Best 3.5 Supplements

[Magicyop]

What would you say are the best 3.5 Supplements? I'm looking to expand my collection, and since the release of 4.0, 3.5 books in good condition are somewhat hard to come by. I'm considering Lords of Madness, Elder Evils, Complete Psionic, or Complete Mage. I already own the DM's guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Draconomicon, and Libris Mortis.

Can anyone elaborate on what kind of content is in the books I named, or any others you like, and which you would suggest buying?

Thanks very much.

[Keld Denar]

Best 2 books, hands down

Magic Item Compendium (self explanatory...magic items lie therein)

Spell Compendium (again, explanatory...thar be spellz)

These 2 books add the MOST to ALL characters, more than any individual suppliment book by its self.

After that, Tome of Battle, cause it kicks booty!

[The Dark Fiddler]

Tome of Battle and the Expanded Psionic's Handbook are generally considered two of the best supplements for 3.5. Also, I'm pretty sure XPH is better than Complete Psionics, which is generally a bit less popular.

This is just from what I've seen though. I can personally vouch for Tome of Battle as being very fun.

[the humanity]

getting more monster manuals really adds to the variety, I like MMIII the best.

also, Complete Mage, Warrior, Champion and Arcane really help most players choices. greatly. I like the 2 arcane books best.

rules compendium and spell compendium can really really speed up games and minimize the wall of books needed day by day. the spell compendium adds a lot of spells if you don't have a lot of books.

finally, the Book of Vile Darkness and/or Exemplars of Evil help make your BBEGs cooler. depending on your style, fiendish codexes may also help with this.

[Pluto]

I'm big on small-scale homebrew.

Books that just add classes, ACFs, monsters, spells, items and feats don't really do it for me - building custom items, spells, classes, etc. is half the fun of building/playing a character.

I really dig the supplements that do the crunchwork and dry rules for this sort of thing. Basically, that means the books that introduce entirely new mechanical systems:

Savage Species
Magic of Incarnum
Tome of Magic
Tome of Battle

(Also -especially- Unearthed Arcana and Expanded Psionics, but those are free on the srd.)
(And Weapons of Legacy is silly.)


For some reason, I also really like Elder Evils. I can't exactly call it a good book (everything in it feels kind of contrived), but every time I look at it, a new campaign idea starts to weave itself in my head.

[Flob]

I have always enjoyed both the races books (all of them) and the draconomicon. Theres just something about the variety of things you can do with those books that awesome.

[JaronK]

Tome of Battle is amazing. It makes melees fun to play and worth playing at high levels without making them overpowered. It's great. It also makes it easy to play a ninja reasonably.

Dungeonscape is very nice because it replaces the Rogue so well with the Factotum, plus it has some useful gear, but it's only good if you like skillmonkey types.

Tome of Magic has Binders, which are a really awesome class. Unfortunately, that's basically all it has. For some reason, only the first third of the book is printed. There is NOTHING ELSE past the Binder section. La la la I can't hear you.

Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium are handy, but MIC is better I think. Casters don't actually need more spells.

JaronK

[Ernir]

LoM - useful if you want to run an Aberration-heavy campaign. Very limited otherwise.
Elder Evils - useful for getting campaign capstone ideas. It's mostly a list of super-BBEGs. If you run a lot of evil campaigns, this also gives you more stuff for the PCs to devote themselves to.
CPsi - some good stuff for psionic characters (Linked Power, Practiced Manifester, etc), but... it's usefulness is debated. Much of the good stuff (Like the Soulbow is available online anyway.
CMage - the party spellcasters are going to like the new options. I'd say this is the most generally useful book of those you listed, but really, it does next to nothing for nonspellcasters.


Of other books, I can hardly recommend the MIC enough. Seriously, it might be the only book every character can use.
For the Spellcasters (not just full spellcasters, guys like Paladins and Rangers are the real winners here), the Spell Compendium is full of fun.
PHB2 is very generally useful.
ToB is the best thing ever for melee. It introduces a new system for melee, but I recommend it.
The "Complete" books for whatever kind of character your group tends to play.

