Favorite Third Party Book?

[Westhart]

So my cousin (who has the money to) was asking me what the best third party book was, upon drawing a blank I decided yo ask you fine folks; what's your favorite third party book?

[zlefin]

I can't really think of any 3rd party books for 3rd ed that are notable/good.
pathfinder however does have some nice ones if those would be of interest?

[Westhart]

I can't really think of any 3rd party books for 3rd ed that are notable/good.
pathfinder however does have some nice ones if those would be of interest?

He wouldn't mind, I just told him I'd ask and send any recommendations his way XD

[Andry]

Freeport – The City of Adventure! - Green Ronin Publishing.

[digiman619]

If Pathfinder stuff is on the table, I have a few suggestions

Spheres of Power by Drop Dead Studios. It's a really nice alternate magic system that goes a long way to making magic more balanced and fun, as well as making focused casters (pyromancers, necromancers, etc) as well as those with a minor magical ability ("thief that can turn invisible, berserker who actually turns into a bear, etc.) feasible from level 1.
Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting by Alluria Publishing. Even if you don't touch the fluff, it has a lot of really interesting rules for underwater campaigns.
Strange Magic by Interjection Games. It introduces two new, non-Vancian magic systems (one that's kinda like a recharging mana bar and another that's mix-and-match component based) and tries its hand at balancing the Truenamer.

There are also a few books that try and re-do 3.5 subsystems for Pathfinder, but since he's primarily a 3.5 guy, these might not be as worthwhile, but still:

Grimoire of Lost Souls by Radiance House this has over 100 new vestiges (referred therein as 'spirits' for copyright reasons), as well as Pactmaking options for pretty much every class in Pathfinder at the time it was written.

DReamscarred Press has made a living off of this, with Ultimate Psionics (Their Psionics book, obviously. Notable for having Psychic warriors having more than just bonus feats and Soulknives that don't suck), Path of War and Path of War: Expanded (their Tome of Battle-style martial initiation), and Akashic Mysteries (Their take on Incarnum, know called veilweaving).

[Boggartbae]

Thee Compleat Librum Ov Gar'Udok's Necromantic Artes has much better editing once you get past the title, and has some really solid crunch and cool fluff. My favourite thing in it is the zombie master prestige class.

[ksbsnowowl]

Rokugan Campaign Setting has a much better Ninja than the CV Ninja. People always used to refer to it in the days prior to Tome of Battle and Swordsages.

[ViperMagnum357]

^I second the Rokugan Ninja. My favorites are AEG Mercenaries, AEG War, and AEG Wilds-lots of fluffy prestige classes, and a few martials that can match any first party martial PRCs for power.

[Pugwampy]

Pathfinder Tomb of secrets .

Is your half orc just too puny , try some half ogre . No level adjustments here just all strength baby.

Did your wizard complain that toilet paper is better armour than his dress ? Try a tank mage warlock . Yes fullplate can be a truly magical experience for your spell chucker .

Is your cleric just not "god" enough for you ? What did you expect ? Clerics mere body guards to the Priest class .
When you experience their D8 channel positive energy you will be saying HOLY S.... I found religion .

Rat race , Dino race , Knight of the round table ........ Shhh dont tell anyone its a Tomb of Secret . ^^

[Quarian Rex]

The above are some pretty good suggestions but I'd like to throw in some others.

Spheres of Might (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/223758/Spheres-of-Might) is another Drop Dear studios product (they're the ones that also do Spheres of Magic) that was recently released and has been impressing the hell out of me. It expands on Pathfinder's combat options in a way that is a lot more modular and in tune with core than Path of War and similar and might be a better fit at some tables.

Heroes of Prime (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2849/M-C-Planck) and the other Prime books (which are free btw) lay the basics for running a campaign where experience points are a tangible commodity (this is a much cooler concept that you might think) and some of the effects that will have on a game world. It has some things that I'll need to tweak in my own games but I truly appreciate the effort the author has put in and will be using the hell out of it. What he does with just alignment and dragons is borderline brilliant (IMHO) and those aren't even my favorite parts. And did I mention that it's free? It's free.

