D&D 3E/3.5 Help me Build a D&D3.5 Library!

[Dannyalcatraz]

I know I didn't mention it before, but despite getting the Magic of Incarnum book within a month of its release, I've only recently gotten started exploring it (I'm not DMing right now, so it wasn't pressing).

And I think it is a worthy inclusion to a 3.5 campaign.

What I've found so far has impressed me enough to start designing some MOI-centered alternative base classes- all variants of PHB/OA classes. (FWIW, when I get close to completing them, I'll post them on ENWorld for tweeking and everyone's use.)

 

[Nyaricus]

My Suggestions:

• Core 3
• PHBII
• DMGII
• Unearthed Arcana
• Spell Compendium. It has everything in it
• Magic Item Compendium (due out Jan or Feb 07, IIRC).
• The Complete Series (although you don't need to have the complete sereis (heh heh!) only what you want. I personally recommend Complete Adventurer and Complete Arcane over the others.
• The Enviroment Series. These are possibly some of the best written WotC works in a long time, IMO. Again, just get what you need - but be sure to get it! Also, Dungeonscape is coming out, true, but the Forgotten Realms book Underdark is a great resource right now, with nifty PrCs, PC races, rules for movement, etc etc.
• Heroes of Horror. Great, great book. Buy it, if only for the Archivist class (a divine scholar type which is really awesome) or just take the entire class from the exerpt here. Also has great tips on how to incorperate horror into your games, and monsters, etc.
• Expanded Psionics Handbook. Great selection here. A nice, point-based "magic" system which has some solid mechanics behind it. I had lots of fun with my first ever spellcaster-type PC in a campaign using a Psion. Can't recommend it enough
• Monster Books. The Fiend Folio, MM1 and 3 (a a bit of 2) are all good, soild purchases. I also secon the Complete Book of Templates mentioned before - it's awesome!

Also, if I could recommend one 3rd party book, it'd be From Stone to Steel, a book which contains 3000 years of arms and armour information and which is absolutely amazing. It's 3.0, but the changes are easily made (mostly weapons sizes and damage scaling and the like).

Other than those, I can't think of much - but welcome back to the hobby and good luck with that game

cheers,
--N

P.S. Here is the link to the Wizards site which has a downloadable .pdf of the changes from 3.0 to 3.5 D&D.

 

[Yair]

I've actually got that - I kept it along with Fields of Blood because it's such a useful sourcebook on medieval societies, useful in lots and lots of different games.

Yes. Haven't got Fields of Blood, but heard good things about it.

I glanced briefly at the PHBII and DMGII at the local store the other day. Neither seemed to have anything jump out at me that would be immediately useful, but given the reccommendations in this thread, I think I'll pick those up next.

Personally, I wouldn't put tht much stock in other people's recommendations. If you browse the book and it doesn't interest you, I'd suggest it's probably not for you. Different people have different tastes and all. There are so many truly great books, I'd save my money for those that will suit me best.

After that I will probably go for a couple of variant monster books, probably MMIII and IV, as well as this Fiendish Codex I.

Again, I'd suggest you consider 3rd party books as well. In addition to the Book of Fiends mentioned above (which I personally suspect would be much more fun than Fiendish Codex), and Denziens of Avandu, I'd also mention The Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary which is a huge book that seemed full of both interesting and detailed creatures (it's 3e, not 3.5e, but should still be very useful). For sheer abundance, the Monster Geographica series by Expeditious Retreat Press compiled lots and lots of monsters from many sources into a single cheap series arranged by environment (but with no art), and their Monster Builder provides tools to make your own monsters.

I should also have a look at the Drow War series - is the whole thing released?

Yes. The beginning seems a bit heavy-handed, but aside from that it looks like a great adventure to me. I was really conflicted over whether to start this or Shackled City. (I ended up going with Shackled City, but just barely.) Mongoose is offering the 3-book package, a complete campaign from level 1 to 30, for 75$, and each single book for 35$. (For comparison, Shackeld City is sold for 60$ for levels 1-20.) The trilogy is composed of The Gathering Strom (levels 1 to 10) where the PCs are "chosen", learn of the war, and prepare the populace, The Dying Light (levels 11-20) where the PCs save the kingdom from the drow, and The Darkest Hour (levels 21-30) where the PCs go out to the planes to save the cosmos (which looks a bit unconnected to the previous too, frankly).
I haven't read it (it's a bit expensive for me, and not all of it was out at the time), but I've read what I could about it and it looked good.

