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View Full Version : Sate my curiosity. What is everybody's favourite supplement from each edition?



SaintRidley
2009-12-05, 01:24 AM
Obviously, only apply to those you have some experience with.

From 2nd edition, I can't help but hold The Ilithiad as my favourite book from that era. So much cool stuff, so much fluff, so many beautiful things to learn.

3.x gave me four supplements I count as my favourites. Lords of Madness basically had The Ilithiad distilled into one chapter and was awesome on its own merits all the way through.

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss and Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells contained an absolutely wonderful fluff to crunch ratio and left me deeply satisfied, as a fan of the politics and mythology of the lower planes. I am only saddened that the daemons were not given the love they deserve and the supplement that should have completed the trifecta.

Heroes of Horror is the last of the top four I have for 3.x. Again, beautiful fluff to crunch ratio, several really cool ideas, and that taint mechanic is something I'm hoping to include in the next game I run. Sexy base classes in there, some nice spells, cool monsters, and so much awesome everywhere before.


For 4e I can't really decide. It's not that I like the books so much, it's just that I really haven't had a chance to really put them into play and see what works and what doesn't. I'd say I have to go with the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide and Arcane Power, simply because with them I can do neat things combining Wizard and Swordmage for Wizard of the Spiral Tower. But yeah, I really am at a loss for a favourite 4e book.

Maybe if Planescape were to be announced as a campaign setting for 4e...

I can only dream.

BobVosh
2009-12-05, 01:30 AM
Hmm. In a wondrous twist, my favorite book for 3.5 and 4ed goes by the same name. PHB2.

3.5: Adds a nice amount of features, ACFs, and I like the duskblade a lot. Fluff light though.
4ed: Avenger is the only class I even came close to liking in 4ed. I hate missing ~50% of the time, and it took care of me. Making it a much more agreeable ~25%.

For 1st and 2ed I will go with unearthed arcana. Very solid book, especially the alternative stat rolling rules. I almost went with it for 3.5, but I remember I rarely use it.

bosssmiley
2009-12-05, 09:20 AM
In b4 Tome of Battle post storm. :smallamused:

Basic D&D: either the Book of Wondrous Inventions, or Stonehell (http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/search/label/Stonehell) (a true megadungeon in the Castle Greyhawk, Caverns of Thracia, etc. tradition).

AD&D 1E: the Fiend Folio (the British are substantially weirder and cooler than yeauw).


More than once I've argued for the ultimate awesomeness of a world where the Fiend Folio is the primary monster book. [...] I'm actually kinda leaning towards the idea that the FF better fits with the 3 Little Beige Books than the Monster Manual. What would a game world look like where the original daemons and the slaad were the primary extraplanar foes? A world where the Eye of Fear & Flame was the number one undead baddie? Where people feared fogbanks because they might contain the mightiest of giants?
-- Jeff Rients

AD&D 2E: Either the Spelljammer, Planescape or Birthright campaign settings. Exactly which depends on what mood I'm in that day.

WOTC 3E: Manual of the Planes. Apart from some berk deciding his ant farm was cooler than the Modrons. :smallmad:

WOTC 4E: Sorry, but the question does not apply.

The Dark Fiddler
2009-12-05, 09:29 AM
Only ever played 3.5, and there, it's sort of a tie between ToB and XPH. ToB probably wins out though, since it's gotten much more use with me.

Gamerlord
2009-12-05, 09:32 AM
3.5= Tie between CW and CAD
4e= PHB2, hands down.

oxybe
2009-12-05, 10:04 AM
hm...

for 2nd ed, i would say either the Dark Sun setting or the Ravenloft Van Richten guides.

dark sun shook up my preconceptions of D&D is capable off. it was the first setting that i played that didn't feel like some pseudo-medival europe... with a twist! it was dangerous, alien & strange... i loved it.

the Van Richten guides (i'm still looking for the rest of them) are just awesome books on various "bump in the night" monsters: Ghosts, Anthrotropes, Ancient Dead (mummies and such), ect... just awesome fluff books.

for 3rd ed... Heroes of horror and the "monster type" books: Libris Mortis, Draconomicon, Lords of Madness.

Heroes of Horror i loved for one reason: it went in depth about the "horror" genre and broke it down into it's parts and discussed it.

the monster books for 3.5 were the logical progression of the van richten guides as it opened an avenue for discussion on various monster types.

4th ed: Open Grave, Eberron Campaign Guide, DMG 1 & 2.

Open Grave is just more undead goodness. i don't know who said it, but "zombies are our generation's nazis", though "terrorists" are taking the recent spotlight. i honestly can't get enough of undead, and even in the Eberron game i'm working on, i'm using both my old Van Richten guides, HoH & LM as inspiration.

i have yet to read the Draconomicons for 4th ed so i can't say much about them.

