Essential Books to Own

[undead hero]

So without realizing it till tonight, I'm actually starting a decent D&D collection.

I looked at the price tag and well.. I'm still under 75 bucks... Thank you half priced books and local gaming shops! (I run into great deals btw... The BESM 3.5 I got for 7 bucks.)

D&D 2.0
>DMG
>PHB 1
>Complete Bard

D&D 3.5 (or compatible)
>Monster Manual
>Player's Handbook (Near Mint Condition, even has the demo cd in the back with a character builder)
>BESM 3.5
>Champions of Ruin

D&D 4.0/Essentials
>Monster Manual 2
>PHB 2
>Forgotten Kingdom (e)
>Fallen Lands (e)
>Rules Compendium (e)

What I need to know is what books should I add to the list? Since this is the 3.5 boards I'll just focus on the 3.5 books. What is a list of books I should focus on getting? I do want to get Tome of Battle and I'm looking into where the dread necromancer, beguiler, and warmage are.

Any help would be appreciated :)

[The Dark Fiddler]

What I need to know is what books should I add to the list? Since this is the 3.5 boards I'll just focus on the 3.5 books. What is a list of books I should focus on getting? I do want to get Tome of Battle

That's a good choice.


and I'm looking into where the dread necromancer, beguiler, and warmage are.

Libris Mortis, PHBII, and Complete Arcane respectively, if I'm not mistaken. Additional books depends exactly on what you want, so I'll give the advice of grabbing Magic of Incarnum and the Expanded Psionics Handbook in the interest of having a wide variety of stuff to work from.

Dungeon Master's Guide would probably be helpful too, unless you use the SRD extensively (in which case you might also be able to ignore the Expanded Psionics Handbook).

[Hiro Protagonest]

Keep in mind tier 1 can be played as a lower tier easily, or at least be GOD wizards/sorcs and buffer/healbot clerics, which are a key part of combat but let their allies do the heavy lifting.

Also, get Dungeonscape for the tier 3 skillmonkey.

Finally, warmage is tier 4. Just let them play evokers.

[Goldfly]

What I need to know is what books should I add to the list? Since this is the 3.5 boards I'll just focus on the 3.5 books. What is a list of books I should focus on getting? I do want to get Tome of Battle and I'm looking into where the dread necromancer, beguiler, and warmage are.

Any help would be appreciated :)


That's a good choice.



Libris Mortis, PHBII, and Complete Arcane respectively, if I'm not mistaken.
Dread Necromancer is Heroes of Horror, actually. The rest you got right.

[Tvtyrant]

I think that the Magic Item Compendium is one of the single greatest books you can have. It grants everyone new things, which keeps it from stepping on toes, and little of it is OP.

As long as there isn't an Artificer it won't present any problems, and even then most of their power comes from core+Eberron.

[Dr.Epic]

D&D 3.5 (or compatible)
>Monster Manual
>Player's Handbook (Near Mint Condition, even has the demo cd in the back with a character builder)
>BESM 3.5
>Champions of Ruin

Dungeon Master Guide

[Tvtyrant]

Dungeon Master Guide

I find that most of the important parts are already on the SRD.

[Manateee]

You don't have any oldschool monster books!

If you play 3e, go get yourself the Tome of Horrorses right this instant!

[Rubik]

Manual of the Planes. It's got crazygood fluff (and a bit of nice crunch, as well), and I find that I can just sit and read it like a fantasy novel.

[Talionis]

Book of Nine Swords: Tome of Battle -- Give nice things to non-casters.

[undead hero]

You don't have any oldschool monster books!

If you play 3e, go get yourself the Tome of Horrorses right this instant!

I actually tend to make my own monsters, funner that way :D

Regarding the DMG, I will be getting that eventually but I have the SRD and PathfinderSRD on my phone so I'm not to worried about it yet :).

[Manateee]

I actually tend to make my own monsters, funner that way :D
That works too. :)

The best part is running out of miniatures/tokens/whatever you use to track relative positions, and revealing to your party the utter terror of the Dire Scotty Dog, Undead Thimble and Fiendish Top Hat!

[Big Fau]

I'm an advocate of Magic of Incarnum. It's a solid, balanced book that has a wonderful concept.


Also, blue is my favorite color.

[Rubik]

I'm an advocate of Magic of Incarnum. It's a solid, balanced book that has a wonderful concept.


Also, blue is my favorite color.Blue indicates sarcasm around here.

