D&D 5E (2014) What old books work best with 5e?

garnuk · Jul 27, 2015

I got a hold of Volo's guide to X, and I love them. Especially the "comments" from Eliminister.

halfling rogue · Jul 27, 2015

thanks for all the suggestions folks!

Ristamar · Jul 27, 2015

chibi graz'zt said:
If you are sticking with 5e I would recommend any products *except* 4e.

I wasn't a fan of 4e, though I did find a lot of the planar/cosmology tweaks to be more interesting and cohesive than the old Great Wheel. There's plenty of inspirational material in the The Plane Above/Below books. For dragon centric campaigns, The Draconomicon books also have some good stuff that can be mined for ideas.

I am less enthusiastic about the 4e Demonomicon, though I thought the official 3e books on demons and devil were also very bland. I usually turn to older editions or 3rd party products for information regarding fiends.

Jefe Bergenstein · Jul 27, 2015

chibi graz'zt said:
coldn't disagree more. You do realize 4e is the reason we have a 5e, right?
5e has lair actions, and really simplifies stat blocks, just to name a couple.

Without getting edition warry, there were lots of good ideas in 4th, and statting monsters to their role (or narrative simulation if we want to pretend D&D "sims" anything) was a good call. 5th edition homogenizes monsters like 4th did classes, where most everything is the same boring pile of HP and low GWF/SS bait AC with no saves. Sure, you have a few with lair/legendary, but in general, everything is "I hit it, I hit it", or worse, a list of spells you have to look up. At high levels, you have few options, so are back to running lots of low level monsters (which are overvalued in the encounter calculator)

5th edition seems set up to let the party steamroll everything, because, hey, with the expected 6-8 encounters a day, we got to get in 5 more before we get to the boss, so may as well make em quick. Which is fine if that is what you want. 4th did complex set piece cinematic battles vs a few targets better. If you want to run one of those, its a good source to pull from. I've had I think 3 fights that ran more than 3-4 rounds in 5e, and two of those were due to encounters essentially chaining together.

Connorsrpg · Jul 28, 2015

If you are willing to follow a link, this is where I discuss my most used/favoured RPG books: http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/forum/t-765389/favourite-rpg-books-ever.

I have already used a lot of these in 5E, often converting material and often just adapting on the go, and in some cases, using as is.

Patrick McGill · Jul 29, 2015

I recently did the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (well, first half) for my 5e group. I converted it on the fly as well, no pre-conversions. It was pretty easy to sling out some DCs on ability checks for the various obstacles in the book, and just sub in the right stat block. I did replace the centipedes in the kitchen of the haunted house with a swarm of rats, however, because the miniature I have is cool looking and I enjoyed the idea of a swarm of rats piling out of broken cupboards and kitchenware.

The PCs didn't like Ned. Ned is now dead.

halfling rogue · Sep 11, 2015

I found an old White Plume Mountain module at the bookstore the other day. There were a handful of modules but this was the only one I recognized by name (I've never played any AD&D anything before...it's all new to me) and it didn't seem overpriced.

Just started reading through it and it looks like lots of fun! Anyone play this with 5e? Looks like it'd be really easy, the only thing I'm trying to figure out is how to determine the PC level from 1e to 5e

S'mon · Sep 12, 2015

I'd always say to get a 1e DMG if you can, the essays and tables are gold. Setting books are good, as are non-4e adventures. I find it very easy to convert 1e-3e stats to 5e and my current 5e Wilderlands game uses a mix of 3e and Labyrinth Lord material. Given the ease of monster conversion you might find monster manuals worth getting too, especially the later more obscure ones as these will have more critters not in the 5e MM.
Another good book useable with 5e is Paizo's GameMastery Guide, lots of good essays and tables and the PF NPC stats are actually pretty useable with 5e; Armour Class & To-Hit Bonus need recalculating but the attributes & hit points etc can be used as-is.

S'mon · Sep 12, 2015

halfling rogue said:
I found an old White Plume Mountain module at the bookstore the other day. There were a handful of modules but this was the only one I recognized by name (I've never played any AD&D anything before...it's all new to me) and it didn't seem overpriced.

Just started reading through it and it looks like lots of fun! Anyone play this with 5e? Looks like it'd be really easy, the only thing I'm trying to figure out is how to determine the PC level from 1e to 5e

I would tend to use 1:1 mapping for level, though some 5e monsters seem a bit weaker relative to PC power it's pretty close. Really 4e is the only edition where a 1:1 level conversion from other editions doesn't work.