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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5687520" data-attributes="member: 54846">MustsThe Dungeon Master's kit. It has all the info in the DMG but updated, tokens, a good 2 level adventure, a DM screen, two poster maps, and it all comes in a box for only $4 more than the normal DMG on Amazon, or $10 more at your gaming store. <a href="http://youtu.be/FHlIAPtdirY" target="_blank">Here's a video of the contents of the box</a>.A player's book - PHB1 or Heroes of the Fallen Lands. These books have all the system rules. More classes and such are presented in other PHBs, but once people have explored those initial classes, you should encourage your players to spend some cash to explore other classes.A Monster book - which is best or which you should go for <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/310482-moster-manual-priority.html" target="_blank">is discussed here</a>.A Grid or battlemat of some kind. What you get differs. One way to go is [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316493969&sr=8-1"]a dry erase grid[/ame] from Chessex or [ame="http://gamingpaper.com/"]Gaming Paper[/ame] (the one I recommend). Also you'll need something to mark PCs and monsters on the grid - tokens, old chess pieces, pennies, etc work if you don't want to spend money on actual minis. Dice. Lots and lots of dice. Highly RecommendedA D&D Inisder (DDi) account. You get access to all rules content. Any monster, PC power, or magic item that has appeared in a book, you can search for it. All the player rules are updated into the Character Builder (a program letting you build PCs). Custom monster-creation tools. In addition, all Dungeon and Dragon content that has come before you. After the Musts, this is the first thing I would want. It's $71 a year, or cheaper based on monthly plans. Much less expensive than buying books.The DMG2. It has a lot more DM advice, as well as extra helpful rules. More importantly, the quality of the information and the writing is fabulous.Any two more monster books. GoodMadness in Gardmoor Abby, a bos set of adventures, has received a lot of good reviews.Any of the Setting books. The quality is really nice in all of them, so you can't go wrong. Open Grave. This I mention only because adventures use undead so much that more undead are great; otherwise the book would go in the Maybe category. This book uses The Old Math, so you'll have to fiddle with the numbers a little, but it's nice. PHBII and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom. MaybeA Magic Item book - likely the first Adventure Vault. You'll at one point need more magical items to give your players. But this is one of those books that the money is likely better spent by the player.The Draconomicons and Demonomicon. It's not that these are bad[/b] books - they have pretty nice quality. They are, however, very specific. You may use one or two newer dragons from the Draconomicons. You might use 3 demosn from the Demonomicon. That may not be worth the cover price. Some adventures, while not great, are decent. Others, while not good adventures themselves, have interesting parts you can pull out and use elsewhere. King of the Trollhaunt is a decent adventure - but you have to do a little work on it. Thunderspire Labyrinth and Pyramid of Shadows are meh adventures, but they have encounters/set pieces that are fairly interesting and you could cannibalize for another adventure. I've also heard good things about The Slaying Stone.Any of the Specified Default books (Plane Above, Plane Below, Shadowfell boxed set, Manual of the Planes). These are just about broad areas of the game that your PCs likely won't be going until mid-Paragon at the least, how much utility you get out of it may not be that wide, and their quality ranges from good to just OK. Vor Rukoth and Hammerfast are more about a local adventuring site/city, so their scope is pretty specific,Dragon Magazine Annual. This one has a few interesting pieces but it is not worth the cover price. Dungeon Tiles. Some people swear by these, but they take time to set up, they take up space, they can get lost, and they are a little specific. So, your mileage may vary. Avoid: Many 4e adventures. The first line of adventures: Keep on the Shadowfell, Demon Queen's Enclave, Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress, Death's Reach, Kingdom of the Ghouls, Prince of Undeath, and Scepter Tower of Spellguard. These adventures are very very poor, combat slog schlock, with little redeeming value. Keep on the Shadowfell has a framework that works, but in order to make it a good adventure you have to change it significantly to make it worthwhile. This also goes for Dungeon Delve - it's just a string of 3 encounters per level that you MAY use once. Also the Dungeon Magazine Annual - the adventures in there may be reasonable but honestly it's not worth the price. If you're going to get a 4e adventure, look for reviews.</blockquote>

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