Adventurer Conqueror King System (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/99123/Adventurer-Conqueror-King-System?manufacturers_id=4277) may seem like an odd inclusion, since it isn't for Pathfinder. While it is actually more of a 2E successor, it has the best kingdom rules I have ever seen. Whether you are running a continent spanning empire, a long distance trade merchant, the local thieves guild, or setting up a new church to the totally not fake God of Puppets (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0080.html), ACKS has you covered. All the rules for domains are essentially based on gp and requires virtually no adaptation to be used in any game system that uses gold pieces. You want to know how long it will take the king to replace his army after a horrible loss? It's covered. Want to know how much of the city you have managed to convert to the worshiping of the almighty Banjo? It's covered. The best part is that it doesn't have much in the way of crazy new mechanics to achieve this. I think it does the job a lot better than the standard kingdom rules in Pathfinder.

These may or may not be what he's looking for but they all have a lot to offer.

[Westhart]

My brother said thanks for the suggestions, and now you guys are making me want to play a PF game sometime XD

[Falcon X]

Bastards and Bloodlines.
All about cross-bred humanoids. It seems a little unbalanced, but as a DM, I have pulled so many NPCs and encounters from this.
Also made a pretty ridiculous Half-Beholder Spell Sniper/Ur Priest/Burrower. Was nasty.

[Westhart]

Bastards and Bloodlines.
All about cross-bred humanoids. It seems a little unbalanced, but as a DM, I have pulled so many NPCs and encounters from this.
Also made a pretty ridiculous Half-Beholder Spell Sniper/Ur Priest/Burrower. Was nasty.

I actually gave my brother that one for his B-Day, although me and him both agreed the power level of some things were all over the place :smallsmile:

[BearonVonMu]

Construct Mechanus is a tiny PDF (about twenty pages or so), but it introduced a solid race of sentient constructs.
I had found warforged and androids to be a little lackluster in their "mechanical man" feeling, and this hit the spot for me.

[Westhart]

Construct Mechanus is a tiny PDF (about twenty pages or so), but it introduced a solid race of sentient constructs.
I had found warforged and androids to be a little lackluster in their "mechanical man" feeling, and this hit the spot for me.

Ooh, he'll probably like that, as he is a big fan of warforged/construct style stuff, along with all the steampunk stuff (although he says he hasn't found anything that could really make 3.5 a good steam punk game). Thanks!

[Wartex1]

For big system enhancements for Pathfinder, I recommend:
- Spheres of Power
- Spheres of Might
- Path of War
- Ultimate Psionics
- Lords of Night/Wild (Wild is still in playtest)

However, for small additions to Pathfinder, and probably my favorite 3PP ever just due to the amount of interesting content in a small package is Drop Dead Studios' (the same guys that made the Spheres system) Luchador class. It was their prototype for Spheres of Might, but it shines on a how other level in terms of style and substance, since it's super easy to use as well.

There's also Forrestfire Studios' Avowed, which is supposed to be an expanded port of the Warlock to Pathfinder and a class to replace the Kineticist since the Kineticist is just terrible.

[peacenlove]

Secrets / Villains of pact magic (3e) and its successor Grimoire of lost souls (PF) is a very good supplement that is based on the Binder of Tome of magic. But the occultist is a more streamlined class and its lore is very good and has broad applications.

[Westhart]

Secrets / Villains of pact magic (3e) and its successor Grimoire of lost souls (PF) is a very good supplement that is based on the Binder of Tome of magic. But the occultist is a more streamlined class and its lore is very good and has broad applications.

Hmm, you all are going to make me read ToM aren't you? :smalltongue:

[digiman619]

Hmm, you all are going to make me read ToM aren't you? :smalltongue:
The first 1/3 is quite good, but the other thirds are okay and legendarily bad, respectively.

[Westhart]

The first 1/3 is quite good, but the other thirds are okay and legendarily bad, respectively.

Let me guess, shadowcaster and truenamer, respectively. I must admit, I did read some of the shadowcaster part :smallbiggrin:.

[Powerdork]

20 posts, and not one mention of Hyperconscious: Explorations in Psionics by Malhavoc Press? You poor people don't know the space- and time-altering pleasures of duo dimension and the chronorebel prestige class.

