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Selenir
2010-09-03, 11:14 AM
I've got the cores, the completes, and recently the tome of battle and a few miscellaneous other sourcebooks... but I want MORE!

What, in your opinions, are the best/coolest/most fun books to get to supplement those? Gimme some recommendations here! :smallsmile:

Jack Zander
2010-09-03, 11:19 AM
OA is 3.0 but its still compatible and offer some neat classes and feats. Plus you get the all broken Iajutsu Focus skill.

Grynning
2010-09-03, 11:29 AM
I really like the 3.5 Fiendish Codexes - Hordes of the Abyss and Tyrants of the Nine Hells. Both have some very cool monsters, lore, and PRC's with some neat mechanics. If you read this forum much you'll see tons of praise for Magic of Incarnum; though I've never used it myself.

Sounds like you already have a pretty big collection; not sure there's much more to suggest.

Edit: OoooOooohhh yeah big second for Spell Compendium.

Kaje
2010-09-03, 11:35 AM
Tome of Magic has the binder, and Dungeonscape has the factotum. IMO, once you have those, core, ToB, and Complete Arcane (for the warlock), you have pretty much everything worth spending money on.

EDIT: Ooh, and Unearthed Arcana, especially for the variant paladins and gestalt rules.

qcbtnsrm
2010-09-03, 11:44 AM
Spell Compendium - It has lotsa goodies for the full casters. Wizards and clerics will like it. And it has some real winners for the spontaneous casters. There are some fantastic spells for Favored Soul (Heart's Ease & Panacea for example) where they combine the functions of several lower level spells into one. So you get a bunch of versatility from just a couple of spells known. But the real winners are the partial casters like Bard, Paladin and Ranger. Where they get a number of spells that offer great help with their class abilities and are very flavorful.

Magic Item Compendium - Thousands of new items. PCs always like new toys to play with. Great for a GM who wants to hand out some new and original goodies. Even better for PCs who have access to crafting or a magic mart.

Bulwer
2010-09-03, 11:50 AM
Spell Compendium - It has lotsa goodies for the full casters. Wizards and clerics will like it. And it has some real winners for the spontaneous casters. There are some fantastic spells for Favored Soul (Heart's Ease & Panacea for example) where they combine the functions of several lower level spells into one. So you get a bunch of versatility from just a couple of spells known. But the real winners are the partial casters like Bard, Paladin and Ranger. Where they get a number of spells that offer great help with their class abilities and are very flavorful.

Magic Item Compendium - Thousands of new items. PCs always like new toys to play with. Great for a GM who wants to hand out some new and original goodies. Even better for PCs who have access to crafting or a magic mart.

Seconded.

Also, I find myself paging through the Races books a lot. There's good stuff, esp. in Stone and Wild.

Tyndmyr
2010-09-03, 12:02 PM
Dungeonscape is amazing.

After core + complete, I'd urge you to look at spell and magic item compendiums, followed by the "It's x outside" series.

Gensh
2010-09-03, 12:39 PM
Expanded Psionic Handbook, if you don't consider that core, then the 3rd party book Hyperconscious to kick it up to 11. Spell compendium is also good for the classes with smaller spell lists, though I'd weigh in the disadvantages given that clerics and druids have access to all spells on their lists automatically. I'd also probably throw in Sandstorm just because my campaigns inevitably involve the desert, and who doesn't like Egypt?

Master_Rahl22
2010-09-03, 03:14 PM
I like the Races of X books, and if you really want to go nuts you can throw in FR or Eberron stuff. I'll second (or third) XPH, the Compendiums, and Magic of Incarnum. All great books. The Fiendish Codexs were also nifty, fun to read about the lords of the 9 hells and stuff like that, in addition to the crunchy bits of feats and PrCs.

The Vorpal Tribble
2010-09-03, 04:52 PM
Expanded Psionic Handbook
This. No, that's it!

Grynning
2010-09-03, 05:24 PM
Thing about the XPH - there's really no need to buy it when you have this (http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm).

