Thinking about buying these books, are they any good? (3.5)

[Savannah]

I'm buying a bunch of D&D 3.5 books that I've read but don't own and have been wanting. However, there are more that I haven't been able to read that look interesting. Specifically: The Draconomicon, Dragon Magic, Races of Stone, Races of Destiny, and Races of the Wild.

If you've read them, do you like them or not? Why? (I trust you guys more than amazon.com reviews. :smallbiggrin:) Thanks!

[arguskos]

I'm buying a bunch of D&D 3.5 books that I've read but don't own and have been wanting. However, there are more that I haven't been able to read that look interesting. Specifically: The Draconomicon, Dragon Magic, Races of Stone, Races of Destiny, and Races of the Wild.

If you've read them, do you like them or not? Why? (I trust you guys more than amazon.com reviews. :smallbiggrin:) Thanks!
In order:
-Do you DM and like Dragons? If yes, it's good.
-Are you primarily a player and like Dragons? If yes, it's good.
-Do you like dwarves and gnomes? If yes, it's good. Also, has some goblin stuff and new races, which is nice.
-Has a lot of human and half-elf/orc fluff, which is meh. Includes the Illumians, who are AWESOME.
-Eeeeeeh, I wasn't impressed. The Raptorans were meh, the Catfolk were meh, but there's a few nice feats and weapons, IMO.

As for personal opinion:
-I liked the Draconomicon. Lots of nice and fun dragons to play around with, and a few decent PrCs (in my opinion).
-I couldn't care either way about Dragon Magic.
-Races of Stone has Mountain Plate. It RAWKS.
-Illumians are awesome.
-Wasn't impressed. :smalltongue:

[Marnath]

The draconomicon is mostly valuable for the fluff about dragons, but all three of the Racesbooks have neat stuff in them. I don't have dragon magic but i've heard it's not very well written.

[Hirax]

Races of Stone and Draconomicon are both among my favorite books.

[Jjeinn-tae]

I have Draconomicon and Dragon Magic, rather fond of both of them. Some of my favorite art in the books are in those two, but mechanics wise they have some interesting things for players and DM's. Lot's of feats for Dragons to take in Draconomicon, which allows you to have some fun dragon fights, I'm personally fond of the dragon that flies around strafing adventurers.

Dragon Magic has support for some Tome of Magic things and Warlocks, and of course adds the Dragonfire Adept. There are also rituals in Dragon Magic, and Prestige Classes in both, focusing on fighting or serving Dragons.

Then in both of them you have some advice on incorporating Dragons into games... which probably isn't all that useful to most.

[Eldariel]

RotW is about Elves which automatically makes it awesome. Specifically, there's tons and tons of fluff about Elven life and world view and stuff like that; adds a whole different dimension of depth for people playing Elven characters. Also some nice classes and ACFs and so on.

Other than that, well, RoD has nice crunchy bits (Able Learner, Choose Destiny, etc.), Illumians (yeah, they kick ass) and such. It's a fine book if you wish one more playable race particularly of interest to casters. It doesn't contain all that much beyond that tho.

And RoS has Goliaths which are IMHO the best-written +1 LA race in the game and can step up to the challenge occasionally. Also, it's the basis of the Hulk (Stoneblessed medium race taking Goliath's Mountain Rage for non-magical enlargement), which automatically makes it awesome. :smallbiggrin:


Draconomicon; I like it. Much of the crunch is a bit obsolete tho and the metabreath feats need some DM tinkering 'cause otherwise one can obliterate the world with one Standard Action as a Dragon if desired. Mostly, they need upper limits to how many turns you can delay your breath by.

RotD has Dragonborn of Bahamut, which is a nice template for playable draconics, and it breaks Kobolds wide open. Yay Kobolds! It has Spellscales which are in their own way very interesting and expands on some draconic and pseudo-draconic races so...yeah. Oh, and it has some love for Sorcerers.


Dragon Magic has Dragonfire Adept which alone makes it awesome. It also has a bunch of interesting spells, Draconic abilities for dragonblooded characters, dragonblooded versions of ordinary races, etc. Basically, Dragon Magic is DFA + RotD for everybody, while RotD focuses on those specific races. And Draconomicon is mostly about monstrous Dragons.

