DDI vs. books

Crothian · Sep 7, 2009

Psionics were in the back of the 1e PHB.

DDI is good for somethings but books are good for other things so I have both.

Fallen Seraph · Sep 7, 2009

I would say for myself I would be happy with a rule-reference book and everything else goes DDI. When it comes to making characters, setting up campaigns, etc. I find DDI much easier. Probably only other books I would get would be the few campaigns settings I enjoy, ie; Dark Sun.

Nikosandros · Sep 7, 2009

Crothian said:
Psionics were in the back of the 1e PHB.

The psionic combat tables are in the 1e DMG.

hailstop · Sep 7, 2009

DK said:
Hi everybody!

I'm curious to know if the DDI makes some books completely useless to buy; a good example could be adventurer's vault I & II: what's in the book that is not in the DDI? (apart of course images and paper!)
For those that how the books and have the DDI, do you feel you don't need the books?
What other rulebook is made un-necessary to buy by the DDI? (x- power series?)

Thanks & Ciao!

It depends. For instance, AV1 I don't think it's necessarily worth getting more than one in the group, if any at all if you've got DDI. In fact, with Monster Builder and the Compendium I did all my prep work at the computer recently, not touching any of the books. Plus with Character Builder, you might have to wait a bit, but you can get the Magic Items and any new powers there.

That said, I do think it's worth it to have _one_ copy of the book in the group. There is some fluff that is interesting, and the AV2 surpassed my expectations on that (Item Sets are pretty cool fluff-wise). Plus you miss some of the details for feats in the Power books, as well as some of the rules.

But here's the thing...DDI is making all of these books actually _useable_. In 3e I hardly used any of the crunch books because I didn't want players to haul libraries to the table, flipping through stuff.

But this way, you can have the books on the shelf for reference when you need it, yet it's all consolidated into the Tools when you need to use them.

hailstop · Sep 7, 2009

AllisterH said:
Books I waver about (the fluff interests me or it's not covered in DDI)
Adventurer Vault 2
Monster Manual
Monster Manual 2

You forget the art too. That's a pretty big deal for me for the Monster Manuals.

Vael · Sep 7, 2009

I still enjoy flipping through the books, I passed on Divine Power and AV2, but still found it worthwhile to look through and read the sidebars.

I have to agree with Hailstop, the main advantage of DDI is that it makes all the books useable. I remember trying to built a character prior to DDI with just the PHB, AV and MP and found it vexing. Add all the books and Dragon articles since, and without the CB, it'd be an exercise in frustration.

AllisterH · Sep 7, 2009

hailstop said:
You forget the art too. That's a pretty big deal for me for the Monster Manuals.

Yeah that the biggest thing.

I have players who while they know what an Orc looks like thanks to Wow and LotR, know what a Dragon and a sphinx looks like thanks to general culture knowledge, have no clue what a kobold or a gnoll looks like.

If I had all experienced to D&D players, I could see ignoring the MMs since they would know what a gelatinous cube looks like but I almost always have at least one casual/newbie in my group and telling them "you see a black panther with what looks like eels on its back" is much less effective than simply showing them a picture.

Agamon · Sep 7, 2009

ggroy said:
I would disagree for the case of the 1E AD&D DMG.

It had very important crunch such as:

- the to-hit combat tables
- saving throw tables
- turning undead tables
- psionics tables

Yeah, but it was so much more than that. When people bring up what they like about the 1e DMG, it's not usually the saving throw tables....

BlightCrawler · Sep 7, 2009

Hmm. I agree with the sentiment that books are easier to browse through, it depends on the book on whether I'd rather have it over just DDI access.

Since I started using DDI in the past week, I've canceled any plans to buy any of the Powers books. I just don't see the point since the only reason I wanted them was for more character building options (although I must admit divine sanction is pretty baffling without it, I haven't been able to find clear rules on it). And it's not like I play a ton of characters, so if I got Martial Power it would be just for the one fighter I'm playing and so I'd be using, what like 5% of it (counting just the powers I'd end up taking?). Although I may still pick up the Primal Power book mainly because I really like all the classes in the power source, and I'm just a big fan of the power source as a whole. It still depends on what else is in there outside of character build options.

I'll still absolutely buy the PHBs though, because there's good discussion about the classes and power source, as well as additional rules, not to mention it being easier to browse through the new classes and read up on them all easily. And the DMGs since the DMG is already almost entirely text and discussion. I'm not sure about the monster manual. On the one hand, the art is nice. But I don't really use the lore information, nor do I really pay attention to the tactics. Also, what I really need is the art to be digital so I can make my battle map tokens, and DDI does not give me this. At least with the book I have the option to scan it in. I find the monster builder is easier to use than the MM index. I always flip to the back and look at the monster list by level, and the monster builder makes that even better. When MM3 comes out, I may not get it.

And all the other books I ignore, so the DDI is great in that it lets me access the crunch for those books I don't even pick up to look at in the store (and it's possible I might get sold on a book that way).