Help choosing next book [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help choosing next book [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
The Simbul
02-21-05, 02:43 AM Many online merchants offer you shipping deals or other minor perks if you buy more than one book or your purchase exceeds a given amount. I need to select a book to buy with my copy of Lost Empires of Faerun, and would be curious to hear recommendations or snapshot comments regarding some of those I am considering adding to my personal collection (as opposed to skimming through copies owned by others @ gaming sessions). Given that most of them are FR, I decided to ask here.

And the Nominees are;

Silver Marches: I like regional books, and the way Silverymoon was done, but I'm not too sure if I would find the rest of the book interesting.
Lords of Darkness: Always could use info on villains, although I've read much of the info on the groups I use the most.
Shining South: my initial reaction to this one was so-so =/, but I am curious what others think.
Players Guide to Faerun: crunch material is nice but always leaves me feeling empty inside and hungry for more a few hours later, like Chinese food. But I could use normal access to some of the revised features, and the newly converted stuff from 2E.
Underdark: I really didnt care for that whole Drow-craze that dominated D&D products a few years back, but it might make for a much less orthodox (and thus more interesting) campaign locale.
FR DM screen: Does it have anything worthwhile, other than the concealment (20% miss chance :P ) granted to my notes?
Complete Arcane/Complete Adventurer: basically only for the ability to have access to a few spells, PrC's, and feats, and some revised older ones but in a hardcover book. Normally I despise splatbooks.
Races of Stone I really dont like the Race books either, primarily for dropping new obscure races into the D&D world out of nowhere, apparently for no reason other than to simply having something new to print. But I like having Gnome PC's so I thought I might give it a try.

I would post novel nominees as well, but I dont want to violate the rules.
BrianCritchley
02-21-05, 02:55 AM honestly? give races of stone a try, the entire races book series isn't to bad,

I agree the news races are kinda meh (although it seems WOTC will be semi-supporting them so at least they won't just totally dissapper)

but the gnome and dwarf support is top teir.

also there's some suff in said book thats not rracial specific eaither, heavy armor optimization, as well as the extoic heavy armor while practially custom crafted for a dwarf are handy for other races as well.

on the other hand if your picking up a second bok cause you have to.. the players guide is one of those books which is kinda helpful

also if you ever intend on playing a planer game with the 3E cosmology it's a book you wanna have
Draco Strang
02-21-05, 07:09 AM I love Shining South, but I also love the Complete series.

I love Silver Marches, and I love Lords of Darkness

Never bought a Races book.

Underdark is excellent. If you want to do an Underdark campaign,

PGtF is excellent as well.

Give the DM screen a clean miss. I have it, and the artwork didn't really impress me. 15 bucks wasted.

So, whatever you wanna do, theyre all good buys.
Chosen of Bane
02-21-05, 08:35 AM I guess it really depends on what you're looking for. If you want "fluff" and great descriptive text I would go for Silver Marches or Shining South. I enjoyed both of them very much (Silver Marches is a little better in my opinion).

Players Guide to Faerun is good for new rules including feats, prestige classes, cleric domains, etc... It however does not have much descriptive text, it refers you back to the FR Campaign Setting. The book is more of an update book for 3.5. I use it a lot but I DM a game and play in two others, all in the Realms.

For the Complete series, I think Adventurer would be the one to grab out of the two you listed. I honestly thought the two complete caster books were sub-par. Complete adventurer has lots of good stuff (feats & prestige classes) where I felt that complete arcane was more reprinting of Tome and Blood. Complete Arcane also has a bunch of new "Blasting Spells" that look like evocation, sound like evocation, have evocation effects, but for some reason are conjuration spells, it kind of irks me.

Lords of Darkness is a great book but as you mentioned there is a lot of information in novels about the same organizations. I would hold off on this one because "Champions of Ruin" is coming out in about 6 months and it might have the same info just more up to date.

Races of Stone okay, I guess I'm just such a Forgotten Realms purist that I don't like seeing subraces that aren't FR and deities that aren't FR. I also think Goliaths are cheesy (along with Illumians and Raptorans for that matter).

So, now that I've reviewed all of your choices (because I have a mental problem and feel the need to buy EVERY book) I guess I can say, I would recommend Silver Marches for great FR descriptive text. Players Guide for the Updated 3.5 rules. Or Complete Adventurer if you want something non-FR.

Hope that helps.

As for novels, if you want recommendations private message me or email me because I have read most of them.
Sguss
02-21-05, 09:53 AM Of your list of nominees, I would suggest Complete Adventurer. One that isn't on your list that you might want to include if you run with Elves, would be Races of the Wild. Friend of mine just introduced me to this book this last weekend and I plan on buying it myself this week. Great source material, ideas, feats and such that are extremely helpful in fleshing out an Eleven character and their culture. My understanding is that other fey folk are included but never did get into that (yet), was just impressed on the information on Elven weapons, feats and armor specialities that helped me round out an Elven Fighter/Scout that I will be playing soon.

