Essential 3E Realms Products?

[Elodan]

I just picked up the Players Guide to Faerun. I'm a little confused. I thought that it would contain all the 3.5 updates. It seems to be missing updates to the races game inforation (i.e. stat adjustments, special abilities, etc.). Is this stuff in another product?

Also, what do you consider to be the essential products to have in order to run a Realms campaign?

I already have the FRCS, Magic of Faerun and Monsters of Faerun.

Thanks.

 

[Glyfair]

It seems to be missing updates to the races game inforation (i.e. stat adjustments, special abilities, etc.). Is this stuff in another product?

I think the assumption is that if it isn't updated, then it doesn't need to be updated.

 

[Napftor]

I'd say you have everything you need to get a campaign started. To beef up knowledge of evil organizations, pick up Lords of Darkness. If you and your group find you really enjoy a particular region, then find the sourcebook for it and pick it up. Otherwise, you're good to go.

 

[Voadam]

FRCS for the current world and Player's guide for the 3.5 updates if you are using 3.5 (a lot of power stuff in the CS was reduced as time went on). Everything else is good but hardly essential material.

I play in a FRC and do fine with just the CS, Magic of Faerun, and older edition books. The DM just used the world, cosmology, and plunked in a regular module. And it is going great.

If you want to delve in more then pick up the free pdfs of older edition stuff for more descriptions from WotC and the cheap pdfs from www.rpgnow.com as there is a ton to get and read as much as you want. I find the 2e god books a lot of fun.

 

[Testament]

The Player's Guide to Faerun is useful for the updated material, much of which was hideously broken until this update (for example, most of the spell DC increases are gone) and regions are made less of a straightjacket.

 

[The Madhatter]

Races of Faerun is probably what you are looking for. It fills most of the racial stats that are missing fromt PGTF and expands on races covered in the FRCS. It also adds new FR iconic races as playable.

 

[smootrk]

In the downloads section of the WOTC D&D website are several free downloadable files for FR. Not 3.x but the fluff is all still good. Well worth the time to get.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads

 

[Rabelais]

I'm pretty fond of Lost Empires of Faerun. It's got everything the DM needs to incorporate some of the FR ancients into our game.

 

[Li Shenron]

IMHO, besides the FRCS, the only really must-have FR sourcebook is Magic of Faerun. I admit I am a fan of arcane spellcasters especially, but really MoF is a must for a setting which is particularly focus on magic.

Next books I'd suggest are Monsters of Faerun and Faith & Pantheons.

I didn't like Races of Faerun at all instead.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

IMHO, besides the FRCS, the only really must-have FR sourcebook is Magic of Faerun. I admit I am a fan of arcane spellcasters especially, but really MoF is a must for a setting which is particularly focus on magic.

I think there are no "must-have" FR sourcebooks apart from the Campaign Setting itself. That's how good it is.

Mind you, this doesn't mean that I haven't bought most of the sourcebooks anyway. But I don't really need them to run a campaign in the Realms. And MoF, while good, is purely optional (though I admit that the Mage Duels are pretty cool - but unfortunately, I don't have a mage in my party...)