3.5 Edition Forgotten Realms Supplements

[TheMeMan]

Hello All.

I am mainly wondering what your personal opinion on these supplements are, as I've been looking to expand my collection a tiny bit, and these tend to run for relatively cheap. I recently bought Serpent Kingdoms for about $5 from a local bookstore, and have find it interesting but lacking. I'm not disappointed, as I payed practically nothing for it, but I was wondering if this is the general trend of the series. I recently ordered The Underdark for about $12 on a whim(As a Christmas present to my brother, who is a massive FR fan and is planning on DMing in the near future). Is it any good? Was it worth the money?

What's the best of the lot for these supplements? Are they any decent at all, or mostly junk? Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[GoatBoy]

In my experience, the FR supplements have some interesting character material in them, primarily prestige classes, with some nice feats and spells too. A lot of them, while looking good at first glance, can easily be turned into game-breakers. As for the Realms-specific material, I haven't played in any FR games so I can't comment on its quality.

Personally, I wouldn't pay more than 15-20 dollars for any of them, and that includes both my interest in the crunch, and my general curiosity about the FR setting.

Most of the books have more material that players can actually use, rather than Serpent Kingdoms which is more aimed at reptilian villains.

[herrhauptmann]

Lost empires and power of faerun I think are two of the better, but less used supplements.
Players Guide is Outstanding. It also provides a lot of detail for updating the 3.0 books to 3.5.
Dragons of faerun is useless. It's just stats for a lot of dragons, a few of which have class levels. And I guess a bit of fluff about the various dragons. But given how rarely the PCs find out the fluff, it doesn't matter.

Players Guide to Faerun is Outstanding. It also provides a lot of detail for updating the 3.0 books to 3.5.

If you're finding them for less than 20$, buy them anyway. When my local shop has them, I'm lucky if I can buy a used 3.5 book for the original price. Usually, they're a lot more.

[Daftendirekt]

I second Lost Empires of Faerûn being a good book. It has some good feats, and my favorite (caster) FR prestige class: The Olin Gisir. Unapproachable East is also pretty bomb for having the Aglarondan Griffonrider, Runescarred Berserker AND the Telflammar Shadowlord; Rashemen and Thesk being my two favorite Faerûnian countries. Faiths and Pantheons has loads of fluff on all the Faerûnian deities, and some pretty cool PrCs (like Eilistraee's Sword Dancer or Shaundakul's Windwalker)

[TheMeMan]

Lost empires and power of faerun I think are two of the better, but less used supplements.
Players Guide is Outstanding. It also provides a lot of detail for updating the 3.0 books to 3.5.
Dragons of faerun is useless. It's just stats for a lot of dragons, a few of which have class levels. And I guess a bit of fluff about the various dragons. But given how rarely the PCs find out the fluff, it doesn't matter.

Players Guide to Faerun is Outstanding. It also provides a lot of detail for updating the 3.0 books to 3.5.

If you're finding them for less than 20$, buy them anyway. When my local shop has them, I'm lucky if I can buy a used 3.5 book for the original price. Usually, they're a lot more.

Ah, thank ya much. I've taken a look at the Player's guide through some unscrupulous means, and plan on buying it soon.

Good to know about Power and Lost Empires. I personally don't know much of FR lore, so it's a tad more useful for me on the fluff end. Serpent Kingdoms was just to much on that end, and wasn't sure if it was the theme remained throughout.

[herrhauptmann]

Ah, thank ya much. I've taken a look at the Player's guide through some unscrupulous means, and plan on buying it soon.

Good to know about Power and Lost Empires. I personally don't know much of FR lore, so it's a tad more useful for me on the fluff end. Serpent Kingdoms was just to much on that end, and wasn't sure if it was the theme remained throughout.
No problem.

There's also champions of valor: it's ok.
The companion book Champions of ruin should also be great, but it almost feels like a rehash of Lords of Darkness (3.0).
The good thing about CoR, is that it expands the evil organizations beyond Zhents, Thay, and Cult of the dragon (the main bad guys that kept showing up in almost all the novels from 1990-2005). Also has the splitting enhancement for bows.