That certainly explains a few things...

[undead hero]

That works too. :)

The best part is running out of miniatures/tokens/whatever you use to track relative positions, and revealing to your party the utter terror of the Dire Scotty Dog, Undead Thimble and Fiendish Top Hat!

One of my favorite created monsters was a modified blink dog... Essentially he was scooby doo with a laser on his head (scorching ray). He kept running away until they fed him his favorite snack (which the party got clues as to what he likes, didn't like, and kinda liked).

Fun times where had by all.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Spell Compendium is one of the books I go to the most. But ToB and MIC are also great. The entire complete series has so much to offer and I am also a fan of Races of Destiny. I know that what I listed is a lot of books but they are all very nice.

[Zombulian]

Well I don't know about essential... but I have a lot of fun with Magic of Incarnum, and since no one has the patience to learn how it works it's always really cheap :smallbiggrin:

[Big Fau]

Well I don't know about essential... but I have a lot of fun with Magic of Incarnum, and since no one has the patience to learn how it works it's always really cheap :smallbiggrin:

Hah, essential.

[Strormer]

I would say the essential books that everyone ought to have for 3.5 are:
Core (PHB, DMG, MM1)
Expanded Core (PHB2, DMG2)
Other monster manuals as you see fit
Dungeonscape
Book of Nine Swords
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Unearthed Arcana
and the Complete Series also as you see fit

A bit of an investment, especially nowadays, and these are by no means the best or most comprehensive books, but they give a fantastic, solid, and wide base upon which to build. YMMV

I should also note that I personally love to collect the Campaign Setting books. I've managed to gather FR, Eberron, Kingdoms of Kalamar, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Dawnforge, Dark Sun, Birthright, and Blackmoor as well as the Ghostwalk option book which is a tiny CS and I tend to count my Oriental Adventures as a 3.5 Rokugan CS. That's a personal preference though, and I wouldn't consider these books essential unless you build the way I do.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Expanded Core (PHB2, DMG2)

On the other hand, I would say avoid the DMG2 like the plague. I got it, and it really isn't worth much, unless, I suppose, you need a refresher course on the concept of DMing.

[Eldan]

Manual of the Planes. It's got crazygood fluff (and a bit of nice crunch, as well), and I find that I can just sit and read it like a fantasy novel.

It's a really pale copy of old Planescape, and since the OP is also interested in AD&D books, I'll recommend Planescape books.

Especially:
The Planescape Campaign Setting Boxed Set, as the basic introduction.
Any of the three Monstrous Compendia, as they are awesome.
Planes of Law, Planes of Chaos and Planes of Conflict.
Faces of Evil
and, of course, the best book ever: Uncaged: Faces of Sigil.

For 3.5, I'd also recommend Lords of Madness and the Draconomicon, which are utterly fantastic books too.

[Talionis]

Well I don't know about essential... but I have a lot of fun with Magic of Incarnum, and since no one has the patience to learn how it works it's always really cheap :smallbiggrin:

I will say this, the book is a diamond in the rough. It like Tome of Battle really could have used more fleshing out and better organization. But the mechanics in Magic of Incarnum are well thought out. The real issue is that each soul meld can do so many different things, short descriptions don't do them justice and you can't easily put them in a table.

MoI, really makes for a good balanced characters and I really like it.

[thompur]

I would say, if you can get it cheap, Tome of Magic. 1/3 is full of Awesome Sauce(Binder), 1/3 is *Meh*(Shadowcaster), and 1/3 is nigh unusable(Truenamer).

[Strormer]

For 3.5, I'd also recommend Lords of Madness and the Draconomicon, which are utterly fantastic books too.

I forgot about Draconomicon, and that sucks because it's one of my favorite books, along with Libris Mortis. Not sure if I would call them essential, but they do rock.

[Tyndmyr]

That's a good choice.



Libris Mortis, PHBII, and Complete Arcane respectively, if I'm not mistaken. Additional books depends exactly on what you want, so I'll give the advice of grabbing Magic of Incarnum and the Expanded Psionics Handbook in the interest of having a wide variety of stuff to work from.

Dungeon Master's Guide would probably be helpful too, unless you use the SRD extensively (in which case you might also be able to ignore the Expanded Psionics Handbook).

Warmage also appears in the minature's handbook.

