D&D 4E Sell me on these 4e sourcebooks!

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

I have all of these at home, but I'll be going of memory. Some of these I haven't read in quite a while so I'll maybe update this post this evening after I flip through them again.

• Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons
• Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons

Solid books. Necessary if you want to build an adventure around dragons. I prefer the 3.5 dragon books. If you have those I'd skip these.

• Marauders of the Dune Sea [Dark Sun]

Only get it if you're a completist. I'd actually look for the Encounters Dark Sun adventure. It had problems too, but the first section had a great level 1 hook and the middle section has an excellent opportunity to introduce the history of Athas and multiple campaign hooks via an ancient tomb.

• Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead

This is actually also something of a Shadowfell source book. And the monsters are pretty great too. One of the top 4E books, IMHO.

• Player's Handbook Races: Tieflings

Oops. Don't have this one. But it's pretty cheap and didn't sell well. So you can probably still find it on a shelf to flip through or just pick it up without busting your budget.

• The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea

I did like Plane Below and think Plane Above is better. Pretty much a requirement if you are going to be plane-hopping.

• Tomb of Horrors

Haven't played it, but it looks like a better paragon-adventure path than the P-series. Be aware it isn't a "complete" adventure path in that there are holes you'll have to fill with your own adventures to make all the encounters level-appropriate.

• Vor Rukoth

It's a neat setting and pretty cheap, so I recommend you pick it up. DMs can never have too much inspiration or places to steal things from, and this is better than most.

 

[Knightfall]

Well, I bought The Plane Above today. It's definitely a more readable book than The Plane Below was. I'm really looking forward to reading the section on the various races of the Astral Sea.

 

[Knightfall]

• Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons
• Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons

Solid books. Necessary if you want to build an adventure around dragons. I prefer the 3.5 dragon books. If you have those I'd skip these.

I do have the 3.5 dragon books. The 3e Draconomicon is one of my favorite D&D books of all time.

Note that I don't have access to DDI and I'm not likely to get it any time soon. I prefer my references in book format. That's why I'm interested in the DM-based books for 4e. And it sounds like the two Draconomicons are DM oriented.

But, how readable are they?

I noticed that one of the previews for the Metallic book is on Draconians. That makes me very interested in that one.

• Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead

This is actually also something of a Shadowfell source book. And the monsters are pretty great too. One of the top 4E books, IMHO.

I just got finished looking at the PDF preview of the Table of Contents for this book on the official site. All I have to say is... WOW!!!

This book is full of monsters, plus Acererak, plus Kas, plus Strahd von Zarovich, plus Vecna! I'm sold.

• Tomb of Horrors

Haven't played it, but it looks like a better paragon-adventure path than the P-series. Be aware it isn't a "complete" adventure path in that there are holes you'll have to fill with your own adventures to make all the encounters level-appropriate.

I'm fairly certain I'm going to get Tomb of Horrors at some point. It's been first on my list for some time now, but I keep finding other things to buy (and not just 4e books). Now it might have to wait until after I get Open Grave.

 

[Knightfall]

BTW...

How does Revenge of the Giants compare to Tome of Horrors?

 

[666Sinner666]

ToH is a "super adventure" but what they don't tell you is that its a three part adventure where you start out just below paragon, 8-10, and get your foot into the paragon door, then you "level up" to 16 and start the second part of the adventure and get close to epic then "level up" again to 21 and finish ToH then. So it is really meant to be an over arcing story that you have to play ad-lib with.

It is fun and very challenging but it just rubs me the wrong way how they left gapping holes, level wise and maybe its always been that way, between the different parts and really don't market that fact. Overall its a nice buy if not just for the nostalgia of it.

 

[Knightfall]

FYI...

I bought both Open Grave and Tomb of Horrors the other day. A lot of great monsters in Open Grave. And I really like the look and feel of ToH.

Well done Ari! ( [MENTION=1288]Mouseferatu[/MENTION] )

Note: I was able to get both for a discounted price from a FLGS.

 

[SSquirrel]

-The first combat encounter has Thri-kreen and Elves working together! These two races absolutely despise each other. This is like a dwarf marrying an orc, never happen! To make matters worse a templar from Urik is part of the ambush openly displaying his templar-ness in Tyr. He would be killed on sight there. It's like the author knows nothing about the race, culture or world flavor.

This Amazon commenter should probably have read the current edition, especially this quote from the front of the book:

"You can still find 2nd Edition DARK SUN game products online or in used bookstores, but this new edition of the setting is a reimagining of the campaign world as its story begins. People, places, and events described in older products might be different (or absent) in this edition."

There is a quick bit that says that most people distrust the Elves, however, nowhere in the book is there mention #1 of Elves and TKs hating each other. 4E is a much more cosmopolitan edition in general and this is yet another example of it.

The rest of the comments are all quite valid tho heh.

 

[Istar]

What would be nice, is a new version of the core books, with all the errata in it.
Fully edited.
Highly possibly they have now gone on to essentials and dont care about the core game and have stopped meddling with it.

As the players in our group are agesd with family, they find it very frustrating they can not rely on the sourcebooks as they are so heavily nerfed and screwed up.

Plus I think they are missing out on potential revenue as well.
I guess they are worried they wont get it right, again.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons -- exactly what it says on the tin. Not nearly as good as the 3e Draconomicon (which was one of the best of all the 3e books), but decent.

It's kind of a weird book, though, because the metallics are the good guys. So the book goes to great lengths to find bizarre reasons why the PCs might need to fight a gold dragon, or something, and then it introduces a bunch of other metallics too, seemingly just so there can be bad guy metallics.

That said, the only time I have cracked this open since purchasing it was to grab a random combat encounter. So I guess I'm a hypocrite when it comes to having the PCs fight good guy dragons.

 

[Jhaelen]

Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons -- exactly what it says on the tin. Not nearly as good as the 3e Draconomicon (which was one of the best of all the 3e books), but decent.

It's kind of a weird book, though, because the metallics are the good guys. So the book goes to great lengths to find bizarre reasons why the PCs might need to fight a gold dragon, or something, and then it introduces a bunch of other metallics too, seemingly just so there can be bad guy metallics.

I think you missed the message, then: Metallic dragons are no longer the good guys. Just like in the Eberron setting, (metallic) dragons can have any alignment.

I don't recall the book giving any 'bizarre' reasons why the PCs might be opposed by metallic dragons. Actually, I found the reasons perfectly reasonable and way more interesting than the motivations of your typical 'evil' chromatic dragons.

After reading it, I've been thinking to completely get rid of the chromatic dragons and only use the metallic ones. It's that good.