[Magicyop]

Hmm, some interesting thoughts... Is EPH good for story ideas? Is Tome of Battle good for creating varied melee characters? Because I've generally thought that melee characters usually end up a lot alike.

[jokey665]

Expanded Psionics Handbook is the best non PHB/DMG/MM1 book, in my opinion. Following that are the Tome of Battle, Magic Item Compendium, and Spell Compendium.

[Keld Denar]

Tome of Battle introduces 3 new base classes, the Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade, as well as a new system of melee combat that they use. It functions a lot like spellcasting, where you know and ready manevuers, similar to spells, and the maneuvers are stratified into levels from 1-9, just like spells. They generally do fun things like allow you to move for free, disarm a foe, strike for extra damage and bypass DR, jump up in the air and strike with downward force, strike multiple foes around you in a sweep, etc.

Most of them are Extraordinary in nature, but a few (namedly maneuvers from the Shadow Hand and Desert Wind schools) are Supernatural. Also, the difference between spells and maneuvers is that manevuers are on a more "per encounter" scale than a "per day" scale. This is balanced because manevuers TEND to have a less significant effect on combat compared to spells.

You can read more here:
Warblades
Manevuers

[Octopus Jack]

Magic of Incarnum is brilliant

My favourite supplement

[the humanity]

Hmm, some interesting thoughts... Is EPH good for story ideas? Is Tome of Battle good for creating varied melee characters? Because I've generally thought that melee characters usually end up a lot alike.

Tome of Battle is perfect for providing variant melee characters.

[Eldariel]

Hmm, some interesting thoughts... Is EPH good for story ideas? Also, what kind of things are in Tome of Battle? Thanks.

Tome of Battle is basically a system of different abilities for warriors. You gain more efficient attacks as you level-up and have a bunch of different attacks (Strikes), ways to improve your attacks (Boosts), ways to block attacks (Counters) and constant boosts (Stances) that you know and learn as ways to bolster your combat ability, increase your combat mobility, increase your variety of offense and defense and overall, give you more options.

Normally, melee is basically:
- Attack
- Trip
- (Grapple) [On low levels, against clearly weak opponents like casters]
- ((Sunder)) [Against Hydras; otherwise you're wrecking your loot]
- (((Disarm))) [Against Humanoids if you're focused and all...so never]

With ToB, you have all that and a ton of chassises for those attacks, along with various boosts to modify them according to your needs, uses for your swift/immediate actions, various protective active abilities and yeah, constant stances with interesting effects. Overall, it makes melee combat more interesting and somewhat more powerful out of the box (you don't need to optimize ToB characters for them to be strong). The classes mostly replace the Core classes as primary melee classes but benefit of multiclassing with the core options all the same, and it's some of the best balanced official 3.5 material. Overall, one of the best investments you could make.

Note though, you may want to reflavor the maneuvers and such if the names displease you. Too many people are turned off the base by the named attacks and such as people are (incorrectly) reminded of various animations and such, but that's really something you can change as a DM or a player if you so desire. E.g. Tiger Claw has a very feral flavor, but while it makes for nice Barbarians, it also acts as a solid Two-Weapon Fighting school or a school focusing on the offense with nothing necessarily animal-like about it.

[arguskos]

Tome of Magic has Binders, which are a really awesome class. Unfortunately, that's basically all it has. For some reason, only the first third of the book is printed. There is NOTHING ELSE past the Binder section. La la la I can't hear you.

Ok, I want a concise answer about this for once. Why does no one actually seem to care about the Shadowcaster? Yes, it's mechanically weak, but dammit, it functions, is unique, and is capable of some cool stuff past about level 5. Truenamer, not debating, but, the Shadowcaster is worthy of acknowledgment!

[Pluto]

You can find all the maneuvers here.

The Warblade excerpt gives a rough idea of how the maneuvers work.

