Favourite Rulebook/Supplement?

[Strigon]

Just like the title says; I've recently acquired a few new 3.5 sourcebooks, and reading over them has given me quite a few interesting ideas...
So, what's everyone's favourite rulebook? Personally, I'm fond of Stormwrack; my players seem to think renting a rowboat and rowing for a day to reach an island is something which requires no planning or precautions.

I look forward to proving them wrong :smallamused:

[Nashira]

Weapons of Legacy. I know it has some issues, but the ideas behind it are, I think, very cool. Most of the weapons have nice fluff and with a little tweaking and using the WoL weapon building rules right you can make some pretty powerful equipment.

[Dread_Head]

Magic of Incarnum features my favourite subsystem and two brilliant classes. Otherwise I think I'd go for Players Handbook II, the new classes, ACF's and feats are all good additions to add variety to a game.

[NevinPL]

Magic Compendium
Spell Compendium
Rules Compendium
Savage Species\Unearthed Arcana
Libris Mortis
Book of Vile Darkness

But other books have some favorite bits too - a nice spell here (Decastave - Unapproachable East), bunch of feats there (dragon heritage feats - Dragon Magic), etc.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Well... isn't it obvious?

I like the Expanded Psionics handbook because I prefer psionics to Vancian casting. Complete Psionic has my favourite psionic class - the erudite. Tome of Battle has the best three martial classes, and I prefer the maneuver system to Vancian casting as well. Libris Mortis because undead are cool. Elder Evils and Lords of Madness are just nice to read.

Edit: and Unearthed Arcana is great, I like rule systems.

[atemu1234]

Tough one. Probably Unearthed Arcana for sentimental reasons- the first book I ever got as a gift, from my brother.

[LentilNinja]

Book of Vile Darkness.

[Extra Anchovies]

Book of Vile Darkness.

Really? What for? I've found nothing in that book to be of any use except for the really broken stuff, which I avoid/ban anyways.

[Umbranar]

1: Spell compendium, I like options.
2: Tome of Battle, the fighters Spell Compendium? I like options :smallbiggrin:

[EisenKreutzer]

I loved the Book of Vile Darkness when it came out. I recognize that it's full of broken **** and bad design decisions (BDSM = Evil for example), but I still like it.

But my absolute favourite books for 3.5 are Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle and Expanded Psionics Handbook. I just love what they bring to the table. Even though ToB is horribly edited with tons of ambiguous rules, and MoI is clearly an underpowered, undersupported system, I love them dearly. Tey are dripping with flavour. As for XPH, I am of the opinion that psionics is a better casting system than vancian casting, and I absolutely adore the flavour the designers gave psionics.

[Pluto!]

The environment books (namely Sandstorm, Frostburn and Stormwrack) and Heroes of Horror are exactly what I want from a supplement - useful for DMs and players alike, easy to plug into games without learning or teaching new rules, flexible in terms of the sorts of campaigns that can use them and specific in the niche that they explore in relative depth.

[thorr-kan]

Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon, Dragon Magic. It's Dungeons & DRAGONS! folks.

Fiendish Codex 1 & 2, Lords of Madness, Liber Mortis, and Heroes of Horror.

[Odin's Eyepatch]

Races of Stone.

I don't often play Gnomes, Dwarves or Goliaths, but I just like the sheer flavour that RoS provides. Whenever I play any of those races I heavily rely on the book for my builds, and I still use it for a lot of my other builds. Its got cool classes, cool feats, and a couple of cool items as well.

I can't explain it, but I just keep finding RoS in my characters, despite having no explicit intention of doing so.


Also Magic Item Compendium, because we all need items!

[Flickerdart]

Gotta be Spell Compendium. Many of the other books are all "hey if you like fighting in melee or being a dwarf or whatever then check this out" but SpC just goes "do you like doing things? Here's a bunch of stuff you can use to do those things."

And once you have the SpC you can go "that's it, no more Core spells" and cut out 90% of the broken crap in the game.

[Amphetryon]

Heroes of Horror, with two of my favorite Classes in it, particularly Dread Necromancer.

[BWR]

The Rules Cyclopedia probably. But that isn't 3.x The Hollow World boxed set or Planescape supplements aren't either.
Nobilis 2e? Isn't even D&D.

