Rank the 3e/3.5e FR products released so far

[Dark Jezter]

This thread is for people to rank the 3e FR products from best to worst, just to see which products people seem to like the most. I'll start, beginning with the best and working my way down to the worst. I am judging the books based on overall quality (production values, content, illustrations, usefulness, etc).

Best
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Magic of Faerun
Monsters of Faerun
Underdark
Unapproachable East
Silver Marches
City of the Spider Queen
Faiths & Pantheons (Good, but not as in-depth as the 2e deity suppliments)
Races of Faerun
Lords of Darkness
Forgotten Realms DM screen
Worst

For the record, I think that most of the Forgotten Realms products released for 3e have been great, but some are definately better than others.

 

[Malakye]

Trying to put the FR books into order of best to worst would probably take me several hours because they are all so good. I am continually impressed by the quality and usefulness of the FR books. I can't wait for the Player's Guide!

 

[Aaron L]

I don't know why no one likes Races of Faerun. I and everyone in my group loved it for its information on the human ethnicities and history.

 

[Mystery Man]

I don't know why no one likes Races of Faerun. I and everyone in my group loved it for its information on the human ethnicities and history.

Yup.


Lords of Darkness could have been more I think. The only thing I have left from the DM screen is the encounters thingy(I actually still find that useful) the screen itself fell apart.

 

[diaglo]

I don't know why no one likes Races of Faerun. I and everyone in my group loved it for its information on the human ethnicities and history.

i think b/c most of the information other than the conversions was already in other material.

 

[Mystery Man]

i think b/c most of the information other than the conversions was already in other material.

It has some great PrC's, if that's your bag.

 

[diaglo]

These are the best and worst as compared to other 2000ed/3.11ed for workgroups FR WotC products. so basically it is very limited.

Best

Forgotten Realms DM screen
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Monsters of Faerun (although they should've been in the core rules)
Faiths & Pantheons (Good, but not as in-depth as the 2e deity suppliments)
Lords of Darkness (but should've had more)
City of the Spider Queen (ok, but not great)

Worst

Magic of Faerun (very broken)
Underdark (not worth the cover price)
Unapproachable East
Silver Marches (didn't need any of the lame PrCs)
Races of Faerun

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

My favorites:

FRCS, Underdark, Silver Marches, Lords of Darkness, CotSQ

Magic is a bit unbalanced, IMO, and Monsters shouldn't be counted as a FR product -- it's really a generic supplement. Though there are questionable mechanics in all the products, I like the ones above for the combination of flavor, crunch, and personal utility.

I'm neutral on the others, but I haven't considered any of them bad products.

 

[d20Dwarf]

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Magic of Faerun
Unapproachable East
Silver Marches
Lords of Darkness
Faiths & Pantheons
Underdark
Races of Faerun
Monsters of Faerun
Forgotten Realms DM screen
City of the Spider Queen

I've really enjoyed the regional handbooks so far, and as much as I wanted the Silver Marches to totally rock, I think Unapproachable East is just a bit better. I thought Lords of Darkness was quite useful and interesting. I should probably drop Magic of Faerun down a bit since ghettognome uses so many of the broken spells out of there all the time, but its general utility still has me ranking it right up there.

Underdark and Races of Faerun just didn't float my boat, I found them a little flat and uninteresting. I wish Faiths and Pantheons had been 100 pages longer. Monsters of Faerun suffers for its pink cover , I don't use screens so I don't find it particularly useful, and I thought City of the Spider Queen was too much of a grind to be enjoyable (either as a player or a DM).

 

[Numion]

FRCS is my favourite. Actually it's my all-time favourite book. Excellent production values and content. Very inspiring book, and has lot's of flavour.

Magic of Faerun is the workhorse of the FR books. It's used the most. Sans PrCs and few spells we haven't found much balance issues. I like it. Better Tome & Blood than Tome & Blood

Lords of Darkness is great for adventure ideas and DM brainstorming. Even though I had already decided to have a lighthearted campaign with only pregenerated adventures, this book forces me to make up my own stuff!

Those are the best FR books in my book I'm not that intrested to go through the rest.