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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5620641" data-attributes="member: 22424">Is it? I haven't done the count, but there sure seem to be a lot of 4e books out there.Anyway, here's my take on it: you would be mad to buy all the 4e books. A lot of them are extremely crunch-heavy, and those are genuinely better handled by using the DDI (more on this later). However, the fluff-heavy books are maybe worth a look.But, seriously, I would invest in a couple of the Essentials books (the two "Heroes of..." books and the "Rules Compendium"; maybe the "Dungeon Master's Kit"), and nothing else, unless you were specifically planning a campaign in the 'new' FR or Dark Sun. (You've already mentioned owning the 3e Eberron books, so don't bother with the 4e ones.)The Character and Monster Builders aren't great. However, they are somewhat useable, and gradually (and painfully) getting better. The Compendium is pretty good. Dungeon and Dragon (especially Dungeon) are sad parodies of their former selves, although they too are gradually getting better.Despite that, the DDI is a steal. If you're serious about playing 4e, and especially if you're running it, and double especially if you were going to get all the books, you really owe it to yourself to at least seriously consider it. Frankly, for me it's a no brainer - get a DDI sub; forget the books.The thing is, although that Character Builder frankly isn't good software, it is unbelievably useful. I simply wouldn't play 4e without access to it. For me, that's the "killer app".The other key thing is that 4e has had a lot of errata, and more is coming all the time. The DDI handles all of that for you. Physical books, of course, don't change with time. Worse, the later books in the series assume not only that you're using the older ones, but they also assume the use of errata. Thus, there is no current and consistent set of the latest version of the rules in print. To get a consistent ruleset, you have to go Essentials-only, and that's really quite limiting compared with all of 4e.That's definitely an issue. And it's going to be much more of an issue when (not if) WotC release 5e, and the 4e version of the DDI suddenly goes away. This time out, WotC really will be sending out the Edition Ninjas to take away your books.But ask yourself this: how much do you really use your 3e books? Honestly? Or are you, like me, someone who uses 5% of his collection extensively, and the other 95% barely if at all?Honestly, I would argue that if you are actively playing 4e, $6 a month is a small price to pay. And when 4e goes away (and it will), you'll probably want to move to 5e anyway, at which point any tangible books will probably just become clutter in your house.I play, but won't run, 4e, and I don't have a DDI subscription. (My DM keeps my characters up-to-date.)My reason for this is simple: it is my policy that I don't spend money on games unless I'm intending to run them in the near future. I've spent too much on books that I've never used to do otherwise.I believe Dragon and Dungeon are downloadable (as PDFs of the individual articles). The various tools aren't. I also think (but am not certain), that the Terms of Use state that if you end your subscription, you're supposed to delete any DDI materials from your computer (might just be the tools, though). Obviously, that's almost completely unenforceable, so would be a matter for your conscience...</blockquote>

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