What Core D&D Books Should I Buy?

Felix said:
/Pedantry

"Core" Books: PHB, DMG, MM

/Pedantry

That's one way of looking at it. However, if you click on the WotC 2007 Core D&D Products you get these products, which clearly go beyond those three books.

Perhaps there is a difference between "Core Rulebook," "Core Book" and "Core Product." Then again, perhaps it's not worth discussing because it's subjective ;)
 

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Another vote for PHB II and XPH. The former has class variant options, and a great "quickie" list at the back to make characters of all levels of all the 11 base classes, plus more besides. Plus the new classes are great. The latter has a spell point system that works well, and Shaper psionics is very cool indeed. Plus the Soul Knife is close enough to the cool fighting part of a Jedi for practical purposes (the glowing sword you make with your mind!).
 

Eh, I'm not sure. PHBII has some brokenness in at least two of its classes (Duskblade and Knight can be pretty broken), and Spell Compendium has some broken spells in it.

It seems like you've already got the books I'd most recommend anyway.

I suppose I'd suggest Complete Adventurer and Complete Scoundrel. They have good material in them and, at least as far as I've seen/heard, have better balance and general usefulness than some of the other so-called "Complete" books.


The Expanded Psionics Handbook generally requires you to do a bit of houseruling, or get the errata (such as by purchasing Complete Psionic, which has some or all of the errata; I think it has all the XPH errata?), and even then you may need a bit of houseruling. Also, psionics isn't for everyone, so I dunno if you're particularly opposed to psi or ambivalent or well-inclined towards it. I like psionics, but I also recognize that the current edition doesn't quite fix it as well as it should've. Some of the powers need to be adjusted with errata from Complete Psionic or something, to be even remotely fair, and a few are still too potent then. The Soulknife is a weaker base class in the XPH than it was a prestige class in the 3.0 Psionics Handbook (where it was quite alright and useful for what it did). The Complete Psionic prestige classes and feats and such for Soulknives makes them somewhat better, but still doesn't make up for their bit of deficiency (or their wierd identity crisis in 3.5).

Also, I don't like 3.5's replacement of power point costs and requirements (for feats; powers still work through points as in 3.0) with psionic focus; it's a lame mechanic that sucks and is only decent for a few psionic feats. Similarly, I don't like 3.5's exaggeration of crystal themes and lame naming conventions. The previous versions of psionics had better names in most cases and less emphasis on crystals, whereas 3.5 overdoes it. 3.5 both improved psionics and gimped it at the same time (it's still quite useable and effective, generally, but so many things have been eliminated or changed or ruined in 3.5's psionics revision). It's a mix of good and bad, and overall I just don't like how it works in 3.5.

The 3.0 psionics worked kinda more like magic yet still retained some of its old flavor and uniqueness, despite a bit of drift; 3.5 totally abandoned most of the stylistic limitations of psionics and the advantages of it, in favor of making it a sort of wierd variant on magic that nonetheless suffers some strange limitations and drawbacks despite the apparant reckless abandon in removing most of the old psionic style and limitations; if that makes any sense (because it doesn't; they both removed limitations and threw in new ones, making it copy most things magic could do, while simultaneously limiting some of its functions that were previously fine or useful).
 


Felix said:
/Pedantry

"Core" Books: PHB, DMG, MM

/Pedantry
Yeah--I was a little confused by the question too. If you're going to run a game, you kinda really need all three core books; if you're only going to play, you could get away with just the PHB I suppose. :)

However, I quickly realized you meant Wizards of the Coast books rather than core books. Of course, the question is a big more difficult there. It really depends on what you like. I'd pick up the one monster book you're missing; it's a shame to miss out on that series not being complete. Although I think LM is the weakest of the bunch, it's still got some worthwhile stuff in it.

Just picking two--I dunno. I'm a pretty big fan of the Complete Series and the environmental series both; I'd probably lean that way. But you can't just get two there, there's nearly half a dozen of both series now. I'm actually going to vote against the frontrunners here--you don't need the XPH unless you do a lot of psionics; otherwise, it's a waste. If you only do a bit of psionics, just use the SRD instead.

The PHB2 and Spell Compendium are as dry as economics textbooks (of which I read more than my fair share in college) and although there are some nifty options in them, options aren't exactly hard to come by--I found both quite a bit over-rated.
 

The Complete Arcane, Divine, Warrior, and Adventurer are all very useful to me. Complete Mage and Complete Scoundrel I do not view as worthwhile.

I own and have used all the monster books.

The Spell Compendium is good bang for the book, even if you use it only rarely, which I do. Simply having the Cold and Demonic domains consolidated in one place is nice. It's turned into a game with one of my players; each week, he comes in with "Can I use ___?" Usually, he cannot. :)

I do not recommend any of the Race books.

If you can get it for half price, used, the Miniatures Handbook has a nice selection of feats and monsters, as well as the Marshal class (which is pretty cool).
 


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