The Full Monte (Cook, that is!)

[El Jaspero, the Pirate King]

So...who else out there is running either a Ptolus or an Arcana Evolved campaign? I'm going to be doing both in a "giant book smash-up" campaign in a month or so, and thought, "Hey! Let's talk madness!"

And yes, I am fully aware of Monte's boards, and even post there on occasion as epiplectic. But it's a bit...fanboy-heavy, where you can get dissed for not fully understanding the implications of every single heigtening and dimishing of every single spell off the top of your head.

So...who's doing the Ptolus? Anybody? Any Arcana getting Evolved out there?

[silentknight]

I have played Arcana Evolved and like the heighten/diminished spells as well as combat rites.

[Krellen]

I remember a time a few years back - before 3.5 came out - when everyone was saying "Monte Cook says this" and "Monte Cook says that", as if Monte Cook was the gospel saviour of D&D - and this was after he'd left WotC.

This made me very sick of Monte Cook, and turned me off of his products. He may very well have some very brilliant ideas, but the bashing of his thoughts that I'd received has made me very skeptical of his work - especially since I disagreed with a lot of the points made.

[Matthew]

I read A Player's Guide to Ptolus, but I cannot say that I was particularly impressed. A Campaign World that is D&D with 'the volume turned right up', just didn't really appeal, as interesting as the fluff was. I might invest in the full scale campaign one day, but for now there are too many other things that appeal.

[Kurobara]

I'm not running either, but I am a PC in a Ptolus games, and it's a lot of fun. We're doing a module in the Banewarrens right now, and it's been challenging (even for our party of 6 gestalt PCs - I'm sure we're a little ahead of where a "normal" party should be at this level in terms of how far into the module we are) but not impossibly so.

There's just a lot of neat little bits in Ptolus, like mage coins and the Dreaming Apothecary (I think that's what it's called) and such, It's fun. ^_^

Don't have any experience with Arcana Evolved, but I'd like to play some sometime.

[PnP Fan]

Sorry man, but the expense of the ptolus setting (something like $70!) might not stop me if I REAALLY wanted it, but it would certainly stop a lot of my players, so I've had no use for it.

Kurobara: 6 ! Gestalt! PC's!?!? wow! Is Ptolus a setting inteded for Gestalt characters, or do you guys just enjoy high powered games?

I have done some reading of the Arcana setting, and thought Mr. Cooke had some neat ideas, some I liked, some I didn't really see the point to (why does the Arcana druid-equivalent need to be any weirder than a druid already is, for example?). I did like the spell heighten/diminish thing, and the alternate forms of magic, talent feats, his take on different flavors of fighters, etc. . . Overall, I'm glad I bought the book. :-)

*sigh*
never used it in a game before though
*sigh*
;-)

[AmoDman]

Never touched Ptolus, but Arcana Unearthed/Evolved has to be about the best non-Core Splat (well, technically PHB...but I've tended to play games with D&D and AU merged) I've ever seen. The only other one that ranks up with it IMO is Tome of Battle, and ToB doesn't have the uber-cool races and such the full AU PHB does.

[EvilElitest]

I've seen both in my local book store but never bought them. what makes it different from the existing games. And what is good and what is bad.
Also why did monty leave WOTC? ANd why was he well regarded for it?
from,
EE

[Beleriphon]

Also why did monty leave WOTC? ANd why was he well regarded for it?
from,
EE

Monte Cook didn't leave WotC, he was laid off. Part of the reason that Monte is well liked after not having a job with WotC is because he can produce all kinds of wacky stuff that WotC would never produce for a variety of reason.

[Diggorian]

I played in a Ptolus campaign for a year. The setting seemed pretty detailed -- a $100 textbook of detail -- but our DM wasnt really our style, so alot of it wasnt translated for us. He presented it to us an a city-campaign, but we always had to delve beneath the streets. A city built over a huge ancient dungeon, whose economy is built on clearing it is interesting though.

The Bane Warrens was like a nightmare of literally mining XP, very linear. Enter warrens, get beat up, loot the loot, go back topside to sleep/heal, re-enter them. No npc's ever reacted realistically when we asked for aid in closing the collection of vaults containing the worst things in history. I think we set free as many banes as we defeated.

[Amphimir Míriel]

I am working with a friend on an "Alternate D20 PHB" for a setting he has been writing on for the last 15 years.

Arcana Evolved has helped us a lot with our Class and Race designing questions. And we are planning on taking as much from the AE spell system as the D20 licence let us... It is that good.

Now, about Ptolus, it is soo expensive that our local hobby shop will not even carry it (it would cost the equivalent of $100.00usd here, and I earn about 20% the ammount of dollars I would if I lived in the USA)... So no, I havent even read Ptolus, save for the free download players guide... And while it looks interesting, it is certainly not worth $100.00usd

[Kurobara]

Kurobara: 6 ! Gestalt! PC's!?!? wow! Is Ptolus a setting inteded for Gestalt characters, or do you guys just enjoy high powered games?

