The Best & Worst of 3rd Edition: WotC Core Rules & Bestiaries (Winners Announced)

A new year begins, and 3rd edition D&D comes close to its end.

The time for judgement has arrived. Over the coming days I will do a series of polls to see what was good, what was bad, and what was meh.

This one starts with “WotC core rules & bestiaries”. Clearly some judgment was required, but if the application was broad enough, or enough like the first three books, it has been put here. This includes all “monster manual” type books.

Polls for player supplements, locations & adventures, and miscellaneous will come in the following days. As will polls for 3rd party products.

The Player Supplement Poll is here

And feel free to discuss them. Please.

In the very early voting, Libris Mortis is a somewhat surprising leader for most liked, while Weapons of Legacy is leading the least liked, followed closely by the Psionics Handbook and the Epic Level Handbook (which I predict will stay in the top of the unliked for the rest of the poll).

Weapons of Legacy was a good idea, badly executed. Weapons should grow stronger with your character, but the penalties were too much to swallow for too little reward.

I really liked the Bo9S. If you've not used it, I don't think you can judge it fairly. It really made for interesting, different roles for fighter types.

I loved Fiend Folio, Manual of the Planes, Fiendish Codex I, Lords of Madness, and Expanded Psionic Handbook.

I liked some of the content of MMIII, but seriously disliked its poor quality.

I loathed MMIV. The worst book of the 3e era.

My choices:

Best
Dragonomicon
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
Unearthed Arcana

Very Good
Book of Vile Darkness (as a DM sourcebook)
Monster Manual 2
Fiend Folio
Lords of Madness
Heroes of Horror

Good
Complete Arcane
Complete Warrior

Decent
Arms and Equipment Guide
Complete Divine
DMG 2
PHB2
Heroes of Battle
Oriental Adventures
Sandstorm

Disliked
Complete Adventurer
Complete Mage
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Magic Item Compendium
Manual of the Planes
Monster Manual 3
Psionics Handbook
Tome of Battle: Bo9S
Tome of Magic

Worst
Book of Exalted Deeds
Complete Champion
Complete Scoundrel
Deities and Demigods
Epic Level Handbook
Frostburn
Monster Manual 4
Monster Manual 5
Savage Species
Weapons of Legacy
Edit: Races of Stone
Edit: Races of Destiny
Edit: Races of Wild

I am still dumbfounded by the sheer number of folks who dislike Deities and Demigods. I used that book all the time and loved it. I know I'm in the minority, though. Still, if I coulda voted more'n once for both Manual of the Planes and DD, I would've. Heck, I'm not even a Planescape DM. I just liked them because they were all kinds of awesome and so very useful when I was designing my homebrew.

Greg K said:

Worst
Book of Exalted Deeds
Complete Champion
Complete Scoundrel
Deities and Demigods
Epic Level Handbook
Frostburn
Monster Manual 4
Monster Manual 5
Savage Species
Weapons of Legacy

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Emphasis mine. What made/makes you put Frostburn on your "Worst" list? Not knocking you (though I confess that I like Frostburn a lot), more just curious--especially since it seemed such a well-liked book around EN World. I figure you have a story as to why you don't like it.

CanadienneBacon said:

Emphasis mine. What made/makes you put Frostburn on your "Worst" list? Not knocking you (though I confess that I like Frostburn a lot), more just curious--especially since it seemed such a well-liked book around EN World. I figure you have a story as to why you don't like it.

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Outside of the environment rules and a few monsters, there was nothing about the book I liked or would use in a campaign that I would run. I remember being far more impressed with Frost and Fur (Monkey God) and the small section in Wilds (AEG) both of which I still need to buy when I get the extra money. For anything more specific, I would have to read the book again and, after having sat down with it twice at the bookstore, reading it again is not something that I would want to do.

CanadienneBacon said:

I am still dumbfounded by the sheer number of folks who dislike Deities and Demigods. I used that book all the time and loved it. I know I'm in the minority, though. Still, if I coulda voted more'n once for both Manual of the Planes and DD, I would've. Heck, I'm not even a Planescape DM. I just liked them because they were all kinds of awesome and so very useful when I was designing my homebrew.

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I can't speak for anyone else, but I wanted a big book full of deities, not one containing only 4.5 pantheons (I don't consider the 4 deities in Chapter 7 to be a full pantheon). Additionally, putting the "D&D Pantheon" in without actually listing *all* of the Greyhawk deities doesn't count either.

So - we are left with the Greek, Egyptian, and Norse pantheons. Not exactly a good value for the money. The first 56 pages should have been contained in Defenders of the Faith, anyway because it describes how to build deities and pantheons.

The original Deities and Demigods is what many people expected and didn't get.

Greg K said:

Best
Unearthed Arcana

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I don't consider it to be one of the best simply because I'd already been using many of those house-rules before the book was ever published.

Very Good
Book of Vile Darkness (as a DM sourcebook)

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Its also very good for playing an evil party.

Good
Complete Arcane
Complete Warrior

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Ehh - I found Complete Arcane to be a bit boring - heck - I wouldn't lump any of the other 3.5 splat books together with Complete Warrior.

Decent
Arms and Equipment Guide
Complete Divine
DMG 2
PHB2
Heroes of Battle
Oriental Adventures
Sandstorm

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I think A&EG would've been better had they provided more information in the same vein as the 3rd party From Stone to Steel or Kenzer's equipment book.

OA would've been better had they made it generic (or even better, used Kara-Tur as the setting).

Disliked
Complete Adventurer
Complete Mage
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Magic Item Compendium
Manual of the Planes
Monster Manual 3
Psionics Handbook
Tome of Battle: Bo9S
Tome of Magic

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Hmm - I liked some of the stuff from Complete Adventurer and really like the Magic Item Compendium everything else listed - I agree with.

Worst
Book of Exalted Deeds
Complete Champion
Complete Scoundrel
Deities and Demigods
Epic Level Handbook
Frostburn
Monster Manual 4
Monster Manual 5
Savage Species
Weapons of Legacy

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What is wrong with Book of Exalted Deeds, other than it being over-powered?