Books I need?

[Greg K]

I hughly recommend Magic of Incarnum

Some really good looking mechanics if one can get past some of the worst WOTC fluff. I thought if the fluff were changed and Incarnum renamed, the mechanics would be a good way to handle ki/chi abilities. Too bad the incarnum mechanics were not made OGL. I would love to see what some of the third party companies would have done with it.

 

[megamania]

Draconicom
PH II


From there it would involve taste.

Above include the books I do own. I would also have to ask- Do you do homebrews only? If not- there are tons of Eberron and FR stuff to look at also.


For the past week I have been doing the same thing as it turns out. "What don't I have and want?"

Do I picked Tyrants of the Nine Hells yesterday and the others I will need to order (as money appears which is not in the forseeable future. Thanx mom for the money to buy a piece of Hell )

 

[Doug McCrae]

Eberron Campaign Setting
Sharn: City of Towers
Magic Item Compendium
Tome of Battle
Player's Handbook II
Monster Manual III

...are the best WotC D&D books I've read that you don't own already. I wouldn't say any are essential however. The only one that comes close is MIC because it improves the core magic item rules.

Complete Warrior + PHB2 fixes the fighter. An alternative way of fixing the fighter, monk and paladin can be found in ToB.

One could make a case that XPH and Unearthed Arcana are close to being core and therefore essential.

 

[MarauderX]

Epic Level Handbook
Deities & Demigods

Depending on your game, or for ideas for your next before the 4.0 version is released:
Book of Vile Darkness
Savage Species
Oriental Adventures

 

[jdrakeh]

Bo9S, MIC, and the PHBII look like the only across the board 'must haves' right now, though the Complete series seems to be getting a lot of love, too. Inicdentally, I suspect that the books I buy now will be the last RPG books that I buy for a while (if ever), hence the 'must have' criteria. Nothing to do with 4e, BTW, which looks really very good IME.

 

[bento]

I don't understand the love for a lot of the books mentioned. I have listed my reactions below, but I want to hear from the proponents why they liked any of the books listed. In general, I think most of them had a few hits, but not nearly enough to warrant the purchase price. What am I missing?

MMIII: I remember there being a couple of monsters that I liked, but not even nearly enough to warrant purchasing the book.

So, for those you that liked any of the books above, what did you like about them that made you recommend them?

Any bestie book is going to be a matter of taste. Personally I really like MMIII and its the second most used monster book I own. My games have had appearances from:

Armand & Sand Giants - desert NPCs
Avalancher - mountain encounter
Chelicera - ventroliquist spider used to trick players into thinking a vampire haunted a town
Fleshraker - one of my player's shapeshifts
Gnoll Flind - leading a pack of gnolls
Forestkith Goblins - forest encounter
Harpoon Spider - cave of the spider king encounter
Harssaf - key evil humanoids in desert
Kenku - competing thieves guild
Poisondusk Lizardfolk - add variety to lizardfolk
Redcap - forest encounter
Shifter & Warforged - Eberron games
Zezir - desert encounter​

MMIII also has a great selection of trolls and golems. I really like MMIII because its monsters aren't too weird like those from other MMs.

 

[szilard]

Bo9S, MIC, and the PHBII look like the only across the board 'must haves' right now, though the Complete series seems to be getting a lot of love, too. Inicdentally, I suspect that the books I buy now will be the last RPG books that I buy for a while (if ever), hence the 'must have' criteria. Nothing to do with 4e, BTW, which looks really very good IME.

I'd agree with those. I use PHBII, in particular, all the time.

As far as the complete books go, a lot of it depends on what you're looking for - I get the least use out of Complete Scoundrel and Complete Divine - and the most use out of Complete Adventurer, Complete Mage, and Compete Arcane. Complete Warrior isn't bad, though (among other things, it has the Swashbuckler base class).

Also, the "Races of" books aren't bad at all. Lots of good stuff in them.

-Stuart

 

[cooperflood]

I think all the Complete Books have their uses and am glad I own them, but most of them are by no means must buys. Complete Arcane is my favorite because of the Warlock and some cool Prestige Classes.

If your planning to buy Expedition to X then you should definently add Red Hand of Doom to your wish list. My play group has absolutly loved running that module.

 

[jdrakeh]

Well, the Expedition books are up there primarily because I have an interest in Greyhawk and Raveloft.

 

[rgard]

Complete series. We've had alot of mileage out of Complete Arcane, Complete Warrior and Complete Mage. I like the others as well.

thanks,
Rich