Sam
Faraer
02-21-05, 12:31 PM Silver Marches is the essential Realms book out of those; like everything Ed writes it tells you about far more than just the nominal subject. Lords of Darkness is a decent overview of the groups it covers. Shining South is well done, better than FR16 and Unapproachable East. Underdark has some content over DDGttU, but not overmuch.
Monsoon28
02-21-05, 12:58 PM Of the books mentioned I'd have to say go with Shining South, but I don't have LoD or Silver Marches, so can't comment on them much, still waiting for my copy of Complete Adventurer and while I have Races of Stone, I haven't bothered to read it yet, as i'm reading other books atm.
Complete Arcane was over-all useful, and I liked the addition of the Warlock base class.
Underdark is alright but isn't really that useful, unless you plan alot of time in the underdark.
PGtF was very helpful in updating to 3.5 but as said before all the fluff is limited to referrences to in FRCS, that or the short timeline update on recent realms events but if you read the novels you already know all the recent updates. I liked this book but not as much as Shining South...now if they'd only come out with a Vilhon Reach and Moonsea setting books!
Rapida
02-21-05, 03:02 PM I like underdark but I'm running CotSQ. I wasn't really impressed with shining south but my campaign isnt down there at the moment. I like complete adventurer too, it really helps multiclassing characters, I can finally make me a paladin bard :D
MakesMeSick
02-21-05, 06:23 PM The Silver Marches: the most fluff-per-square-inch in a book you'll get, plus it's FR fluff, and as someone pointed out, some of Ed's fluff, so great fluff. There's also a good amount of "new" (3rd) fluff, so if you own most of the 2nd ed stuff you'll still find very interesting stuff in there. I have found in this book more adventure hooks/ideas than any other FR book.

Lords of Darkness: another good ratio of fluff-per-square-inch here, but mostly specialized fluff. The power groups are well covered, and you'll also find new (3rd ed) info, but less than what Silver Marches can give you.
Also, in my case, I didn't like the treatment some of the bad guys received in terms of stats (read Larloch here...) but found the typical bad guy generic stat block very useful to incorporate a red wizard/zentharim/whathaveyou on-the-fly.

Definitely go with a FR book... :ayyyy!:
Moscone
02-21-05, 11:37 PM The DM's Screen is worth the purchase, it gives a full booklet of encounter tables, and no. appearing tables, grouped by CRs, etc. It's a nice addition to the shelf.

Underdark is also a really good book, especially if you've been following War of the Spider Queen, this book is LOADED with info, stats, you name it. The info on the Lowerdark is amazing.

If you don't have it, pick up Serpent Kingdoms as well. I initially bought it because it's a game product with Ed Greenwood as contributing author. It's his world, and no one knows it better than him. Upon reading through it, I found it to be another excellent book. Too bad there's no map though.
Green Giant
02-22-05, 12:00 AM I'd go with the Silver Marches. It contains a lot of fluff but also has some crunchy stuff. I kinda wish the other regional books had followed the same format but they have a lot more nations to cover while the Silver Marches has only city-states.

Lords of Darkness is excellent in covering the BBEGs of FR but only the major organizations get the best stuff while the minor ones get the short end of the stick.

Shining South could be a reprint of the old one just updated to 3.5e and with some new info. It follows the same format as Unapproachable East does.

Player's Guide to Faerun is probably the third book I would get from the list, after Silver Marches and Lords of Darkness. It contains a lot of crunchiness as well as an updated timeline and cosmology.

Unless you plan to play a heavy campaign underground, you shouldn't get Underdark.

FR DM Screen is one of the few FR products I don't have so I can't comment on it.

Complete Arcane/Complete Adventurer are both great books if you want some generic PrC, feats, and spells. Of the two, Adventurer is better unless you enjoy playing arcane classes then the other one would be a good choice.

Races of Stone goes into generic detail on the life of dwarves and gnomes and the new race, goliaths. Races of Faerun covered the dwarves and gnomes better than Races of Stone although the new prestige classes (finally a way to explain how King Bruenor can craft magic items) and feats can mesh well with those given in Races of Faerun.

