D&D General Essential supplements for each edition

[Swedish Chef]

I forgot! 3ed Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide! We play in the Realms all the time and that has been our go to resource since it came out, replacing the Gray Box.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Of the editions I have played (1e, BECMI, 4e, 5e) nothing outside of the core books were essential.

 

[braro]

For 4e, Heroes of the Feywild and Heroes of the Elemental Chaos were both essential to me. I actually prefer them to the 2nd PHB (more or less). They were some of the last books made, and they worked really well as expansions for the pre-essentials game.

 

[Mannahnin]

For 4e, Heroes of the Feywild and Heroes of the Elemental Chaos were both essential to me. I actually prefer them to the 2nd PHB (more or less). They were some of the last books made, and they worked really well as expansions for the pre-essentials game.

I enjoyed Heroes of the Feywild and Heroes of Shadow quite a bit. The last 4E character I ran was a Skald, and before that I had a long-running Blackguard who became a Lord of Ravenloft in Epic tier. I found those books kind of an interesting blend of Essentials and pre-Essentials.

 

[Yora]

The only thing that could somewhat be considered an essential supplement are the Expert Rules for the Basic Rules. But I see them more as being Core Rulebook 2 of B/X and BECMI instead of supplements.

Some or all of the OD&D supplements might count, but I don't really know that game.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Of the editions I have played (1e, BECMI, 4e, 5e) nothing outside of the core books were essential.

@TarionzCousin, why did my post above make you sad? Just curious.

 

[TarionzCousin]

@TarionzCousin, why did my post above make you sad? Just curious.

We probably have different definitions of "essential." There are soooooo many great supplements that I wouldn't want to play with just the core books alone.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

We probably have different definitions of "essential." There are soooooo many great supplements that I wouldn't want to play with just the core books alone.

We don’t either, put we don’t need anything else from WotC or even a 3PP. We can make what we need ourselves.

That is why nothing else is essential IMO.

 

[Parmandur]

We don’t either, put we don’t need anything else from WotC or even a 3PP. We can make what we need ourselves.

That is why nothing else is essential IMO.

Seems a bit equivocal to how the OP meant "essential", which I would perhaps as "name one supplement thst you like for every Edition."

 

[Mannahnin]

We don’t either, put we don’t need anything else from WotC or even a 3PP. We can make what we need ourselves.

That is why nothing else is essential IMO.

Doesn't that just negate the entire premise of the OP?

Out of curiosity, what would you consider the essential non-core sourcebooks for each edition of D&D? The general rules expansions, books of races and classes, and so forth that were considered key additions to the core game. This can be either general observations, or just for your own group.