Pre 4e books: your best and worst

[MaelStorm]

My favorite book was always Unearthed Arcana (any editions).

For the worst book, hmmm! That's difficult to decide. But I tend to agree with what Mach1.9pants pointed out: the Arms & Equipment does look like an obvious choice.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Hmm, top and bottom

Top would be Red Hand, or Tomb of Kruk-Ma-Kali, both excellent adventures. The Tomb was the best down to the end adventure I have ever played in.

Bottom would be the Heroes series and Champions series. Very hit and miss, and so forgettable.

 

[Shemeska]

Best:

3.x Fiendish Codex I
2e Faces of Evil: The Fiends
Honorable mention: The 2e FR Volo's Guides (love the flavor) and 2e Factol's Manifesto


Worst:
3e Deities and Demigods - pages upon pages of useless god stats, Set allied with Apep, and oh God! The flashbacks! *twitch, froth, spasm*
1e H4 - nothing good can be said about this turkey. Solars should not be beer drinking, pot bellied chain-smokers with parody level Texas accents living in a celestial fortress called El Amo. Not even orcus could raise this corpse from its grave.
Honorable mention: 1e Castle Greyhawk! (Fluffy is the only redeeming factor).

Edit: The 3.x BoED needs to be on the list of worst books as well. It's bad. Not 'World of Synnibarr' epic bad, but filled with fail.

 

[Imperialus]

Favorite 2nd ed: Encyclopedia Magica, hands down. All four books came to almost 1000 pages of some of the coolest magic items ever to see print. Blows 3.5's magic item compendium out of the water.

Favorite 3rd ed: Probably either Red Hand of Doom or Unearthed Arcana.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Strictly 'actual D&D' only. . .


3e era
------

Best: Book of Nine Swords, Tome of Magic, Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Worst: Deities & Demigods, Monster Manual IV, Epic Level Handbook.


earlier
------

Best: Lankhmar, Dark Sun.

Worst: far too many to choose from. :\

 

[Devall2000]

When I initially read the title of this thread, I thought it was referring to those pre-4e fluff books that are currently on the shelves. $20 for books that are essentially worthless.

Now that I've read the thread, I'll make my choices.

1st ed: probably Dragonlance Adventures(best). Why do people refer to this as AD&D 1.5?

2nd ed: Birthright or original Ravenloft Campaign setting(best)

Can't really think of anything that I bought from the first two editions that I couldn't stand

3rd ed: probably 3.5 PHB since it's the only one of the 3 core books that I bought for both 3.0 and 3.5.

The worst 3.x book is a tough one. I haven't gotten to use Deities and DemiGods or the Epic Level book enough to really rule on them one way or the other. Arms and Equipment Guide appears to be the worst purchase I've made.

-Jamie

 

[Psion]

Best WotC: XPH, Fiendish Codices, the first 3 environment books, draconomicon.
Worst WotC: Bo9S, Tome of Magic, Weapons of Legacy, Deities & Demigods

 

[invokethehojo]

Man, after reading everyone's posts I might have to change my mind... or add to it.

I forgot how much I loved The Factol's Manifesto and The Cage: guide to Sigil. I think I read both those books 3 times, and I never even DM'd anything there (though I wrote several campaigns)

Encyclopedia Magica also awesome. I went on a family camping trip right after I got this book and brought it with me to read. When I got there I found out my two cousins also gamed. We had one set of dice and 2 EMs and that was it, we made the rest up from memory. What a great (and overpowerd) weekend adventure that was.

And of course, how could I forget Red Hand of Doom. My group fell apart before we could finish, but that was the first and only pre-made adventure that I ran as is instead of just mining for ideas and maps.

 

[Greg K]

Settings aside

1e-TSR: no best or worsts that I can recall
Best 1e- non TSR- The Inferno (Judge's Guild)

Best 2e-TSR: Complete Thief's Handbook, PO: Combat & Tactic, PO: Spells and Magic

Worst 2e- TSR: PO: Skills and Powers

Best 2e-non-TSR: Witches (Mayfair Games)

Best 3e-WOTC: Unearthed Arcana, Fiendish Codex I, Lords of Madness

Best 3e- Third party: Elements of Magic: Revised (EN Publishing), Elements of Magic:Lyceian Arcana (EN Publishing), Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin), Psychic's Handbook (Green Ronin), Shaman's Handbook (Green Ronin), Witch's Handbook (Green Ronin), Book of Iron Might (Malhavoc), Artificer's Handbook (Mystic Eye Games), Redhurst Academy

Worst 3.0- WOTC: Deities and Demigods, Epic Handbook
Worst 3.5- WOTC: Book of Exalted Deeds, MMIV, MM5, Weapons of Legacy

Honorable Mention for Worst 3.0*-WOTC: Defenders of the Faith, Song and Silence, Sword and Fist, Psionics Handbook, Miniature's Handbook

Honorable Mention Worst 3.5 *-WOTC: Races of Destiny, Races of Stone, Races of the Wild, Complete Adventurer, Complete Divine, Complete Champion, Complete Scoundrel, Races of the Dragon, Expanded Psionics Handbook, PHB2, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic

* Yes, I did find much of WOTC's material that disappointing.

 

[megamania]

so many options......

1st Favorite Fiend Folio
1st least favorite..... don't have one

2nd Favorite I want to say something Darksun but I got a lot of miles out of Undermountain
2nd Least Favorite Mind lords of the Last Sea is right up there.... wind surfing druids?!?!

3 Favorite PHB
3 Least Favorite Wonderous swords or something like that. Book full of orgins with little on powers and how to make them or use them. Something I could've done easily.

3.5 favorite Eberron Campaign Book
3.5 least favorite.... UA didn't click with me nor did races of Destiny.