(ToB characters have a certain number of maneuvers available at all times and have a way of replenishing them in combat, though that replenishment is not always practical.)

edit:
I like the Shadowcaster, but it's nothing special.
Its casting mechanism isn't really unique. Neither are most of its abilities. Neither is most of its fluff.
The Sorcerer already does the same thing, but more elegantly, with more options and with more endurance.
(And in Core, which is a big plus for a lot of groups.)

The mysteries could be presented as spells and the fluff could be presented as part of an example character; the results would be about the same.

[Mordokai]

Shadowcaster has some cool flavor to it and for me, that's all that counts.

As for suggestions from my side:

• Heroes of Horror: can't say how much I love this one enough. It just has that feeling to it and provides a lot of neat insight on horror, plus a bunch of flavor options. For a guy like me, who puts flavor first, that counts a lot.
• Fiendish Codex (both) - demons and devils and everything you ever wanted to know about them. I like them because they give you nice insight on what's going on in Nine Hells and Abyss.
• Complete Divine: bunch of options for divinie characters, even is stuff like Divine Metamagic is broken to Nessus and back. Still, if you like divine magic, like I do, this is a book for you.

I own all of these books and I never regreted a cent I paid for them.

[Eldariel]

And yeah, if it wasn't clear, I really love Tome of Battle. Other favorites include, in something resembling an order from most favorite to less most favorite:

Heroes of Horror
Dungeonscape
Complete Scoundrel
Magic of Incarnum
Player's Handbook II
Complete Mage
Complete Champion
Magic Item Compendium
Spell Compendium
Stormwrack
Fiend Folio
Champions of Ruin
Heroes of Battle
Various Monster-books (Lords of Madness/Draconomicon/Libris Mortis/Fiendish Codexes/Elder Evils/Exemplars of Evil)
Dragon Magic, Tome of Magic, Champions of Valor, Cityscape, etc.
Races of X
Rest of the Completes

E.g. I find Tome of Magic is very good in part, but I don't think it's good enough as a whole to take over other alternatives. That is, it's solid, but I find it packs less bang for your buck than many other options.

EDIT: And this assumes you use Psionics and Unearthed Arcana from online sources, most notably SRD. Also, Hyperconscious (a 3rd Psionics supplement) is very nice.

[DementedFellow]

I find this thread's lack of Sandstorm disturbing.

[Divide by Zero]

ToB++. I can't remember the last time I didn't have at least one level of at least one of those classes in a melee build, with the exception of my weird Hulking Hurler lycanthrope build. Also, Magic of Incarnum.

[Draz74]

Adding a vote to (in order): Magic Item Compendium, Tome of Battle, Dungeonscape.

(Expanded Psionics Handbook would make the list, too, if most of it weren't free online.)

[AslanCross]

1. Tome of Battle
2. Magic Item Compendium
3. Expanded Psionics Handbook
4. PHB2
5. Spell Compendium

[Sinfire Titan]

Elder Evils, for PCs.

Magic of Incarnum.

Bo9S.

XPH.

ECS.

[JaronK]

Ok, I want a concise answer about this for once. Why does no one actually seem to care about the Shadowcaster? Yes, it's mechanically weak, but dammit, it functions, is unique, and is capable of some cool stuff past about level 5. Truenamer, not debating, but, the Shadowcaster is worthy of acknowledgment!

Short version? It's just a crappy Sorcerer. If you made a shadow themed Sorcerer, it would work far better in pretty much every way. Even the creator of the Shadowcaster later came out with updates to fix it a bit.

Basically, the mechanics of it don't really make it more interesting than a Sorcerer in the end, and the Sorc isn't all that interesting to begin with. Combine this with a lack of support in later books and there's just very little point.

JaronK

[Set]

If I were to pick one, it would be Unearthed Arcana, which adds a ton of options and ideas for races, classes, DM options, etc.

Close behind would be the PHB2 and DMG2.

[Sairyu]

I think my favorites are Heroes of Horror and the Frostburn/Sandstorm/Stormwrack trio. UA and the PHB2 are nice, but I don't really use them much.

