TSR Best D&D Novels

[Voadam]

What is very rare in D&D novels is point-of-view, game-accurate spellcasters. Low-level spellcasters, not the uber can-do-anything-offhandedly people like Elminster or the Simbul or Azalin or Hamanu or later-books Raistlin. Spellcasters who ponder what spells to prepare that day, or who worry about whether they should use their one daily third level slot to fireball the gnolls or save it for later, etc etc.

I remember a dragonlance trilogy(?), I think it was the Medusa Eye one where the protagonist is a not high level red robes mage and it being both a decent set of novels and a decent portrayal of an AD&D mid-level mage. I read them in the 90s though so the details are more than a little fuzzy.

 

[Zaukrie]

There are actually quite a few. Drizzt has his group of friends (very unbalanced though, not a spellcaster among them!), and the Prism Pentad books (Verdant Passage in particular) have almost a classic D&D party. Thinking of others - the Moonshae trilogy has a party, and others that also have a really tight PC-group type arrangement off the top of my head are Azure Bonds, King Pinch, the Cleric Quintet...

Novel parties tend to split up more than PC parties though, just for dramatic tension.

What is very rare in D&D novels is point-of-view, game-accurate spellcasters. Low-level spellcasters, not the uber can-do-anything-offhandedly people like Elminster or the Simbul or Azalin or Hamanu or later-books Raistlin. Spellcasters who ponder what spells to prepare that day, or who worry about whether they should use their one daily third level slot to fireball the gnolls or save it for later, etc etc.

clearly I didn't read enough of them....thanks!

 

[KahlessNestor]

Drizzt has his group of friends (very unbalanced though, not a spellcaster among them!)

Actually, Cattie-Brie is a spellcaster now. She's a druid/cleric/wizard mix, though mostly wizard. She's had training by the Harpells in Longbottom. At most she's a level 3 cleric or druid (she cast Call Lightning), and she does some healing, and she's a Chosen of Mielikki. At least all this is at the point where I am in the books (Rise of the King).

 

[Dire Bare]

Ack! I hate making those errors. I just looked at the spine of my copy of the book.

It's not an error if you were unaware that someone has changed their preferred name.

I just did a quick google search, first on "Paul Kidd" and got nothing about the name change . . . . then on "Pauli Kidd" and found their Twitter, Patreon, and YouTube channels.

Thanks to @Mannahnin for bringing Pauli's name change to our attention! I have fond memories of their D&D novels, it was fun seeing what they are up to now, and maybe someday I can throw a couple of dollars towards their Patreon account.

 

[Dire Bare]

There are very few DnD novels. Almost all of them feature on main character, not a party. Having written a first draft fantasy novel, about a party, it is really hard to write about that many characters and have them be interesting. Dragonlance is about a party.....but not many are.

clearly I didn't read enough of them....thanks!

Heh, it's okay if you haven't read many, but yeah . . . . there are HUNDREDS of official D&D novels, even if you don't include short story collections and the Endless Quest gamebooks. Here's a list if you are curious.

Some of them focus on a single protagonist, others a small group, and plenty on a "full" adventuring party. It's a pretty good mix over the course of the franchise.

 

[Dire Bare]

Actually, Cattie-Brie is a spellcaster now. She's a druid/cleric/wizard mix, though mostly wizard. She's had training by the Harpells in Longbottom. At most she's a level 3 cleric or druid (she cast Call Lightning), and she does some healing, and she's a Chosen of Mielikki. At least all this is at the point where I am in the books (Rise of the King).

Yup, the Companions of the Hall have evolved over the 30+ novels . . . . Cattie-brie is now a powerful arcane/divine spellcaster and mom, Regis is a seriously leveled-up rogue and also part water genasi, Wulfgar is still a barbarian warrior if but wiser and a former chief of his tribe, and Bruenor is . . . . he's still pretty much the same, although with lots of rulership experience as king of several different dwarven realms over the decades. Drizzt himself picked up some levels of monk, as a brother of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's not an error if you were unaware that someone has changed their preferred name.

I just did a quick google search, first on "Paul Kidd" and got nothing about the name change . . . . then on "Pauli Kidd" and found their Twitter, Patreon, and YouTube channels.

