Using Material from non-Core Books

WotC has been very good about publishing lots and lots of supplemental materials to go with D&D campaigns, and your DM has been very good about spending too much money buying too many of them. This raises the question: if it’s in a supplemental book, can I use it in the campaign?

Given the nature of the Polychotomy as a setting, the general answer is likely to be “yes”. The setting is very open to incorporating different and disparate elements. There are some general points to consider, however:

1. Material based on the Alignment mechanic from the Core books will at best require modifications, and may not carry over at all into the Polychotomy.
2. Specific references to political or religious figures from different campaign worlds will not carry over into the Polychotomy.
3. Material that does carry over will interact with the Phyle Standing and Purity/Taint mechanics in a variety of ways.
4. Most races are found somewhere in the Polychotomy, and most tend to affiliate themselves with one or two phyles. Remember that starting characters at the beginning of the campaign must be from 0 LA races.
5. Prestige classes will almost always have specific phyle membership as a requirement.
6. Some new core classes will be embraced, others will be rejected. Core classes that prepare arcane spells or spontaneously cast divine spells do not exist in the Polychotomy.
7. Feats generally carry over, although ones tied to specifc campaign mechanics (e.g. alignment or the Dragonmarks in Eberron) won’t.
8. Most spells and cleric domains carry over – those that interact with the Alignment mechanic may need to be modified or eliminated.

For details on what carries over, what doesn’t, and what’s changed, please consult the pages related to specific books, below:

• Book of Exalted Deeds—mostly of interest to members of Pure Phyles
• Cityscape
• Complete Adventurer
• Complete Arcane—of greatest interest to Clock Tenders
• Complete Divine
• Complete Mage
• Complete Scoundrel
• Complete Warrior
• Draconomicon—mostly of interest to members (and foes) of the Talon
• Dragon Magic
• Dungeonscape
• Eberron Campaign Setting
• Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
• Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
• Frostburn
• Heroes of Horror
• Libris Mortis—mostly of interest to members (and foes) of the Dead College
• Lords of Madness
• Magic Item Compendium
• Planar Handbook
• Player’s Handbook II
• Races of Destiny
• Races of Stone
• Races of the Dragon
• Races of the Wild
• Sandstorm
• Spell Compendium
• Stormwrack
• Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and Truename Magic
• Unearthed Arcana
• Weapons of Legacy

Note: the Polychotomy is a 3.5e campaign. Materials predating 3.5 will be considered on a case-by-case basis.