3.X essential books

[Feeroper]

Hey everyone,

I only ever got the core 3 books for D&D 3.5 and relied on my friends for any extra stuff. Since comming to 4e I've found the value is getting more books than just the core 3 (ie: PHB2, DMG2).

Anyway, as i love both 4th and 3rd editions, this has me wanting to expand my 3.5 library. For example, I never got the PHB2 or DMG2 in the 3rd edition era, were those any good?

What 3.X era books would you say are essential (for any reason)? I'm a player and a DM. Thanks!

 

[Shemeska]

Awesome:
Lords of Madness
Fiendish Codex I
Manual of the Planes
Serpent Kingdoms (FR)
FRCS (FR)

Pretty Dang Good:
Draconomicon
Fiendish Codex II
Magic of Faerun (FR)
Lost Empires of Faerun (FR)

 

[Voadam]

PHB2 had some great stuff.

The changes to druid wildshaping were fantastic, no more looking up individual animal stats, all one system useable from 1st level at will and powered appropriately.

I like the Beguiler, a nice illusion/mind mage trickster mage. a bunch of other classes to fill out some other niches with different mechanics.

Some decent feats and spells.

Spell Compendium really filled out spell options but had a bunch of ones that the power balance felt off on. Used with discretion it provided a lot of good stuff though.

Magic Item Compendium: same deal for items, including some great non-caster healing things.

Unearthed Arcana gave great variants and variant rules. Racial class levels are great, class variants are fun, and I love spontaneous divine casting and recharge magic.

Expanded Psionics Handbook: Provides psionics including point based psionic caster classes and a fantastic recharge power melee class the soulknife.

Complete Mage gave a bunch of feats that granted weak always on wizard/sorcerer powers.

Complete Arcane gave us the warlock for nonvancian simple mechanics spellcaster blasters. Dragon Magic gave a draconic variant in the spellfire adept.

Fantastic in-depth monster theme books: Lords of Madness, Fiendish Codex I, Fiendish Codex II, Draconomicon, Libris Mortis. Plenty of monsters to choose from in the 4 follow up MMs plus Monsters of Faerun and Fiend Folio. Not must haves but very fun.

 

[Joshua Randall]

PH2 and DMG2 are both excellent.

Magic Item Compendium has a good explanation of why the early-era 3e magic item pricing is so screwed up. It also has a lot of cool magic items in it.

Spell Compendium will save you from having to buy a ton of other books just to get spells. But I agree that the balance is off on some of them.

Draconomicon is outstanding, if you like dragons. Plenty of fluff and crunch, including stat'd out dragons at each category for each color. That's a lot of dragons.

Lords of Madness is also very good, about mind flayers, aboleth, and the like.

You didn't ask, but I think the best adventures from 3e are Forge of Fury (just a great dungeoncrawl, done right) and Red Hand of Doom. Interestingly, these come from very early in 3e (FoF) and very late (RHoD).

 

[Steel_Wind]

As 3.xx recedes in the rear-view mirror, I've come to regard a good portion of my massive 3.5 library with a great deal of contempt.

Fact is, WotC was putting out at least one and often two hardcovers a month. They made a ton of money - sure - but there is no way - not even a smidgen of a chance that expansion material was properly play-tested. Not even close.

In the result, when it comes to 3.5, my opinion comes down to this:

If it's a DM book - get it. By "DM book" I mean:

Monster Manual II-V, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, Fiend Folio, Fiendish Codex 1 and 2, Draconomicon, Heroes of Battle, and to a lesser extent Frostburn, Stormwrack, Sandstorm, Dungeonscape....

All of these WotC books for D&D 3.5 are useful to a DM in varying their adventures, coming up with new types of adventures and posing new foes for their players. As a DM book? I think they all rock. Heroes of Battle is probably the most original and under-rated book in the entire 3.5 product line.

But the key here is that these are DM BOOKS. They are not Player books (or at least, not principally Player books). Because that's where 3.5 broke into a BILLION PIECES.

If it's a Player Book? Don't Allow it.

The more classes, spells and items that 3.5 added to the system via player books - the more it broke into an unplayable state.

Spell Compendium? Utterly broken. The Complete Anything? BUSTED. Magic Item Compendium? Broken. PHB2? Skip it. Book of Nine Swords? Nope. Book of Exalted Deeds? Vile Darkness? No and no again.

Every time you see a new spell or new class for a player to use? Say no -- and say it loudly.

By all means - use all the DM stuff to change your game and provide a new experience to your players. But the moment you go beyond the Player's Handbook for player classes and spells, your campaign is just circling the bowl. It's just degrees of broketastic at that point. Worse, you will assure yourself that any published adventures or modules become instantly unbalanced in favour of the increasingly broketastic power your players bring to the table.

I fully expect there will be a LOUD dissenting voice on ENWorld concerning this opinion.

Dissenters: "XXXX was bad in that book sure, but YYYY and ZZZZ were fine. Keep the book but don't allow XXXX."

Un-huh. And how much after-the-fact-playtesting do you need to do for your campaign as you go on using this method of retcon permission to use an expansion book? line by line review? Allowing this spell and disallowing that one? Time after time, book after book? Nope. Screw it. Just say no.

The best thing, imo, about Pathfinder is that it allowed DMs to escape the Reign of Error that the Spell Compendium and the Complete Series inflicted upon late cycle 3.5 campaigns.

