me for being lazy or uncreative, but hey, my time, my money, my game. But if you're like me and struggle to find the time to do the big stuff (adventures, plots, maps, NPCs, backstory) as it is, this book is likely going to work for you.
Rating: Summary: Not a bad rescource for the DM on the go Review: I'll agree with a few other reviewers that the price can seem high, and much of the content is available elsewhere. However, if you're no longer a HS/university student long on time, short on money, I think the book is well worth it. With a personal life, career, family and home, I don't have the time I used to have, so having this nice little compilation of options (some are very similar to ones already in use by my group) is worth the $20some I spent on it. I'd rather spend my precious free time creating a good adventure for my players than on creating optional systems for everything, and that also goes for scouring the web and bookshelves for the tweaks and options in this one book. It's like going to Jiffy Lube; sure I can change my own oil, but for $20 I'll go across the street and hit the bank, get a coffee and otherwise enjoy my free time while they handle it :) I'm sure someone will flame me for being lazy or uncreative, but hey, my time, my money, my game. But if you're like me and struggle to find the time to do the big stuff (adventures, plots, maps, NPCs, backstory) as it is, this book is likely going to work for you.
Rating: Summary: Good resource Review: It is just a compendium of alternate rules/house rules/ect., but it is a very good one. I went through it and found more useful rules in this book than in any other book I've found, so far. Not everything will be for everyone, but that's the nature and purpose of this kind of book - present the reader with options and ideas, lots and lots and lots of options. Everything from alternative magic rules: a spell point system, incantations that anyone, even non-spellcasters can cast...but at a price, new ways of thinking about classes, racial bloodlines so that your character can have some giant blood, or troll blood in his ancestry. Just about anything else you can think of. I will be using a lot of new ideas from this book for my next campaign.
Rating: Summary: Excellent. Review: Let me start out by saying: this was a great book. I'm really glad WotC decided to publish it. The book cut up into 6 main parts: Races. This section was pretty well done. It offeres subraces for most of the standard PHB races for different environments and even some examples of planar-bases races (such as the Fire elf or the Water halfling). They also introduce a system that essentially lets you play creatures with a LA from ECL 1 on. There are a fair number of Bloodlines in this chapter, covering everything from the Doppleganger to the Dragons. What I think is particulary nice about the bloodlines is that there are varrying strengths (so a character with a celestial for a grandfather and another with a celestial for a great great great great grandfather arn't necesarily gonna have the same signs). Classes. Variants galore. There is so much awesome stuff packed in this (relatively short) chapter that I just couldn't do it justice here. Every core class is covered, and many posible class feature changes are printed as well. And yes, there *are* Prestige Class versions of the Bard, Ranger, and Paladin (as well as a Chaotic Good paladin!). But really, you'd have to read this yourself to get the whole picture. Characters. The [Spelltouched] feat is introduced (essentially, you can take a feat to gain powers related to a spell that has been cast on you at some point), as are different skill systems (and an entierly new system for Craft). Traits (little feat-like abilities that are taken primarily at 1st level and offer a roughly equal positive and negative bonuses) and Flaws (major negatives that you can take in exchange for an extra feat at first level) are in this chapter, and a new system for weapon proficiancy (weapon groups) is also here. At the end of it are a bunch of tables that you can roll for inspiration about your character's background. Adventuring. There are a boatload of varient rules here, some about armor (one system has Armor provide less AC in exchange for some DR; another has armor convert lethal damage into nonlethal; and yet another provides a system of a level-based Defense bonus, reminiscent of d20 Modern, as is much of this charpter. Example: Action Points). There are roughly 4 Alternate Hit Point systems, some better fitted for low magic campaigns than standard DnD. There's even a section about Combat Facing, although personally I think that's much more complicated than necessary. Magic. Like the Classes chapter, this section is so good that it's probably wisest just to see it for yourself. Spell Points (See: Psionics), Legendary Weapons, Summon Mosnter variants, Item Familiars, a long list of components for spells that you can use to give them metamagics without increaseing their spell slot level, and even Incantations can be found in this chapter. Campaigns. This section is probably most interesting to DMs since the majority of it is a major component to add to a campaign. Short list: Reputation, Honor Points (in both numerical and immaterial form), a Taint system (far too complicated to go into here. Basically, you becomes physically corrupted and gain power therefrom), Sanity system (very well thought out, highly comprehensive. Will fit great in any campaign with a "dark" feeling. Talk to your players before institution this because it can radically change the way they have to play), Test-Based Prerequisites (to get into PrCs. Example: the Shadowdancer must dance well enough to impress a judge and then sucessfully escape the theatre from several dozen gaurds without directly attacking them), and a simpler way of awarding XP. The book ends with a few pages discussing possible extraplanar varaints, and then gives a few pages that list the variants offered in the book (the idea is that the DM photocopies these pages off and check-marks the things he will be useing so the players know what's pre-approved and what will be left out). All in all, an excellent book that I suggest every DnD group buys.
