D&D Books That Don't Really Get Used

[Zweihänder]

I bought the World's Largest Dungeon, got a group together, and we had 3 meetings of 4 hours each. In this case, that's a massive waste of money.

For those who don't know, WLD is a massive prefab dungeon, taking a party from level 1 to Epic. It's 800-something pages, has 16 large maps, and costs $100.

Three.

Freaking.

Sessions.

>.<

 

[Zweihänder]

Expanded Psionics Handbook. Used it once and never again...but I can'tr bring myself to sell it.

Hope springs eternal.

I love the Expanded Psionics. I manage to use it in nearly every game, and I'm now building a campaign using exclusively it and homebrew stuff.

 

[Eternalknight]

Stronghold Builder's Guide is the only book I own I've never used anything from.

 

[Kri8or]

I'm pretty good about mining my DnD books for ideas. Mostly I've just stopped buying anything that advertises lots of prestige classes, feats, and spells and just go for adventures, campaign settings, and source books (ie Book of the Rightious). Where I do blow lots of cash is on other games that I never get to play. I have a decent Earthdawn collection but I've never played except to test rules. Same with SLA Industries, Kult, Warhammer v2 (I only ran 1 session), Darwin's World (which I love, but again, 1 session) and a few others.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Manual of the Planes. Guide to the planes. Pimple on the Buttock of the Planes.

Deities and Demigods? Ditto.

 

[Evilhalfling]

the BoED has gotten very little use, with the exception of the one feat - Ansestral weapon, and 2 of the guardials (ferret and bear) who had cameo/advisor roles.

and Complete Arcane - 2 feats, rumors of an Initiate of the 7 Veils, and a NPC Warlock in a PbP game, a Grue (attacked in a darkness spell) and a couple of spellstiched (skeletons, zombies, ghouls and a ghast)

and those are the ones that get the least use. I will put any book to use, but I have gotten almost nothing from the few dragon or dungeon magazines that I have bought.

I have not yet gotten any use of the 12$ MMII or the 13$ Beyond Countless Doorways, but I will be offering the players the choice of visiting another plane in the next session. (I have not DMed since purhasing either one. My rotation comes up in 3 weeks.)

 

[tetsujin28]

The DMG. Hardly ever used my 1e one, hardly ever used my 3e one. Sold it, actually, and have done fine since. I haven't used the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide, either. This more due to my group's dislike of D&D than lack of cool ideas. I doubt I'll ever get to use it.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Most of the books on my shelves have never been used in a real live game, but that doesn't make them poor purchases.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Just force yourself to use something from all of the books that you own before buying anything new.

That's what I do these days - especially when it comes to monster books

However, if Wizards ever do a book on how to design your own monsters, and tells you how to do CR right...

 

[Menexenus]

I have bookshelves full of D&D books (from every edition) and I probably have only used 10% of them. I've given up on feeling guilty about this and have taken to calling myself a "collector". If I'm just completing my "collection", I don't feel so bad about not actually using the material in my game. Maybe this little mental cheat will help you rationalize your addiction, too.