[Westhart]

20 posts, and not one mention of Hyperconscious: Explorations in Psionics by Malhavoc Press? You poor people don't know the space- and time-altering pleasures of duo dimension and the chronorebel prestige class.

I've got that one, although I've been saving it until I actually read the the psionics books :smallsmile:

Also, since no-one answered me earlier, what is AEG?
Is it the Alderac Entertainment Group?

[Thurbane]

For me, would be Tome of horrors revised (3.5); so many great monsters from earlier editions that never got official stats.

[Westhart]

For me, would be Tome of horrors revised (3.5); so many great monsters from earlier editions that never got official stats.

Think I have that one somewhere... or maybe my brother does... We pretty much just swap books back and forth as we need them :smallsmile:.

[rigsmal]

Everything in this thread is solid, but to expand the variety, let me suggest two adventures in Pathfinder: ZEITGEIST and Way of the Wicked. They are better written than most if not all first-party adventures.

[ViperMagnum357]

AEG is Alderac Entertainment Group. Monsters, setting, and magic tends to be mediocre, but they know how to put together distinct and occasionally powerful PRCs.

[Thurbane]

Arms & Armor 3.5 from Bastion Press is another one I'd recommend. Lots of great magic weapons, armor and enhancements.

[ViperMagnum357]

^Weightless armor FTW.

[Westhart]

Everything in this thread is solid, but to expand the variety, let me suggest two adventures in Pathfinder: ZEITGEIST and Way of the Wicked. They are better written than most if not all first-party adventures.
I'll send it his way :smallsmile:

AEG is Alderac Entertainment Group. Monsters, setting, and magic tends to be mediocre, but they know how to put together distinct and occasionally powerful PRCs.
Ah, alright, thanks :smallsmile:

Arms & Armor 3.5 from Bastion Press is another one I'd recommend. Lots of great magic weapons, armor and enhancements.
Oooh, Sounds good :smallbiggrin:

[ngilop]

yeah, I enjoyed the majority of each book from Legend's & Lairs Publishing it all started with the teaser book for 5 bucks that got me hooked, and I abolsutely love the concept of legendary classes, even if some of them are wonky balanced to both ends, but that is anything D&D related.


Mongoose publishing's quintessential books are good

Alderac's one word books ( Evil, War, Secrets, etc etc) are all neat

as a History buff I enjoyed the historical settings like Mesopotamia, Rome and such I forget who made those though.


and necromancer games is pretty good on all their goodies.

[unseenmage]

Advanced Bestiary from Green Ronin but only for the Amalgam template. I use Gigantean, Miniature, and Monstrous Lycanthrope but they all require fixing to be functional.

[Westhart]

Advanced Bestiary from Green Ronin but only for the Amalgam template. I use Gigantean, Miniature, and Monstrous Lycanthrope but they all require fixing to be functional.

Seems a waste to buy a book for one template :smallconfused:.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Book of Erotic Fantasy.

This one add some nice rules you can use.

[unseenmage]

Seems a waste to buy a book for one template :smallconfused:.

Oh there are loads of others but man is Amalgam a doozey. Combining any two creatures to make a new creature is just that cool to me.

Esp when anything combined with a Construct makes the resultant Amalgam a Construct. With the rules at our table I can build any Construct by pricing it via its CR so Analgam just opens up a LOT of opportunities. :smallsmile:


Another 3rd party product that's kind of definitely a mess for rules but I love the flavor of is the DragonMech books.
Fantasy mechs ranging from large to extra gigantic colossal City Mechs keeping the humanoid races protected from the monsters that fall to earth from the shattered moon.

"Ungainly slap fights" is thd best description I've seen for how the DragonMech rules foul up mech fights so some houseruling becomes a must. I just let the characters use the pilot's skills/feats from within the mech instead, problem solved.

Crunch aside, I really love the ideas of DragonMech.
Lunar Dragons, lunar anominations, primitive kobold tribals living in the 'gear forests' in the belly of city mechs, mech pilots akin to WW fighter pilots, steampunk cyborgs, and a crumbled moon that literally rains down on a cratered surface wasteland. It's chock full of cool even if the mech rules were written by a spastic monkey on drugs.