Edit: I've never touched Tome of Battle, so I can't comment on that.

[DarthCyberWolf]

Since so many of these books tend to lean towards a specific area of the game, different people will like different books. Here’s a list of most of the books and kinda what they’re about. (I like lists..)

The ‘complete series’;
Complete Arcane – Stuff about arcane casters mostly.
Complete Divine – Stuff about divine casters.
Complete Warrior – Stuff about casters fighters.
Complete Adventurer – Little bit of everything.
Complete Scoundrel – Stuff about sneaky types.
Complete Champion – Kinda odd book. Has some interesting stuff.
Complete Psionic – Haven’t used it myself but some people say it’s ‘meh’.
Complete Mage – Another caster book. Full of yummy broken cheese.

Terrain themed books;
Frostburn – Cold weather themed stuff.
Sandstorm – Hot and desert themed stuff.
Stormwreck – Seas and storm themed stuff.
Dungeonscape – Dungeon stuff.

Race themed books; (Name is self-explanatory)
Races of the Dragon
Races of the Wild
Races of Stone
Races of Destiny

Your good ol’ compendiums;
Spell Compendium – Spells. Lots.
Magic Item Compendium – Magic Items out your ear.

The Tomes; (These are good because they have some new mechanics).
Tome of Battle – Full of new stuff for melee characters.
Tome of Magic – New weird spell casting classes.

Alignment themed books; (ish)
Book of Exalted Deeds – Stuff for good characters.
Book of Vile Darkness – Stuff for evil characters.
Fiendish Codex I – Fiends!
Fiendish Codex II – More Fiends!
Elder Evils – Don’t know. Sounds evil.
Exemplar of Evils – Don’t know again. Sounds like more evil.
Lords of Madness – Don’t have a clue.

Some more books;
Draconomicon – Stuff about dragons.
Dragon Magic – Some dragon stuff. Has new spells too.
Heroes of Battle – Some fighter stuff
Heroes of Horror – Some weird stuff.
Libris Mortis – Undead stuff.

[HunterOfJello]

I'll post only the books I have personal experience with as a DM:


-definitely Tome of Battle for a selection of melee classes that don't suck. I love ToB, some people don't. If you think melee classes are balanced then don't buy it.

-Monster Manual III for more selection (you can skip MMII, it's 3.0 and not as good)

-I like the Fiend Folio a lot. It has fun undead and evil enemies. If you don't want that sort of thing in your campaign, then you can skip it.

-Cityscape if you have anything to do with cities. The information in it makes everything that goes on in a city much easier to cope with.

-DMG II if you want to DM better. Reading AD&D and 4e Dungeon Master Guides and DMing supplements helps too. The 4e DMG II has lots of interesting ideas in it that I never would have thought of on my own.


*edit*

oh yeah, SPELL COMPENDIUM

This book is a must have if anyone at the table is a spellcaster. (Which is extremely likely.)

I don't have a physical copy of the Magic Item Compendium, but I use the PDF often. It's one of the more expensive books to get online from what i've seen.

[Thurbane]

If I were to pick three, it would be PHB II, Magic Item Compendium and Spell Compendium. All of these considerably expand the players (and DM's) options.

[Eldariel]

Since so many of these books tend to lean towards a specific area of the game, different people will like different books. Here’s a list of most of the books and kinda what they’re about. (I like lists..)

Few additions (changes in italics):

The ‘complete series’;
Complete Arcane – Stuff about arcane casters mostly.
Complete Divine – Stuff about divine casters.
Complete Warrior – Stuff about casters fighters.
Complete Adventurer – Little bit of everything.
Complete Scoundrel – Stuff about sneaky types.
Complete Champion – Stuff about divine classes of all kinds, tools to play any class with "divine" connection.
Complete Psionic – Additional psionics.
Complete Mage – Another caster book.