We just felt like something high-powered. *shrug* It's working out well, though.

[Starsinger]

Sometimes I tweak Sorcerers into being "chosen channelers of magic" and make them use the spells from Arcana Unearthed as their spell list instead of the Wizard spell list in the PHB, including Heightening and Diminishing

[El Jaspero, the Pirate King]

Kurobara: 6 ! Gestalt! PC's!?!? wow! Is Ptolus a setting inteded for Gestalt characters, or do you guys just enjoy high powered games?

Note that they're doing The Banewarrens, which is a separate module. While it does take place in Ptolus, it could be placed in any other large D&D city...with a gigantic wacky spire sticking up out of it...

The Banewarrens can be a grinder of a module if you have a particularly nasty DM or a party that just expects to bash in every door and beat things to death. I'm seriously considering running my own group through it once they get up to level 5-6.

Sometimes I tweak Sorcerers into being "chosen channelers of magic" and make them use the spells from Arcana Unearthed as their spell list instead of the Wizard spell list in the PHB, including Heightening and Diminishing

Interesting...how do you find that works? The general opinion is that AU/E spells are slightly underpowered compared to D&D spells, but AU/E spellcasters make up for it with increased flexibility. Do you find your sorcerers losing a bit of their edge? Ever taken a look at the Arcana Evolved Spell Treasury, basically a whole pile of new spells for AE, many of which are D&D conversions?

[Diggorian]

Banewarrens with gestalts could be fun, but we were lucky to get to use non-core stuff [/rant]

*sigh*

From the little I saw from the Ptolus book, it may be worth the price. If you'd pay for a campaign setting book, the DM's guide to that setting, and a players companion for that setting or Monster of setting X; you be paying as much and getting the same amount of material in the Ptolus book -- 672 pages!

[Thrawn183]

I'm currently playing in a Arcana Evolved campaign. I like the system. I like the setting. I like the classes. I like the monsters. I don't like Spell Treasury. Our DM allowed it half-way through and while initially the casters were more flexible/less powerfull, its now leaning much, much further towards the more powerful end of the spectrum.

All in all, I think that AE is more interesting than straight D&D. I like pretty much everything about it outside of spell treasury. *goes off to mutter about casters*

[Starsinger]

Interesting...how do you find that works? The general opinion is that AU/E spells are slightly underpowered compared to D&D spells, but AU/E spellcasters make up for it with increased flexibility. Do you find your sorcerers losing a bit of their edge? Ever taken a look at the Arcana Evolved Spell Treasury, basically a whole pile of new spells for AE, many of which are D&D conversions?

I can't really say for sure, my group doesn't play with a lot of the "I win" spells in D&D, and the people I play with don't tend towards Arcane Magic so much. But so far I've enjoyed it, especially since it makes Sorcerers less of "Wizard's inferior cousin" and more a unique class with it's own spell list.

[EvilElitest]

Monte Cook didn't leave WotC, he was laid off. Part of the reason that Monte is well liked after not having a job with WotC is because he can produce all kinds of wacky stuff that WotC would never produce for a variety of reason.

Do you know where i can find out the details about that?
from,
EE

[The Valiant Turtle]

I love the AE ruleset. It gets so many things perfectly right. I guess the best thing is the way it revamps the magic system. Magic users of all types still are more powerful, but the power difference isn't near as great. I really feel that it is the best magic system made for d20. Unfortunately, I can't really stand the setting. From what I've seen of Ptolus, it doesn't really jump out at me either.

What I would love to combine is AE and Eberron. I know a lot of people were interested in that once. I should check up and see whats out there for that.

[El Jaspero, the Pirate King]

What I would love to combine is AE and Eberron. I know a lot of people were interested in that once. I should check up and see whats out there for that.

I know I've seen stuff about that on Monte's boards, you should poke around there and see what people are up to. Seems like a good match, pairing the 'otherness' of the Eberron setting with new classes and magic systems.

[ambu]

AE is the best D20 product out there, better than the PH for several reasons:

-The magic system is awesome. Simply. Awesome. It is flexible, completely balanced, feels like fantasy and does not enable broken items or combos. And it does not prerequisites alignment
- The classes are much more balanced. Melee characters, gish and full spellcasters are balanced naturally
- The feats are at least on par with the PH

and that's just the beggining

[El Jaspero, the Pirate King]

Lay it on me, brotha!

I'm a big fan of the AE magic system...and once you've gone alignment-free, you just can't go back.

The real beauty of it is that unlike a lot of other d20 products it's not a huge power change one direction or the other...so if you have some guy in your D&D campaign who really wants to play a Magister, you can. Same thing with the one who wants to be a Scout in your AE group. It's nicely modular that way.