Dragon Compendium Table of Contents

[GVDammerung]

The TOC for the Dragon Compendium has been released -

http://paizo.com/download/dragon/compendium/TableOfContents.pdf

I must say I am underwhelmed. Disappointed even. With all of the terrific Dragon material from times past _THIS_ is how you decide to start out a series of Compendiums?

Sure. There is some good stuff in there. But what is not in their beggars what is in there.

The monster selections are particularly baffling. Grandfather Plaque, etc.?

On its own merits, this Compendium, IMO, deserves to fail. Only the hope that The Witch and the Nine Hells series etc. will eventually see print prevents me from hoping Paizo gets spanked for this lackluster collection.

TOC Grade = C

I will not be buying this product.

IMO

 

[Mouseferatu]

*shrug*

I'll buy your copy. The ToC looks great to me. Will I use everything in there? No, of course not. But there's more than enough good, useful material--as well as several things I was actively looking forward to, like the death master--to be worth the cost.

Is there stuff I'd have liked to see in there? Sure. But given that it's Volume I, I hardly expected it to contain all my favorites.

 

[JoeGKushner]

CHAPTER 1: RACES 6
Diabolus 6
Diopsid 11
Dvati 14
Lupin 18
Tibbit 21

Hmmm.... recognize the lupin.

CHAPTER 2: CLASSES 26
Battle Dancer 26
Death Master 29
Jester 36
Mountebank 41
Savant 45
Sha’ir 51
Urban Druid 57

Battle Dancer? Thumbs up.
Death Master? Ditto.
The rest are okay. Jester and Sha'ir can really shine in the right environment.

CHAPTER 3: PRESTIGE CLASSES 66
Aerial Avenger 67
Arcanopath Monk 68
Blessed of Gruumsh 70
Cerebrex 72
Fleet Runner of Ehlonna 74
Flux Adept 76
Force Missile Mage 79
Monk of the Enabled Hand 81
Osteomancer 83
The Shaper of Form 85

Force Missile Mage? About the only one that stands out. I am a little surprised that the old Eldritch Master from early 3.0 wasn't updated but as others have noted, it's the first book in the series.

CHAPTER 4: FEATS 88

Well, that's not too helpful.

CHAPTER 5: EQUIPMENT AND MAGIC ITEMS 110

?

CHAPTER 6: CLASSICS 144
Arcane Alterations: Templates for Spells 144
Glyphs of Cerilon 149
The Answer is… the Riddle! 152
Runes 156
Runestones 161
Tesseracts 162
Another Look at Tesseracts 165
Toxins of Cerilon 166

Runes and Runestones was good. The Riddle bit was good. Don't remember the other bits.

CHAPTER 7: MONSTERS 172
Blackroot Marauder 172
Bleeder 174
Bodak Creature 176
Bonespitter 178
Bonetree 180
Casurua 182
Chaoswyrd 184
Ciruja Plant 186
Demon, Elemental 187
Demonically Fused Elemental 195
Dragons, Chromatic 197
Ghastly Creature 205
Ghoulish Creature 207
Glasspane Horror 209
Grandfather Plaque 211
Mummy, Bog 212
Phantom Flyer 214
Ragewing 216
Ravenous 218
Seelie Court Fey 220
Spiritus Anime 223
Trap Haunt 224
Troll, Fire 227
Unseelie Fey 229

Looks like a good mix here. I remember stuff like the Fire Troll and Glasspane Horror but seem to be missing some stuff like the Elder Wyrm and others from the old Creature Collection bits (although I believe the Glasspane Horror comes from there.)

APPENDICES 232
101 Wondrous Whereabouts 232
7-Sentence NPC 238
Be Thy Die Ill-Wrought? 239
Good Hits & Bad Misses 240
Instant Adventures 242
Not Another Magic Sword 242
Pronunciation Guide 246
Solo Dungeons 251

I'm dying to see how Good Hits & Bad Misses go. If it's a straight up reprint, it'll be worthless as D&D doesn't have any real rules for losing a limb. Not Another Magic Sword was pretty good if it's the article I'm thinking of (in terms of making weapons unique as opposed to +1.)

Some surprises there and some big disappointments but I'll wait and see what the book looks like in terms of layout and apperance, as well as how "updated" all of the stuff is.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[GVDammerung]

*shrug*

I'll buy your copy. The ToC looks great to me. Will I use everything in there? No, of course not. But there's more than enough good, useful material--as well as several things I was actively looking forward to, like the death master--to be worth the cost.

Is there stuff I'd have liked to see in there? Sure. But given that it's Volume I, I hardly expected it to contain all my favorites.

You are a kind and forgiving person. IMO, the inaugural volume in what is hoped to be a series should come with the A material more that what we have here. This is particularly so as Paizo may be heard to say that more volumes will be forthcoming "if this one sells." One must then subsidize this material in the hopes that the better material will then see the light of day in the future. The Witch, Nine Hells etc. are then held hostage to the sales of the Grandfather Plaque etc. Of course, this is the venal, moneygrubbing explaination, which may not be true. This could be mere numbskullery, I do not know. I do find it hard to say this is Paizo's "A Game." You may have my copy. Paizo is not a charity nor I will not pay for C material in the hopes that A material may trickle out over time. You are a kinder and more forgiving person than I, certainly the kind of customer Paizo will welcome more warmly.

 

[DaveMage]

Thanks for posting that, GVD.

I'm not really sure what I think about it.

Maybe I'll wait for some reviews....

 

[Mercule]

Not everything in there floats my boat. I don't remember any of the races, the PrCs look bland, and I've never liked the "lost" chromatic dragons. But, quite a bit looks nice, too. Death Master, Jester, and Savant are favorites. There's got to be some winners in the equipment section -- the table on alchemical substances looks promising. Some monsters look nice, even if I don't remember most of them. And all of the Classics and Appendices look quite useful or, at least, interesting.

Still looks like a sale to me.

Things I wish had made it:
- "Realistic Vital Statistics"
- Article on Pain
- "Cloistered Cleric"

 

[Dragonhelm]

Good Hits & Bad Misses alone has me sold. My old group used the hell out of that. Twice against the DM.

DM: "What do you do?"
Player: "I kill the DM."

Player rolls natural 20, rolls double-zero on percentage. Beheaded, immediate death. I figured that since the player slayed the DM, and the DM is god, then the universe imploded.

 

[Gez]

I remember a thread was started on these here forums to revel and bask in the glory of the 7-sentence NPC article, so I wouldn't say they've only chosen "grade C" material here.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

While I would've liked to have seen the Witch make the classes cut, overall I expect I'll still find plenty to enjoy in this book. I'm pretty excited about the Battle Dancer and the Deathmaster making it in, along with the Savant. The Seely and Unseely Court Fey is something I'm interested in, as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This looks more useful to me than any recent WotC books and I like a lot of the recent WotC books.

The Jester, Mountebank and Sha'ir will all see immediate use, as will spell templates. I also like all the undead templates that weren't in Libris Mortis for whatever reason. (We shouldn't need an uber-ghoul template to be able to apply ghoulishness to any NPC.) I also look forward to having spell templates.

And, of course, I can finally have THE SEVEN SENTENCE NPC in a sturdy (and easier to find) format. To this day, it's how I work up my NPCs, and it's an awesome, awesome system. Frankly, the DMG2 is poorer for not including it.