Dragon compendium Balance?

[silverwolfer]

Iv'e fiddle with it some and know alot of DM's don't insta allow dungeon magazine stuff, but how does it fair in like content, and class balance?

[Venusaur]

Some of the stuff is ridiculous *cough* Unseelie Fey *cough*. Most of the base classes are pretty weak. Serenity is a pretty good feat for Paladins.

[Urpriest]

Unseelie Fey isn't too bad if you assume the LA +0 is a copy-paste error, which makes sense since it's on the sample character and not in the template.

In general, it's got a bit wonkier balance than the bulk of 3.5, but most of it is reasonable, though a few bits were just poorly edited (Dvati, the pseudo-TWF bug guys).

[silverwolfer]

Well, I was looking at things like jester and maybe the battle dancer, there is some neat races though ...mmm tidbits

[danzibr]

Well, I was looking at things like jester and maybe the battle dancer, there is some neat races though ...mmm tidbits
lol, tidbits.

Actually I'm totally looking to make a Tibbit Wilder/Constructor or Psion/Constructor (maybe even Ectopic Adept depending on certain rulings).

[Callum]

It varies so much that it's hard to give a general answer. My position, as a DM, is to disallow anything from the magazines by default, but to consider individual items on a case-by-case basis.

[sonofzeal]

I find Dragon Mag stuff (and Dragon Comp stuff by extention) to be... no more or less reliable than official content, really, except it's largely more obscure so even a DM well-versed in CharOp lore might be caught off-guard. Most of it's reasonable, there's quite a lot that's too weak or not distinctive enough to ever get used, and there's an assortment that's definitly advantageous, overpowered, or flat out broken.

Common sense will see you through 9 times out of 10 though, and you can usually trust it as much as any other supplement you don't know.

[Dictum Mortuum]

I like the feats section a lot. It's got quite a few gems.

[Novawurmson]

I've got someone playing a Tibbit in a PF campaign right now, and it's worked out fine. Of course, she's playing a Rogue, so it's not quite as ridiculous as it could be (the aforementioned psionic kitty, Druid kitty that doesn't wait until Wild Shape to pick up Natural Spell, etc.).

I like the feat section as well. I feel like the Battle Dancer needs to just be dismantled to make feats/ACFs for the Monk (flying, full attack on charge, etc.) but at a lower level.

[Mithril Leaf]

I find Dragon Mag stuff (and Dragon Comp stuff by extention) to be... no more or less reliable than official content, really, except it's largely more obscure so even a DM well-versed in CharOp lore might be caught off-guard. Most of it's reasonable, there's quite a lot that's too weak or not distinctive enough to ever get used, and there's an assortment that's definitly advantageous, overpowered, or flat out broken.

Common sense will see you through 9 times out of 10 though, and you can usually trust it as much as any other supplement you don't know.

I'd probably rate it about as reliably as fresh homebrew in the homebrew section here. The oldies and goodies here are better balanced then the Dragon Compendium I'd bet, but overall the quality of the mags is equal to newish homebrew here.

[Psyren]

Tibbits make fantastic psychic rogues (I rated them purple in my handbook.)

Watch out for Sha'ir! They're one of the most overlooked/underrated T1 classes in the game, and if you allow them into theurges they can get ridiculous fast.

There are really nice feats for the weaker classes, e.g. Serenity and Kung-Fu Genius.

[Snowbluff]

Some of the stuff is ridiculous *cough* Unseelie Fey *cough*. Most of the base classes are pretty weak. Serenity is a pretty good feat for Paladins.

Alternatively, if BoED is allowed or Luminous Armor, dip Battle Dancer for Cha to AC.

RIGHT! EDIT: Totally forgot, but I thought of it in another thread. Bloodline feats + DN/Warmage/Bequiler = winning!

[Alabenson]

It varies so much that it's hard to give a general answer. My position, as a DM, is to disallow anything from the magazines by default, but to consider individual items on a case-by-case basis.

As a DM, I have a similar position to Dragon Magazine material; the material is all over the place powerwise, so I require any player wanting to use something from Dragon Magazine to run it by me first.