The Best & Worst of 3rd Edition: WotC Core Rules & Bestiaries (Winners Announced)

[S'mon]

I voted on two books I bought - Psionics Handbook & Manual of the Planes - and two I read but didn't buy - Epic Level Handbook & Deities & Demigods. Unfortunately the only one of those I liked was MoTP, and even then not in a 1e drool-over sort of way, more an "it has some cool ideas on pages 72-84" sort of way. I guess this and the shambolic 1st printing of Star Wars d20 (*ouch*) is why I stopped buying WoTC core books. I did order Heroes of Battle recently though, maybe that will be better.

 

[TerraDave]

With 203 Votes

The ten most liked

Unearthed Arcana I LIKED 71.92%
Draconomicon I LIKED 60.10%
Spell Compendium I LIKED 58.62%
Magic Item Compendium I LIKED 56.16%
Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead I LIKED 54.68%
Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations I LIKED 52.71%
Fiend Folio I LIKED 51.72%
Expanded Psionics Handbook I LIKED 50.25%
Manual of the Planes I LIKED 49.75%
Monster Manual II I LIKED 49.26%

Oriental Adventures, an early leader, has been edged out, while Draconomicon has surged to second. In general, the monster books that are not monster manuals have put in a very strong showing.

The ten least liked

Epic Level Handbook I did NOT LIKE 53.20%
Weapons of Legacy I did NOT LIKE 45.32%
Deities and Demigods I did NOT LIKE 40.89%
Psionics Hanbook I did NOT LIKE 39.90%
Magic of Incarnum I did NOT LIKE 35.96%
Book of Exalted Deeds I did NOT LIKE 33.99%
Enemies and Allies I did NOT LIKE 31.53%
Arms and Equipment Guide I did NOT LIKE 31.53%
Miniatures Handbook I did NOT LIKE 31.03%
Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and Truename Magic I did NOT LIKE 28.57%

No shockers on these.

 

[TerraDave]

The Adventures and Locations poll is here:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=216185

 

[megamania]

I am still dumbfounded by the sheer number of folks who dislike Deities and Demigods. I used that book all the time and loved it. I know I'm in the minority, though. Still, if I coulda voted more'n once for both Manual of the Planes and DD, I would've. Heck, I'm not even a Planescape DM. I just liked them because they were all kinds of awesome and so very useful when I was designing my homebrew.

same here.

and that brings up another important poll- do you like set campaign worlds or do you homebrew only? In the case of the dieties and planes books, these are important for homebrewing.

 

[prosfilaes]

In the case of the dieties and planes books, these are important for homebrewing.

Why? In the Deities and Demigods, there was about one page, a table of how a D&D should break down, that I might reference in a homebrew. The domains, too, but those were available elsewhere. Otherwise, there was nothing there I would need or want there.

 

[airwalkrr]

Looks like Unearthed Arcana is the most liked right now, which does not surprise me in the least. That is hands-down my favorite 3e supplement book.

 

[Jhaelen]

Looks like Unearthed Arcana is the most liked right now, which does not surprise me in the least. That is hands-down my favorite 3e supplement book.

It does surprise me. I never even been remotely interested in the book at all. Isn't it just a bunch of odd house-rules?

 

[TerraDave]

Inspired by a comment by creamstake in another poll, I am doing different rankings here.

This is ranking by the % of those who voted for the product that liked the product . Top and bottom 10 in bold.

Unearthed Arcana I LIKED 0.8854626
Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations I LIKED 0.875
Draconomicon I LIKED 0.8673469
Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead I LIKED 0.8666667
Spell Compendium I LIKED 0.8653846
Magic Item Compendium I LIKED 0.8232323
Fiend Folio I LIKED 0.8228571
Manual of the Planes I LIKED 0.7821229
Oriental Adventures I LIKED 0.7542857
Expanded Psionics Handbook I LIKED 0.7315789
Monster Manual II I LIKED 0.7216495
Monster Manual III I LIKED 0.7197802
Dungeon Master’s Guide II I LIKED 0.7071823
Book of Vile Darkness I LIKED 0.6648936
Rules Compendium I LIKED 0.6554622
Monster Manual V I LIKED 0.6277372
Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords I LIKED 0.5869565
Arms and Equipment Guide I LIKED 0.5
Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and Truename Magic I LIKED 0.487013
Elder Evils I LIKED 0.48
Book of Exalted Deeds I LIKED 0.4787234
Monster Manual IV I LIKED 0.472973
Dragon Magic I LIKED 0.4672131
Miniatures Handbook I LIKED 0.4387097
Deities and Demigods I LIKED 0.3910615
Magic of Incarnum I LIKED 0.2928571
Exemplars of Evil I LIKED 0.2894737
Epic Level Handbook I LIKED 0.284264
Weapons of Legacy I LIKED 0.2594937
Enemies and Allies I LIKED 0.1711712

 

[Greg K]

same here.

and that brings up another important poll- do you like set campaign worlds or do you homebrew only? In the case of the dieties and planes books, these are important for homebrewing.

I homebrew and neither of those books were important to me. For deities, I simply create my own and assign appropriate domains.

 

[Rechan]

It's odd in that, some of these I liked either fluff-wise or mechanics wise.

Like Incarnum and Psionics, which had great mechanics, but awful fluff. Or Tome of Magic, which is the reverse - I loved the Binder and the Truenamer, but the Binder is fairly hard to make "work" and the Truenamer's system is awful.