Da'Shain
2010-09-03, 05:31 PM
I'd suggest Heroes of Horror, actually. Some worthy base and Pr classes in there, and the rules can make for a pretty fun change of pace from vanilla 3.5 (although obviously there's a couple broken things to watch out for).

I'd also suggest the various Races books ... with probably Races of the Wild being my personal favorite (I love Raptorans).

Gensh
2010-09-03, 05:32 PM
Thing about the XPH - there's really no need to buy it when you have this (http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm).

You don't always have a computer on hand, and with the amount of paper/ink it'd take to print it, you're almost better off. Plus you miss out on the deja vu joke.

Plus you miss out on the deja vu joke.

DragoonWraith
2010-09-03, 05:34 PM
You have Tome of Battle, so everything else is just extra. ToB's the only one I'd say you really need.... Magic Item Compendium is really solid, and I rather like Magic of Incarnum (be prepared to be confused at first, though). Complete Arcane, Dragon Magic, and Tome of Magic each of one very nice base class (Warlock, Dragonfire Adept, and Binder, respectively) that bring in new mechanics (though Warlock and DfA share the same one), which is always a plus in my mind.


Plus you get the all broken Iajutsu Focus skill.
IMO, Iaijustso Focus is far from broken. It caps at 9d6 damage, which you won't be hitting too early, and it requires the enemy be Flat-Footed, which is quite a lot more difficult than being able to simply Flank. Skill check, to deal somewhat mediocre damage, and requires a not-entirely-trivial condition? Not overpowered.

Poor design, though, since in general, really, skills shouldn't have direct combat application like that. This is also the problem with Tumble and UMD. Arguably Concentration, too.

The Vorpal Tribble
2010-09-03, 10:04 PM
Thing about the XPH - there's really no need to buy it when you have this (http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm).
Well, not everything in the book is in the SRD and the Illithid Slayer isn't exactly the same.

Not to mention the books has some of the best illustrations in it.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-09-03, 10:08 PM
Well, not everything in the book is in the SRD and the Illithid Slayer isn't exactly the same.

Not to mention the books has some of the best illustrations in it.

The pic for elocator is one of my favorite D&D art pieces ever

Hawriel
2010-09-03, 10:35 PM
Pathfinder RPG core book, Pathfinder Advanced Players guide, Pathfinder Bestiary, Other assorted pathfinder suppliments.

devinkowalczyk
2010-09-03, 10:46 PM
Spell compendium (aka spell broken)
i love vile darkness, it just is so evil!
phb2 is nice, has duskblades

Grynning
2010-09-03, 10:48 PM
To clarify my previous post - I wasn't saying the XPH isn't a great book, it's one of my favorites too. But from a purely economic standpoint, it's not a required purchase when compared to other books that you can't get (legal) access to online.

The Big Dice
2010-09-04, 11:12 AM
Thing about the XPH - there's really no need to buy it when you have this (http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm).

Other than little things like knowing what a Wilder or an Elocater actually are. Or what a dorje is all about. The SRD doesn't tell you anything other than crunch. And that's just not enough for some people.

Some folks like dry toast, others like some jam on theirs :smalltongue:

Greenish
2010-09-04, 11:16 AM
Some folks like dry toast, others like some jam on theirs :smalltongue:Some folks like homemade jam, others settle for the store-bought stuff.

Zaydos
2010-09-04, 11:25 AM
Spell Compendium is awesome for casters; although a large number of its spells come from the first 4 complete books (not nearly all of them, it has them from nearly every book made since 3.5)

I love the Draconomicon and Lords of Madness; all the books in that theme (Libris Mortis, Fiendish Codex I and II) have wonderful fluff it just depends upon what type of monsters you like best.

Players Handbook II has some good ACFs, useful feats, good spells (Greater Mirror Image) and really neat classes (Duskblade and Beguiler, Knight is neat too, but Dragon Totem Shaman has most of the same problems as Marshal).

There's also Magic of Incarnum, and Tome of Magic for more magic sub-systems; or if you want one closer to normal casting the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Also Dragon Magic has Dragonfire Adept which is a class I love, but it doesn't have much else.

