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View Full Version : A Generous Gift/Best 3.X Books



Darkxarth
2007-10-31, 04:03 PM
I just got a very generous offer by a friend of mine. He's got all the D&D 3.X books on PDF, and has offered to give me as many of the regular ones as I would like.

While I'd like to take advantage of his offer, I don't want to take advantage of him. What I'd like to do is compile a list of 3 or 4 of the best books from the 3.X series. That way, I get free books, and he doesn't just hand me $400 worth of material.

Now, he says he's got all of them, but I don't want to turn this into a "let's all name obscure splatbooks" thread. What I'd like is a discussion on which of the books would be the best choices for me.

Here's a list of what I already have:

3.0 Core
3.5 Core
Arms and Equipment Guide
Complete Arcane
Deities and Demigods
Epic Level Handbook
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Heroes of Battle
Hordes of the Abyss
Psionics Handbook

I think that's it. Though I also have good access to the Complete Warrior and Planar Handbook via another friend of mine. We trade off for months at a time.

Now, straight off one of the books I'd like is Complete Adventurer, so that will be separate from the 3 or 4 others. Anyway, please post what you think would be the best books to get and why.

Thanks for your assistance.
- DX

silentknight
2007-10-31, 04:09 PM
I would suggest any of the Complete series (Arcane, Adventurer, Divine, Champion...) and the Tome of Battle.

The ToB makes playing a meatshield interesting!

Azerian Kelimon
2007-10-31, 04:13 PM
Seconded. Get ToB, and maybe Tome of Magic too. The completes are also a nice thing, but if you want to improve what you have, there's three big books:
Dungeonscape (Rogues are actually useful when against enemies immune to sneaks, yo!), the very nice, if cheesy PHB II, and the big bad, Unearthed Arcana.

Mephisto
2007-10-31, 04:20 PM
PDFs are files he can duplicate, it's not like he's losing anything by giving you copies of all his books.

Buy him a spindle of blank CDs. :smallwink:

Iku Rex
2007-10-31, 04:22 PM
Spell Compendium
Magic Item Compendium
Player's Handbook II
Tome of Battle

Lord Tataraus
2007-10-31, 04:34 PM
Spell Compendium
Magic Item Compendium
Player's Handbook II
Tome of Battle

Seconded, my favorite books. Though like Mephisto said, you aren't taking advantage of him if he gives you a bunch of pdfs. Though if you mean he is giving you the actual book, then that list. Though you might want to ask for a copy of the pdfs :smallwink:

PlatinumJester
2007-10-31, 04:37 PM
Tomb Of Battle

It will be the best decision of your DnD career.

kamikasei
2007-10-31, 05:05 PM
PDFs are files he can duplicate, it's not like he's losing anything by giving you copies of all his books.

Buy him a spindle of blank CDs. :smallwink:

I think the idea is that Darkxarth's friend has backups of all his paper books, so he's giving Darkxarth the hardcopies.

I second the many suggestions of Tome of Battle, as well as PHB II, with Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium following closely.

Fax Celestis
2007-10-31, 05:07 PM
Spell Compendium, ToB, ToM, and Magic of Incarnum.

brian c
2007-10-31, 05:11 PM
Tomb Of Battle

It will be the best decision of your DnD career.

Haha... right? Tomb of Battle, haha? Instead of Tome of Battle?

kemmotar
2007-10-31, 06:33 PM
I'd put magic items compendium first, tome of battle, compete warrior are essential and widely used too. Spell compendium if you play casters a lot, otherwise some of the races X would be interesting too...interesting things in them:smallbiggrin:

VerdugoExplode
2007-10-31, 07:01 PM
I would like to point out that the great god Odin created the Tome of Battle using the blood of superheroes and paper duplicated from the Declaration of Independance to combat the rise of Communism and all other forms of society built upon oppression and tyranny. It stands as the pinnacle of all that is good in D&D and supplies you with a wide variety of extremely malleable mellee combatnants capable of holding their own at any level.

Also, give him some cd's, its better for everyone involved.

KIDS
2007-10-31, 07:23 PM
Um, man? I might be missing something crucial, but ain't that piracy?

Anyways, if you can get your hands on those, I recommend (in this order with the lower tier being more loose, but top 2 being the top 2):
PHB2
Tome of Battle
Complete Champion
Races of the Wild
Complete Adventurer

I hope that helps, enjoy.

Temp
2007-10-31, 07:31 PM
It's all been said, but I'd like to place another vote for the "Crunch" Books (MoI, ToB, ToM), Spell Compendium and the PHB 2.


I also like Races of the Wild and what I've seen of Races of Destiny, but I've never owned either so I'm not sure.

If he really wants to get rid of everything, I'd personally look at Dungeonscape for the Factotum. I can't really justify paying for the book for a single class (the same problem I've had with ToM), but if you aren't payng for it... and it's no real loss to him...

Fax Celestis
2007-10-31, 07:53 PM
I would like to point out that the great god Odin created the Tome of Battle using the blood of superheroes and paper duplicated from the Declaration of Independance to combat the rise of Communism and all other forms of society built upon oppression and tyranny. It stands as the pinnacle of all that is good in D&D and supplies you with a wide variety of extremely malleable mellee combatnants capable of holding their own at any level.

Oh, that Odin. God of Battle, Death, Sex, and Poetry.

Darkxarth
2007-10-31, 07:55 PM
Well, I thought he was giving me hard copies, but he's actually giving me PDFs on CD. So, it makes me feel better, since I'm not taking his actual books.

I'm pretty sure he got all the PDFs legally, but I'm not going to ask too many questions.

Anyway, it looks like the top suggestions are:

Tome of Battle
Spell Compendium
Player's Handbook II
Tome of Magic

I'll probably see if I can't get as many of the Completes as he can fit onto the CD as well.

Thanks for your suggestions folks, I hadn't even thought about Tome of Magic or Spell Compendium, totally slipped my mind.

UserClone
2007-10-31, 08:03 PM
I don't understand one of the comments. When did giving away hardcopies of books which you (presumably) paid for to a friend become PIRACY?

Roland St. Jude
2007-10-31, 08:15 PM
Well, I thought he was giving me hard copies, but he's actually giving me PDFs on CD. So, it makes me feel better, since I'm not taking his actual books.

I'm pretty sure he got all the PDFs legally, but I'm not going to ask too many questions...

Sheriff of Moddingham: Even if he comes by PDFs legally (such as by scanning them in himself), giving them to you is probably not legal. This isn't really a discussion that we can have here. If you -- the OP -- think this is a situation where his giving you the PDFs is legal, PM me and we can discuss it and reopen this if appropriate.