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Must Have 3.0 Books (And More)

EdwardForrester

First Post
Greetings All,
I am working on getting my D&D collection up to par by getting all the 3.5 Books. But I am wondering something, which out of all the 3.0 books out there would absolutely and without a doubt need to be in my library. The update print out from wizards has the Monster Manual II, Deities and Demigods, Epic Level Handbook, Fiend Folio and Manual of the Panes in it, so that is a start. But I am wondering which others I should get. Also with the release of the Expanded Psionics Handbook and the Planar Handbook would it still be in my best intrests to get the Manual of the Planes and the original Psionics Handbook. Thank you all for your time.
 

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Staffan

Legend
The Expanded Psionics Handbook totally replaces the 3.0 Psionics Handbook. So unless you really want a system where psionics are underpowered with the exception of a handful abusive combos, don't get the 3.0 book.

Manual of the Planes is a different story. The Planar Handbook is a companion to MotP, not a replacement. That said, large chunks of MotP were included in the 3.0 DMG (basic planar mechanics, overview of the Great Wheel cosmology), though not all of it.
 


axp_dave

First Post
I think one of the best D&D books ever is the Stronghold Builders Guidebook for 3.0. Our players are all building keeps and this book is simple, but very complete. Almost the entire book works with 3.5 w/o adjustment.

David
 

A brief list of 3.0 books I think help a lot, or are just really good:

Masters of the Wild (or Fairies and Berries, as my group normally calls it) is always a good one to have around, simplty because it contains what is by far (IMHO) the best and simplest version of Wildshape that has been published.

A 3.0 version of the PHB is kinda handy for quick reference, especially if you're players are more used to it and/or want a reminder of how things used to be before the upgrade.

Beyond Monks (a pdf by Chainmail Bikini) was and still is one of my favorite third party resources for martial artist type stuff. Can be applied to 3.5 with very little updating.

Book of Challenges is a great aid for quick dungeons and good story ideas.

The Stonghold Builder's Guide is great for providing ideas, structure, and consistency if you want to add a lot of castles to your game. (Edit: axp dave beat me to it on this one.)

Librum Equitus Vol 1 and 2 (pdfs) contain what is probably the best collection of prestige classes I have read that are all usefull, fun, and balanced.

Finally, A Portable Hole Full of Beer (pdf) is both a hilarious read, and a fairly useful book to have to add a little humor and oddity to a game.
 
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Staffan

Legend
Deset Gled said:
Masters of the Wild (or Fairies and Berries, as my group normally calls it)
Somewhat off-topic, regarding alternate names for books, I think it's a shame that they renamed Tooth and Claw to Savage Species, and I like the alternate name someone came up with for Song and Silence - Lute and Loot.
 


Arkhandus

First Post
With the 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook, there's no need to pick up the old 3.0 Psionics Handbook, unless you like psions relying on multiple ability scores and psychic warriors having worthless powers. :^D The XPH isn't a great revision in my opinion, but it does fix some of the problems of the 3.0 PsiHB, and has more content, even though it's got a few brokenly-overpowered powers and combos of its own.

The Manual of the Planes is a good resource if you like devising your own planar cosmologies or want decent amounts of detail on the Great Wheel cosmology; each GW plane (including the transitive ones and such) has at least a page or two of description, some of them several pages. The book has several planar phenomena and 'storms' described, plus a few details on things like Githyanki Astral Carracks. There's a variety of optional planes like the Plane of Time, the Plane of Dream, a living plane, a few details on the Far Realm, alternate Planes of Faerie, and guidelines for designing various types of plane or cosmology. It has various spells that are quite useful for planar travel and survival, and use/location/sealing of portals, plus a few neat prestige classes like the Gatecrasher. MotP has various creatures like the Yugoloths, Mercanes, Energons, Inevitables, Githyanki, Githzerai, Bariaurs, and such, plus several Elemental and Half-Elemental templates, the Shadow template, the Anarchic and Axiomatic templates, and the Petitioner template. The Planar Handbook is definately no more than a supplement to Manual of the Planes, more character-oriented whereas the Manual is somewhat more DM-oriented (and it's got better details for DMs regarding the Great Wheel planes).

Personally I think 3.0 Oriental Adventures is a great book (download the errata though, there's a few confusing typos in the book), but it's not really necessary (though it doesn't seem likely that WotC will be publishing any 3.5 OA materials, aside from their occasional insert of a more-or-less-unchanged/unerrata'd OA class into the Complete X series).

The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, and the Arms & Equipment Guide, are both useful accessories from what I've heard, though I haven't gotten the SBG yet myself. The A&EG has compiled gear, vehicles, tips, magic items, and such from the 3.0 splatbooks (Sword and Fist, Masters of the Wild, etc.), though it doesn't have everything from them (i.e. it lacks their prestige classes for instance), and the A&EG has many good variant armors/weapons/materials as well as new magic items, artifacts, and vehicles. If you already have or are planning to get a few of the class guidebooks though, you probably shouldn't bother getting the A&EG too, since some of its material comes from those.

Of the splatbooks, the ones I'd most reccomend, if any, would be Sword & Fist and Tome & Blood; Masters of the Wild has too much broken junk, and a lot of unhelpful tips and spells, though it has a precious few things in it worth looking at or maybe using. The splatbooks aren't that terribly important though, but do provide a useful variety of options (i.e. S&F's good variety of prestige classes, feats, gear, and fortresses, T&B's similar variety of neat PrCs, feats, gear, and spells, plus item creation/spell creation tips/guidelines).

Savage Species isn't worthwhile, nor is the Epic Level Handbook, nor Deities & Demigods. Monster Manual II is useful though, I think.
 

Eremite

Explorer
At the risk of repeating what others have said I would mention (IMO):

- PsiHB is not worth getting. It was pretty ordinary whereas the XPH is, IMO, outstanding and definitely worth purchasing and using.
- Deities & Demigods was possibly the least useful 3E product published by WotC and is simply not worth purchasing.
- Savage Species and Epic Level Handbook are also both very, very ordinary.
- Manual of the Planes is very good but not really necessary.
- I personally wouldn't bother with the character splatbooks either.
 

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