If you do choose The Drow War, you might want to pack up on drow goodness such as Green Ronin's Plot & Poison: A Guidebook to Drow (which I found interesting, though not truly great and with apalling fonts). Mongoose Publishing seems to have published a lot about drow, but I haven't ready any of it. Their Encyclopedia Arcana: Drow Magic sounds very interesting, IMO, but they have lots of others too (The Quintessential Drow, Tome of Drow Lore). (Of course just the core books will suffice, you don't need more on drow to run te campaign, I just think variety is the spice of life.)

Also, I'm especially interested in variant magic systems. So I should probably have a look at the Tome of Magic and Magic of Incarnum, as well as maybe the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Can anyone give me specifics on these?

I really liked the Expanded Psionics Handbook. I find the characters it produces are interesting and varied, and fun to play. The use of psionic feats and psychic warriors allow for dynamic character with strange powers used in battle, while the psion is more interesting than sorcerer as he has options to augment his spells or not that allow greater flexibility to the magic system compared to the rigid spells in the core books. There are a few points where you might want to tweak for balance, but it isn't really unbalanced - it plays well as is.

I don't have eperience with any of the others, which were far better described by the posters before me. (I'm surprised to hear such good things of Magic of Incarnum. I might check it out.)

I'm not sure what you want in a magic system, but I'd suggest checking out the offerings from 3rd parties again. Elements of Magic: Revised Edition by E.N. Publishing is very well liked (you'd probably want Elements of Magic: Lyceian Arcana , it's companion book, with it). It provdies a magic system that is totally divorced from the standard one, a highly flexible magic system where wizards aren't limited by number of spells per day. Green Ronin's True Sorcery provides a system along similar principles. The Psychic's Handbook was already recommended above, for a psionics system along similar lines. I've heard good things of RPGObjects' Legends of Sorcery too, which again removes the spells/day mechanism but maintains the use of PH spells. Atlas Games' Occult Lore presents several alternate magical systems/classes, some of which you may like. I've personally found its classes too weak and strange, but of use for "strange NPC magic" such as gypsies. You might also want to check out the Artificer's Handbook, which by all acounts is a superior way to handle magic item creation but more work intensive too.


Last, I would urge you to make avail of ENWorld's reviews database as well as this thread.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

If you wnat to stick to expanding what is available based off of the core rules (i.e. Races, Calsses, Equipment and Spells, etc.) here is what I recommend: Races of Stone, Races of Destiny, Races of the Wild, Complete Warrior, Complete Arcane, Complete Divine, Complete Adventurer, Spell Compendium, Deities & Demigods and the Arms & Equipment Guide.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Races of Destiny is horrible. The other two (non-campaign-specific ones) are useful in some ways, if you're into that kind of thing.

The Completes - all five (including Mage) - are very good for player options. . . and also wacky stuff you can dose your NPCs and monsters up on, of course. Recommended.

Psionics takes magic in a different direction, but one that is really quite strikingly similar to well, magic. I'm not sure any game needs this stuff, unless you're doing Dark Sun, sci fi crossover, or something else that's especially psi-supporting. I therefore don't recommend the Expanded Psionics Handbook or Complete Psionic, for what you are apparently intending to run.

The Player's Handbook II, on the other hand, is good stuff if you want even more options (as per the Completes), plus some other handy bits for players. I like this one, overall, though it really could've done without the 'Dragon Shaman' and a couple of other things, IMO.

Having more monster books is great. I'd probably go with the Monster Gift Set (which is MMII, MMIII and FF, in a slip case) and then see what else appeals, if anything.

Spell Compendium rocks a lot of people's socks. I am personally ambivalent at best about any kind of needless doubling up of material - particularly when errata, that should have been inlcuded, wasn't - but I can see that other perspective, sure enough. :\


And yeah, at that point (if you have most or all of the above, that is recommended), I would suggest stopping purchases until you figure out if you need anything else, and if so, what. I know, I know, I probably don't need to say that, but you'd be surprised.

Third party material? Ack, I can see why you're limiting the field, by default. So much that is so good. . .

As for other magic systems, could you narrow that down a bit? Again, there are just so many. . .

