If I had the money to buy two books......

2 books ? I'd go for some campaign info and a synergy book, like

Ebberon and and Sharn

OR

Iron Kingdoms Character Guide and Monsternomicon

OR

Arcana Evolved and Complete Book Of Eldritch Might
 

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Another thing worth mentioning is that a number of sites offer some free material; sometimes this is just a preview of what's within, other times you can find full, if small, PDF books (particularly in the form of adventures).

This can, of course, be a bit of work to do - going from one site to another, getting the downloads, then actually reading them - but it's one of the better ways, I think, to get a feel for whether you'd want something or not. People can have widely differing opinions, after all.

Wizards of the Coast offers up a number of product previews (though they might not keep any but the most recent of them), I think Fantasy Flight Games put up a free Midnight adventure as of late, Sword and Sorcery Studio's has (or had) a few previews and downloads, Monte Cook has a number of articles on his site, and so on.

I'm rather leary to offer recommendations without having a more narrow idea of what you might be looking for. I'll say this, though: I'd steer away from adventures due to their rather short, limited use, but, conversely, even if you're home-brewing, a campaign setting might not be bad to pick up - they can provide a good base for inspiration and knowing what to include.
 


Let me see...
Monster Books: Tome of Horrors or Tome of Horrors II
Setting Books: City State of the Invincible Overlord, Players Guide to the Wilderlands
Campaigns/adventures: Lost City of Barakus, Grey Citadel
 

I'm thinking about Arcana Evolved and Book of Eldritch Might, to help my world building. I go to college next year, there's ppl there bound to have more stuff I can borrow. I know there's a ton of good stuff out there and it's hard to choose just two, but I don't want to find myself spending a fortune on this.
 

Ghostwind said:
As a DM, I'd go for Arms & Armor v3.5 and Torn Asunder: Critical Hits (both by Bastion Press).

As a player and assuming you don't want Arms & Armor, then I'd recommend Complete Book of Eldritch Might (Malhavoc) and Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide (Kenzer) for some interesting player's options.



Where can i find that Torn Asunder book and can you tell me a little more about it?
 

Goose said:
Where can i find that Torn Asunder book and can you tell me a little more about it?
If you don't waste your time and drag your feet, you can still take advantage of Bastion's huge sale (which ends on Monday) and buy the book for $5.00 by clicking here.

As for what the book is about, here's the product description from Bastion's website:
Combat under the d20 System is efficient yet abstract. While the concept of hit points works well when envisioning a tense fight of sweat, parrying, near misses, and fatigue, it falls on its knees the minute your character takes a solid and brutal blow to the head.



How exactly are you supposed to adjudicate a broken arm, a gouged eye, a lacerated liver, or a crushed spine? Torn Asunder provides a complete and comprehensive system for critical hits in any d20 game. The system is elegant and easy to use, it does not do away with hit points, or even alter the combat rules, it simply provides an optional way to deal with critical hits besides piling on additional damage. Critical hits are real hits - disabling function, mangling body parts, and leaving real wounds behind.

Torn Asunder
pulls no punches; it provides a realistic and effective injury system for d20, covering all creatures, anatomies, and body types. Included as well are rules for natural healing, scarification, and herbal treatments. Torn Asunder also provides a wide variety of resources allowing characters to take advantage of the new system, from quick and precise prestige classes to devastating weapons to powerful and essential magical devices.

Don't just beat your opponents into submission, tear them limb from limb.
The first third of the book is devoted to the new critical hit rules. Basically, if your attack roll is at least 5 more than needed to hit and you confirm the critical threat, you qualify to inflict additional damage along with the standard x2 (or more) hit point damage. This can take the shape of breaking a bone, severing a limb, or even potentially killing the target. Each critical wound has a definite game effect attached to it, such as -4 to all actions with that limb. The second third of the book are new and expanded rules for healing these critical wounds. Basically, we re-wrote the Heal skill so that there is a real reason for a character to take ranks in Heal beyond 2nd level. The last part of the book contains various crunchy stuff like a new core class, 2 prestige classes, new spells and feats, new weapons and armor, and new monsters that are centered around the information from the first two parts of the book.

The Torn Asunder won the Silver ENnie award last year for best d20 rules supplement (Atlas' Crime & Punishment took the gold) and has received quite a bit of praise from the folks here. At $5.00, you can't go wrong (especially when you buy other Bastion books at that price). :)
 

ender_wiggin said:
I'm thinking about Arcana Evolved and Book of Eldritch Might, to help my world building. I go to college next year, there's ppl there bound to have more stuff I can borrow. I know there's a ton of good stuff out there and it's hard to choose just two, but I don't want to find myself spending a fortune on this.

Be sure to grab The Complete Book of Eldritch Might.
 

OFF TOPIC

Ghostwind said:
If you don't waste your time and drag your feet, you can still take advantage of Bastion's huge sale (which ends on Monday) and buy the book for $5.00 by clicking here.

Yoink. I went to the website and I purchased Allies & Adversaries, Spells & Magic, and Into the Green. Shipping was a little high for "media mail", but what the hey (half the cost of the books). Still, three books for $23; not bad.
:heh:
 

Hmmm. I like that Torn Asunder a lot. And for FIVE DOLLARS. Shipping would probably be a little more, but damn that's pretty cheap. Hmmmm. Is the sale still on tomorrow, like ends tomorrow midnight, or ends tonight?
 

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