[Tvtyrant]

If your in it for the fluff, you want to buy some old AD&D books on the subject. The world is much more fleshed out, and doesn't have quite the oppressively over-used feeling. Al-Quadim in particular is a really good area of the world for fluff.

[Palanan]

I'm a fan of the Silver Marches supplement, which goes into heavy detail on the recent history and political issues of the region, as well as a thorough survey of the geography. If you want to drench yourself in local lore, this would be the book; it gives you everything from troop strength of the major cities to the going rates for marten pelts. It also gives a nice summary of Silverymoon's wards, which sparks ideas for anyone playing with mythals.

I'll add another vote for Lost Empires of Faerun, and I'll also mention Shining South, which is worth a look. It's not as exhaustive as the one on the Silver Marches, but does have some nice local flavor.

--And, I'm amazed that you're able to find any of the Forgotten Realms books at your local bookstore; I've long since despaired of seeing them ever again. If you can find them for five dollars apiece, grab first and don't look back. (After paying, of course.) Keep grabbing until they're gone...and then count yourself very, very lucky.

[Fax Celestis]

PGtF, LEoF, Underdark, Shining South, and Unapproachable East are awesome. The rest are questionable.

[Runestar]

The problem I find with them in general is they have great fluff and make for excellent bedtime reading, but have very little practical or relevant material which you can actually use in your games.:smallfrown:

So yeah, your experience with serpent kingdoms will be quite indicative of what most of the other books are like.:smalltongue:

[Feytalist]

Most of the FR books are noted for having more fluff than actual useful material, unfortunately. However, if you run many games in Faerun, books like Lords of Darkness and Champions of Ruin are brilliant. I love all the regional books, and Unapproachable East in particular is quite good. Serpent Kingdoms is the one that you could do without actually, I think. It's also the one that makes Pun-Pun possible, heh.

But yeah, Underdark is quite good too. I love the flavour of the Deep Imaskari.

[Yora]

I think the Prestige Classes and Feats, and stuff are mostly waste of paper in these books. They are only in there because many people expect them to, but that's not the purpose of the books. Except for Player's Guide and Magic of Faerûn, they are primarily background material on the setting.

[zanetheinsane]

Also keep in mind that most of the "broken" exploitive builds I read all start with "first you take this <race/feat/prc> from <insert FR sourcebook>". I think the setting is fantastic if you want a very detailed campaign world, however.

[herrhauptmann]

Got an odd question:

Anyone know which book gives a great deal of detail on Sembia (and the rest of the heartlands)?
I'm not finding a lot of detailed info outside the FRCS.

[Palanan]

Originally posted by Fax Celestis:
PGtF, LEoF, Underdark, Shining South, and Unapproachable East are awesome. The rest are questionable.

Okay, I'll step up and take the sucker punch. Why do you say those particular ones are awesome, and what makes the others questionable?

[Yora]

Got an odd question:

Anyone know which book gives a great deal of detail on Sembia (and the rest of the heartlands)?
I'm not finding a lot of detailed info outside the FRCS.
On Sembia there is pretty much nothing, as it was originally left blank on purpose.
On Cormyr and the Dales, you probably have to look for AD&D stuff. There's a good chance that it was released as a free pdf.

[Fax Celestis]

Okay, I'll step up and take the sucker punch. Why do you say those particular ones are awesome, and what makes the others questionable?

PGtF has a metric ton of races and some interesting but not overpowered prestige classes.

LEoF has some really awesome spells (triplestriiiiike) and feats, and has rules for scepters.

Underdark has good monsters, some interesting gear, and a few good templates.

Unapproachable East has spirit folk, star elves, Algorondan Griffinrider, Runescarred Berserker, Telflammar Shadowlord, Nar Demonbinder, Shou Disciple, Battle Jump, Berserker lodge feats, Craft Contingent Spell, and some neat, underutilized spells.

Shining South has thri-kreen, loxo, tasloi, Selective Spell, some more barbarian tribe feats, Crinti Shadow Marauder, Halruuan Elder, Halruaan Magehound, the weakening weapon property, and beguilers (the monster, not the class).

[Palanan]

...and the questionable?

[Fax Celestis]

The rest are 3.0 specific, nearly entirely fluff, rehashes of non-FR specific material, or incredibly poorly written.