Rate the best 4E Sourcebooks to date

[Doodles]

Aside from the core books PHBs/MMs/DMGs, and aside from setting-specific material, how would you rate the 4E sourcebooks published to date?

i.e. basically products presented on this page.

You might rate them from the one you prefer to the one you dislike the most, for instance. For instance:
1/ Adventurer's Vault
2/ Open Grave

Etc.

I haven't bought any yet and would like to know what you guys think.

 

[Jack99]

In the link in my sig, you can find a review of every 4e wotc book (and quite a few others) along with a rating. You can click the WotC label on the right side in order to filter out all the other books. Open Grave is my top choice, all around awesome book.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

1. Adventurer's Vault is a must-have.

2. Martial Powers/Arcane Powers/Divine Powers is nice, but not a must-have.

3. The dragon book and the undead book are good if you want to focus your game on that particular subject, but not as generally handy as the Powers books.

4. Manual of the Planes (which to be fair I only sat down and perused at a Borders) was a load of garbage.j

5. Dungeon Delve I have never read or peeked at but I don't consider it to be a "sourcebook".

 

[AngryMojo]

My personal favorite is Monster Manual 2. As a DM, I enjoy the flexibility it gives me. Plus many of the monsters are just plain cool.

 

[Cyronax]

I loved 3.0/3.5. It had a lot of great products and I still think its the culmination of D&D's culture created by Gygax/Arneson/et. al.

Anyway, in terms of 4e ...... its such a coherent and unified system that WotC can almost just paint by numbers for certain products. The Arcane/Divine/Martial Power books are cool, but aren't the heavy lifting of the new system.

My personal favorites have so far been the Manual of the Planes, the Eberron Campaign Guide, and the MM2. All three take the system to a new level and show its utility past a standard Points of Light crawl. The Eberron Campaign Guide in particular is helped show a unique world's NPCs at somewhat conterversial power levels. The Blood of Vol's queen, for instance, is only 19th level ... but the rational for that level of power despite her HUGE international power is quite clear. Such a thing was possible in earlier editions, but I like how its done in 4e -- a (somewhat) powerful NPC manages her huge influence in ways that aren't all tied to the game's all-encompassing ruleset like in 3.x.

C.I.D.

 

[haaz]

1. Arcane Power. Just amazing. I have not yet the Divine Power, but I think it would get around there too.
2. Player's Handbook 2. I really love the new classes (except perhaps the invoker or the bard...)
3. Manual of the planes (really great ideas inside)
4. Adventurer's Vault (fortunaltely, all interresting magic items are gathered in only ONE book).
5. Martial power (the beast ranger)

There is no monster book here, but I'm a player after all

 

[Mistwell]

Open Grave is hands down the best DMs book yet.

 

[morgul97]

My top 5

1) PHB2 - The most important expansion book yet, as it incorporates some of the cornerstones of traditional D&D back into the game. A real must have for any player. Of our 5 players, 2 are playing PHB classes and in our next campaign it will likely be all 5.

2) Adventurer's Vault - Another must have for any player. We use this at our table every week.

3) Open Grave - I personally love undead in a campaign and this has some great ideas.

4) Arcane Power - Really adds some great options for arcane characters. A much more useful expansion than Martial Powers.

5) Draconomicon - Completely full of dragons. If dragons are your thing, this is a great book.

Bonus - The Manual of the Planes is a book that I wasn't so sure about when I first started looking at it. I have gone from "this isn't very good," to "this is different," to "this is sort of intersting," to "wow, this is full of good stuff." Every time I pick it up, I'm more and more impressed with it. It has lots of layers and their is a ton of info their. My current thought is that this incarnation of the planes is much more intesting and in terms of playability and just blows away the great wheel setting. I'm not really sure where to put this book in the list. Probably well into the top 5, but hard to say.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Thus far the best books would have to be:

MMII: This book has lots of monsters, and the monsters ae clearly at a higher level than the MMI ones. They also did a good job of the 6th to 12th monster levels, which were a bit light in the MMI. If you are gonna DM, then this book is essential.

AVI: Again, lots of good stuff here for players and DMs. The PHBI magic items are just not enough, not enough by far. Also, it is a very convenient book to carry around to games.

PHBII: Some great classes, some decent classes, but overall it is interesting to see how the designers took the four basic roles and switched them up. New strikers, new leaders, etc. Plus some good races, and feats rund out this book. I'm not sure if I will buy PHBIII or not, but this was was well worth my money.

Grave, Manual, Dragons, Campaign Settings etc, did not buy them, did not read them.

 

[malraux]

I am somewhat impressed at how few stinkers there have been, actually. Comparing the first 10 or so books put out in 3e vs 4e, and the standard of quality is actually pretty good.