D&D General Best D&D product of any edition (non-core book)

Sacrosanct

Legend
What are some of the best official D&D products, regardless of edition, that you've come across? I think I have two, and weirdly they are both from 2nd edition which I hardly ever play.

First is the Core Rules CD ROM. I was so bummed this was short lived due to Babbages debacle, but it was so good. I still use it today. The ability to quickly generate maps and link them to encounters is still very useful.

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And the second is this book. Even though it's for 2e, it's very useful regardless of edition. So much great info:

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I'll go for a real oddball. 3rd editions Stronghold Builder's guidebook.

Now the stronghold section, eh...its alright. But the character background generator in the book is solid gold. For a dirt cheap price, I can't tell you how many amazing backgrounds were generated at our table by people just rolling on the table and dedicating themselves to make the background pieces fit.
 


Moldvay B/X: Isle of Dread
BECMI: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos Gazetteer
1e: Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting "Grey Box"
2e: Dark Sun Campaign Setting original Boxed Set
3e: Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords
5e: Tomb of Annihilation
...
Pathfinder 1e: Reign of Winter AP
Pathfinder 2e: The Mwangi Expanse
13th Age: Eyes of the Stone Thief
 
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1e: Unearthed Arcana. I can hear howls and screams now, but it was a book that injected many new ideas into the game, even if all of them didn't land.

2e: Complete Book of Humanoids. Some of the implementation was wonky, but this book really got creative with the kinds of characters one could play, doing more to kill the same boring core races than any other (outside of maybe the Planeswalker's or Complete Spacefarer's Handbooks).

3e: Unearthed Arcana (again). There were several great books in the 3.5 era for changing the game's paradigm (Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, Savage Species, Magic of Incarnum, etc. etc.) but this one had more cool ideas than any one game could ever use, and there was a decent amount of explanation as to how this could effect your game. Some duds, like Bloodlines, but many of the alternate classes and features (Druidic Avenger, Cloistered Cleric, Feat Rogue, Rage variants, Totem Barbarians, etc. etc.) were a breath of fresh air.

4e: Player's Handbook 3 (man I miss the days when we had multiple PHB's and DMG's!). There's a lot of books that added new content to the game, some good, some meh, but this one rises to the top for probably the best multiclassing D&D has ever had, hybrid multiclassing. You feel like a this class/that class from level 1, much like AD&D, but it's balanced in that you don't get everything, and you don't have a ton of limitations holding you down like slowed advancement, fractional hit dice, level adjustments, or any of that. Some of my most fun characters were hybrids, like my Bard/Wizard or Blackguard/Assassin.

5e: it's hard to draw the line between innovation and power creep. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was too little, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything many feel is too much. So I'm going to go with Xanathar's Guide to Everything as a book that examined the game, discussed some points about it, and tried to fill some gaps, without making everything before it "old and busted" compared to the "new hotness".
 

OD&D. Blackmoor.

AD&D. Oriental Adventures.

B/X. Grand Duchy of Karameikos.

BECMI. Rules Compendium.

2E. Dark Sun Campaign Setting. Complete Book of Villains. Creative Campaigning.

3E. Eberron Campaign Setting. Serpent Kingdoms.

4E. DMG2. Monster Vault 1 and 2. Dungeon Delve. Wizards Presents 1 and 2.
 

2e: Player's Option: Spells and Magic. Arabian Adventures. The Complete Book of Villains.
3e: Forgotten Realms Setting. Book of Nine Swords. Magic Item Compendium.
4e: Dark Sun Campaign Setting. Neverwinter Campaign Setting.
 

3e Manual of the Planes. It's been a constant source of reference and inspiration for me for 20 years now. I've used it more extensively in 5e games than I did in 3e.
 

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