[3.X] Non-WotC books

[Thurbane]

Hey all,

I've got basically all of the WotC 3.5 books (and most of the 3.0 books) that I'm likely to need, and was looking to expand my 3.X collection with some third party books. I've already got a couple, but I'm looking to expand.

What would you recommend? Also, which have a rep for being awful, so I can avoid those? Also, what about 3rd party 3.X settings, like Kalamar, Ravenloft and Dragonlance?

Any and all comments welcomed.

[CockroachTeaParty]

If you like psionics, you should definitely check out Untapped Potential, by Dreamscarred Press. I haven't looked at Hyperconcious, the 'prequel' to UP, but I've also heard it's pretty solid.

Really, Untapped Potential is what Complete Psionic should have been.

[arguskos]

Best book ever printed is Toolbox, by AEG. It is nothing but tables of random crap, like tavern names, NPC quirks, whatever you can imagine. It's a very very VERY handy tool for when you're tired or it's late or they throw you a curveball you didn't see coming and you just need something to work off of. I heartily approve it at all times.

[Zeta Kai]

There's the Book of Erotic Fantasy, which, while certainly squicky, is actually fairly useful in certain... unusual circumstances. Believe it or not, it's not that bad a book, despite its reputation.

Also Call of Cthuhlu D20 is really cool. Mechanically, it's a bit wonky, due to the fact that characters in D20 are much more robust than anyone in CoC should be. But it is a worthy Lovecraftian book, with a fantastic attention to detail & a wide variety of horrific fluff. A must-have for horror fans.

Speaking of horror, there's this game called FATAL that I should warn you about...

[Sindri]

The DragonLance books are good if you use the setting, but only a few things transfer out well. One thing I really like is that they made usable PC classes out of the aristocrat and the expert, so if you want to play as a noble or a master craftsman you can do so without either bluffing it with traditional PC classes or taking a huge disadvantage. Also, a lot of the monsters in Bestiary of Krynn are universal or easy to adapt, so if you're a GM looking for something your players aren't familiar with it's a good source. Beyond that there's a lot of fluff writing, several new races, and several new feats and spells, but those usually only really work within the setting. Knightly Orders of Ansalon, Holy Orders of the Stars, the War of the Lance sourcebook, etc. are almost useless in a non-Krynn game.

[onthetown]

Agreed on the Dragonlance books. DL is a great setting to give a shot, too.

I'm not sure if it's 3.x, but Tome of Horrors is lovely. It's full of all sorts of monsters that were rejected in the Monster Manual.

[lesser_minion]

Also Call of Cthuhlu D20 is really cool. Mechanically, it's a bit wonky, due to the fact that characters in D20 are much more robust than anyone in CoC should be. But it is a worthy Lovecraftian book, with a fantastic attention to detail & a wide variety of horrific fluff. A must-have for horror fans.

Dying from seven consecutive papercuts is not exactly 'robust'...

And if you can survive in a Cthulhu story long enough to attain anything that even remotely does deserve that label, then I think you might deserve it.

[Starscream]

I second Dragonlance and The Toolbox. Ravenloft is also cool, if only for the fun monsters which can spice up any horror campaign.

I read the Book of Erotic Fantasy once, and while I can't really recommend it (just having it on a shelf will get you laughed at), it's not as bad as the title suggests.

Does anyone have any opinions on the books by Mongoose Publishing? I've heard that Quintessential Monk has some good ways to improve that class.

Oh, and I love the Grimtooth's Traps series. Tons of utterly cruel and creative traps to show your players who's boss when they get too clever, all presented in a humorous style.

Portable Hole Full of Beer is also great. It's basically a parody book, but is actually usuable for the most part. Imagine a WoTC supplement done in the style of Mad Magazine. You have Dire Flumphs, a statted out Dread Gazebo, prestige classes based on being a Pokemon Master, and other silliness.

[Vaynor]

Does anyone have any opinions on the books by Mongoose Publishing? I've heard that Quintessential Monk has some good ways to improve that class.

I have the Ultimate Equipment Guide by Mongoose Publishing. It's a pretty neat resource, lots of options for low-level/low-magic gameplay. Adds a lot of variety to available equipment/armor/weapons. It is 3.0 though, so you have to make sure to take that into consideration when using it.

[arguskos]

I have the Ultimate Equipment Guide by Mongoose Publishing. It's a pretty neat resource, lots of options for low-level/low-magic gameplay. Adds a lot of variety to available equipment/armor/weapons.

