Dungeon Master's Guide 2: Useful or No?

[supersonic29]

So I was going through the book collection the other day and saw our friend from the thread's title. It dawned on me that I've been drawn to most every rulebook in 3.5 (even including the BoEF one odd time) between my own searching and what you guys have pointed me to here and there, but I'm fairly certain that I've never used DMG2 for anything.

So I suppose the topic is, have you ever used it? Is there anything mechanically useful tucked away in there? Heck, anything fun? :smallconfused:

[weckar]

It has the Running a Business rules.

Other than that it is mostly a book on adventure and campaign design, so it makes sense for it to not come up in optimization discussions.

I consider it of similar value to an Eberron's Five Nations.

[Inevitability]

I like the boobytraps it includes. Full-round action, costless trap creation is always useful.

[Troacctid]

I've definitely made use of it. There's some good material for adding interesting flavor to NPCs and items, and some very helpful tips for running a successful campaign. A few nice obscure tidbits for PCs as well, like the bonded item rules, teamwork benefits, item templates, and apprenticeship rules.

[BearonVonMu]

Most of the book felt like it was dedicated to teaching/showing new game masters how to run a game, and how to try to make it fun for your players. I felt it was worth looking through, especially if you are new and trying to get a handle on business.

[supersonic29]

Most of the book felt like it was dedicated to teaching/showing new game masters how to run a game, and how to try to make it fun for your players. I felt it was worth looking through, especially if you are new and trying to get a handle on business.

I definitely agree that this feels like the overall tone, which is ironic considering someone who decided to get into D&D without access to a friend's collection probably wouldn't have DMG2 :smallsigh:

I also found that it gave some nice outlines regarding law enforcement for DMs that aren't trying to weave their own peculiar justice system.

[Troacctid]

Most of the book felt like it was dedicated to teaching/showing new game masters how to run a game, and how to try to make it fun for your players. I felt it was worth looking through, especially if you are new and trying to get a handle on business.
That's only like three chapters. There's a lot of rules content in there too.

[Crake]

It's got several things i've made good use of. Githcraft, feycraft, that one quill that scribes scrolls into spellbooks in like 10 minutes instead of 24 hours, and spell turrets have all been very useful. There are a few other neat magical items in there, like the boots that let you add cha to damage if you moved that turn, among other things.

[Blackhawk748]

I dont use it often, but it does have a bunch of weird neat stuff that i enjoy.

[barakaka]

Some can be kind of annoying to pull off, but the Weapon Bonding Rituals can be pretty useful. Ritual of Song stands out as something nice, especially if you're using the Primitive Caster feat from Frostburn anyway. Could work flavour-wise with a goliath bard with a warhorn or something to pull off the primitive and tribal feel. Bonus points for weapon-ifying a warhorn and stuffing a wand chamber in there so you can shoot lasers from it. Unfortunately, you need the Truebond feat to get the good benefits, so I'd say only really for low-mid OP games.

The Mentor feat is where it's at, specifically the Craftsman mentor portion. It reduces item creation gold costs. This works wonders for an alchemical item/potion focused character, and also for artificers of course as well as Unbound Scroll. I forget whether it factors in experience-wise.

[Troacctid]

Unfortunately, you need the Truebond feat to get the good benefits, so I'd say only really for low-mid OP games.

The best benefit is being able to craft a magic item without having an item creation feat or any prerequisites. You don't need Truebond for that.

[Jowgen]

I find that, in a way, DMGII represents some of the best/underused aspects of the game.

Bonding rituals are a brilliant way to allow characters to enchant their own gear (and for 3rd level clerics to become Liches).

Teamwork benefits (also present in Forge of War, another under-rated book imo) offer some great free-ish benefits that encourage proper teamplay and rp.

The magic items presented are very interesting, especially compared to the standard DMG ones, and of course the item templates require no introduction, and neither do the magical locations. Both are awesome.

Honestly, all that it is missing are ACFs, or it would be a complete dream of a book. You can absolutely be fine never looking into it, but you'd be missing out on a wonderful little treasure trove.