Rating: Summary: No better and no worse than what it is Review: Listen people, this is a sourcebook for House Rules. As such the Campaign section should be taken out. If you decide you suddenly want to play a high magic world, and give non-spellcasters like 3 spell levels and 25 spell points, this works great. If you are looking for core rules or new classes or whatever, you might not find it. I myself might buy it simply to see if I can play any of these Variants.
Rating: Summary: Expensive & not well thought out Review: Most of the material available in UA is available in other places, either in free Net material or in material already published in other supplements, albeit changed to fit D&D3.5 and in one convenient place. But the sticker shock alone for such a thin book should scare most people off. What we have here is a collection of "House Rules" from a variety of campaigns. Some of them you will find useful, others not so -- everyone's tastes differ, so what one person likes, others will loath. One of the greatest problems I find is that the impact of many of the rules are not well thought out. A prime example of this is the Vitality/Wound Points system (available as a free sample at the Wizards of the Coast site). First of all, despite the promise of "One Shot, One Kill", this is not at all the case -- a character may be reduced to 0 Wounds (never below this point), at which point you make rolls to /see/ if you are /dying/. Nope, not dead, just potentially dying. Equally, the W/VP rules make absolutely no reference to magic at all except in terms of healing. Does this mean that magic never does Wound damage? That it does it to a smaller extent? If it can effect Wounds, is there a new limitation on how many dice may be rolled for a fireball or magic missile? Many unanswered questions abound. Conversely there is also a long discussion of Hexes vs. Squares for battle boards. But why? Is it so difficult to figure out the conversion of one set of space indicators to another? Here authors go overboard with examples on something that is terribly simple to explain. Then there are the Paragon Classes which are, to say generously, /borrowed/ from Monte Cooks "Arcana Unearthed", but with the odd twist that you can be the Paragon of Half-Orcs or Half-Elves. How does one become the Best of the Bloodline of a mixed bloodline? This makes neither logical nor internal game sense. Overall, like most of the 3.5 retool, I find the product overpriced, overhyped, and half-baked. The print quality is good, the editing about on par with most gamebooks (a few glaring errors, but not as many as something from Mongoose), and the illos the standard mix of very good (insane wizard on p199) to vastly mediocre (human of brass dragon lineage on p22) to unintentionally comical (ambush on p212) to plain awful (decorated soldier on p183). Is it worth it? Depends on what you need. If you are a completist, yes. If you have no other source for ideas or are desperate to fit into a convetions rules, yes. If you have access to the internet and can surf through a few D&D sites, probably not -- you'll gain all of this material for free if you just look around a bit.