Hmmm. I think "The Starfarer's Handbook" for Dragonstar. It did a brilliant job of painting the setting in broad strokes, giving enough bones to build adventures on and whet your appitite for more, and had enough mechanics to make the premise work. Not a bad job for something not even 200 pages long.

[Yael]

Lords of Madness, closely followed by Tome of Battle (runs and takes cover)

[daremetoidareyo]

As a player, TOB is beautiful.

As a DM, I loved Lords of Madness and MM5. Particularly the mind flayers of thoon bits. Mindflayers are weird enough pseudo commensal parasites that flung themselves from the future to now. But adding in quintessence, and then refusing to define what it was or how it accumulates makes for real fun designing campaign elements. At this point, I hope that WoTC stops extrapolating on the far realm because right now there is enough leeway to craft some amazing stuff with the questions they have left unanswered.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Races of Destiny is one I like. Complete Adventurer and Complete Scoundrel.

[Malimar]

Lords of Madness. I heart aberrations.

[Jowgen]

Fiendish Codex II. Baator is a fascinating place, and I love how it not only goes into great detail on the culture, politics and environment of the place; but has enough actual rules stuff to back it up. Its like a setting book, but for a Plane.

It even has a cool base race and the PrC's in it may not be particularly powerful, but they are way cool in both what they can do (e.g.telepathic static) and their flavor. Lastly, everything in it looks great. Wonderful book.

[GreatDane]

My single favorite would have to be the Magic Item Compendium. It adds more to any class than any other single supplement - there's something for everyone, at all levels.

[Curmudgeon]

Complete Scoundrel, especially for the skill tricks (a minor, easily digestible subsystem).

[ZamielVanWeber]

I loved the Book of Vile Darkness when it came out. I recognize that it's full of broken **** and bad design decisions (BDSM = Evil for example), but I still like it.

Fiend Folio and Book of Vile Darkness have a special place in my heart as the first non-core rule books I ever bought (before that it was only the 3.0 PHB).

That aside I love Magic of Incarnum; in fact my copy is sitting next to me right now. Poorly edited, but so unique it warms the cockles of my heart. I know my next character will be incarnum, I just need to decide between Incarnate or Totemist. Too bad they never made a full BAB version...

[Elandris Kajar]

Lords of madness, because I was fascinated by the fluff, and magic of incarnum for such an intriguing concept.

[Eighthling]

Obviously Book of Erotic Fantasy...

[NomGarret]

While I love me some Tome of Battle, my heart belongs to Magic of Incarnum.

[Honest Tiefling]

Heroes of Horror, with two of my favorite Classes in it, particularly Dread Necromancer.

I've been itching to play an Archivist, and I like how the book ties to a theme, and I really want to try out a game with taint mechanic so another vote for this game. Personally, I don't care for charisma casters, but enough people I've played with would, so overall I like this book.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Obviously Book of Erotic Fantasy...

Hey, I will always go for the Metaphysical Shaper if I can. Two metamagic reductions in a 3 level full casting class? Oh my god it's so good.

[WhamBamSam]

Really? What for? I've found nothing in that book to be of any use except for the really broken stuff, which I avoid/ban anyways.There are a few nice PrCs, some of the deformities (Tall, for instance) are alright even if the alignment requirements are dumb, and I'm fond of the alternate curses for Dragon cheese and safe, reliable birth control. It's not an entirely terrible book, just a mostly terrible one.

Tome of Battle is my favorite. It's editing could have been better, but it was on the whole very well thought out and makes what seems to me like the majority of character concepts more viable.

I'm also very fond of Races of the Dragon for the exact opposite reason. It reads like the work of 100 monkeys at 100 typewriters, but I honestly think it's better and more fun as a result of none of the writers having any clue what they were doing.

[atemu1234]

Obviously Book of Erotic Fantasy...

Actually, I don't have a problem with that book. It's surprisingly useful when the party has a penchant for purchasing prostitutes.

[erok0809]

Sandstorm, Spell Compendium, Tome of Battle, Draconomicon, and Monster Manual 3. I love the options presented in the Compendium and Tome, Sandstorm has great fire stuff and I like deserts, Dragons are awesome, and MM3 has so many cool monsters!