D&D 5E SCAG -- Worth it?

[akr71]

Thanks, everyone! (I knew I could count on the ENWorld boards)

Looks like I'll be visiting my FLGS next month. Probably look for a used copy first.

Buying used is probably a good idea. I found the price per page to be a bit high compared to the core books. However, I got it as a xmas present from my wife, so I am still happy with it.

 

[l0lzero]

If you DM, then it's worth it if you want to run faerun in 5e to keep up with the story changes to the base setting for the new edition. If you just play, someone else will probably pick it up or it will somehow be available for you to reference when you need to (if the wording of a spell/ability is in dispute). Otherwise, most of it's crunch is available online for free by looking up the individual components (e.g. google "booming blade 5e" or "swashbuckler 5e") so it's really not a huge loss if you don't have it and you don't really care about faerun.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Please.

I bought the 3e Complete Arcane solely because I really wanted the warlock class. There is some other stuff in there that is interesting, but most of the book isn't very valuable to me. But I really wanted a legit copy of the warlock.

 

[hejtmane]

I got it for the new sub-classes and races and outside that I really do not care about all the forgotten realms part but I may leverage some of it in the future but for me it was worth just for sub-classes and races but I am easy.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'd have to say its been completely useless at my table.

 

[Motorskills]

My group uses it all the time - since I got it, I don't think we've had a campaign yet where someone doesn't use options from it. Right now in my current SKT group, we have a swashbuckler, a barbarian using the Tiger totem path, and a sorcerer with the Waterdhavian Noble background.

At first glance the Tiger Totem path looked underpowered to me, at least for the L3 and L6 abilities. How has it proven in play?

 

[Demetrios1453]

At first glance the Tiger Totem path looked underpowered to me, at least for the L3 and L6 abilities. How has it proven in play?

Just fine so far - just tonight he was using his powers to make some particularly prodigious jumps in Ironslag in SKT...

 

[LapBandit]

Great book but Bladesinger and Long Death monk are straight power creep.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Great book but Bladesinger and Long Death monk are straight power creep.

The funny thing about Bladesinger is that it's only more powerful (a bit) than the other wizard subclasses if you don't play it the way the lore tells you to play it (ie, if you don't play the character as a melee weapon user with magic as a supplement). I haven't heard of anyone actually power-gaming Bladesinger by just being a traditional rear-rank wizard who takes advantage of the armor and bladesong buffs, which is a good sign. While in general I disapprove of classes working better when played contrary to description, in this case it seems like it works out fine in the end. People who want to play the Bladesinger archetype enjoy it, and people who don't want to pick another subclass.

 

[MNblockhead]

I think it is worth it for the roughly $30 that it costs (shipping included) on most online stores (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Abe Books, etc.) I got it for under $30 on Amazon. For that price, it was worth it, though it should have had a large fold out map of the sword cost. I was disappointed with the large area map: content lost in the crease and text too small to read comfortably (I have good vision, do not need glasses, but still feel like I need to look at the map with a magnifying glass to avoid eye strain). The map in Dungeonology is much better than that in SCAG and Dungeonology is an activity book for kids. Thankfully, they made the map available as for free as a high-res image you can download (http://media.wizards.com/2015/images/dnd/resources/Sword-Coast-Map_HighRes.jpg).

I quit playing D&D before the Forgotten Realms, so when I started again in 5e, the setting was all new to me. I run a homebrew campaign and skipped all the adventure paths until Curse of Straud. But I still enjoyed reading the fluff in SCAG and it does inspire content for my homebrew campaign. Nobody in my group has used any of the crunch in SCAG, so the crunch was the least useful thing for me, until recently.

But, now that I'm starting to DM Adventurer's League games for kids, SCAG is GREAT. I'm starting with In Volo's Wake, since the bite-sized mini adventures are very kid friendly (i.e. 1 to 2 hours better fits younger kids' attention spans). The adventures are all set in the area detailed in SCAG, so it is very helpful to have it as a reference. Also, the kids love looking through the book at the table, and the character options in it are now relevant as I have lots of new players creating characters.

So, for me, SCAG is a nice book that gets a lot of hate from those already familiar with the Forgotten Realms, who were hoping for much more. But as a setting book for players and GMs for the part of the Forgotten Realms where all the Adventure Paths (except Curse of Straud) and Adventurer's League modules are take place, it is a nice addition, IMO.