[Hurnn]

I like it has some good stuff and of course there is always Saltmarsh not only is it a super great reference to one of the best 1st ed mods ever it makes a great generic pregenerated coastal town if you need one which can be handy.

[OttoVonBigby]

For DMing an urban campaign, I'd call it indispensable. I'm just wrapping one up and I made extensive use of the more historical-background-y stuff, particularly the highly detailed section on guilds.

[Thurbane]

I find it very useful. Has some great DM tips, little bits of crunch you don't find anywhere else (apprentice/master feats, unique NPC abilities) as well as a whole chapter on a decently fleshed out city (but open enough the DM can still customize a lot of it).

Full of great tidbits, I recommend it a lot.

[supersonic29]

Decided I'd pull from that law enforcement content for the campaign I DM weekly, given that the party was pursuing a bounty on a member of the town guard. Results to follow in spoiler.
Open to a campaign resumed mid-combat after the sudden need to stop the week prior
The party is battling a Sheriff of the nearby town, more or less a captain of the guard, and two of his men. They are all located in a volcanic area which a great thief had fled to, pursued by the sheriff. The session prior they had already killed off one of his men, and the sheriff himself is taking quite the beating. He orders his surviving subordinate to activate the skull talisman (re-flavored to be just a bone, not a skull. Homeward bone, anyone?) that he is holding in order to escape. (These are set to teleport them to the small prison the town has, closest thing it has to a precinct, not that the party knows this.) After a bit of sparring and the lava beginning to change flow towards the party, they kill the sheriff and lob off one of his fingers as proof of their completed job. Not trusting their ability to navigate around the lava on foot, (which they probably could have) two of the party members take hands and activate the skull talisman that was on the sheriff's person, while a third uses his advantage of flight to get away, and the fourth had walked away from the encounter as soon as it began. So, 1 & 2 appear in the jail holding hands while 3 and 4 meet up back at the boat and try to wait for 1 & 2 to get there. 1 & 2 then go into questioning regarding how they got there and why, the chief sheriff knowing that the deceased sheriff was one in the department to use skull talismans. They are then searched and the finger is found (worth noting that 1 & 2 are mundanes, 3 & 4 are the mages) which lands them in a couple of cells, their trial scheduled for the morning. 3 & 4 arrive back in town late at night after giving up on their party members' return to the ship.
Fast-forward: Next morning, 10:00 AM, the courtroom.
3 & 4 became aware of the trial and came to attend. 3 is dressed to conceal his appearance and 4 has refused to defend 1 & 2 in court. (4 being the bard with the stacked charismatic skills) Cue the Spirit of Justice OST. 2 elects to defend he and 1 in court, not believing they will have the favor of an assigned defense. The courtroom is adorned with antimagic field projecting items everywhere but a podium at which there is a cleric. After the judge initiates the trial, the prosecutor calls his witness: the sheriff's man who escaped. He tells the attack as he saw it. After a brief cross-examination, 2 argues that since the witness did not speak of the murder itself, he and 1 are not completely implicated and goes on to accuse the witness of the murder. (If you couldn't guess, full evil party.) 2 then requests that 1 be allowed to testify as to what """actually""" happened. Did I mention that the witness bench is adorned with runes that prevent the witness from lying? The party didn't know that. As a result, 1 details all of the events truthfully, including their motive of the bounty, but just doesn't mention actually killing him; he talks about arriving and leaving. 2 somehow tries to ride this home until the prosecutor plays his ace, which is the fact that the sheriff is slated to be resurrected, and proposes the sheriff's testimony. With that on the table, 2 pauses a moment. Then he jumps the judge's bench and tries to grapple him. Unfortunately, after the climb check, the judge beat his initiative and withdrew from the room. 2 settles for grappling the prosecutor. Meanwhile 1 bolts out of the court among the spectators, leaving them and the guards in the dust. Did I mention that 1's character is based around land speed? so 1, 3, & 4 move along while the cleric casts hold person on 2 and he is taken back to jail. After a few session-ending notes, that's the general story of what happened and why I both love and hate this campaign.