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Ethrael
2009-01-11, 12:58 PM
My birthday party yesterday left me with a voucher for Borders and Amazon (they have vouchers now!) and I wanted to spend them on D&D 3.5 Supplement books.

However, as I browse the books available on Amazon, very few of them have reviews and not all of them are ones I'd trust. So I turn to the Playground for help, What to Buy?

I'm looking for Supplement books, not necessarily unlike Unearthed Arcana or Tome of Battle/Magic i.e. ones which provide alternate or additional rules concerning particular situations, but do bear in mind I'm not a very experienced player. My DM has a few supplements already, most Complete's (Mage, Arcane, Divine, Adventurer) and I have Spell Compendium and have recently bought Warrior, but if there are other supplements like those which you'd recommend I'd find those very interesting too.

Campaign Settings are not totally out of the question either, but I've only DMed one campaign, which didn't go so well. I'm DMing another in a while but they could still provide ideas which my current DM or I (later) could use.

So far, I've bookmarked Tome of Battle & Magic, Unearthed Arcana, Magic Item Compendium, Stormwrack, Heroes of Battle and Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Thanks very much to everyone who helps in advance. It's for a good cause. :smallbiggrin:

Fan
2009-01-11, 01:04 PM
I say you get Draconomicon, and some of the Races of books. they are rleatively easy to understand crunch wise while also increasing your game play experiance.
Races of the wild revolutionzed my elf play style.

Flickerdart
2009-01-11, 01:07 PM
Only get Tome of Magic if you want the Binder. Truenaming is woefully underpowered and Shadow is just weak.

What about Magic of Incarnum? That's a completely different system from "traditional" magic, and people seem to like it. Consider Dungeonscape as well for the vaunted Factotum, and Races of Destiny for the awesome Chameleon.

Keld Denar
2009-01-11, 01:12 PM
Get Tome of Battle. You won't regret it. This book revolutionizes melee combat, and synergizes well with just about every other concept in the game...ever. Just about every concept of every build can benefit a bit from a little ToB lovin, even if its just a feat, an item, or a 1-2 level dip. Its that good.

Anyway, other than that, yea, Complete Mage is pretty good, and so is Complete Scoundrel. I wouldn't get UA, since most of the content there is available online at d20srd.org, unless you really desire to view the ink n paper version. I'd rather get something that I can't view legally online though.

Satyr
2009-01-11, 02:35 PM
Midnight Campaign Setting. It is probably the bes campaign setting in print for D20, and offers an interesting additional character layer as additional rules (the rules are good and most colmpletely compatible to D&D 3.5; the flavor is almost unachieved).
It is probably a bit more expensive, but it is seriously worth the price.

Tempest Fennac
2009-01-11, 02:37 PM
I agree with ToB. If you like Psionics, you may like Complete Psionic (it contains a lot of non-SDR classes and powers).

TheCountAlucard
2009-01-11, 03:35 PM
I'd recommend Heroes of Horror, if you don't already have it. The stuff contained within can make for a very spooky campaign.

monty
2009-01-11, 03:41 PM
If you don't already have PHB II, you may want to pick that one up. Lots of nice stuff in there.

RTGoodman
2009-01-11, 04:22 PM
In general, you can't go wrong with the PHB2, ANY of the "Races" series (Races of the Wild, of Stone, etc.), the Complete series (especially the first half, but the second run with Mage and Scoundrel are good too), and the Environment series (Frostburn is my favorite, but the others are pretty good). ToB is GREAT but there's a lot of hate/disdain for it out there, so it might be a waste if you don't know any DMs that'd let you use it.

Ethrael
2009-01-12, 02:23 PM
Thanks for the advice, everyone. However, after talking with the DM, he reminded me that after we finish our current campaign and then mine too, we'll be starting 4e. Having a 3.5 book might be good inspiration, but it definitely won't be able to be used properly for a while. So, unfortunately, I'll wait until the first of the supplements for 4e, then I'll be revisiting mes amis here! :smallbiggrin:

Mr.Bookworm
2009-01-12, 02:58 PM
4E already has supplements.

The Draconomicon is pretty cool, but you probably shouldn't grab it unless you're the DM. Open Grave looks like it'll be the same.

Manual of the Planes is cool, but again, only DMs need apply.

Martial Power is great if you're, well, martial.

Adventurer's Vault is a must. Equipment is great.

Even if you don't like Forgotten Realms, you might want to grab the FR: Player's Guide. The Swordmage is an awesome class.

Thurbane
2009-01-12, 03:16 PM
If you don't already have PHB II, you may want to pick that one up. Lots of nice stuff in there.
Yep, this was my first non-core 3.5 purchase, and I've never regretted it! :smallbiggrin:

Hzurr
2009-01-12, 04:09 PM
Also, the 4th ed PHB 2 comes out a little later this year (March?), so you might want to wait a bit for that. The previews so far (Barbarian, Bard, Druid and Warden) definitely look interesting enough to make this a must-get for me. (Well, it seems the druid is a bit lack-luster, but everything else seems really awesome)

Martial Power is really good, and while I don't own it, I've heard great things about the FR Player's guide. Also, "Arcane Power" is scheduled to come out the month after the PHB2 (it's for Wizards, Warlocks, Swordmages, Bards and Sorcerers).

Adventurer's Vault is good, but use it with a grain of salt, because there are a few things (especially the weapons) that are a bit...too much. However, it has a lot of really cool magic items.

If you decide to stick with 3.5 stuff, I again echo the "races of" series, (especially "Races of Stone" because then you can play as a Goliath with the "throw" set of feats. There are few things quite as awesome as throwing a halfling barbarian at people).

Ethrael
2009-01-12, 05:05 PM
Also, the 4th ed PHB 2 comes out a little later this year (March?), so you might want to wait a bit for that. The previews so far (Barbarian, Bard, Druid and Warden) definitely look interesting enough to make this a must-get for me. (Well, it seems the druid is a bit lack-luster, but everything else seems really awesome)

Yes! I've seen a preview of that in D&D Insider on WoTC and it does look cool. Plus there'll be Shaman, Monk and a few other things I've heard.

My DM has Races of Stone and the Wild, are Destiny or Dragon any good?

Hzurr
2009-01-12, 05:18 PM
Yes! I've seen a preview of that in D&D Insider on WoTC and it does look cool. Plus there'll be Shaman, Monk and a few other things I've heard.

My DM has Races of Stone and the Wild, are Destiny or Dragon any good?

Monk isn't in the PHB2, unfortunately :smallfrown:

I think the official list is (and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple)
Bard (Arcane leader)
Barbarian (Primal Striker)
Druid (Primal Controller)
Warden (Primal Defender)
Invoker (Divine Controller)
Sorcerer (Arcane Controller)
Shaman ??

Hmm...I think I'm missing 2 from that list. If I had to guess, I'd say a Primal Leader, and a Divine Striker.

Monks are part of the "Ki" power source, which they haven't given much info on. Other power sources are psionic, shadow, and elemental, I believe.

My guess is the PHB3 is Ki, psionic, and the rest of primal (whereas the PHB1 was Arcane, Divine, and Martial, and the PHB2 is Arcane, Divine and Primal). I'm fairly certain they're done with Arcane classes for a while after this (since "Arcane Power" is coming out in April), and I believe in October or something next year, "Divine Power" is coming out, but I'd guess to see at least 1 or 2 new divine classes to pop up between now and then.