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

[Voadam]

It was the first or one of the first 2e books for FR that came out.

Under Illefarn was one of the first 1e FR books, not 2e after the 1e FR campaign setting came out.

It is great, it gives a little mini setting and a flavor to the Forgotten Realms with a D&Dized Tolkien feel of its lost dwarven kingdom.

 

[aco175]

Oh I have Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle! OK so GoDC is basically the updated version of Under Illefarn?

If you spend coin on it, you will likely be upset since you have the updated version. There might be some older quests that are still ok, like one involving negotiating with the lizardmen of the swamp, if I'm recalling right.

 

[Sacrosanct]

The Complete Bard's Handbook.

It revolutionized bards and turned them into the party-leading heroes they were always meant to be.

Sadly, no one bought it, and bards are still de facto NPCs.

When that book came out, I played my first (and only) bard. A blade. I admit he was pretty cool

 

[Redthistle]

4e: The online tools for creating NPCs and scenarios. I miss the simplicity and convenience.

From 2e, The Hero Builders Guide, which I still use not just for more recent editions of D&D, but for other RPGs as well.

 

[Desdichado]

While I don't exactly use it a lot, my favorite one to read is Fiendish Codex 1: Hordes of the Abyss from late in the 3e cycle. It's just a wonderful, wonderful monster/cosmology book with a great Lovecraftian vibe that I can't get enough of.

Other than that, I think I most enjoyed some setting stuff like the original Eberron book and the Sharn book.

 

[MGibster]

Asking me to name my favorite D&D product is like asking me to single out my favorite Snarf post. No mortal has had time to read all of them! The Random Harlot Table should make AD&D 1st edition DMG the clear winner, but it's a core rulebook and is therefore disqualified. While there were a few dud products, and a decent number of mediocre products, it's amazing just how many really good products they've produced over the last 50 years. It really says something that I haven't seen anyone's choice here that I'd question.

I'm going to go with the 1983 Greyhawk boxed set. I certainly didn't own it in 1983, but it's more than forty years old and I'm still using it to run games.

 

[soviet]

Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide. One of the blue book softcovers supplements for 2e. A really useful, approachably written guide to GMing. With great art!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Dragon archive, Worldbuilder's Guidebook (2e), Manual of the Planes (1e), Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue (2e), Monster Mythology and all the other 2e god-books, the 2e Wizard and Priest Compendiums and the Encyclopedia Magica volumes, the entire Planescape line of accessories and much of the Ravenloft line as well (2e), the FRCS (3e), and Ghostwalk (3e).

Obviously 2e is my jam.

 

[PHATsakk43]

Obviously 2e is my jam.

From the consensus of "best" it appears that 2E was the majority of people's jam. Certainly is mine, if I can only get people to play 5E with me.

 

[MNblockhead]

I played 1e in the 80s and then 5e starting in 2014, and no D&D in between, so I've missed a lot of D&D content. But my favorite D&D book of all time is Volo's Guide to Monsters. I know I'm in the minority and that was one the first books to get "legacy" status on D&D Beyond. I'm glad I bought the physical book (with the excellent Hydro74 Illithid alt cover). I love the combination of lore, lairs, and stats. I know many (most?) D&D consumers prefer the more statblock dense approach, but I've built entire story arcs from the inspiration I've gotten from Volo's.

While I like the dragon and giant focused books, Volo's was the right mix of depth and diversity for me.