Recommended Source

[FyreByrd]

Hi All,

After playing DnD (mainly 3.5) for a number of years, both DMing and playing characters, I want to expand my knowledge a bit. I have always played/DMed using Core only (pretty much DMG, PHB, & UA) and have always been mainly concentrated on Forgotten Realms.

So my question is, which books would you suggest I look at to expand my knowledge/experience a little more. Not really interested in super splat hardcore optimisation, but more in developing good characters/stories.

So post your favourite books here, as well as any setting resources you think are useful to expand me away from the over-used world of Forgotton Realms!

Cheers

FyreByrd

[PId6]

You're going to see Tome of Battle quite a lot in a short time, and for good reason. It's widely considered one of (if not the) best books for 3.5. It expands melee options significantly, giving fighter-types interesting things to do beyond "I full attack" every round. It's very well done, and well worth looking into for both players (who can build characters using the material) and DMs (who can build interesting enemies/villains using it).

As for setting stuff, after being used to FR, Eberron would be a pretty refreshing blast of air I'd imagine. It's one of my favorite settings, with very interesting things not found in typical fantasy settings (lightning rails, airships, artificers). It does away with a lot of old things and puts a new spin on various creatures/cultures/ideas (alignment is a lot looser, for example, and goblins are quite civilized, once having ruled their own continent-wide empire). Overall, it just has an action-movie feel that makes campaigns there just feel different.

[Greenish]

(blah blah) Tome of Battle (blah, blah, blah)

(blah, blah) Eberron (blah, blah, blah)

I fully endorse this statement.

For alternative systems, psionics basics is part of the SRD, so that'll give some variation free of charge.

I'll also mention Magic of Incarnum, since it deserves more love.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Spell Compendium the absolute best book for any spellcasters, whereas Tome of Battle gives you some new nonspellcaster class options which are on the same level of power with spellcasters. Player's Handbook 2 is one of the best supplements for any character, and the Magic Item Compendium offers a lot of additional options for a character whereas core is mostly items which just grant a static bonus.

Complete Arcane/Divine/Mage/Warrior/Adventurer/Scoundrel/Champion are all great to have and use, though that's quite a few books. Races of Destiny/Stone/the Dragon/the Wild are also quite good for PCs.

Most of the other books out there don't really have a lot of usable content, most people will just cherry-pick the few useful feats/classes/races/spells/items from them and ignore all the other pages.

There's still a lot of free content on the WotC website if you know where to look. I'm sure someone's posted a link library somewhere, but I've never gone looking for it.

[kamikasei]

Eberron is the obvious candidate for setting, and I'd agree with it.

For the other question, it's a matter of the kind of thing you're looking for. ToB is good, but pretty much just gives you new options for melee. The Expanded Psionics Handbook, which as mentioned is mostly in the SRD, gives you new classes which are a little more different from anything in core. Tome of Magic has one very interesting new class in the Binder (two if you use a fix for the Shadowcaster), quite unlike anything in core. The Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, and Player's Handbook 2 give you new options for core classes (and PHB2 has premade rogue/wizard and fighter/mage classes which can help give you more variety in character types).

[Greenish]

There's still a lot of free content on the WotC website if you know where to look. I'm sure someone's posted a link library somewhere, but I've never gone looking for it.

The guide to free D&D. Notably, the warblade class and all ToB maneuvers are there.


There was another thread on this topic, not too long ago. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[Eldan]

From your first post, it seems you are looking more at fluff than at crunch, so I'll post on that. Crunch has also already been recommended.

The "Races of" books are very interesting, generally. While they provide new prestige classes, feats, class features, spells and equipment, they also usually provide a chapter each on 2-3 core races (i.e. Races of Stone has Dwarves and Gnomes), a newly introduced race and shorter sections on a few other races fitting the subject, talking about psychology, society and culture. Always a good roleplaying and worldbuilding inspiration, if you want to use classical fluff, instead of diverging, by introducing, say, combat-crazy desert rider elves.

If you are interested in an environment, the series Frostburn/Sandstorm/Stormwrack/Cityscape is also interesting, introducing a lot of nice options and DM tools.

And finally, perhaps my favourite 3.5 books, the monster books. Not monster manuals, monster books. There are books on Dragons and Aberrations and, slightly less good, the Undead, doing basically the same thing as the Races books, but for monsters.

[Anonymouswizard]

Dragon Magic! The Prestige classes, Dragonfire adept, and dragonpact magic are more awesome for their flavour than their rules (at least for me). And also: it gives you ideas for ways to make dragons feature more promanently.

[FyreByrd]

Hi all,

Thanks for all replies so far, had assumed Eberron was the way forward for setting purposes so good to get that confirmed.

I've (obviously) got access to srd, just have never really enjoyed the thought of psionics playing heavy roles in my game, will def. look at ToB and some of the other great suggestions.

As for fluff vs crunch, I guess I want the best of both worlds, I tend to rewrite a lot of fluff if I'm DMing neway, but good to have more hooks!

Cheers FyreByrd

[Greenish]

I --- have never really enjoyed the thought of psionics playing heavy roles in my game

May I ask why? BURN, HERETIC, BURN!

[Eldan]

If you dislike psionics, think of them like this:

These aren't mind powers. Instead, it's a magical discipline. Think of fictional examples of casters, in books or movies: actually a whole lot of them cast their magic through concentration, mental focus, discipline and meditation, instead of reading books, waving their hands and uttering strange syllables.

But I actually prefer vancian casting as well.

[Yora]

Psions are spell point sorcerers.

[FyreByrd]

May I ask why? BURN, HERETIC, BURN!

Now that is a good question, not really sure, always had the idead(not sure from where) that they were easily unbalanced if you weren't VERY familiar with them-guess that means I should get familiar!

Cheers FyreByrd

[Eldan]

Honestly, especially to the unfamiliar, wizards and sorcerers are a lot easier to break than psions.

[subject42]

Now that is a good question, not really sure, always had the idead(not sure from where) that they were easily unbalanced if you weren't VERY familiar with them-guess that means I should get familiar!

Second edition psionics were horrifyingly unbalanced. The dwarven kineticist could snap an encounter in half like a stale baguette.

3.5 psionics are much better.

[Optimystik]

All the familiarity you need is this:

"You can never spend more power points on a single manifestation than your manifester level."

Once you memorize that, you'll see how balanced psionics is.

[FyreByrd]

OK so I went out and picked up...

Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, phbII, complete adventurer, and Magic Item Compendium, couldn't find Spell compendium/or any of the races books mentioned in the shop. (2nd hand book shops ftw)

Did manage to find Eberron Campaign Setting, and players guide to Eberron, as well as Races of Eberron however.

Hopefully this should give me a much more rounded edumication - and I promise to look more closely at the psionics stuff in then srd!

Cheers for all the help

FyreByrd