When I recruit for a 5e game, I typically provide the option to use 3rd party publications (3PP). Other DMs often offer similar options. Many times, only one or two people take me up on the opportunity. That's their prerogative, but I can't help but wonder if it's because they're not terribly familiar with what options are out there. Granted, many of the best options do cost money, which might mean that players simply don't have access to many 3PP, but not all of them cost, and most of them are worth it to use multiple times.
I had originally thought to make a blog post to refer people in my recruitments to (and I may yet do that later), but figured I'd ask the community. What are some great resources for players to use when making characters? Things that provide new races, classes, archetypes, backgrounds, feats, and/or spells? What are some 3PP resources DMs might consider implementing for their game that would be simple and easy for players to add in but that add a fun element to the game?
A caution to DMs (and players): I would recommend against letting a single player utilize more than 2 or 3 3PP sources at once. The more sources they use, the more likely that there will be some strange (read: broken/OP) mechanics interactions. Even WotC recognizes this and restricts Adventurer's League to PHB+1 other (official) book, though they have additional stated reasons behind this policy.
I'll begin with some of my favorite options, though these are by no means all the ones I would allow. Please feel free to ask me about any of them. I am not necessarily 100% familiar with them to say for certain there's absolutely nothing about them that might need tweaking, but I generally trust these creators. Maybe I'll get around to posting links one day, but until then, Google is your friend.
What would you recommend?
I had originally thought to make a blog post to refer people in my recruitments to (and I may yet do that later), but figured I'd ask the community. What are some great resources for players to use when making characters? Things that provide new races, classes, archetypes, backgrounds, feats, and/or spells? What are some 3PP resources DMs might consider implementing for their game that would be simple and easy for players to add in but that add a fun element to the game?
A caution to DMs (and players): I would recommend against letting a single player utilize more than 2 or 3 3PP sources at once. The more sources they use, the more likely that there will be some strange (read: broken/OP) mechanics interactions. Even WotC recognizes this and restricts Adventurer's League to PHB+1 other (official) book, though they have additional stated reasons behind this policy.
I'll begin with some of my favorite options, though these are by no means all the ones I would allow. Please feel free to ask me about any of them. I am not necessarily 100% familiar with them to say for certain there's absolutely nothing about them that might need tweaking, but I generally trust these creators. Maybe I'll get around to posting links one day, but until then, Google is your friend.
- Pretty much anything from Kobold Press
- Deep Magic series (currently 14 issues strong), which provides new caster archetypes and spells, as well as feats
- Heroes series (Midgard Heroes, Southlands Heroes, Unlikely Heroes), which provides new races and backgrounds
- Beyond Damage Dice, which is a new set of mechanics DMs could implement for weapons, granting each weapon a few alternative uses
- Midgard Heroes Handbook, which has some crossover from the Heroes and Deep Magic series (and the Beyond Damage Dice supplement), but has a ton of race, archetype, feat, background, and spell options
- Some options assume the use of the Midgard setting, such as by granting setting-specific languages. You may need to revise these few small things.
- The Arcanis Campaign Setting book, by Paradigm Concepts
- There's a free Primer for this setting with a few racial and background options
- The full book has a ton of racial options, as well as new classes and archetypes, feats, spells, and backgrounds
- note that some of the standard classes have been slightly reworked in this book (most notably the cleric, barbarian, and monk), so consider requiring players to use the class as presented in this book if they're using one of the archetypes here
- the book adds in many new languages, as well as a literacy system. You may need to make some slight modifications to the races and backgrounds in regard to language acquisition - the book has a sidebar about how to do this
- Player's Companion, by M.T. Black, Jeremy Forbing, et al (on the DMs Guild)
- Races, archetypes, feats, spells, backgrounds, and some new mundane equipment. Has some DM material as well
- Sylgar's Guide to Everything Else (on the DMs Guild)
- Archetypes, feats, spells, backgrounds, and some new mundane equipment - set up like Xanathar's Guide, with some DM material as well
- has some prestige classes that I'm not sure I'd allow
- has an alternate way to determine racial stats/abilities for the official races. I'd allow this.
- Xanathar's Lost Notes to Everything Else (on the DMs Guild, part of their Adept program)
- Archetypes, one race, and a few backgrounds, with some DM material as well
- En5ider Magazine, from EN Publishing
- Currently at almost 200 issues, each one typically 3-5 pages long and focusing on a particular theme. Many are for DMs, but there are also quite a few for players.
- different issues have various races, classes, archetypes, spells, feats, and other options that all fit fairly seamlessly into a standard game
- Several of the classes were refined and consolidated into one book, titled A Touch of Class.
- Blood Hunter class, by Matt Mercer (on the DMs Guild)
- has 3 archetypes in the base version, and one or two additional archetypes by Mercer as a separate produce, and several archetypes by others as their own products. I can't speak to the quality of archetypes made by others
- Pretty much anything from Middle Finger of Vecna/Mage Hand Press
- they've created quite a few classes and archetypes, as well as some races and other things. I mostly check them out for their classes - I like their warden, warmage, and witch a lot.
- Elminster's Guide to Magic, by M.T. Black, Jeremy Forbing, et al
- a ton of spells, as well as a few archetypes. Also has some magic items and other stuff for the DM
- has a follow-up by the same creators, titled Elminster's Guide to Divination. Also good stuff
What would you recommend?
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