a question on new sourcebook

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders,

I have recently acquired Oriental Adventures.

flipping through it, I don't really see anything that reaches out and grabs me, shaking me by the collar going I AM INTERESTING!!!!

so I'm curious

is there anything in there that SHOULD grab my attention in such a manner?

is there anything really great/powerful within the book?

if so, what?

[The Glyphstone]

Iajatsu Focus is the only real 'power' thing in OA. Wu Jen and Shujenja both got reprinted anyways, so about a third of the book's base classes are invalidated.

[Seerow]

I'm sorry you wasted your money.

[LOTRfan]

Well... the Samurai is much better than the one from Complete Warrior.

The monsters are pretty cool. I like the Bakemono.

I like the races, as well. The Vanara are flavortastic. Also, the Hengeyokai allows you to shapeshift for LA +0.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Agreed on the vanara being pretty damned cool flavour-wise.

LOTRfan, being better than the CW Samurai REALLY isn't that big of an accomplishment. Hell, even the CAdv Ninja beats it with it's gimped SA.

(even though I do dearly love the CAdv Ninja, it's much easier/better to somply do rogue+2/3 PrCs)

[AslanCross]

OA could have been a lot better if it included more lore from the rest of Asia. There are a lot of really cool Persian, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern monsters that appear neither in core nor in OA. Unfortunately, they'd have to spread themselves too thin to do that, and they only have so much space.

Also, it seems that the book really was meant to be the Rokugan Campaign Setting, but they also included other Asian-themed concepts in it.

[LOTRfan]

LOTRfan, being better than the CW Samurai REALLY isn't that big of an accomplishment. Hell, even the CAdv Ninja beats it with it's gimped SA.

I never said it was a big accomplishment. Its little more than a variant fighter. :smalltongue:

[Curmudgeon]

The DC 40 Tumble check to make a 10' adjustment in place of a 5' step is very cool.

[Cog]

I like Singh Rager, personally. It's a nice way to avoid that annoyingly ubiquitous Spirit Lion Barbarian dip.

[erikun]

I wanted to play a Crab Hengeyokai Crab Samurai out of that book, but never ended up in a game to do so. Ah well.

Iajatsu Focus is the big one from the book, and most people recommend it with a Factotum as the primary way of dealing damage. Beyond that, I recall a number of interesting things but nothing particularly broken or outstanding from the book.

[Wings of Peace]

Maho Tsukai is pretty sweet and of course Sparrow Hengoyanki are never a bad thing.

[Bang!]

Shamans are pretty sweet. They're like core clerics, but with Kung Fu kicks, an animal companion, divine favor, polymorph and direct access to Giant Size.

But there are some things I like in just about every section:

Races: Vanara are monkeymen who can never lie; they are made of hilarity. Nezumi are rat people living in Terrorland with a very nice slew of abilities.
Classes: I love the Shaman, but I said that. OA Samurai are pretty neat too. They don't stack up alongside the ToB or EPH, but they have solid skills, good saves and Iajitsu, which wins them a lot of points for low-powered melee characters. They also have the ancestral daisho thing, which means a melee class can use a sentimental relic without utterly sucking (I think that's a good thing).
PrCs: Blade Dancers have crazy move speed multiplication and some fun item enhancements. They're lots of fun in low-optimization games. The Iajitsu Master is good at fighting, and has a ridiculously abusable damage output from its level 5 ability. The Ninja Spy is what people want to play when they try to play a ninja. The Singh Rager is a really nicely designed Barbarian class with Rage, Pounce, fear effects and 3.0 Haste. Tatooed Monk has some fun abilities, including Alter Self. Maho-Tsukai is like a slightly less borked Tainted Scholar, good for villains, good for player plot points. Eunuch Warlocks are a fun piece in character-building exercises (especially in gestalt), but I've never seen anyone actually want to play one... could be interesting, really.
Skills and Feats: The Iajitsu skill is very nice for samurai movie-style fighting. Also for min-maxers looking for something to abuse. There are a lot of nifty unarmed fighting feats, like Choke Hold and 3.0 Earth's Embrace and Flying Kick (which are much more interesting than their 3.5 incarnations). Falling Star Strike and Freezing the Lifeblood are cool if you have Stunning Fist (not restricted to Monks; Swordsages and Shaman can also get it.)
There are a lot of fun monsters too: Spirit Centipedes, Kappas, Gut Vampires, Crazy Giants, Dragons that don't suck, Kenku (there's a version I like better in MM... 3?, but they're here too) and angry land-octopi have all made their way into my campaigns.
The Rokogun part is a little less interesting to me, but I have a couple friends who are in love with the Clan stuff. I tried playing in a game one of them ran, but it was so involved in this section's fluff from that I couldn't keep up. So it's not exciting to me, but some folks love it. And that's something, I guess. (?)
The Shadowlands are just neat. And Taint is fun, especially when it's not presented as a part of horror rules, but just as a weird twisted blank space on the map.
Other stuff: There is a player in every group who falls in love with the weapons section, and brings it up every time somebody plays a 3e game. I believe this is a universal constant.

So yeah, there's a lot of stuff I get a kick out of. There's definitely redundancy with later materials, but overall it's above par for a D&D book, IMO.

[big teej]

Shamans are pretty sweet. They're like core clerics, but with Kung Fu kicks, an animal companion, divine favor, polymorph and direct access to Giant Size.