Rating: Summary: Expensive & not well thought out Review: Most of the material available in UA is available in other places, either in free Net material or in material already published in other supplements, albeit changed to fit D&D3.5 and in one convenient place. But the sticker shock alone for such a thin book should scare most people off. What we have here is a collection of "House Rules" from a variety of campaigns. Some of them you will find useful, others not so -- everyone's tastes differ, so what one person likes, others will loath. One of the greatest problems I find is that the impact of many of the rules are not well thought out. A prime example of this is the Vitality/Wound Points system (available as a free sample at the Wizards of the Coast site). First of all, despite the promise of "One Shot, One Kill", this is not at all the case -- a character may be reduced to 0 Wounds (never below this point), at which point you make rolls to /see/ if you are /dying/. Nope, not dead, just potentially dying. Equally, the W/VP rules make absolutely no reference to magic at all except in terms of healing. Does this mean that magic never does Wound damage? That it does it to a smaller extent? If it can effect Wounds, is there a new limitation on how many dice may be rolled for a fireball or magic missile? Many unanswered questions abound. Conversely there is also a long discussion of Hexes vs. Squares for battle boards. But why? Is it so difficult to figure out the conversion of one set of space indicators to another? Here authors go overboard with examples on something that is terribly simple to explain. Then there are the Paragon Classes which are, to say generously, /borrowed/ from Monte Cooks "Arcana Unearthed", but with the odd twist that you can be the Paragon of Half-Orcs or Half-Elves. How does one become the Best of the Bloodline of a mixed bloodline? This makes neither logical nor internal game sense. Overall, like most of the 3.5 retool, I find the product overpriced, overhyped, and half-baked. The print quality is good, the editing about on par with most gamebooks (a few glaring errors, but not as many as something from Mongoose), and the illos the standard mix of very good (insane wizard on p199) to vastly mediocre (human of brass dragon lineage on p22) to unintentionally comical (ambush on p212) to plain awful (decorated soldier on p183). Is it worth it? Depends on what you need. If you are a completist, yes. If you have no other source for ideas or are desperate to fit into a convetions rules, yes. If you have access to the internet and can surf through a few D&D sites, probably not -- you'll gain all of this material for free if you just look around a bit.
Rating: Summary: Some Decent Material Review: Overall, I'm pleased that I bought this one, though it is far from perfect. Perhaps the Hit-or-Miss quality of the text, though, is derived not so much from poor conception or execution, but rather from the opposite; after all, this text attempts to collect some of the more interesting "house rules" variants out there, and by definition, different variants would seem to appeal to different gamer-geeks. Cool Things: --sections on "reducing level adjustments" (buying off LA with XP later on) and "bloodlines" (adding a touch of bizarre ancestry to a PC) are well thought out. --in terms of class variants, some of the wizards are decent, but the paladin (i.e. of any alignment) really shines. --the "character traits" (personal quirks added at generation, a la *Fallout*) and "character flaws" (taking penalties at generation to add bonus feats, a la White Wolf) are long overdue to this system; the "spelltouched feats" (adding event-specific magical abilities) are also fertile. --the "defense bonus" variant (a level-contingent statistic like attack bonus), "armor as damage reduction" (self-explanatory?), and "damage conversion" (armor changes lethal damage to non-lethal) are all great; the "variable modifiers" variant (instead of BAB +4, say, one would instead add d8 to the standard d20 roll) is also smart. --many of the magic variants are useful, such as "summon monster variants" (individualized or themed lists), "metamagic components" (such feats have costs in this case), "item familiars" (why not? there's tons of intelligent constructs otherwise), and "incantations" (complex magickes that can be cast by anyone). --the final section, about campaigns, really delivers; here, we get rules for "contacts" (a la White Wolf), "Reputation" (yeah, like in *Baldur's Gate*), "Honor" (which would seem to be self-explanatory), "Taint" (evil corrupts, after all), and "sanity" (yes, that nearly perfect stat from *Call of Cthulhu*). Holistically, the text displays the same sub-par attention to editing as other WotC releases, and the artwork varies considerably in quality (compare the "Paladin of Tyranny" on 53 to the gamer-geek group on 134, for instance). I tend to consider the rest of the text uninteresting for my purposes, though others will surely, and with good reason, find such items useful. And that diversity is precisely the value of the text overall. (It is fair to note in this connection that nothing is particularly badly done, though the "racial paragon classes" are a bit too ubermenschy for my political taste--the game already suffers from a tolkienesque proto-fascistic racialism as it stands; no need to make it even more arriere garde.) The text might be a bit pricey, however, if one ends up using merely one third of the rules contained herein. That said, I'd note that the rules for sanity alone justify the (reduced amazon.com) expense for me.
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