And, as Yair said, the review section here, and the one at http://rpg.net actually, are very useful when you're making these kinds of decisions.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Spell Compendium. Absolutely one of the most awesome supplements out there. I get as much use out of it as a DM as the players do.

I'd recommend you check out the Player's Handbook II and the Dungeon Master's Guide II. They have enough general interest bits that are genuinely useful that I end up using them quite a bit.

QFT. These three books are EXCELLENT additions. Also, Draconomicon is extremely nice.

 

[Yair]

... Deities & Demigods and the Arms & Equipment Guide.

I wouid actually recommend against these two. I found De&De little more than a monster book for deities, and unless that's something you'd want I suggest not picking it up. A&EG I found exceedingly boring, and not at all useful. (It's also 3e IIRC.) You'll do just fine with the various Complete's additions. If you want still more armaments, I'd prefer the 3rd party Arms & Armor 3.5 that's sometimes unbalanced but at least is fun, or the From Flint to Steel mentioned above.

Different tastes, I guess.

Psionics takes magic in a different direction, but one that is really quite strikingly similar to well, magic. I'm not sure any game needs this stuff, unless you're doing Dark Sun, sci fi crossover, or something else that's especially psi-supporting. I therefore don't recommend the Expanded Psionics Handbook or Complete Psionic, for what you are apparently intending to run.

Psionics has a different feel to it, certainly, which may clash with your game. I'd recommend browsing the psionic section of www.d20srd.org to see the kind of stuff. (Essentially, it's the whole Expanded Psionics Handbook for free, but less beautiful, less well-bound, and missing a few tidbits.) Personally, however, I find that psionics are not a problem in a setting that accepts monks... incorporating them into a ready-made campaign might require more work, however.

Third party material? Ack, I can see why you're limiting the field, by default. So much that is so good. . .

While I generally agree that much 3rd party stuff is of poor quality, there are some things that are of outstanding quality. I tried to recommend only products that seem to be well recognized as having a quality on par with or exceeding WotC's. (And even WotC has duds, like De&De or A&EG).

 

[Aus_Snow]

While I generally agree that much 3rd party stuff is of poor quality

Agree with who? Not me, just in case that was who you thought you were agreeing with there.

If that's what you thought, sorry I was being a bit ambiguous. Not for the first time, I suspect.

I meant that I could understand Gary N. Mengle limiting purchases to WotC material by default, for the reasons he gave (i.e., that too many good choices can be kind of overwhelming, and that some rules will not necessarily mesh perfectly with the core RAW). I was essentially agreeing, and holding off from recommending any 3rd party products, because there are just so many excellent ones, a few of which have been suggested in this thread already.

So, while I'm overusing variations of the word 'agree', I agree with you as well, Yair. F'rex:

(. . .) [T]here are some things that are of outstanding quality

; and:

WotC has duds, like De&De or A&EG

, what's more.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

ACK- I left off Unearthed Arcana and Savage Species! The former gives you racial paragon classes and a lot of variants that you might find useful. The latter has more templates than any other single WotC book, and has the anthropomorphic animal rules.

As for 3rd party stuff, I'll just reccomend you take a look at my list again. Much of what is in those books I reccomended is quite easily ported into a basic 3.X D&D game.

Some of the classes and races in Arcana Unearthed/Evolved can be used with only minor modification. For example, the Greenbond is a nice Druid variant, the Oathsworn is a VERY good unarmed combatant, and the Mage Blade is still the best single-class fusion of arcane spellcasting and warrior archetypes.

There are concepts within Iron Heroes that can turbocharge your melee fights.

Midnight is one of the best LotR-type campaigns out of the box there is.

Rokugan and Swashbuckling Adventures really capture the flavor of the Asian and Imperial Europe type settings.

Nyambe and Northern Crown are really cool alt-hist settings.

 

[solomoncane]

After the core, I'd suggest:

WOTC Unearthed Arcana (I consider this the "4th Core")
WOTC Spell Compendium
WOTC Magic Item Compendium (coming in 2007)
Bad Axe Games's Grim Tales
Bastions Press's Arms & Armor 3.5 (more fanciful than Monkey God's From Stone to Steel)
Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary (or Silverthorn's Book of Templates Deluxe 3.5)

That's all the rules I'd ever need.