What book to buy?

[Varianor Abroad]

Apart from the books that I have listed above, does anyone know of any other books that they think I may be overlooking that are well worth the money?

Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed!



As to your other nominations, I started reading Book of the Righteous. Looks fabulous for an out of the box pantheon with a lot of great myths. If you want a book on how to design such, get a used copy of GURPS Religions. (Unless it's still in print.)

Second (fourth? fifth?) the recommendation of NPC Essentials. Also Robin Laws. There's more practical stuff in his 32 pages than in some larger, ponderous DM advice books.

If you don't have it, think about Manual of the Planes. Talk about something that uncorked my imagination when I read it. Great stuff.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

As a homebrewer, the fresh-off-the-racks Unearthed Arcana is sending me to a special place.

 

[Nightfall]

Both AU and UA are good for home brewing ideas.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Although don't you think that AU is just too AU-specific to provide much inspiration for a homebrew... except in the sense of completely reinventing the wheel?

Agree/disagree?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies so far. I should have told you about what I already had at the start as I already have a rather extensive collection. A lot of what people have suggested I already own. I guess I'm just compulsive and find that I "must have" some books. Here is a list of books that I already have:

PHB, DMG and MM (both 3.0 and 3.5), Epic Level Handbook, Deities and Demigods, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Kingdoms of Kalamar Campaign Setting, K of K Villain Design Handbook, Traps and Treachery I and II, Relics and Rituals I and II, Creature Collection I and II, Lords of Darkness, Song and Silence, Stronghold Builders Guidebook, Toolbox, Dungeons, Guildcraft, Alchemy and Herbalists, RttToEE, World Builders Guidebook (2E) as well as the PDF's GM Mastery: NPC Essentials, Deadly Games, Everyone Else and Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns and the Dragon 250 Issues CD Rom. I also own a number of 2E books including the Book of Artifacts and the 4 Encyclopedia Magica volumes.

Having said that is there any other books that people would suggest? Or should I just stop buying now?

Olaf.

 

[Mystery Man]

Well since you already have the FRCS, you could always wait until next month and buy the players guide. Thats what I would do.....

 

[Nightfall]

Sure,

CC Revised, CC 3 and CC 4. (Just cause you deserve to have a complete collection)

Tome of Horrors is a must have. Period.

Tome of Horrors II as well.

Complete Book of Eldritch Might.

Fields of Blood (apparently people swear by it.)

And of course Midnight and Dawnforge.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) And of course Midnight and Dawnforge.

I second those choices!

Also, you can build your own counter collections just by converting the art posted at the WotC website to squares and printing them. I've been doing that a lot of late (mainly because I did buy CC1&2 but the change in creature sizes left some counters obsolete).

One other recommendation I would make but it's not a book: every DM needs maps! May I suggest either the program, Gridsmith from Byte Mountain, and/or Ed Bourelle's excellent tiles from Skeleton Key Games. I'm now using both products together.

 

[Gothmog]

Ok, here would be my top 5 list of books you should look into.

1. Conan. No doubt about it, this book is the shiznat. No other book has been released since the d20 movement began that has captured my imagination like this one. Lots of rules variants that are extremely cool, great cultures, cool low-magic classes, and an inspired dynamic world. Most refreshing of all, no elves, orcs, underdark, or hordes of monsters running around! This book fixed most of the rules problems I've had with 3E/3.5 as well. If you like Howard's Conan stories at all, you can't pass it up. Some might gripe about its $50 price tag, but its well worth it- Hell, its probably worth $75! Its also going to be EXTREMELY well supported. I don't typically like published settings and won't run them, but I WILL run a Conan game in the near future. Its that good.

2. Book of the Righteous. Some might say its too specific since its got a fully detailed pantheon, but I have used tons of aspects from this book in my homebrew world of 12 years. LOTS of inspirational material in this book, and the best pantheon of gods out there anywhere. It also has the Holy Warrior class, a paladin more customized to his patron deity in his abilities.

3. Book of Fiends. Technically its not out yet (should be by Friday), but I looked at an advance copy at my LGS. I loved Legions of Hell and Armies of the Abyss- and this book expands on those. Its designed to be used with Book of the Righteous, but works really well on its own too. There are lots of great fiends that are not very typical D&D-esque (which to me is a good thing). Besides, who can't use more fiends?

4. Midnight. Probably the best executed and most concise campaign setting out there right now. This is a truly inspired book, and one that can give you tons of ideas for your own game, even if you don't run it specifically. This is also the only other published setting I have run (although it was only a 10 session campaign ).

5. Unearthed Arcana. This is the new book by WotC, NOT Arcana Unearthed. I just got UA last Friday, and have read through about half of it (been too busy with Conan to devote more time to it), but this book has something for every campaign. Basically its a ton of rules variants, many of which add a lot to the game and are superior to the way 3E/3.5 handles things. Worth a look, although probably not terribly inspirational for generating new campaigns or ideas.

 

[bubbalin]

I would go for the GMing stuff, Robin's guide and GMing secrets...
I have them both, and while they do contain stuff you can get off the net, the fact that you have them in print makes it a lot easier to access...