What's the best and worst D&D book you own from any edition?

[eyeheartawk]

Best

OD&D/Basic: Rules Cyclopedia 100%. Everything you would ever need in one book.

1E: Gotta go DMG here like everybody else. Damned difficult to read at times, but so many great nugs.

2E: This is a three way tie between Priest's Spell Compendium, Encylcopedia Magica and Wizard's Spell Compendium. Such a great reference and so convenient to have everything collected in one place with background notes and even telling you which setting it is from. Beautiful, to boot. Really hope 5E does something like this in the future, as I don't relish the thought of carrying 20 books in my backpack five years from now.

3E: Not really a FR guy at all, but the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is pretty great. I consider this and its following books in the line the high point for Forgotten Realms.

4E: Didn't play a ton of 4E, but for sheer convenience probably gotta go with the Rules Compendium.

5E: No 5E product has really blown me away to such a degree to be a clear favorite over another but if I had to pick I would say Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Just because it has a little bit for everything and everybody and some neat new options.

Worst

OD&D/Basic: Probably Swords & Spells. It was a backwards looking supplement to turn D&D back into a wargame, and nobody I have ever met or heard of ever used this.

1E: The Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide were probably the low point in 1E hardbacks. Filled full of useless junk nobody used.

2E: So many bad books in this edition, if for no other reason, the amount of books published. But I gotta go with WG7 Castle Greyhawk. People waited so long to see what Gary's Castle Greyhawk looked like. Eventually, we got this and lo, it was bad.

3E: The Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers. This exemplifies the worst of the 3E era: third party splatbook glut and terrible gamer stereotypes. Of course it's written by James Desborough, what a surprise.

4E: I mean, it's gotta be the Monster Manual, right? Errata and math updates made this book worthless.

5E: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Not at all surprising. Mechanically, only offers a few things of value. Lore wise it's as deep as a puddle.

 

[Retreater]

Best

2e: The 2nd edition AD&D Monster Manual (not Compendium) is the largest, fullest, most complete collection of monsters I've ever owned. The art can be lousy (or non-existent) for many entries, but as a one-stop-shop for critters, it's unrivaled. (Runner-Up: the PHB for complete nostalgic reasons.)

3e: The Maure Castle issues of Dungeon magazines. Especially the first issue. I love the setting, art, and high level challenges.

Worst

2e: Skills and Powers and the reprinted core books. The art is bad. The power creep makes the game nearly unplayable.

4e: I am different than many posters here in that I actually enjoyed the edition, but none of the books stand out as anything I'd like to go back to. Well organized references for the game, but nothing to treasure.

 

[Imaculata]

3E: The Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers. This exemplifies the worst of the 3E era: third party splatbook glut and terrible gamer stereotypes. Of course it's written by James Desborough, what a surprise.

Oh my god, this exists?! I'm changing my vote right now. This is the worst book!

Also, what lovely cover art(!)
And it gets better:

Hahahaha. There is just so much to take in here... I don't know where to start. And people willingly attached their names to this?! Or were they threatened at clumpsily-drawn-swordpoint?

Oh, and if this list of contents seems offensive... the book is a hundred times more offensive than what you would expect. I mean, seriously... what were they thinking?!

 

[eyeheartawk]

Oh my god, this exists?! I'm changing my vote right now. This is the worst book!

View attachment 114517

Also, what lovely cover art(!)
And it gets better:

View attachment 114518

Hahahaha. There is just so much to take in here... I don't know where to start. And people willingly attached their names to this?! Or were they threatened at clumpsily-drawn-swordpoint?

Either that, or somebody read page 30 and cast Feminine Magic on them to compel them to do so.

 

[Imaculata]

Either that, or somebody read page 30 and cast Feminine Magic on them to compel them to do so.

Funny... but then I opened page 30 out of foolish curiosity, and now I regret laying eyes on this so much!

 

[eyeheartawk]

Yeah, fun fact, would you believe me if I told you that the guy who wrote this also wrote the Gor RPG?

 

[Imaculata]

Yeah, fun fact, would you believe me if I told you that the guy who wrote this also wrote the Gor RPG?

That is mind blowing.