But there are some things I like in just about every section:

Races: Vanara are monkeymen who can never lie; they are made of hilarity. Nezumi are rat people living in Terrorland with a very nice slew of abilities.
Classes: I love the Shaman, but I said that. OA Samurai are pretty neat too. They don't stack up alongside the ToB or EPH, but they have solid skills, good saves and Iajitsu, which puts wins them a lot of points for low-powered melee characters. They also have the ancestral daisho thing, which means a melee class can use a sentimental relic without utterly sucking (I think that's a very good thing).
PrCs: Blade Dancers have crazy move speed multiplication and some fun item enhancements. They're lots of fun in low-optimization games. The Iajitsu Master is good at fighting, and has a ridiculously abusable damage output from its level 5 ability. The Ninja Spy is what people want to play when they try to play a ninja. The Singh Rager is a really nicely designed Barbarian class with Rage, Pounce, fear effects and 3.0 Haste. Tatooed Monk has some fun abilities, including Alter Self. Maho-Tsukai is like a slightly less borked Tainted Scholar, good for villains, good for player plot points. Eunuch Warlocks are a fun piece in character-building exercises (especially in gestalt), but I've never seen anyone actually want to play one... could be interesting, really.
Skills and Feats: The Iajitsu skill is very nice for samurai movie-style fighting. Also for min-maxers looking for something to abuse. There are a lot of nifty unarmed fighting feats, like Choke Hold and 3.0 Earth's Embrace and Flying Kick (which are much more interesting than their 3.5 incarnations). Falling Star Strike and Freezing the Lifeblood are cool if you have Stunning Fist (not restricted to Monks; Swordsages and Shaman can also get it.)
There are a lot of fun monsters too: Spirit Centipedes, Kappas, Gut Vampires, Crazy Giants, Dragons that don't suck, Kenku (there's a version I like better in MM... 3?, but they're here too) and angry land-octopi have all made their way into my campaigns.
The Rokogun part is a little less interesting to me, but I have a couple friends who are in love with the Clan stuff. I tried playing in a game one of them ran, but it was so involved in this section's fluff from that I couldn't keep up. So it's not exciting to me, but some folks love it. And that's something, I guess. (?)
The Shadowlands are just neat. And Taint is fun, especially when it's not presented as a part of horror rules, but just as a weird twisted blank space on the map.
Other stuff: There is a player in every group who falls in love with the weapons section, and brings it up every time somebody plays a 3e game. I believe this is a universal constant.

So yeah, there's a lot of stuff I get a kick out of. There's definitely redundancy with later materials, but overall it's above par for a D&D book, IMO.

-hands you a cookie-
you've just inspired me to wade through the book with as much dedication as I have every other book in my collection (sans tome and blood, I'll read it when somebody finally plays a caster)

[Darrin]

is there anything really great/powerful within the book?


Selections from Shax's Indispensible Haversack (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148101):

Eggshell Grenade, Dust
Price: 10 GP
Weight: --
(Oriental Adventures p. 78)
Thrown as a grenade-like weapon, so make a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 5'. A dust grenade that hits its target directly blinds the target for 1d4 rounds *NO SAVE*. Anyone else within the 5' radius splash must make a Fort save DC 10 or be blinded for 1 round. This is an amazingly effective weapon that works on a wide variety of opponents, but don't overuse this one or your DM will come down on you with a banhammer like a ton of bricks.
Craft (Alchemy) DC: 20

Liquid Smoke
Price: 20 GP
Weight: 1#
(Oriental Adventures p. 78)
Same price as a smokestick, but reacts with air and thus does not need to be lit. Provides concealment, blocks LOS, or a cheap theatrical effect.
Craft (Alchemy) DC: 20

Black Fan Talisman
Price: 150 GP
Weight: --
(Oriental Adventures p. 136)
This wonderful little one-shot item provides a +10 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks, and it lasts an *HOUR*. A Diplomancer can do a lot of damage in an hour.

Wondrous Writing Set
Price: 2060/2900 GP*
Weight: 1#
(Oriental Adventures p. 142)
There may be two versions of this item. When originally printed, this writing set provided a +10 circumstance bonus to Forgery checks for only 2060 GP, which is an amazing bargain. While the official Oriental Adventures Web Errata doesn't mention the Wondrous Writing Set, the 3.5 update that was printed in Dragon Magazine #318 does: it changed the Forgery bonus to a +5 competence bonus, and raised the price to 2900 GP. While not quite as amazing, this is still a great deal for buffing your Forgery rolls. There were a few other items in the Dragon Magazine 3.5 Update that changed prices, notably the Kimono of Storing went up to 20000 GP to bring it in line with two Gloves of Storing. Check with your DM if he wants to use the Web Errata or prefers to use the changes in Dragon Magazine #318.

Some other interesting things:

The Hengeyokai Sparrow has already been mentioned. They make awesometastic warlocks: +14 bonus on ranged touch attacks at ECL 1. Even a Hengeyokai Sparrow/Crane in hybrid form offers a 20' fly speed at ECL 1. If the 3.5 update from Dragon #318 is being allowed, they are LA +0, otherwise they're still LA +1.

Chain shirt + dastana + chahar-aina = better AC than a breastplate.

Fire shuriken spell. Look at the duration.

Shinomen Naga: Some of the only large-sized humanoids in print, which make them interesting forms for alter self. The OA Web errata didn't change their type, although the 3.5 update in Dragon #318 changed them to monstrous humanoids.

Shiba Protector PrC: Makes Wis-based monks somewhat playable.