D&D General Essential supplements for each edition

[billd91]

Aurora's whole realm catalogue.

I have started using this in my 5e game too. It's still pretty useful for ideas and flavor.

 

[Helldritch]

I have started using this in my 5e game too. It's still pretty useful for ideas and flavor.

I still use it too. At first, this supplement went under the radar but I always found it priceless. I have two of these and I do not regret it one iota. One is in mint condition, the second well used as players are using it and still wonder why no other supplement ever copied it...

 

[Enrico Poli1]

I will only mention the editions I played, answering three questions: what products are essential to play this edition of the game, in your opinion? What products are highly desiderable to fully enjoy this edition of the game? What products make the game lame and are banned?

• Mentzer: I consider Basic, Expert, Companion the essential material. Highly desiderable: the Master set, The Grand Duchy of Karameikos gazetteer, the iconic adventures per tier (Keep on the Borderlands, Isle of Dread, Test of the Warlords). Banned: Immortal set, Wrath of the Immortals, Poor Wizard's Almanac
• AD&D2: PHB, DMG, MM, Complete Psionics, The Will and the Way, and either Complete Fighter or Combat and Tactics. Highly desiderable: High Level Campaigns, at least one major Campaign Setting (Dark Sun original box, Ravenloft original or revised box, City of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms gray box, Dragonlance Tales of the Lance box, Planescape, Spelljammer). Banned: Skills & Powers, Spells & Magic
• D&D3e/3.5: PHB, DMG, MM, Tome of Battle. Highly desiderable: Complete Fighter/Mage/Divine, Epic Level Handbook, at least one major Paizo Dungeon Magazine Adventure Path (Age of Worms, Savage Tide). Banned: Psionics Handbook and Expanded Psionics Handbook, The Book of Exhalted Deeds
• D&D5e: PHB, DMG, MM. Highly desiderable: Starter Set, at least one major adventure (Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Descent into Avernus, Rime of the Frostmaiden). Banned: Xanathar's, Tasha's.

 

[Vaalingrade]

3x: Tome of Battle, Arms and Equipment Guide, DMG II, Eberron Campaign Setting, d20 Modern w/Urban Arcana

Pathfinder: PFSRD.org

4e: Core Sequels, Martial Power 1 & 2, Arcane Power, MMIII, Monster Vault. Do not buy: Anything labeled Essentials.

 

[Swedish Chef]

1st Ed - we enjoyed the hell out of UA.
2nd Ed - personally, I loved the Forgotten Realms grey box, the first Undermountain box, Complete Thief's, Complete Psionics and just about every thing Al Qadim. I just loved what they were trying to do with that setting, despite the obvious tropes.
3/3.5 - Personally, I loved the Draconomicom, just to read.
5e - nothing yet stands out to me, but I do have Xanathar's, Tasha's, et. al.

 

[Parmandur]

I never bought anything outside of the PHB before 5E, though I flipped through a bunch here and there.

For 5E, beyond the Core rulebooks, the Rules Expansion Gift Set (Xanathar's, Tasha's, Monsters of the Multiverse) basically set players and DMs up for anything general that they need. The Setting books have been great, but obviously they are more specific in focus.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

4e: Core Sequels, Martial Power 1 & 2, Arcane Power, MMIII, Monster Vault. Do not buy: Anything labeled Essentials.

That's a bit hard to do, because Monster Vault is labelled Essentials.

For my list, I'm only familiar with WotC editions, so...

3e: Champions of Valor, Races of the Dragon, Complete Arcane, Complete Divine, and (as much as people liked to crap on it) the Book of Nine Swords. All are full of flavorful, interesting options. There's also a relatively obscure supplement, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, which is pretty neat. These are mostly "books that have stuff I like," because 3e just had SO. DAMN. MANY. books.

4e: PHB1 and 2, DMG1 and 2, Divine Power, Martial Power 1, MM3, Monster Vault, MV: Threats to Nentir Vale, various Dragon Mag articles. Some nice-but-not-critical ones include The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea and Heroes of the Elemental Chaos (simply because the Elementalist is the first truly, legitimately simple caster class D&D has ever officially offered.)

5e: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Monsters of the Multiverse. Tasha's has set the tone for 5e thereafter; Fizban's fixes dragonborn and has some cool, flavorful options in it (particularly the Drakewarden, which is a much superior subclass to the Beast Master in both flavor and being actually effective); between XGE and TCE, the only "missing" subclass worthy of inclusion is the Arcana domain. (The other missing ones--Long Death Monks, Banneret Fighters, Crown Paladins, Battlerager Barbarians--are mostly "pretty meh," except Banneret, which is just not very good at all.)

Frankly, with these four books, you have very nearly the entire panoply of what the game offers. A smattering of subclasses exist elsewhere (e.g. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft), but TCE, FTD, and XGE cover almost all the player-facing options, and MotM is your one-stop-shop for monsters.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I never bought anything outside of the PHB before 5E, though I flipped through a bunch here and there.

For 5E, beyond the Core rulebooks, the Rules Expansion Gift Set (Xanathar's, Tasha's, Monsters of the Multiverse) basically set players and DMs up for anything general that they need. The Setting books have been great, but obviously they are more specific in focus.

Not at all surprised; I almost didn't include FTD in my list above, but the actually-not-sucky dragonborn, plus the actually-not-sucky pet-based Ranger subclass, pushed it into "yeah this is probably important." Plus, while some folks think dragons are overused or trite, I think they're awesome, and they are in the title. A supplement helping you use and integrate dragons into your game is relatively important.

 

[Blue]

AD&D: The Wilderness Survival Guide and The Dungeoneers Survival Guide. First instance of skills.

AD&D 2ed: Essential? Man, that's hard to pare down. We liked all of the Complete splat books with their kits. But then Skills and Powers and it's ilk came around and changed the game a lot.

 

[Parmandur]

Not at all surprised; I almost didn't include FTD in my list above, but the actually-not-sucky dragonborn, plus the actually-not-sucky pet-based Ranger subclass, pushed it into "yeah this is probably important." Plus, while some folks think dragons are overused or trite, I think they're awesome, and they are in the title. A supplement helping you use and integrate dragons into your game is relatively important.

Oh, I love Fizban's, for sure: but if aomeone was just starting, the Core Set and Rules Expansion Gift Sets would get them set for their "Essential" needs, I feel. The rest is awesome expansions.