I won't go back to that crap for any reason. I am, for the same reason, extremely hesitant to permit the forthcoming Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide at our table.

I urge excessive and great caution in expending player choices beyond the Core rules. Change your game and its setting to make it different -- but resist the siren call of new classes and spells for the players. The players may think they'll love it - but the DM will end up hating it. It's just not worth it.

 

[Shoe]

As 3.xx recedes in the rear-view mirror, I've come to regard a good portion of my massive 3.5 library with a great deal of contempt.

Fact is, WotC was putting out at least one and often two hardcovers a month. They made a ton of money - sure - but there is no way - not even a smidgen of a chance that expansion material was properly play-tested. Not even close.

In the result, when it comes to 3.5, my opinion comes down to this:

If it's a DM book - get it. By "DM book" I mean:

Monster Manual II-V, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, Fiend Folio, Fiendish Codex 1 and 2, Draconomicon, Heroes of Battle, and to a lesser extent Frostburn, Stormwrack, Sandstorm, Dungeonscape....

All of these WotC books for D&D 3.5 are useful to a DM in varying their adventures, coming up with new types of adventures and posing new foes for their players. As a DM book? I think they all rock. Heroes of Battle is probably the most original and under-rated book in the entire 3.5 product line.

But the key here is that these are DM BOOKS. They are not Player books (or at least, not principally Player books). Because that's where 3.5 broke into a BILLION PIECES. The more classes, spells and items that 3.5 added to the system via player books - the more it broke into an unplayable state.

Spell Compendium? Utterly broken. The Complete Anything? BUSTED. Magic Item Compendium? Broken. PHB2? Skip it. Book of Nine Swords? Nope. Book of Exalted Deeds? Vile Darkness? No and no again.

Every time you see a new spell or new class for a player to use? Say no -- and say it loudly.

By all means - use all the DM stuff to change your game and provide a new experience to your players. But the moment you go beyond the Player's Handbook for player classes and spells, your campaign is just circling the bowl. It's just degrees of broketastic at that point. Worse, you will assure yourself that any published adventures or modules become instantly unbalanced in favour of the increasingly broketastic power your players bring to the table.

I fully expect there will be a LARGE dissenting voice on ENWorld concerning this opinion - but I am utterly convinced my view is objectively correct.

The best thing, imo, about Pathfinder is that it allowed DMs to escape the Reign of Error that the Spell Compendium and the Complete Series inflicted upon late cycle 3.5 campaigns.

I won't go back to that crap for any reason. I am, for the same reason, extremely hesitant to permit the forthcoming Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide at our table.

I urge excessive and great caution in expending player choices beyond the Core rules. Change your game and its setting to make it different -- but resist the siren call of new classes and spells for the players. It's just not worth it.

I couldnt agree with this more and honestly I thought I Was the only one who felt this way. I love 3.5 but I HEAVILY restrict player's options with splat books. WOTC was always trying to 1up themselves with player material because players are 80% of buyers. it's 1 DM to every 4-6 players. Some of the player options are good, but you have to be EXTREMELY pickey about what to allow.

 

[howandwhy99]

Your first stop might want to be one of the last books published for the line. The [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Compendium-Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying/dp/078694725X"]3E Rules Compendium[/ame]

 

[Diamond Cross]

I would add the Forgotten Realms books for 3.5. Specifically The Campaign book, Magic Book, Waterdeep book, and the Lost Empires of Faerun book. From Legends And Lairs I'd recommend the Seafarer's Handbook.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I've found the MIC the most useful and UA the most influential. Other favorites include LM, PHBII, & HoH. The race series, environment series, and monster books are generally all good.

In general, I'd agree that the DM books are higher quality than the PC books, but I think most of the WotC 3.5 stuff is at least decent. I've found that D&D is a very robust game that can stand up to insults by unbalanced material, as long as the players are reasonably mature. Get what fits the theme of your game.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I couldnt agree with this more and honestly I thought I Was the only one who felt this way. I love 3.5 but I HEAVILY restrict player's options with splat books. WOTC was always trying to 1up themselves with player material because players are 80% of buyers. it's 1 DM to every 4-6 players. Some of the player options are good, but you have to be EXTREMELY pickey about what to allow.

The shorthand for it in our group is "RMCVII" & "Underwater Companion".

In the late cycle of Rolemaster's Development back in the 90s, essentially everything after the Rolemaster Companion II was increasingly questionable, until by the time the game reached the stage that RMC VII was released, the power creep was just utterly and completely ridiculous.

When a book or class or ability is called "yeah, it's RMCVII" -- that's our gaming group's shorthand "for that's just power creep beyond repair. It's utterly broken. Don't bother getting it."

The Underwater Companion was a never released fictional product for Rolemaster that was the subject of a humorous post on the RM mailing list back-in-the-day. The supposed forthcoming book was to feature "All new Underwater classes and Spells! New Rules for Underwater adventuring and special underwater maneuvers!! All New underwater critical charts!!! etc.."

All of which was meant to poke fun that the Rolemaster 2ed system had bloated so much, they were soon going to release utterly stupid books with a scope so specialized and niche focussed that nobody really needed anything like that.

We all had quite a snark and giggle when Stormwrack was released -- instantly branding it as "The Underwater Companion" for D&D 3.5. Stormwrack is actually an interesting book and handy for changing up the natue of your campaign. Again - from a DM perspective. From a player's perspective?

Just say no.