Draconomicon or Manual of the Planes???

[Dice4Hire]

Don't waste your money on a subscription. It is still not worth what is is purported to be. Maybe in a year or two. Better to have something physical for your money.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Vote for MotP - more flavour, i.e. more interesting read. It also covers a wide range of play (Feywild/Shadowfell are low-level planar excursions), has more player material (rituals & paragon paths), while it's still a DM's guide to the planes.

Overall, it simply covers more ground and is more useful. Plus jonrog1 wrote the Feywild part, which is a delight to read!

Cheers, LT.

 

[thundershot]

Manual of the Planes has been one of the best D&D reads in a long time. I love seeing the new cosmology examined and little things that make you go "WHA?" like how the Raven Queen killed and replaced Nerull.

 

[Jack99]

Don't waste your money on a subscription. It is still not worth what is is purported to be. Maybe in a year or two. Better to have something physical for your money.

Dragon and dungeon alone are worth the money, forget about the programs. If you do not agree, please show me where I can get 150+ pages of 4e material in PDF for $5.

Sorry for the derail, back on track

 

[Kralin Thornberry]

I have all 3 of the books, and I have used Martial Power the most (but then again, I mainly DM delves and LFR games), but have looked at/read more of MotP than I have Draconomicon.

If you are a PLAYER, I would suggest Martial Power, if you are not, and are primarily a DM, then MotP would be my choice.

 

[Gothmog]

Dragon and dungeon alone are worth the money, forget about the programs. If you do not agree, please show me where I can get 150+ pages of 4e material in PDF for $5.

Sorry for the derail, back on track

I have to agree, Dragon and Dungeon are the best they have been since the 2e days. I bought a 1 year subscription, and I'm loving it. I've used more in the last 3 months from the DDI than I used out of both magazines in the last 8 years. A Dragon/Dungeon subscription is WELL worth the money.

As for your question, definitely get Martial Power, and the new Manual of the Planes is great as well. Its very low crunch but with tons of interesting ideas and plot hooks, and probably the best read from a WotC book since Heroes of Horror. Draconomicon is good too, but I think MotP would be more generally useful in a game.

 

[Kralin Thornberry]

I have to agree, Dragon and Dungeon are the best they have been since the 2e days. I bought a 1 year subscription, and I'm loving it. I've used more in the last 3 months from the DDI than I used out of both magazines in the last 8 years. A Dragon/Dungeon subscription is WELL worth the money.

As for your question, definitely get Martial Power, and the new Manual of the Planes is great as well. Its very low crunch but with tons of interesting ideas and plot hooks, and probably the best read from a WotC book since Heroes of Horror. Draconomicon is good too, but I think MotP would be more generally useful in a game.

I have to agree here as well (not to derail the thread though!), I bought maybe one or 2 Dragons and Dungeons since 2E went away, but I signed up for the year subscription, and it has been well worth the $5/month is averages out to be.

And is MotP a good read? I read the part on Sigil (was reading some novels that I just finished first), and was going to go back and read the whole book.

 

[beta-ray]

Manual of the Planes is the best book I've read in a long while.

That's nice to hear. I always liked the planes books because they felt very alien. I thumbed through the new MotP book and was underwhelmed. I never got the sense of the alien-ness of the worlds. It also seemed much shorter than the other editions.

Any comments on that?

If it really is a good read, I guess I will have to get it!

 

[Echohawk]

Dragon and dungeon alone are worth the money, forget about the programs. If you do not agree, please show me where I can get 150+ pages of 4e material in PDF for $5

The current average is actually 189 pages per month .
[sblock]Dragon 368 - 100 pages
Dungeon 159 - 99 pages
October = 199 pages

Dragon 369 - 71 pages
Dungeon 160 - 104 pages
November = 175 pages

Dragon 370 - 66 pages
Dungeon 161 - 128 pages
December = 194 pages[/sblock]Also, you can currently sign up for just one month (@ $7.95) and get access to the last three month's worth of content for that price, which works out to $7.95 for 568 pages of content.

 

[Jack99]

The current average is actually 189 pages per month .
[sblock]Dragon 368 - 100 pages
Dungeon 159 - 99 pages
October = 199 pages

Dragon 369 - 71 pages
Dungeon 160 - 104 pages
November = 175 pages

Dragon 370 - 66 pages
Dungeon 161 - 128 pages
December = 194 pages[/sblock]Also, you can currently sign up for just one month (@ $7.95) and get access to the last three month's worth of content for that price, which works out to $7.95 for 568 pages of content.

Meh, I was going for conservative number, so that no one would stop by and hit me on the head and tell me that I was exaggerating.. instead I get you!

But damn, it's cheap!