I only have the core books what do i do?

[Theres]

as the DM i only got the three main books but im interested in expanding outside those general ideas and only so many combinations of monsters in plains can be done. what books should i get first and dont use acronyms i need the actual title. thankyou!

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Dungeonscape is nice. There's also a thread somewhere on the first 2 pages here on the best 5 supplements. Obviously it will be different for DMs than players, but it's a starting point.

[SoD]

After core, as a DM looking for more monsters, try the other monster manuals (although some are better than others).
If you want more races for NPC opponants, try the Races of x series (x being either 'Stone' 'the Wild' 'Ebberon' 'the Dragon' or 'Destiny').
If you want more different locations with a few monsters and new races, try; Sandstorm, Frostburn, Stormwrack or Underdark (Underdark is 3e, not 3.5e if it makes a difference). Others include; Expanded Psionics Handbook and Magic of Incarnum (although these two don't have places as well).
If you want more classes and prestige classes, get the Complete Series (Complete Adventurer, Warrior, Arcane, Psionic, Divine, Mage, Scoundrel, Cheese Champion). Also get Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle.

Hope that's a help for you.

[TheThan]

If your looking to expand your gaming world I would strongly suggest these:

• dungeonscape
• stormwrack
• sandstorm
• cityscape
• frostburn
• planar handbook
• manual of the planes

If you’re looking to expand your monster base there are these

• Monster manual II
• Monster manual IV
• Monster manual V
• Fiendish codex I
• Fiendish codex II

[Temp.]

I'll be honest; the only things in Dungeonscape that I've ever seen used are Wand Chambers, Dungeoncrasher and the Factotum. The book might be an okay choice, but it already seems to be getting a huge amount of love for what it provides.

As a DM, I don't like using books too directly; mechanics for building traps, events, monsters or whatever are easy enough to wing.
The sources* I like most when I'm planning sessions are Libris Mortis, Heroes of Horror, Sandstorm, Frostburn and Stormwrack -- whether I like all their advice or not, they get me thinking about different game situations than I might normally include.

*D&D sources anyway. I think old Edgar Rice Burroughs books have done more for me than any of 'em. Old radio dramas come in a close second.


You should probably also make yourself familiar with the alternate rules system splatbooks -- Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, Magic of Incarnum and the Expanded Psionics Handbook. For the most part, they find a nice median within the spectrum of class power balance. And when they don't, it tends to be on the weaker end (Truenamer, Soulborn, Soulknife).
My one complaint is that, with the exception of ToM, the fluff in those books is absolutely terrible. You're going to want to change almost all of it if you want them to fit into a standard campaign setting.

[AgentPaper]

Tome of Battle is probably the single most important ones, unless your group likes how martial characters work as-is. Other than that, monster books are nice, and get some of the completes that sound interesting. Get books that work with themes you'll be using. For example if you plan to have adventures in the desert, Sandstorm might be a good choice.

[Zergrusheddie]

Tome of Battle is a very fun book; turn those Fighters into "Sorcerers." Also gives more options and flavor.

[RTGoodman]

Assuming D&D 3.x:

As others have said, starting with new Monster Manuals could be a good idea. The odd-numbered ones are the best, so pick up Monster Manual III and/or V before you get II or IV.

The environment series (Frostburn, Stormwrack, Sandstorm) are all pretty good, as are Dungeonscape and Cityscape if you want to focus on those kinds of places. If you want to do adventures based on specific foes, Lords of Madness, Draconomicon, and similar books could work.



Assuming 4E:

For DMs, a subscription to D&D Insider is great, since you get EVERYTHING for that one price. If you don't want to do that, most of the supplements out so far are good and you can't go wrong with any of them, really.

[Advocate]

For monsters, just get Monster Manual 3. Done. MM2 is just random numbers on a page, which you can easily do yourself. MM5 is just random templated creatures, which you can also easily do yourself. No comment on MM4. Obviously you have MM 1 already, as it's core.

[Curmudgeon]

For D&D 3.5, you should realize that the content of some WotC material is available online via the Open Gaming License (OGL). The Hypertext d20 SRD has most of the three core books, plus

• Unearthed Arcana
• Epic Level Handbook
• Deities and Demigods
• Expanded Psionics Handbook

[Draz74]

In addition, you can get surprisingly far just off of all the D&D content that's been put on the web. For example, everything at this (totally legal!) link.

[AslanCross]

For monsters, I recommend Monster Manual III and Monster Manual V. Both have very interesting monsters that have pretty accurate CR. Monster Manual IV is a bit boring (I do like the Spawn of Tiamat, though), and Monster Manual II is rather odd (and 3.0).

New systems to introduce to your games:
-Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords will beef up melee characters a lot, both for PCs and your villains.
-Expanded Psionics Handbook provides an alternative to casters.
-Player's Handbook 2 has some pretty cool classes and alternate class features.
-Spell Compendium is good for both your NPC casters and PCs.
-Running out of loot? Magic Item Compendium.

[woodenbandman]

I'm going to go ahead and toss my hat in by saying that Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, and Magic of Incarnum are 3 very good books. They're all rather versatile at expressing a character mechanically (though the flavor may need a tap on the head. I'm looking at YOU, Incarnum!), and they're three very unique systems that are fun to play. Binders are the only section of Tome of Magic I ever use, unless you count Tenebrous's ability to use Flicker from the Shadowcaster section using the shadowcaster section :P. Tome of Battle is loads of good fun, and I really like Incarnum, because it has Totemists, and to a lesser extent Incarnates, and a really great idea is instead of granting items, allow everyone free meldshaping as an Incarnate.

