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Brendan
2009-11-07, 08:41 AM
So, my DM has the PHB, the MM and the DMG. no other books. His birthday is coming up, and I found a gift card to a store that sells this kind of book. I was wondering what one book I should get for him. I would prefer it to have NO monsters, as he sends a wide range at us already. No psionics, as we do not play with those rules. Preferably some good low-magic prestige and base classes, though the book can have that as only a small section. great function and balancedness, and good fluff. This is set in the typical medeval setting, so no grenade launchers.
Thanks a lot!

Gamerlord
2009-11-07, 08:42 AM
How about complete warrior or some other complete series book?

Logalmier
2009-11-07, 08:45 AM
I personally like Complete Arcane. There's some nice stuff in there, and it's not THAT broken.

Just stay away from the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil. :smallwink:

Tackyhillbillu
2009-11-07, 08:46 AM
Tome of Battle.

Just Tome of Battle.

The Demented One
2009-11-07, 08:46 AM
Player's Handbook II, Expanded Psionics Handbook, or Tome of Battle, depending on his/the group's tastes.

Cicciograna
2009-11-07, 08:48 AM
Tome of Battle, without any doubt.

industrious
2009-11-07, 08:51 AM
Low Magic? Tomb of Battle, definitely.

Toliudar
2009-11-07, 08:58 AM
Because caster classes have a lot more options in core than warrior-types, Tome of Battle would be my pick as well.

Karma Guard
2009-11-07, 10:12 AM
Yeah, ToB is going to be the awesome choice. Get that one.

Although I really like the Tome of Magic- all the alternative casting is awesome (even if the Truenamer is literally broken :(c ).

Temet Nosce
2009-11-07, 10:16 AM
So, my DM has the PHB, the MM and the DMG. no other books. His birthday is coming up, and I found a gift card to a store that sells this kind of book. I was wondering what one book I should get for him. I would prefer it to have NO monsters, as he sends a wide range at us already. No psionics, as we do not play with those rules. Preferably some good low-magic prestige and base classes, though the book can have that as only a small section. great function and balancedness, and good fluff. This is set in the typical medeval setting, so no grenade launchers.
Thanks a lot!

Well, given the mention of low magic my first suggestion (the Spell Compendium, what I consider one of the most important books ever published in 3.5) is out. Is it low on magic items as well? Because my next suggestion would be the Magic Item Compendium. Assuming both of those are out however, I will echo the rest of the thread and suggest Tome of Battle.

Mongoose87
2009-11-07, 11:15 AM
Low magic or not, Tome of Battle will change your game forever. Get it.

Brendan
2009-11-07, 11:28 AM
Okay. I see it is fairly unanimous. Tome of battle it is then. Thanks a lot!

Kylarra
2009-11-07, 11:29 AM
I'll suggest PHB2/Dungeonscape. Not that ToB isn't great, it's just there's enough people saying that already.


edit: Ah well. ToB wins :smalltongue:

Chrono22
2009-11-07, 11:31 AM
Though it isn't my favorite book... if I had ToB when I was just starting out, it would have changed my experience with the core rules for the better.

Tome of Battle.

ken-do-nim
2009-11-07, 01:02 PM
It's too late, but I would have voted Player's Handbook II. Some important rules in there, especially the retraining and class variant ones, and a good selection of classes, spells, and feats.

That said, I don't own Tome of Battle. I don't want to end-of-life half the martial classes in the PHB in favor of those. The feats in PHBII help in that regard.

The Glyphstone
2009-11-07, 01:32 PM
It's too late, but I would have voted Player's Handbook II. Some important rules in there, especially the retraining and class variant ones, and a good selection of classes, spells, and feats.

That said, I don't own Tome of Battle. I don't want to end-of-life half the martial classes in the PHB in favor of those. The feats in PHBII help in that regard.

Does it help to think of them as not simply being ended, but reincarnated into new and more glorious forms?:smalltongue:

shadow_archmagi
2009-11-07, 01:35 PM
Does it help to think of them as not simply being ended, but reincarnated into new and more glorious forms?:smalltongue:

"Murdered and replaced is such an ugly phrase. We upgraded!"

MichielHagen
2009-11-07, 01:41 PM
Though i love ToB, i would not have suggested it.
I feel it is one of the more complicated books as it differs more than normal from core. And as you said the DM only has the core books, i can imagine he is not the most experienced DM.
Also since you are playing a low-magic campaign, the ToB becomes less balanced in my opinion. The classes in there are superior to the non-spellcasting core classes.....sucks to be the fighter when a Warblade comes along.

Longcat
2009-11-07, 01:46 PM
sucks to be the fighter when a Warblade Barbarian/Druid/Cleric or Ranger comes along.

Fixed that for you.

Ostien
2009-11-07, 02:02 PM
Looked at ToB and never liked it. I'd say if you are looking for low magic, Complete Adventurer has some good things also Complete Warrior. If you feel your game has been lacking a certain Lovercraftian vibe get Lords of Madness and or Elder Evils. Though that is 100% a personal love of mine :smallsmile:

ToB has a completely different flavor so keep that in mind, take a look at it and see if it would fit with the feel of your groups play style.

Ravens_cry
2009-11-07, 02:11 PM
Fixed that for you.
I know Fighters aren't exactly big on the options, but quite often that one option is very good. I was in a campaign with a fellow player whose character was an absolute combat brute. He was within 10 points of one shotting the final boss, on minimum damage. Fighters may not have the diverse options of a wizard or of even the moderately gishie melee types, but a sword through the gut, or a hammer to the face, stops most things if you keep at it long enough.
"If it bleeds, we can kill it."

Tackyhillbillu
2009-11-07, 02:17 PM
Sucks to be the fighter when a Warblade comes along.

That is the true fix.

Gnomo
2009-11-07, 02:42 PM
I would have definitely suggested PHB2 before ToB, not that ToB is a bad idea but PHB2 has a lot more material to everyone in the table, not just the meleers.

Keld Denar
2009-11-07, 02:57 PM
I'm gonna say MIC. Magic items make up a significant part of a character, right along with classes, feats, and skills. MIC not only ~triples the amount of magic items in the game, but it gives some that are both low level and useful. The problem with the DMG is that most of the decent magic items are priced WAY out of range of most PCs until they are either too high level for them to be useful, or the PCs are expected to buy the standard stuff (+str, +con, +NA, etc) first and won't get the really juicy stuff till near epic levels.

MIC also helps promote low level diversity. Nobody at the table wants to play a boring healbot? Everyone spends a bit of jink on Healing Belts, and you won't need to healing spell cast till after level 6 or so. If someone wants to play a healbot, divert that jink somewhere else and get stuff that increases combat power, utility, or survivability.

I mean, the greatest thing about the MIC is the shear amount of loot under 3k gold, which makes it pretty affordable for lower level characters to have nice shineys!

Berserk Monk
2009-11-07, 03:29 PM
{Scrubbed. Please don't advocate illegal or copyright infringing conduct.}

Doc Roc
2009-11-07, 04:20 PM
Tome of Battle or the MiC. Those two have made huge differences in my game.

Dungeonscape is also awesome.