Best of 3.5 (particularly hardcovers and settings)

[pawsplay]

From WotC: Mostly just Fiendish Codices I and II, especially Hordes of the Abyss; Heroes of Horror; Lords of Madness.

I'm a huge fan of Love & War, Crime & Punishment, and Dynasties & Demagogues. AEG's Magic was also a fun read, but probably a bit dated now, and Mercenaries was the PHBII before there was a PHBII.

Not so useful to everyone, from Nyambe is a gorgeous, fun book, and Testament is shockingly well done.

 

[Voadam]

I like Wildwood, a 3.5 high powered, high fantasy D&D setting (if you know Oathbound from 3.0 this is a 3.5 take on the world from the wilderness domain/continent).

I also like Pirate's Guide to Freeport. Technically statless/systemless this was originally a 3.0 setting that married pirates and Cthulhu in D&D. The Pirates guide is 256 pages of description. The original 3.0 city book was campy with silliness and this brings it back to a gritty and horror touched vibe similar to the original module trilogy.

 

[Shemeska]

To add to my earlier post, I only included WotC books on my list of good 3.5 stuff, and there were a lot of books not from WotC to include, particularly a number from Paizo that were awesome.

Monster Ecologies - a compilation of monster ecologies from Dragon magazine, with some additional material added in for some of them.

Classic Monsters Revisited - really awesome book, and it kicked off a series of X revisited books that have all been equally awesome and continue to be so.

Literally all of the Pathfinder adventure path material - my favorite is a tie between Rise of the Runelords and Legacy of Fire.

Various assorted Pathfinder Chronicles and Companion books - my favorites include Elves of Golarion, Dragons Revisited, The Great Beyond (I'm biased there), and the PF / Golarion Campaign Setting itself.

 

[Wik]

My favourite 3e book (but it's not 3.5) was the Call of Cthulu d20 book. Years later, I still read that one. Amazing book, and filled with stuff to mine. The adventure ideas chapter is amazing, and one that I wish every RPG book had.

Heroes of Horror is probably my favourite 3.5E book in terms of fluff. It's a great book, and it has a lot of stuff/advice to play around with. Plus it's a fun read.

Dragon Magic is good, too, but it is a bit crunch heavy at times.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I second the vote for FR: Serpent Kingdoms. Lots of interesting fluff in that book!

DS

 

[Thaumaturge]

*Settings, or setting templates

Ptolus.

*Anything to do with lost lore, artifacts, mysteries, powerful creatures, etc.

Ptolus.

*Anything related to setting or campaign creation, interesting DM tips, etc.

Ptolus.

It's an expensive book, but it covers many topics, is quite in-depth, and is well written.

Thaumaturge.

I'm currently converting Ptolus to 4e out of love.

 

[catsclaw227]

Bluffside: City on the Edge This is on older 3.0 setting book that is totally awesome. It was published by Mystic Eye Games and very creative for a city with lots of adventure and potential for doing more with the city. It was well recieved here at the time but I imagine since it is rarely talked about these days it can be found pretty cheap.

Thieves Quarter and Temple Quarter This is two sections of one city and I think Arcane Quarter came out as a PDF but not in print. Lots of great places and ideas here. There is a PDF adventure set in the city that I don't recall thew name of but writtern by Rodney Thompson I believe (who is now the Star Wars Saga dude). It was a lot of fun and made for a good city based adventure which are rare.

I'm a huge fan of Love & War, Crime & Punishment, and Dynasties & Demagogues.

I like Wildwood, a 3.5 high powered, high fantasy D&D setting (if you know Oathbound from 3.0 this is a 3.5 take on the world from the wilderness domain/continent).

I also like Pirate's Guide to Freeport. Technically statless/systemless this was originally a 3.0 setting that married pirates and Cthulhu in D&D. The Pirates guide is 256 pages of description. The original 3.0 city book was campy with silliness and this brings it back to a gritty and horror touched vibe similar to the original module trilogy.

I will agree with ALL of these. Add in the Oathbound setting and you got a nice set.

Also, I would like to throw in the Warlords of the Accordlands set of 4 hardcovers. There are some mistakes, sure, and some balance issues that are easy to work out, but the FLAVOR was really incredible and one of the best flavor settings I have read in a long time.

OK, one of my biggest, strongest opinions? Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous belongs on every 3.x DM's shelf. Without question.

 

[catsclaw227]

I second the vote for FR: Serpent Kingdoms. Lots of interesting fluff in that book!

Well, the fluff was good....

But mechanically, this is the one that arguably made Pun-Pun who he is.

 

[Shemeska]

Well, the fluff was good....

But mechanically, this is the one that arguably made Pun-Pun who he is.

Yay for rules loopholes that make no sense in context. It was a power innate to a rare to the point of being nearly extinct and virtually unknown race, that could in theory be combined with things from other books that were never intended to be used in that way, etc etc.

Don't blame Serpent Kings for Char Op notions taken to absurd levels.

 

[Dykstrav]

I'm going to have to take the opportunity here to plug one of my favorite 3E supplements that quietly died under the radar: Ghostwalk.

It's 3E and not 3.5, so it technically might not fit into what you're looking for. Still, it's a hell of a read and well worth a look.

It's a campaign setting published by Wizards of the Coast, and the basic concept is that it's a setting where character death doesn't necessarily suck. The focus is around the city of Manifest, where the dead go to pass on to the afterlife, and where the living can come and interact with the dead without special magic or anything. A party of adventurers can contain living and undead members as the party and DM sees fit. Orcus was actually promoted to full-on deity in this setting, which gives it immediate cool points in my book.

Unfortunately, only the core setting book was published. I would love to have seen a Ghostwalk Player's Guide or a good adventure path.