[3.5] Use _Iron Heroes_ in an otherwise D&D game?

[ericp65]

Hey all,

Just curious if:

a) anyone has done this, with any of the material presented in the book, and what experiences, observations, and recommendations you could share.

b) how incorporating IH rules might best be done, even if you haven't done so before, and how well classes balance in the mix of available base classes.

[Pluto!]

I've just used the book as-is, but I believe I recall it giving some recommendations in the introduction or last couple pages for shipping it into a traditional D&D game - mainly just dropping BA down a quarter-point per level to the normal d20 scale. You might not want to do that though, just to give something special to its otherwise lackluster classes.

The recurring pattern you'll probably see is that IH's material makes nonmagical characters more interesting to play, but weaker than their D&D counterparts. The action economy on all the IH maneuvers is just so bad and the bonuses are so minor that even a moderately well-built Fighter could generally take an Armiger to school, and a precision-damage archer could easily triple the IH Archer's damage output.