I loved Eberron in 3rd ed but could only play not GM, so having the opportunity to buy the CS this time around, i got it for 4th.

the 4th ed DMG are the first "real" DMGs IMO. older editions were usually books featuring "behind-the-scene" mechanics and charts that were supposedly off limits to the players (who probably had a DMG of their own, if only for the Magic Items in the back). the 4th ed ones actually discuss player motivations & storytelling techniques.

i guess for me my fav books aren't really "rule books" but more books that put ideas & discussions on the table.

ken-do-nim
2009-12-05, 10:50 AM
Cool thread!

bosssmiley: you must tell me more about Stonehell - I've never heard of it!

SaintRidley: I've never heard of the Ilithiad either - a mind flayer version of the battle of Troy?

Okay, let's get onto it:

OD&D: This is a true toughy. Greyhawk brings a lot of meat to the table rules-wise and you can rightfully think of it as a core rulebook rather than a supplement, though that's not true. So if you count Greyhawk as core, then it's between Eldritch Wizardry and Best of Dragon vol I. Eldritch Wizardry is a pure imagination firer - demons, artifacts, psionics, and druids. Lots of good stuff. Best of Dragon vol I gives us the ranger, illusionist, bard, lots of cool articles, and the random demon generation table.

AD&D (1E): I'll go with Unearthed Arcana. I totally realize many of the new rules are bunk (especially the races and weapon specialization), but many you can't do without.

Classic D&D: Probably the orange monster book whose name I forget

AD&D 2E: Combat & Tactics, narrowly beating out Spells & Magic

D&D 3.0E: Necropolis

D&D 3.5E: Player's Handbook II

Boci
2009-12-05, 11:05 AM
3E: Tome of Battle - I've always prefered melee to casters

4E: Forgotten Realms Player's Guide - Go swordmage!

Thane of Fife
2009-12-05, 11:07 AM
Hmm, limiting myself to books I have:

BD&D: The Companion Set is really nice, with its rules for domains and mass combat and such. Good stuff.

AD&D 1: Probably the Forgotten Realms Grey Box - it's one of the only 1e supplements I have. Say what you will about Ed Greenwood, that is a man who knows how to spark your imagination.

AD&D 2: The Monstrous Manual. I can't think of any one books I'd rather have. If that doesn't count, then probably Spells and Magic (or maybe the Encyclopedia Magica).

3.0: I think that the Hero-Builder's Guidebook is the only 3.0 supplement I own, but I do quite like the background randomizer in the back of the book.

d20: Not a WotC book, but I really like the Castlemourn campaign setting, for basically the exact same reason I like the FR Grey Box.

Artanis
2009-12-05, 11:25 AM
3.5: Complete Arcane.
--What can I say, I like the Warmage. I like making things go boom, and the Warmage is pure, unadulterated make-things-go-boom-ness. I also found the Warmage to be a good class for somebody making their first caster in 3.5, as it flattens the learning curve quite a bit by not making you worry about things like what spells to choose.

4e: Arcane Power
--I have no particular desire to play an Arcane class anytime soon, but AP shows 4e doing something that 3.5 did not: supporting non-core classes. How many 3.5 classes showed up in a splatbook, never to be heard from again? I was fully expecting books like Arcane Power only to have anything for PHB/PHB2 classes and builds, but it had the Swordmage as well.

AllisterH
2009-12-05, 11:27 AM
Sounds like a fun thread....

Favourite D&D products
Module - The Keep on the Borderlands
Accessory - The Book of Marvelous Magic
Campaign - Hollow World Campaign Set
Campaign Accessory - Tall Tales of the Wee Folk

Favourite AD&D products
Module - Easily Ravenloft. Deservedly ranks as perhaps the greatest adventure of all time.
Accessory - Tie between Wilderness Survival Guide/Fiend Folio
Campaign - The original Forgotten Realms (when Elminister was nothing more than an old sage)
Campaign Accessory - Waterdeep and the North

Favourite AD&D 2E product
Module - Gates of Firestorm Peak
Campaign - Al-Qadim
Campaign Accessory - Faiths and Avatars
Generic Accessory - "I Tyrant" (-book on beholders)

Favourite 3.x D&D product
Module - Forge of Fury
Campaign - Eberron
Campaign Accessory - Lost Empires of Faerun
Generic Accessory - Tome of Battle

Favourite 4E D&D product
Module - King of the Trollhaunt Warrens
Campaign - Forgotten Realms
Campaign Accessory - Player's guide to Eberron
Generic Accessory - Open Grave

Quirinus_Obsidian
2009-12-05, 11:37 AM
I started with 3.5, and have experience as a DM... so I have a few favorites. We will systematically break them down by favorite supplement type and favorite character archetype...<COUGH whatadork COUGH>.

I also use a lot of non-WoTC stuff in my campaigns.

Melee:
+1 to Tome of Battle
(followed <very> closely by) Complete Warrior.
The Quintessential Fighter (Mongoose Publishing)

Psionics:
XPH (Duh!)
Untapped Potential/Hyperconsious (these should really be one book)

Spellcasting:
Complete Mage (who doesn't love the Ultimate Magus and Master Specialist?)
Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. True that this is a hodgepodge of different character stuff, but the magic section(s) are dripping with awesome.

Special: "DM books":
Unearthed Arcana
Pathfinder Core Rulebook

SaintRidley
2009-12-05, 12:08 PM
SaintRidley: I've never heard of the Ilithiad either - a mind flayer version of the battle of Troy?



