Frostburn is easily my favorite book of all time simply because in a game about adventures- it makes PC's who've already seen most of the game's basic monsters genuinely feel like they're about to explore and attempt to survive in a brand new world.
IMO, basing new classes, weapons, races, and religions all around a climate is one of the best ways to build a universe.
That said- should Frostburn make a comeback, or should it come back as a new region, like the not-Amazon, or not-Gobi desert?
Yeah, I really liked this and Stormwrackand whatever the other ones were.
Asher Garcia
I like the idea of building classes, weapons, monsters etc. around a biome, but I'm not enthusiastic about writing rules.
William Gray
this book had spells more broken than epic level handbook shit, it had cool rules but the spell section was one of the first things i banned right away so dropping the ridiculous power level of shit like this
All I can remember about Frostburn are magic skulls that you could crush with your hand to active their effects. I don't remember if they were an alternative to potions or scrolls, but they were fucking metal.
Kayden Howard
There was also a prestige class with freezing blood that closed wounds and added piercing/freezing damage to attacks.
Camden Hernandez
Alrighty then-
What's the biome that we're basing this book off of and what's it called?
Jacob Wright
The book encompassed different "Cold" biomes up to and including different planes of existence where there was "Cold"
Maybe call it something like EverFrost or something like that.
Angel Nelson
>this book had spells more broken than epic level handbook shit
This so goddamn much. Who thought Shivering Touch was a good idea?
Jordan James
Why don't we try to tackle a rarely fleshed out land type? Like a Marsh or swamp.
Gavin Miller
Stormwrack, Frostburn and Sandstorm. Forst was probably the best even if more prone to broken stuff. Lots of flavour and ideas, and not only circumscribable to 3.X.
Never ban whole feat/spell/equip sessions. Ban case-by-case. Explain it to the players. Ban the whole block only if they don't collaborate.
Ryder Murphy
Shivering Touch has a duration of 1 round/level, which makes no sense, but it suggests that the original author probably intended it to be some temporary debuff instead of a "you hit Dex 0 and will die next round" thing. They just didn't think it through.
Noah Hughes
While I agree in some respects, even if the players are not prone to powergaming on principle I feel spells like Gate and Wise should never be learnable spells and relegated to artifacts or plot device.
Angel Evans
Sandstorm was the third. There also were Dungeonscape and Cityscape, which were similar, though obviously different.
Michael Allen
Because nobody likes swamps. There's a reason sewer and swamp levels are usually the most despised in video games.
Jordan White
I saw we go to a properly under used biome.
the sky.
Austin Ward
Jungle
or
Zachary Garcia
I just want them to make Dark Sun in 5E. Easily my favorite setting. Too bad current WoTC would be unlikely to have slavery being a big theme in a world.
Christian Martinez
What about prairie/steppe? I feel like settings shortchange the equivalents of Montana, Mongolia or the Serengeti in place of more settled agricultural lands with trees and shit.
Aaron King
Mongolia book would be dope.
Justin Baker
Yeah, I agree that an actual open spaces book would be nice.
Matthew Clark
One of the world's biggest steppes starts just south from where I live. Steppes suck. Between a steppe and a wood, I would always choose a wood.
Nathan Brooks
Don't say that til you've had to grub your way through the Appalachians. They're not too steep, but they suck.
Jacob Murphy
You can play within the rule. Wish can be subverted, and if you gate Solars away from their mission/planar battler, the higher ups will notice.
Jackson Clark
I'm reading through Sandstorm and I'm enjoying it as much as Frostburn. Could the touchstone system be adapted for 5e?
Adrian Turner
What is the touchstone system?
Jordan Sullivan
Although it was technically a Forgotten Realms book, I would also include Underdark on the list of biome books.
Jaxson Smith
Touchstones were basically magical locations. If you took a specific feat, you got to pick one touchstone location and gain a power specific to that location, regardless of if you had ever actually been to that place. However, if you *did* visit the touchstone location, you also gained a more powerful ability that typically had a limited number of charges; if you wanted to regain those charges, you had to revisit the touchstone location and perform a specific series of tasks.
For example, the Healing Waters of Abu-Ima gave you the ability to cast either Cure Serious Wounds or Remove disease once per day, if you had the feat. If you also visited the Waters in person, you gained the ability to cast Raise Dead twice. To regain those two uses of Raise Dead, you have to go back to the Waters, bathe in the pool, and burn a use of Turn Undead to infuse it with holy energy.
Luis Gray
That sounds pretty sweet. Love the mental images that conjures.
Sort of like a better version of the standing stones in Skyrim.
Jackson Torres
>There's a reason sewer and swamp levels are usually the most despised in video games. You've got a funny way of spelling "Water level", buddy... and they made Stormwrack.
IMO it's more that "Swamp" doesn't have the same kind of theme resonance that "Ice" "Desert" and "Water" do. We really could have gotten a "Jungle" one though...
Frostburn is probably my third favorite entry in the whole 3.x line (After the 3.0 FRCS and Tome of Magic, both mostly for the lore/ideas) but it's mostly for the discussion of the setting and the nice balance of creative new ideas and stats provided for the kind of classics you'd expect. And then some. I love that this book gives me what I need to play an Ice Age game, a Magic: The Gathering - Ice Age game, a Vikings-in-winter sort of game, or just a session or two that visits some snow-capped mountains or icy latitudes.
EVERY level 9 spell outside of the core books is like that. And even a couple in it like Wail of the Banshee. Shivering Touch though is pretty clearly not working as intended.
Daniel Adams
>Because nobody likes swamps. That's bullshit >There's a reason sewer and swamp levels are usually the most despised in video games. That's bullshit on whole two levels (not true and equalising sewers with swamps)
Charles Evans
Secrets of Xen'drik had a lot of jungle themes in it. I love the set piece ideas it had and still use them in 5e.
Henry Lewis
>Eberron Explains why I'd not seen it. I hate that setting so damn much and didn't buy its books after the Campaign Setting, but I'm not above pillaging from it should the occasion arise.