D&D 3E/3.5 Best 3E books for DMs?

[delericho]

Now there's an issue I'd like to hear more about.

I don't know that I had quite as strong of a reaction, but I have noticed that a lot of designers' notes make me lose respect for the rules, the designer, or both.

Normally, I really like those commentaries. Several of the house rules given in "Unearthed Arcana", for example, are really quite interesting, even if they're not as fleshed out as the 'official' variants.

It's just the "Rules Compendium" specifically. Even the "This is Not Your Daddy's D&D" sidebar in "Book of Nine Swords" didn't annoy me; it just rather neatly encapsulated everything that was wrong with that book.

Specifically in that book, I noticed many of the comments were negative, some pointing out legitimate holes in the rules and some of which seemed like part of the company's overall approach of promoting 4e by insulting 3e and its fans.

I think that's a large part of it. A lot of the 4e marketing really annoyed me, especially many of the exaggerated attacks on weaknesses in 3e (including hyperbolic attacks on legitimate weak spots). But that's fine; that's just marketing for a new game.

But the "Rules Compendium" is supposed to be a 3e product. And yet the sidebars too often read as more of the same 4e marketing, attacking the very rules they were presenting. It just had no place, and it makes the book simply unusable to me.

 

[Greg K]

The same list that I always recommend (edit: replaced some of the e-books)

Supplements for 3.0 and 3.5 D&D
Alternate Rules, Variants
Unearthed Arcana (WOTC)
Artificer's Handbook (Mystic Eye Games): Alternate Magic Item Creation System that does away with XP costs
Book of Experimental Might (Malhavoc): more alternate rules
Book of Iron Might (Malhavoc): cool things for fighters to do
Elements of Magic: Revied (ENPublishing): alternative magic system
Elements of Magic: Lyceian Arcana (ENPublishing): Companion to Elements of Magic: Revised
Poisoncraft (Blue Devil Games): revises the poison rules
Trailblazer (Bad Axe Games): more alternte rules

Classes (because classes help define your setting)
Cavalier's Handbook (Green Ronin): not a fan of the core class (I prefer Hong's Knight which is available for free online), but the rest of the book is gold
Psychic's Handbook* (Green Ronin): different mental power system and great sourcebook for mental powers
Shaman's Handbook *(Green Ronin): awesome source book on shamanism for D&D and a great class
Witch's Handbook*(Green Ronin): awesome source book on witchs for D&D and a great class
Unholy Warriorss Handbook (Green Ronin)
Mercenaries (AEG)
*In my opinion, these are how class source books for D&D should be done and formatted- much better than anything WOTC has done for 3e or 4e

Equipment
Airships (Dragonwing/Bastion Press)
From Stone to Steel (Monkey God/Highmoon Media)

Combat
Advanced Rules for Beginners: Combines Grappling for Beginners, Advanced Grappling for Beginners: How to Master Your Chi, and Fighting with Flair (Plus, it includes the drinking rules from their TTF supplement).

Torn Asunder (Dragonwing/Bastion Press)

Spells
Behind the Spells (Tricky Owlbear): lots of variant spells

Monsters
Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin): A big honking book of templates Templates Revised): another big honking book of templates
Book of Templates (Silverthorne/Goodman Games) (the pdf is Deluxe Book of
Book of Fiends(Green Ronin): Combines and updates Armies of the Abyss and Legions of Hell to 3.5 with a third unpublished book. It also has the Thaumaturege class which I prefer to WOTC's Warlock
Fiendish Codex 1 (WOTC)

Animals
Noble Steeds (Avalanche Press): a primer on horses in d20 terms, also includes rules for other mounts, creating NPC horses like Trigger and Silver, and magic items for mounts
Bestiary-Predators (Betabunny): OK, I took this off (I was trying to remove e-books), but saw Celebrim posted it.

World Building
Alchemy and Herbalists (Dragonwing/Bastion Press): a look at alchemy and herbalism
Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)
Experts 3.5 (Skirmisher Press): Splits the Expert into 5 NPC classes, a PC Expert Class, new uses for skills
Frost and Fur (Monkey God/Highmoon Media)
Ink and Quill (Dragonwing/Bastion/Press): books, tomes, libraries, etc.
Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (Expeditous Retreat)
Stormwrack (WOTC) for aquatic
Toolbox (AEG): Lots of charts to generate ideas (pun intended)
Tournaments, Faires and Taverns (ENPublishing)

Misc
Hot Pursuit (Adamant): Chase rules
Hot Pursuit: On Foot (Adamant) a companion to Hot Pursuit