There's a copy of that at my local Half-Price. I keep looking at it, unsure if I want to pick it up. Was it worth $15 or so?

[Vaynor]

There's a copy of that at my local Half-Price. I keep looking at it, unsure if I want to pick it up. Was it worth $15 or so?

Definitely, there's a lot of really nifty stuff in there. It's sorted by who's going to be using it, as well, which I found rather useful. Sections for adventuring in the wild, a large section devoted to herbs, rogue equipment, bard equipment, elven/dwarven/halfling-made equipment, etc. When playing D&D I've always found equipment books to be invaluable. The different sections also help to allocate equipment to shopkeepers based on location/race/trade.

[The Glyphstone]

I love the [Complete X] series from Goodman Games. They're still mostly available on backorder, and they've got some very interesting takes on making some otherwise underused monsters more prominent - I treasure my copy of Complete Guide To Beholders, but they have one for everything from vampires to treants to rakshasa.

[The Tygre]

God, I have -waaay- too much to recommend in one post. So for starters;

- The Book of Fiends by Green Ronin; Quintessential bestiary for devils, demons, and even daemons. I actually got a kick from it just casually reading it.
- The Quintessential Series by Mongoose Publishing; Each one contains a metric butt-load of information on a class/race, and usually a chapter or two on something related but independent, like operating a mine, starting a church, building a wizard's tower, commanding an army, herbs, psionic cannibals, vows, etc.
- Goodman Games; What can I say? Joseph Goodman himself might be more than a little pompous sometimes, but the d20 material is solid gold. And if you're a DM, the Dungeon Crawl Classiscs are godsends.
- Tome of Horrors by Necromancer Games; Also a series. Started out as one book printing out 3e stats for a lot of 1e and 2e monsters, but pretty soon was its own line of monsters.
- Hell, pretty much anything d20 from White Wolf is probably worth a pretty penny or two. Books on how gods die, 3e Planescape, meteors, psionics, gambling. If nothing else, the Book of Iron Might was light-years ahead of the Tome of Martial Power.

[arguskos]

3e Planescape

This intrigues me, tell me more.

[Thurbane]

Portable Hole Full of Beer is also great. It's basically a parody book, but is actually usuable for the most part. Imagine a WoTC supplement done in the style of Mad Magazine. You have Dire Flumphs, a statted out Dread Gazebo, prestige classes based on being a Pokemon Master, and other silliness.

I've actually got a PDF of that, that they were giving away free for gameday or somesuch.

- The Quintessential Series by Mongoose Publishing; Each one contains a metric butt-load of information on a class/race, and usually a chapter or two on something related but independent, like operating a mine, starting a church, building a wizard's tower, commanding an army, herbs, psionic cannibals, vows, etc.

I've been warned away from these previously, I heard they have some really broken stuff, and very poor editing?

[Wings of Peace]

Personally I'm a huge fan of Chaos Magic: Wild Sorcery

[ryzouken]

Mongoose and Green Ronin both have pretty bad track records as far as crunch books go. Paizo's AP's and Pathfinder are pretty solid stuff, I'm not sure about their Game Mastery supplements (I've hit a feat or two that's fairly suspect.) but overall, I'd go Paizo before the first two. AEG's splats are fairly awesome, though most of them are keyed to their campaign setting of Rokugan.

Quintessential books are pretty bad. I bought one and only one, wasn't impressed, and decided to flip through their other supplements before buying them. I never bought another.

[Rappy]

I unashamedly concur with those that have pushed the Tome of Horrors...just make sure to go to their website for errata after you buy it. To look at the Animal Lords page as is, even if you've bought the 3.5 update, is to be confused.

Also, if you need weapons or equipment, MonkeyGod Enterprises's From Stone to Steel is always a fun option, although it's built with 3.0-style specific-scaled weapons in mind.

Green Ronin's stuff is all around fun, especially the Advanced Bestiary, Advanced Gamemaster's Guide, and Advanced Player's Handbook.

Finally, if you're the Dungeon Master and want a lot of templates on hand, the Book of Templates: Deluxe Edition 3.5 is an excellent resource.

[Attilargh]

I'm going to do something really unexpected, and recommend...

