Comments on usefful 3rd party books

[David Knott]

This weekend I picked up Forgotten
Heroes: Fang, Fist, and Song. I was
pleasantly surprised to see that its
versions of the barbarian, bard,
druid, and monk classes were in
many respects superior to those
in the Advanced Player"s Guide.
The powers are a better match
for the source material, and
magic implements for the new
classes are actually detailed.
The Advanced Player"s Guide"s
strengths are its rituals, craft
vocations, and optional wound
rules.

However, I was unable to find
the new Quintessential Wizard,
and the Advanced Player"s Guide
that I bought last month was
not to be found on the store
shelf in either store I visited.

Anyway - have any of you picked
up any of these books? What
do you think of them? Given how
much harder to find they are than
WotC products, should we ignore
them for conversion purposes?

Finally - I hope to pick up the
new Quintssential Wizard this
Wednesday. I am hoping this
book will help fill in some still
missing wizard spells. If I pick
up any other books in this series,
it will probably be for personal
interest rather than for conversion
help.