The Races of X series is also good. My favorite is Races of Stone (I love the dwarf fluff and the feats are good with some neat PrCs). Races of Destiny was also always quite useful, and Races of the Wild has one of my favorite PrCs (Arcane Hierophant, a wizard-druid theurge that gets Animal Companion and Wild Shape). Finally Races of Dragon is good if you want a dragon themed character.

Nero24200
2010-09-04, 11:31 AM
I'd say Tome of Battle and Expanded Psionics handbook. Not everyone likes them, but they're a great alterantive to core content if you do.

Gnomo
2010-09-04, 11:38 AM
Player's Handbook 2.

Three great base classes plus the Knight, lots of awesome feats, more spells (although you might want to ban greater celerity) and other great character options.

Tyndmyr
2010-09-04, 11:47 AM
Miniature's Handbook is underrated, I feel.

It has a couple well done classes, plus some nice feats(the entire sudden line is there, as is mage slayer) and you've got some monster stuff. It's not a bad book to pick up, and despite the name, the majority of it isn't just miniature stuff.

Vaynor
2010-09-04, 06:53 PM
Some folks like dry toast, others like some jam on theirs :smalltongue:

You mean some folk like free dry toast, others like expensive jam on theirs.

:smallwink:

Tyndmyr
2010-09-04, 07:11 PM
Others don't much care for the bread at all, and gobble down jam straight, until they get sick from eating too much jam at once.

Wait, what were we talking about again?

Vaynor
2010-09-04, 07:14 PM
Would that be looking at picture books? I'm not even sure anymore...

What was the jam again? :smallconfused:

Greenish
2010-09-04, 07:41 PM
What was the jam again? :smallconfused:It's delicious. My favourite is homemade blackcurrant jam. :smalltongue:

The Big Dice
2010-09-05, 05:44 PM
It's delicious. My favourite is homemade blackcurrant jam. :smalltongue:

Mmmm, blackcurrant jam *drools*

They grow wild not 5 mins walk from my house.

As for the best D&D books, Lords of Madness is one I can read just for the fun of it. I like the Fiendish Codex pair as well, and Libris Mortis.

FMArthur
2010-09-05, 06:01 PM
I would say that Unearthed Arcana probably has the most useful material for spicing up a game (particularly since its material doesn't require players to take feats, races, or classes from it to see any benefit at all, unlike most splatbooks, making it universally useful). Fortunately, that's free on the SRD and the book itself contains basically no fluff so you're not losing anything by not getting it.

Player's Handbook II is another great book that has stuff for everyone, continuing with Alternate Class Features for a laundry list of classes, a huge list of feats to laugh hysterically at with a number of usable gems, new spells, and new base classes.

Chrono22
2010-09-05, 06:07 PM
The Magic Item Compendium really expands players' equipment options, especially at low and mid level. I'd say this (after the tome of battle) has the most value to me after the core 3.

Complete Scoundrel has a boatload of nice skill tricks and some nice, nice feats.

The player's handbook 2 and DMG 2 offer good advice for campaign and character building, and offer lots of alternate rules. The DMG 2's magical locations and events make for good seeds to a campaign.

Lev
2010-09-05, 06:12 PM
Spell Compendium
Arms & Equipment Guide
Tome of Battle (9 Swords)
Book of Incarnum
Unearthed Arcana
Complete Psionics

This should get you 1000+ new spells, the ability to use psionic, incarnum or maneuver systems, alternative class features such as flaws and totem barbarians and has basically everything that has a gold price in the descriptor that you'll ever need to think about.

For added flavor, complete scoundrel has to by my favorite.

Also, you might want to consider getting the book with skill tricks in it, either complete scoundrel or adventurer, good basis to start homebrewing tricks.

Kelb_Panthera
2010-09-05, 10:46 PM
I'll second Lords of Madness. Tsochar are one of the few things that've ever creeped me out that much. I'll also second the the races of X books, particularly Races of Ebberon. Changlings, warforged, shifters, and kalashtar are all very interesting peoples; both mechanically and fluff-wise.