Iron Kingdoms by Privateer Press. The Character and World Guides are so very worth it for all the tasty setting-stuff, even though the rules included are a complete waste of ink and money. The Witchfire Trilogy, the only adventure module for the setting, is also reputedly pretty solid, if a tad railroady.

Sadly, I think these are all long out of print.

[GolemsVoice]

If you're interested in the setting, I really recommend the (World) of Warcraft RPG. I've heard several people expressing their dislike, but I think it does a suprisingly good job of capturing the world, and it makes some nice changes to the base classes and other rules (like doing away with LA in favour of racial levels). If you don't want Warcraft, it's of course of no value to you.

[Yora]

I agree. They are ver great books, if you want to play Warcraft PnP.

[Irreverent Fool]

I'm going to do something really unexpected, and recommend...

Iron Kingdoms by Privateer Press. The Character and World Guides are so very worth it for all the tasty setting-stuff, even though the rules included are a complete waste of ink and money. The Witchfire Trilogy, the only adventure module for the setting, is also reputedly pretty solid, if a tad railroady.

Sadly, I think these are all long out of print.

+1 to this, if you can find it. My group picked up Iron Kingdoms and had a blast, though it helped that about three-quarters of our group were playing Warmachine (the miniatures wargame in the same setting) at the time. One word of caution: Do not try to use these 3rd-party d20 setting books as splatbooks for a typical D&D game or you'll end up with wizards in armored longcoats sporting DR at level 2.

[J.Gellert]

Cry Havoc and Requiem for a God are both useful if you are DMing war or dead deities in your campaign. Anger of Angels is great but it means your game isn't set in any "traditional" campaign setting.

[horngeek]

AEG's splats are fairly awesome, though most of them are keyed to their campaign setting of Rokugan.

This, mind you, is not a bad thing.

At all.

[Kaiyanwang]

This, mind you, is not a bad thing.

At all.

Seconded!

[Emmerask]

Mongoose Encyclopaedia Arcane - Star Magic

well all the Encyclopaedia Arcane books from mongoose are worth a look

Monte Cook Complete Book of Eldritch Might is worth a look too though I think some of the stuff is a bit over the top

[Satyr]

Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games is one of the best settings ever published for D&D. It's intriguing both from a mechanical and a setting point of view.
I also really like the usual Iron Heroes stuff.

[wizuriel]

I really like the legends and lair books by FFG. I find the path of books have a lot of really fluffy classes. The power of the books is less than most WOTC books which i find makes them perfect for NPC classes.

[Optimystik]

If you like psionics, you should definitely check out Untapped Potential, by Dreamscarred Press. I haven't looked at Hyperconcious, the 'prequel' to UP, but I've also heard it's pretty solid.

Really, Untapped Potential is what Complete Psionic should have been.

Not being familiar with the others, this is the only one I can second - but I do so wholeheartedly. CRTP covered Untapped Potential (though he didn't mention the awesome racial substitution levels or new base classes ), so I'll endorse Hyperconscious.

Hyperconscious is extremely solid, with rules for mental duelling ("Across the crowded tavern, you lock eyes with your foe..."), psionic counterspelling, manifesting powers while unconscious/asleep, a boatload of great PrCs and feats (Persistent Power!), and even a campaign related to the dreamworld.

It also has an extra layer of legitimacy due to being written by Bruce Cordell, the primary creative mind behind the XPH itself.

[Athaniar]

Ooh, let's see what we have on the shelf...

Green Ronin's Mythic Vistas series are perhaps my favorite 3rd party books. Testament, Eternal Rome, Skull & Bones, Egyptian Adventures, each dealing with a historic setting (Old Testament, ancient Rome, pirate-era Caribbean, and ancient Egypt, respectively). I recommend them all for those who are interested in the settings. I hear there is also one about the Trojan War.

Then there is Secret Societies, a pretty interesting little book covering (real life) secret societies (duh) from Flaming Cobra, which is apparently part of Mongoose. The six main organizations are the Assassins, Aumn Shinrikyo, the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, Mossad, and the Thule Society. Each comes with (among other things) a prestige class, information on how to include the society in fantasy, modern, and sci-fi settings, and a generic organization based on the society. Once again, I recommend it if the theme appeals to you.

Being a Warcraft fan, I naturally recommend the RPG, at least the WoW one. While not completely "D&D-ish" like its predecessor, it is very similar, and material from it can be adapted for use in other games.

This is only a small excerpt of my collection, of course. I don't really feel like covering all pretty generic bestiaries and such.