I highly recommend the complete line for 3.5, and will point out that, while not spectacular, the 3.0 floppy books go quite inexpensively when you can find them, so remain good buys for the money. MiC and SpC are fantastic books, but are frequently expensive. The later monster manuals and drow of the underdark are pretty skippable all round tho.

[Devronq]

Well just for bragging rights id first like to say what i own
2nd edition
Players handbook
Dungeon masters guide
Monster manual 1
Monster manual 2
Legends and Lore
Fiend folio
Rules Cyclopedia
Dungeon masters screeen (two different types)
Monstrous compendium annual volume four
Dragonlance: Dragons of despair
The best of dragon magazine 1+2+3+4+5
ModuleB1:In search of the unknown lv.1-3
ModuleB3:Palace of the silver princess lv.1-3
ModuleS4:The lost caverns of the Tsojcanth lv.6-10
ModuleX1: The Isle of dread lv.3-7
Plus a whole but load of photocopied articles which I assume are from 2end edition dragon magazines?
3.X
Players handbook 1+2
Dungeons masters guide 1+2
Monster manual 1+2+3+4+5
Races of wild, dragon, stone, destiny, ebberon
Complete arcane, warrior, divine, adventurer
Manual of the planes
Deities and demigods
Epic players handbook
Psionics handbook
Expanded psionic handbook
Unearthed arcane
Arms and equipment guide
Weapons of legacy
Book of exalted deeds
Book of vile darkness
Tome of battle
Lords of madness
Savages species
Magic item compendium
Spell compendium
Ebberon campaign setting
Dragon magazines, 200+227+229+231+234+300
Module: bastion of broken souls lv.18-20
Module: lords of the iron fortress lv.15-17
Module: the standing stone lv.7
Module: the speaker in dreams lv.5
Module: one other one than was lv.1-3 and had a black dragon at the end I cant find it or remember the name of it :P
4th edition
Players handbook
Dungeon masters guide
Monster manual
Module: Keep on the shadowfell




I find the completes were very useful and not necessarily OP. The complete divine is very important to divine casters because of divine metamagic, just make sure to look at the errata on it its stupidly good as written. Tome of battle i just got and i love it. Unearthed arcana is good for alot of things and can be ridiculously OP in some other ways like gesault and bloodlines. Id personly just download the PDF for each book, find out which one you like the most and then decide to buy :)

[Spacewolf]

How did you get all those books so cheap no where seems to supply the PHB anymore hell on amazon it costs approx £100 to get it new, never mind all those others

[Snowbluff]

Tome of Battle, PHB2, whichever books give you warmage and warlock, Heroes of Horror, MIC, SC. This'll give you a nice spread of T3-4 (My DMing sweetspot) and extra spells and items beyond your PHB and DMG. Sprinkle splat for extra feats and you're good.

[danzibr]

ToB would be great if you can get it cheap. I like the Races of XXX and Complete XXX. Of them, I'd say Race of Destiny and Complete Champion are the worst. While I do like Heroes of Horror and Libris Mortis, Heroes of Horror needs to be central to the campaign (rather than a splat book) and Libris Mortis is best when the campaign will be undead-heavy. The Races and Complete books go good about everywhere, though.

[Hiro Protagonest]

How did you get all those books so cheap no where seems to supply the PHB anymore hell on amazon it costs approx £100 to get it new, never mind all those others

You buy your books new?

[Spacewolf]

You buy your books new?

I dont own any D&D books but for reading material e.g. the discworld books usually

[Greenish]

MMIII is probably the best Monster Manual to get. I is mostly in SRD, II is 3.0, and IIII & IV have mostly statblocks for monsters from other sources with class levels.

[Chronos]

Magic of Incarnum gives some interesting options for non-incarnum characters, but the fluff doesn't really seem to fit in with... well, anything, really, and the incarnum classes scale really poorly with level (anything you can do with a high-level incarnum class, you can do with a one or two level dip).

If you want an alternate magic system that's more grounded in folklore, myth, etc., and which works better for its entire range, I much prefer the first third of the Tome of Magic.

[Riverdance]

Devronq mentioned it in his list but I'd like to highlight that the Book of Vile Darkness is a very fun book (tons of stuff on the politics of hell).

If you are interested in Pathfinder, and especially if you DM, I recommend the PF Gamemastery Guide. It's full of tips and useful bits, and has a huge number of pre made NPC stat blocks in the back which are very easy to tweak and customize (although if you make your own monsters you probably would't have much use for them).