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the humanity
2010-06-27, 12:36 AM
I'm going to buy a book for my usual group playing soon.

D&D, 3.5 (it's what we play)

we have,
Core
Complete champion, arcane, scoundrel, and adventurer
Forgotten Realms (the one with Guild Thief)
Ravenloft Campaign Setting
MMII
Fiend Folio
and some smaller books used rarely.

I'm stuck between Complete Mage and Complete Warrior. They'd both get used, but I can't choose a favorite.

any thoughts on the two books?

KillianHawkeye
2010-06-27, 12:40 AM
Forget Complete Warrior and get Tome of Battle! :smallbiggrin:

Aeromyre
2010-06-27, 12:43 AM
I'm going to buy a book for my usual group playing soon.

D&D, 3.5 (it's what we play)

we have,
Core
Complete champion, arcane, scoundrel, and adventurer
Forgotten Realms (the one with Guild Thief)
Ravenloft Campaign Setting
MMII
Fiend Folio
and some smaller books used rarely.

I'm stuck between Complete Mage and Complete Warrior. They'd both get used, but I can't choose a favorite.

any thoughts on the two books?

I really love complete warrior, i use a PRC called kensei,
I have complete mage and don't enjoy it, complete arcane is far superior.
But killian may be right, Tome of Battle seems to be a little more in depth

AtopTheMountain
2010-06-27, 12:49 AM
Get either Tome of Battle or Magic of Incarnum. They are both two of the most unique and balanced books that ever came out of 3.5, and I almost never make a character who is not some kind of caster without using one of them.

PId6
2010-06-27, 12:59 AM
Complete Warrior has some useful things, but overall the book is pretty badly balanced. All three of the base classes are terrible without a lot of support, while the same can be said of most of the PrCs. Complete Mage is overall much better balanced, and I like it much better.

That said, you're best off following the advice of everyone that has posted before me and just get Tome of Battle.

IonDragon
2010-06-27, 02:43 AM
+1 ToB

Letters so it will let me post.

Superglucose
2010-06-27, 02:55 AM
I disagree that ToB is a staple. You can have melee classes just fine without ToB (Cleric) and if your argument about ToB flavor is "just reflavor it, you can reflavor everything" then just reflavor Cleric so that "spells" become "maneuvers" or "stances" or whatever. It's a fun book, but having played with it a little it *is* basically casting for melee classes, imo. IMO that's also not a bad thing, especially since I think I've played a non-casting class like twice, and been horribly bored both times.

Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium will probably get much more play time than any of the following: Tome of Battle, Complete Mage, Complete Warrior. Honestly, PHB 2 would be a better addition than ToB for me, personally, just because it's got the Beguiler, a class I love. That's just me personally though.

So in the end, I'd suggest like this: If most people in your party like casters (including Paladins and Rangers in this), get Spell Compendium. If most people in your party prefer playing beat sticks, get Magic Item Compendium.

EDIT: Between CW and CM, just homebrew the ONE feat that you need from Complete Warrior (Shock Trooper) and call it a day. Definitely take Complete Mage over Complete Warrior, if you know it has to be one of the two.

the humanity
2010-06-27, 02:02 PM
I want something cheaper, ToB usually runs at about 30-40 dollars, Mage and Warrior come up on amazon for 10.

so you think mage is overall, just a better book?

PId6
2010-06-27, 02:44 PM
so you think mage is overall, just a better book?
Pretty much. Generally, the later in 3.5's lifetime that the book was printed, the better its overall quality. The earlier books like CWar and CArc have terrible balance, and are very similar to core in that regard. Most of the things in them are either weak or obscenely overpowered, with very little middle ground. The latter books like ToB, CMage, Dungeonscape, and CChamp tend to have far better balance, with most base classes leaning towards Tier 3 and most PrCs in the "good but not overpowered" section. There are still plenty of screw ups in them, but overall they're much better than the earlier books like CWar.

So yeah, Complete Mage all the way.

the humanity
2010-06-27, 03:01 PM
sorry, went with warrior. one copy went down to 5 dollars, mage climbed up to 27.

mage is next on my list. I just want it to crawl down to 15 before I buy it...