Environment books;
Frostburn – Cold weather themed stuff.
Sandstorm – Hot and desert themed stuff.
Stormwreck – Seas and storm themed stuff.
Planar Handbook - Stuff about the planes. [Note: Manual of the Planes [3.0] goes to greater length about the default cosmology]
Dungeonscape – Dungeon stuff.
Cityscape - Urban stuff.

Races-series; (all contain at least one new player race)
Races of the Dragon - Kobolds, Spellscales, Dragonborn, etc.
Races of the Wild - Elves, Halflings, Raptorans, Gnolls, Catfolk, etc.
Races of Stone - Dwarves, Gnomes, Goliaths, etc.
Races of Destiny - Humans, Half-Humans, Illumians, etc.
Races of Eberron – Racial stuff for the Warforged, Kalashtar, Changelings, Shifters and various Eberron subraces [Note: Not Eberron-specific]

Your good ol’ compendiums;
Spell Compendium – Spells. Lots.
Magic Item Compendium – Magic Items out your ear.
Rules Compendium – Rules explanations and clarifications.

Alternative systems;
Tome of Battle – Full new system for melee characters.
Tome of Magic – Three non-casting magic users, one of which is excellently done and the rest somewhat haphazardly
Magic of Incarnum - About classes using magical soulstuff to generate magic item-like abilities
Expanded Psionics Handbook - Magic of the mind

Alignment themed books;
Book of Exalted Deeds – Concept of good and exalted, tools for servants of good, etc.
Book of Vile Darkness – Concept of evil and vile evil, fiend thralls, etc.
Exemplar of Evils – Book of Vile Darkness take 2

Monster books;
Fiendish Codex I – Demons and associates, Demon Lords, etc.
Fiendish Codex II – Devils and associates, Lords of the Nine, etc.
Lords of Madness – Aberrations and their mind
Libris Mortis – Undead stuff.
Draconomicon – Stuff for improving and customizing your Draconic monsters
Elder Evils – Campaign stubs based off cthulhuish BBEGs
Fiend Folio - Super Monster Manual with tons of fearsome creatures.
Monster Manuals II - Lots of classic monsters that failed to make it to MMI
Monster Manual III - Few more old classics and lots of spinoffs on the MMI monsters
Monster Manual IV - Lots of premade leveled characters of monstrous races, spawns of tiamat, few others.
Monster Manual V - Much the same as MMIV, with more Outsiders and stronger races as the focus though

Some more books;
Dragon Magic – Dragon aspirants and various Draconic magicks
Heroes of Battle – Organizations and mass battles, wars
Heroes of Horror – Horror-campaigns, taint, and based classes, sanctifiers, edgewalkers (good and evil)

If delving into balance issues, the following books are notorious for balance problems of one kind or another:

Spoiler

Show

- Complete Champion: Lots of stuff done with little balancing; very good material for high-powered games, but some stuff you need to guess the intent for and so on
- Complete Divine: Quite possibly the worst 3.5 book in terms of balance; it contains, among others, Divine Metamagic, Ur-Priest and company)
- Complete Psionic: Tons of unnecessary nerfs, lots of ****ty material, few golden pieces, some stupid-good stuff like Synchronity
- Complete Warrior: Main issue is that most of the content is quite weak and astoundingly over half of the classes are for casters of various kinds.
- Races of the Dragon: Some ill-thought out effects of the Dragonwrought feat (though it can be perfectly fair)
- Tome of Magic: Two of the three classes are notably too weak, though one is rather easily fixed.
- Book of Exalted Deeds: Tons of stupid-good stuff, tons of useless stuff that seems stupid-good and some real idiocy behind alignment like the classic "we have good poisons and good mindrapes 'cause you can't use the evil ones"
- Book of Vile Darkness: Has the Cancer Mage among others. Pretty cool tho.
- Draconomicon: Careful with those metabreath feats having no upper caps.
- Monster Manual II: This book is the worst with regards to CR; the newer MM, the more accurate it gets.
- Monster Manual III: Some dumb-good stuff for PCs like War Trolls and Fleshrakers.
- Heroes of Horror: Taint, 'nuff said. Otherwise it's quality tho.