Thanks to @Mannahnin for bringing Pauli's name change to our attention! I have fond memories of their D&D novels, it was fun seeing what they are up to now, and maybe someday I can throw a couple of dollars towards their Patreon account.

The main content I've been seeing of late is that she's been doing an ongoing series of game reviews on YouTube. Including lots of old classics for us grognards (or quasi-grognards) to reminisce over.

 

[GreyLord]

Yup, the Companions of the Hall have evolved over the 30+ novels . . . . Cattie-brie is now a powerful arcane/divine spellcaster and mom, Regis is a seriously leveled-up rogue and also part water genasi, Wulfgar is still a barbarian warrior if but wiser and a former chief of his tribe, and Bruenor is . . . . he's still pretty much the same, although with lots of rulership experience as king of several different dwarven realms over the decades. Drizzt himself picked up some levels of monk, as a brother of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose.

I really didn't like how they resurrected all of them, they are now more like comic book characters than anything else (characters that can never die because you know they'll always come back).

I guess it sort of reset the status quo though so they could keep making money off of them??

I gave up after Boundless...sooooo...your mileage may vary.

I just got this series in the mail yesterday, so it's next up.

Great series, especially for Darksun fans. If I were to suggest D&D books that would be one of the series I'd suggest.

Most of the others have been suggested already though I could emphasis the first two trilogies of Dragonlance (chronicles and Legends). I also really liked the Weasel's Luck and Galen Beknighted in Dragonlance.

Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy (original name for Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn trilogy of Drizzt Books) is probably his best. Legacy was decent...but you'd have to read the Crystal Shard and the rest of that trilogy to understand it.

I thought Spellfire by Greenwood was a fun read.

Most of the others are one book out of trilogies only. Azure bonds was great, Finder's stone was better but didn't really feel all that D&D to me. Darkstalker on Moonshae was a good one, but the ones that followed didn't really find me loving them as great books (good reads for D&D, but not what I'd consider the best of D&D).

I remember a dragonlance trilogy(?), I think it was the Medusa Eye one where the protagonist is a not high level red robes mage and it being both a decent set of novels and a decent portrayal of an AD&D mid-level mage. I read them in the 90s though so the details are more than a little fuzzy.

Defenders of Magic Trilogy

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Based on a GURPS campaign, so not technically D&D... but Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont's shared Malazan world. Mind-blowing.

 

[KahlessNestor]

I really didn't like how they resurrected all of them, they are now more like comic book characters than anything else (characters that can never die because you know they'll always come back).

I guess it sort of reset the status quo though so they could keep making money off of them??

Well, it was a little complicated what happened. Salvatore got screwed by the 4e time jump of 100 to 150 years, which meant that most of his cast of characters (Cattie-Brie, Regis, Wulfgar) were going to be dead. So he wrote a trilogy and at least one short story to deal with that. Cattie-Brie got hit by the falling Weave, which spellscarred her and left her in a coma. Regis got poisoned. Mielliki came personally to collect them. Wulfgar returned to his tribe, became chief, and lived a long and fulfilling life, spawning a large family. He went out as an old man barbarian should, fighting a remorhaz or some other monster, I believe. Cadderly Bonaduce took down a dragon previous villian that was merged with an illithid and resurrected as a ghost, but to do so he had to become a ghost himself to trap it. Captain Duedermont tried to reform Luskan and paid with his life. Only Drizzt and Bruenor survived, and Salvatore's first 4e novel Gauntlegrim dealt with the death of Bruenor and Thibbledorf Pwent, leaving Drizzt all alone.

None of this was what Salvatore wanted. In fact, it's pretty well known that he and Ed Greenwood, after hearing about 4e, immediately started plotting how to "fix" it all. So bringing them back just sort of lets him continue on with the plans he had, including Cattie-Brie's transition from a fighter/archer, which she was physically incapable of anymore because of a permanent leg injury, into a spellcaster, which she started learning from Aluriel of Silverymoon. It fixes the magic hole in the party, and I also like Regis now being an actual (and effective) rogue, instead of just some commoner schmuck who gets lucky sometimes to be able to hit some distracted thug over the back of the head with a mace.

And I will ALWAYS give mad respect to the death of Bruenor. That is how a dwarf should go out!