FAQ 5.2: I want to take a feat/prestige class/etc, but you don't allow the book it's in. Why?

I want to take a feat/prestige class/etc, but you don't allow the book it's in. Why?

We have a narrower list of allowed materials than some games, but a wider one than others (I've seen some that are FRCS + three Cores, for pity's sake). Because we limit the list of allowed materials in any way, however, we run into cases of people occasionally wanting stuff from a book we don't allow.

To answer this question as briefly as possible, because of the number of players and the wide range of expertise with the rules between players and DMs alike, approving a new book takes a lot of effort. A new batch of four books was approved in late 2009, and even that limited number was the culmination of several months' review by DMs. (Plus there were still a few unforseen issues found post-approval.)

We take things very slowly when it comes to approving new sourcebooks. If the book you want hasn't been approved yet, it's probably because of something on this list:

• The DMs have not gone through the book yet. One or more might have read it, but they haven't collectively evaluated it for the purposes of determining its suitability for use in our game.
• The DMs have gone through the book, and determined that a substantial portion of the book is either unsuitable for our game, or would require heavy house-ruling to make it so.
• The DMs don't feel that the book brings enough to the table, so to speak, to warrant inclusion into our game. If there's only a few nuggets worth looking at, it's typically not worth the aggravation of dealing with it.
• It's not a WotC-written book. This line has been drawn pretty clearly in the past, and it's not a knock on non-WotC books (or a note of admiration for WotC), but keeping to books written by one publisher tends to allow for the most coherent possible ruleset.
• Not all of the DMs have access to the book. From our experience, the only way to truly know a book enough to reliably DM with it is to have it in physical form to read cover-to-cover, re-read, and reference as desired. Therefore, every time a new book is allowed, any DM that doesn't have it really needs to go buy it.
• At the moment, the DMs simply feel like the available resources are sufficient for the game. Even well-vetted books need house-ruling and a break-in period where the little quirks are shaken loose, and this takes a while. Add to this that when you allow new books, you have to give PCs some chance to take advantage of the new options they present. Thus, bringing in new books is work, and the DMs aren't necessarily always able or willing to put that work in at any given moment.

Feel free to ask a DM at any time if the book you want has any prospects of approval in the near-term. Manage your expectations, though; the answer's usually "no."