I don't have it on me, but I'll do my best.

If you're familiar with Lords of Madness and Libris Mortis, think the Lords of Madness chapter on the flayers. Now, throw in some diagrams and charts like the body diagram at the beginning of Libris Mortis.

It's late 2e, and it is written as the final work of a wizard who has been studying the physiology, mental and physical capablities, and culture of the flayers. There's so much information in it, a great deal of which does not make it into Lords of Madness, which leaves it still useful for fluff purposes in 3.x.

There's just so much detail, including the sorts of public exhibitions they engage in with their captures and thralls.

Public eatings are really cool to read about, and gladiatorial combat is pretty neat when the gladiators are completely controlled by two flayers who are settling a dispute.

AtopTheMountain
2009-12-05, 12:13 PM
3.0: Tome and Blood, that one for Sorcerers and Wizards.

3.5: Very tough, but I'll say The Book of Nine Swords, since I really enjoyed playing a Desert Wind Swordsage / Wizard / Jade Phoenix Mage one time.

4.0: So far, PHBII. I LOVE the Barbarian.

CrazySopher
2009-12-05, 01:43 PM
Hmm. In a wondrous twist, my favorite book for 3.5 and 4ed goes by the same name. PHB2.

Ditto on that, actually. PHB2 was my first 3.5 supplement, and has one of my favorite 3.5 classes in it; the Knight. It's a split between that and the Tome of Battle; 3.0-3.5 melee characters are fun, but they never had any real "oomph" at higher level. In 4.0, I'm hesitant to call it a "Supplement" flat out because it delivers so much more that I felt had been missing from the PHB 1. I get Barbarian, Sorcerer, and Bard back, two more Controllers to give the party that much more versatility, and the entire Primal Power Source to boot, which not only solidified the differences between 3.5's two flavors of Divine spell casting - something that had always irked me - but helped immensely in giving the "Non-civilized" cultures in my game a more solid place in the world.

I'm not as familiar with 2.0 and 1, but I can say that Unearthed Arcana has always been a favorite of mine throughout the editions. I flipped through "I, Tyrant" once and found it really interesting, but I havn't been able to get my hands on it.

jokey665
2009-12-05, 01:50 PM
Considering 3.5e is the only edition I've really played, that's the only one I can talk about. And my answer is the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Volkov
2009-12-05, 02:02 PM
The Book of Elder Evils, wonderfully done, though a bit short.
The fiendish codex's, so much fluff, it's a pity the Yugoloth's didn't get one.

AllisterH
2009-12-05, 02:11 PM
I don't have it on me, but I'll do my best.

If you're familiar with Lords of Madness and Libris Mortis, think the Lords of Madness chapter on the flayers. Now, throw in some diagrams and charts like the body diagram at the beginning of Libris Mortis.

It's late 2e, and it is written as the final work of a wizard who has been studying the physiology, mental and physical capablities, and culture of the flayers. There's so much information in it, a great deal of which does not make it into Lords of Madness, which leaves it still useful for fluff purposes in 3.x.

There's just so much detail, including the sorts of public exhibitions they engage in with their captures and thralls.

Public eatings are really cool to read about, and gladiatorial combat is pretty neat when the gladiators are completely controlled by two flayers who are settling a dispute.

Yeah...it was pretty good and definitely a highlight of 2e just before TSR went bust.

The Illithiad was the 3rd book in the Monstrous Arcana series

"I Tyrant" - the one I loved was the first and was a book on beholders.
"The Sea Devils" second book and was about the Sahuagin
"The Illithiad"

Basically they fleshed out the creatures in a 96 page accessory which they then followed up with a trio of adventures.

Haven
2009-12-05, 02:24 PM
AD&D 2E: Either the Spelljammer, Planescape or Birthright campaign settings. Exactly which depends on what mood I'm in that day.

Such a tossup between Spelljammer and Planescape for me. I don't know how to decide. Both such incredibly inventive, wonderful settings. Though frankly the focus on Sigil and especially Faction politics in Planescape bothered me. It seemed like the Outer and Inner Planes should have gotten a lot more love (likewise the Astral and Ethereal). I guess that just gives DMs more room to expand, but meh.

Hard to pick my favorite 3.5 supplement. I do like ToB for finally giving melee characters something interesting, though (I wish there'd been a martial adept version of the Ranger--actually, I guess it wouldn't be too hard to build one as a swordsage).

SimperingToad
2009-12-05, 02:41 PM
OD&D: Never played it, but have all the books. Will have to go with the Greyhawk supplement on that one just because of the opening of so many new vistas.

Classic D&D: Outside of Holmes, never played it. I did use some of the modules, so I'd have to go with B1 and B2.

AD&D: The World of Greyhawk folio. Detailed enough to make a campaign setting, but basic enough to make it your own campaign.

AD&D 2E: Tough call, but I'd probably have to go with the green-cover historical books.

3E: Sword & Sorcery Excalibur book. While not flawless, Arthurian fantasy was pulled off pretty well.