What's the best and worst D&D book you own from any edition?

[Elf Witch]

There are several best for me. Races of Dragons inspired and entire world setting and campaign for me. The Kalamar Atlas is the best atlas of a fictional world hands down. 2E Deities and Demigods for the Realms brought a lot of good ideas for clerics and how the different temples work.

The worst the 3.0 splat books they really didn't add anything to the game.

 

[Elf Witch]

There are several best for me. Races of Dragons inspired and entire world setting and campaign for me. The Kalamar Atlas is the best atlas of a fictional world hands down. 2E Deities and Demigods for the Realms brought a lot of good ideas for clerics and how the different temples work.

The worst the 3.0 splat books they really didn't add anything to the game.

 

[dd.stevenson]

I'm looking for things that totally inspire me to run campaigns, and that don't utterly disappoint me when I do run them. Thus:

Best: 3E Forgotten Realms, Birthright Boxed Set, Al Qadim Boxed Set, 3E Eberron
Honorable Mention: Paizo's AP line, which continually gets me excited about running campaigns in Golarion, even though I can't stomach the rules.

Worst: 4E PHB (so joyless it hurts), and 3E PHB (for promising so much and then letting me down)
Disreputable Mention: Most published 2E adventures, sadly.

 

[Jhaelen]

Dishonorable Mention: When one of my group's resident power gamers got his hands on a copy of Tome of Magic and cleared it with the DM, the game just went straight to hell. This book is emblematic of the power creep that cemented, IMHO, the necessity to kill 3.5 and take its stuff.

Err, what? Are you maybe confusing editions here? The 3e Tome of Magic contained three new types of magic that were generally considered flavourful but seriously underpowered.

I just remembered another candidate for the best D&D book: The 3e City of Stormreach supplement for Eberron. Just like Hammerfast, it's a brilliant starting point for a new campaign.

 

[Halivar]

Ok, help me out guys, maybe it wasn't Tome of Magic, but it was one of the later splats. It had spells with the "Stygian" descriptor that could drain levels. The introduction of those spells killed 3.5 at our table.

 

[Nagol]

Ok, help me out guys, maybe it wasn't Tome of Magic, but it was one of the later splats. It had spells with the "Stygian" descriptor that could drain levels. The introduction of those spells killed 3.5 at our table.

Hmm, all I can think of off the top of my head is Fell Drain the +2-level meta-magic feat from Libris Mortis. Any creature damaged by a spell also acquires a temporary negative level. It is somewhat valuable if you used one of the ways to mitigate the meta-magic cost.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Best: Planescape Boxed Set
Worst: Elven Handbook

 

[Random Bystander]

I do not feel strongly enough about any D&D book I own to call one "worst" or "best". However, the fighter class as presented in the PHB is a failure, IMO.

 

[Halivar]

However, the fighter class as presented in the PHB is a failure, IMO.

Which one?

 

[Mallus]

I've never got the ToB fan's argument that this improved fighters. Fighters still exist, they didn't get improved, rather a bunch of bizzaro martial adepts showed up who weren't fighters in any sense of the word.

I thought the argument was ToB offered good replacements for fighters and/or other existing martial classes.

If the word 'melee' characters were opted instead of 'fighter', the argument would have more meat...

I'm pretty sure that's what was meant.

If I had to pick a best I'd have to say the AD&D DMG.

My favorites by edition are:

AD&D - the Trinity (PHB, DMG, MM).

AD&D 2e - The Complete Bard's Handbook (no, I'm kidding), Faiths and Avatars (even though I'm not a big Realms fan).

3e - Arcana Uneathed, The Book of Nine Swords (it offers some excellent replacement fighters!), the Tome of Magic.

4e - none that I own (I liked the system, I don't like the way it was presented).

As for worst... most of the 3e-era splatbooks, particularly the ones with all the repeated material.