Those three books give a high bang/buck ratio. I don't really like Psionics, it just strikes me as a mix between horribly underpowered **** and **** so blatantly OVERpowered that a DM with more than 10 brain cells would ban it (namely mind switch/astral seed combo, Metamorphosis). There are quite a few gems in the Psionics, like the Psychic Warrior, which is great as hell, but I just don't really like Psions much, at all. The shaper is cool, and maybe the Egoist, but I don't really like the others, and the general powers are kinda sucky.

PHB 2 is good, it includes Duskblades and Beguilers, which are great. I also have a soft spot for Heroes of Horror, it's really a great book, and it can turn the whole feeling of the game upside down.

[Jothki]

Note that almost all of the suggestions that have been given have been for 3.5, so if you want suggestions for 4.0 you should probably let everyone know.

[lord_khaine]

Those three books give a high bang/buck ratio. I don't really like Psionics, it just strikes me as a mix between horribly underpowered **** and **** so blatantly OVERpowered that a DM with more than 10 brain cells would ban it (namely mind switch/astral seed combo, Metamorphosis). There are quite a few gems in the Psionics, like the Psychic Warrior, which is great as hell, but I just don't really like Psions much, at all. The shaper is cool, and maybe the Egoist, but I don't really like the others, and the general powers are kinda sucky.

you do realise that this suposedly OP combo is still less than what a standard Core wizard can do with a singel spell?

[KIDS]

I would recommend either Player's Handbook 2, Tome of Battle or Expanded Psionics Handbook. All three are a great addition and probably bring the most fun and usable material with them for the value.

If you meant 4E, then the answer is probably Martial Power, it seems like a really fun book as well.

[Lycanthromancer]

you do realise that this suposedly OP combo is still less than what a standard Core wizard can do with a singel spell?

Very true. Polymorph any object will do it, and easily. It's even lower than true mind switch, and every wizard (that didn't ban transmutation) can use it (rather than just telepaths).

Also, casters get full spellcasting from other classes through polymorph, which is so much more disgustingly awesome than the Metamorphic Transfer feat.

[Artanis]

For 3.5, if you want Psionics, don't buy the book for them, just use the SRD. It has most, if not all, of the crunch from there (albeit zero fluff).

For 4e, there aren't a whole lot of non-core books to choose from yet. The Forgotten Realms Player's Guide would be a pretty good choice, since AFAIK it's the only one that currently has a non-core base class in it (the Swordmage). Although, if you want base classes, you might just want to wait until PHB2 comes out.

[NEO|Phyte]

For 3.5, if you want Psionics, don't buy the book for them, just use the SRD. It has most, if not all, of the crunch from there (albeit zero fluff).

Kindly don't listen to Artanis, thri-kreen are too awesome to be excluded due to things like saving money. Plus, psionic mindflayers are far superior to vanilla MM ones.

Additionally, there is a classic alphabetizing error in the book which is not included in the SRD, and you wouldn't want to miss out on that, would you?

[The Glyphstone]

Oh, I cracked up huge when I first noticed that...

[Reaper_Monkey]

I'd say Magic Item Compendium, because its ever so useful to have everything in one place and they've turfed out all the rubbish items (and done over a few of them so they're actually worth their cost).

For monsters, I'd hit Monster Manual V first, as the mechanics used to create the monsters are interesting and designed for ease on the DM and more aimed at the role in which monsters really perform (ie, it doesn't care too much for useless spell-like abilities that are never going to be used). There's also a wide range of monsters in there, so there is always something available for your needs ('specially if you refluff stuff from time to time).

For classes, hit the complete series, I'd suggest picking up the ones that your players roles tend to fall in line with first, as they'll appreciate that a lot (as it gives them access to more feats, prestige, items, variant rules etc).

Other than that the rest of the suggestions made here are all pretty self explanatory as to the needs they fulfil, I'd suggest trying to browse over a few of them before you buy em, its the easiest way to see if they're worth it and work along side the way you work (as I find some books just do things differently to me, and therefore its a lot of work salvaging stuff out of them).

[Curmudgeon]

What do you want to do?

If you're playing a spellcaster, get Spell Compendium; a caster is only as good as the spells they can produce. If you care about gear, get Magic Item Compendium. Most of the Complete books are self-explanatory for expanding the playing options for particular types of characters. The same goes for the Races of books for various races.

If you're interested in class variants, this thread will tell you what books you need to try those out.

[Fortinbras]

What do you want to do?

If you're playing a spellcaster, get Spell Compendium; a caster is only as good as the spells they can produce. If you care about gear, get Magic Item Compendium. Most of the Complete books are self-explanatory for expanding the playing options for particular types of characters. The same goes for the Races of books for various races.

If you're interested in class variants, this thread will tell you what books you need to try those out.

your right about the races and complete books.

They say a lot of things like Dwarves like axes ecept when they don't

or with reagaurds to the best crits a longsword is better if you like a lot of crits and a battle axe is better if you like a few hard, devestaiting ones.

Naw really?

[Paramour Pink]

If you want more classes and prestige classes, get the Complete (Cheese Champion). Also get Tome of Battle.

I don't get it. Tome of Battle is often mentioned to be overpowered to some play groups, and is bluntly accepted as a big obvious power boost to melee. But you're not okay with paladins getting some great feats with Complete Champion?

[monty]

I don't get it. Tome of Battle is often mentioned to be overpowered to some play groups, and is bluntly accepted as a big obvious power boost to melee. But you're not okay with paladins getting some great feats with Complete Champion?

Tome of Battle is not overpowered by any stretch of the imagination. Complete Champion, on the other hand, is mostly comprised of absolute crap and cheesy broken stuff.

[Theres]

Were using 3.5 edition and the party is made up of a paladin/cleric mostly paladin and a true neutral cleric and a pure level 13 fighter. the already have complete adventurer, complete divine and tome of battle. thankyou for the suggestions im gonna get the mm 2 and phb 2