[Xefas]

I'm buying a bunch of D&D 3.5 books that I've read but don't own and have been wanting. However, there are more that I haven't been able to read that look interesting. Specifically: The Draconomicon, Dragon Magic, Races of Stone, Races of Destiny, and Races of the Wild.

If you've read them, do you like them or not? Why? (I trust you guys more than amazon.com reviews. :smallbiggrin:) Thanks!

I have all of those books, and I think...well, I think it comes down to how much you'll be buying them for and how much money you have to commit to entertainment. Personally, I don't think any of them were worth the $40-$50 I payed for them, but with 4th edition out, they might be cheaper.

Draconomicon is great if you're the kind of person who used to enjoy reading all the Ecology sections of the 2nd edition Monster Manual. It has a bunch of useless prestige classes for PC humanoids, a bunch of useless prestige classes for dragons, some genuinely useful metabreath feats, a nice spell or two, and maybe a handful of feats you'll give a second glance. The big pull is the awesome flavor (and the random treasure generator is occasionally useful for the "WTF" look on your players faces when they find awkwardly specific treasure - i.e. an antique mahogany basilisk figurine inlaid with mother-of-pearl).

Dragon Magic is probably the most useful mechanics-wise. Lots of new spells, new Invocation using class (so the Warlock isn't so lonely), not to mention new Warlock invocations. Definitely the best if you want mechanics overall and you like playing spellcasters/invokers.

Races of Stone/Destiny/The WyldThe Wild are all...meh. They each have maybe one or two interesting things in them, that you might use once or twice before 5th edition comes out, ushers in a new age of roleplaying, and brings the flock home.

In conclusion, I'd make sure I had Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, Complete Arcane, and Complete Champion before I messed with any of these.

[Zaydos]

The Draconomicon might be my favorite 3.X book, but that's because I love dragons and I love the fluff in the book (I used to love the Ecology sections of the 2e Monster Manual, although the Habitat/Society sections were better fyi). I love use Metabreath feats on dragons, and rust dragons might be my favorite type of dragon (although I've gotten to use a total of 3; one just beat up low level PCs [the CR was one below their level and I was a noob DM], one was higher level and really fun and really made the knight and shaman have to work together, the last was the party mascot that they raised from an egg).

I like Dragon Magic, mostly for Dragonfire Adept and the Draconic feats it has.

Races of Stone is another one of my favorite 3.5 books; I love dwarves and although the 2e fluff from The Complete Book of Dwarves was better I love the substitution levels, feats, etc held within. Also goliaths rock and are an example of a well balanced race with LA.

Races of Destiny have the illumians and some nice feats.

Races of the Wild: has fluff for elves, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I liked the 2e fluff better and the mechanics were mostly meh, although it does have my favorite 3.5 PrC (Arcane Hierophant).

Races of Dragon: Stinky kobold cheese! That said I like some of the feats in it, but I'd have to say I don't use it much except for its draconic feats. I did have a player who played a spellscale sorceress/dragonheart (dragonsoul?) mage so that used Races of Dragon a bit. Still didn't live up to my high expectations set by Races of Stone and to a lesser extent Races of Destiny.

[Xefas]

The Draconomicon might be my favorite 3.X book, but that's because I love dragons and I love the fluff in the book (I used to love the Ecology sections of the 2e Monster Manual, although the Habitat/Society sections were better fyi). I love use Metabreath feats on dragons, and rust dragons might be my favorite type of dragon (although I've gotten to use a total of 3;

Ah, I forgot those Habitat/Society sections. Loved those too. Been about 7 years since I popped open a 2nd edition book, so you'll have to forgive me.

I must also support the awesomeness of Rust Dragons. I had a Hobgoblin Dread Necromancer on a Zombie Rust Dragon once (with a few zombie minions for meatshields). My players about cried when they realized it was either fight him, or have him lay waste to their favorite city. Was still a tough choice.

[Zaydos]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the Draconomicon's artwork (another thing I love about it). Although note Rust Dragons are also in Dragon Magazine #300.

[Savannah]

Sounds like I will be getting The Draconomicon and Dragon Magic right away, but waiting to see if I can find cheaper copies of the others. Thanks, that was what I needed to know.