Also, I have got to stop reading this book any further, before I start punching the screen. Anyone that voted for any other book as 'The Worst D&D Book', including 'The book of Erotic Fantasy', is now officially wrong. Even the book of erotic fantasy is a masterpiece compared to the 'Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers'.

 

[Greg K]

I don't have a single best (keeping this to physical books to keep it short)
2e: Complete Thief's Handbook

3e: Unearthed Arcana (WOTC), Psychic's Handbook (Green Ronin), Shaman's Handbook (Green Ronin), Witch's Handbook (Green Ronin), Experts 3.5 (Skirmisher Publishing), Noble Steeds (Avalanche Press), Book of Templates (Silverthorne/Green Ronin). I use these these physical book (along with the 2e Complete Thief's Handbook) for reference and ideas for any fantasy campaign regardless of system.

Worst:
I like it as DM reference, but Book of Vile Darkness.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Thanks to @eyeheartawk for the formatting and edition-by-edition precedent.

(I'll bet I've posted before, and given different answers, too, but whatever, this version looks like fun.)

Best

OD&D/Basic: Men & Magic, for reasons that'll become evident.

1E: Gotta go DMG here like everybody else. You've got the definitive explanation of what hps really represent and how they really work, that has never been questioned since.

2E: Complete Priest's Handbook, easily the best thing ever written for 2e, expanded the Priest into a highly customizeable class, a great resource for DMs and players who could get their ear, and a level of design openness we'd not see again until 3e. It was written by the late great Aaron Alston, who also did a lot of writing for Hero Games, and published a few novels that are worth a read.

3E: I'm going to go with the 3.0 PH because, well, I don't own a huge number of 3e books (the group I was in at the time shared books a lot, and I didn't end up holding many of them), but I really did like some of the things that 3.5 ended up changing.

4E: Like Retreater said, 4e books were better references than memorable reads. Suppose we'll have to go with the PH1, again, for introducing the revolutionary (even if the revolution has been successfully suppressed) take on martial characters, especially the Warlord. I really don't much go in for setting/cosmology books, but Plane Above/Below and HotFw deserve mention, too.

5E: Nothing about the 5e rules much stands out, as befits a well-crafted compromise, but Curse of Strahd seems like the best adventure so far.

Worst

OD&D/Basic: Greyhawk Supplement I, for introducing the Thief and thus ruining the game forever. ;P (Oh, and it also introduced the Paladin.)

1E: A close contest between the "flaming dumpster fire" (c)Lowkey13 of Unearthed Arcana and the flaming gomi-xiang (which is exactly like a western dumpster, but superior in every way, and has Ki powers) fire of Oriental Adventures. Really, nothing to salvage from 1e after those fiascos.

2E: My regret here is that I don't own the notorious most broken complete books of the line, like the Complete Book of Elves - well, regret only in the context of this post, since I really, really don't regret not spending money 'em. I guess I'll have to go with the giant multi-volume compendium of magic items that included the hilarious search-and-replace editing error that changed every instance of "damage" to "dawizard." Though, for format alone, that nice idea that didn't work out so well, the loose-leaf Monstrous Compendium also deserves a nod.

3E: Again, don't own a lotta 3e for logistical reasons, but, I did end up holding the execrable Sword & Fist, which featured both what was perhaps the worst cover art in D&D history, and truly pathetic content, so I'm golden.

4E: I ended up not owning KotSf, or HoS or HotFL/K nor much of Essentials at all beyond the RC, so...
...oh, y'know: all the adventure tools after monster builder: for being vaporware. (But, you don't own them! ... no, but it was a subscription service, so I paid for them. But I'm not bitter, no, not me.)

5E: Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Not at all surprising. Mechanically, only offers a few things of value. Lore wise it's as deep as a puddle. (No I didn't stop, I just had to agree - and I don't actually own HotDQ, or that would obviously win.)

 

[eyeheartawk]

2E: My regret here is that I don't own the notorious most broken complete books of the line, like the Complete Book of Elves - well, regret only in the context of this post, since I really, really don't regret not spending money 'em. I guess I'll have to go with the giant multi-volume compendium of magic items that included the hilarious search-and-replace editing error that changed every instance of "damage" to "dawizard." Though, for format alone, that nice idea that didn't work out so well, the loose-leaf Monstrous Compendium also deserves a nod.

Never forget.