To recap:
1. Silver Marches
2. Lords of Darkness
3. Player's Guide to Faerun
4. Shining South
5. Underdark
6. Complete Adventurer
7. Complete Arcane
8. Races of Stone
9. FR DM Screen
JWSIII
02-22-05, 01:23 AM Okay, I don't particularly like the drow (I hate chaotic races, and rarely like evil ones, either...), but I though that Underdark was one of the best available books ever produced for Forgotten Realms, it introduced one new race founded well in history, had a massive and higly tantalizing section of realmslore giving a huge amount of information on a wide area in a very enjoyable context, and it had very nice prestige classes/feats/spells well grounded in the area, highly useful, and not disbalancing. Personally, I think that while all realms material is a cut above, the Underdark sourcebook is uber-sweet. I have read and re-read this to glean every availible piece of information, and have noted at least twice that I would love an "underdark sourcebook" or "underdark 2: the other areas" or some such put out by the same team. My 2 cents and suggestion
Green Elven Vampire
02-22-05, 06:14 PM Complete adventurer has plenty of new spells as well that can be used by all the classes. I'm actually stuck between buying Complete adventurer and complete warrior. any advice on which of these two books I should get first??
ClobberinTime
02-22-05, 08:57 PM Personally I'm getting Complete Adventurer and LEoF, Complete adventurer appeals to me because I like to play multi-dimensional, multiclassed stand alone character types not the four bodies one mind, where everyone gets to use the thieves spot check, etc.... So the new rules for some of the skills will be perfect for me.

I would not get Lords of Darkness with a new similar book coming out in august, plus there wasn't a whole lot of new non-2e stuff in it.

The silver marches I thought was good the economics of the area and the army numbers were great, and the politics were pretty clear. its also covers alot of land, my only problem with it is that alot of the info is in the 'north' download.

PGtF I was really dissappointed in, just a total hodgepodge patch, I wish I'd have bought an old copy of MoF instead.
Green Giant
02-23-05, 04:07 PM Complete adventurer has plenty of new spells as well that can be used by all the classes. I'm actually stuck between buying Complete adventurer and complete warrior. any advice on which of these two books I should get first??

I'd choose Complete Adventurer over Complete Warrior. It seems to be the best of the Complete series so far. Complete Warrior has a number of feats that are very useful to fighters as well as a number of prestige classes that are good for combat but not that much can be used with other classes like Complete Adventurer has.
Rimm
02-24-05, 04:52 AM I'm going to jump in and go with the common consensus on this one- Either Silver Marches or Complete Adventurer. If you run a lot of FR games (And you should) then Silver Marches is the perfect book for a different-to-the-norm campaign setting. It's got uber-fluff, and some pretty neat adventures too for those days when you just can't be arsed to campaign.

Complete Adventurer is a must-have accompaniment to the PH, especially if you intend on allowing prestige classes. The sheer diversity of the prestige classes, the background on organisations, and the new improved tools, spells, weapons, and Feats are well worth the money.
HomebrewedMonster
02-24-05, 05:19 AM Silver Marches: A good book, but its still 3e and a soft cover. The information contained is decent and is useful for anyone wanting to run a campaign up in the Silver Marches. A little lacking on developing actual game play mechanics (PrC's, new spells, ect.), but the fluff contained within is a good read.

Lords of Darkness: Has a lot of useful stuff if you love using the evil organizations that are in the world of Toril. Its a great book if you have a love to string together stories between the great evils that lurk in the shadows (or open). Its also a good read if your a player, let's you know a little more about what you might be up against. Sure it might leave to metagaming, but a harper is going to know more about the ins and outs of the Zents then you probably do.

Shining South: Great book, the fluff makes you want to run a campaign in the huge mountain valley. Some great new spells, magic items, and a surface drow empire. The cover art by Sam Wood, which is beautiful, is just as good as what is inside.

Players Guide to Faerun: It has useful conversions and regions and starting equipment broken down for each race (even gensai). Also has a revamp of the Toril Cosmology which is useful.

Underdark: An ok book, it is not a drow book. It goes into the major cities and races that roam the upper, middle, and lower dark. From drow, to ithillids, to the horrors that roam the deep of the lower dark.

FR DM screen: Umm...meh. A DM screen is a DM screen.

Complete Arcane/Complete Adventurer: Adventurer in my opinion is a need all book for anyone. It has some great new PrC's, feats, and spells. Although if you love arcane, complete arcane is amazing for the new spells.

Races of Stone Its a good book, I was a little disappointed with all the races books, but this was rather good. Gives a decent general background of dwarves and gnomes. If the book would not have had Goliaths, it would be an A book, instead of a B-.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The Simbul 02-21-05, 02:43 AM	Many online merchants offer you shipping deals or other minor perks if you buy more than one book or your purchase exceeds a given amount. I need to select a book to buy with my copy of Lost Empires of Faerun, and would be curious to hear recommendations or snapshot comments regarding some of those I am considering adding to my personal collection (as opposed to skimming through copies owned by others @ gaming sessions). Given that most of them are FR, I decided to ask here. And the Nominees are; Silver Marches: I like regional books, and the way Silverymoon was done, but I'm not too sure if I would find the rest of the book interesting. Lords of Darkness: Always could use info on villains, although I've read much of the info on the groups I use the most. Shining South: my initial reaction to this one was so-so =/, but I am curious what others think. Players Guide to Faerun: crunch material is nice but always leaves me feeling empty inside and hungry for more a few hours later, like Chinese food. But I could use normal access to some of the revised features, and the newly converted stuff from 2E. Underdark: I really didnt care for that whole Drow-craze that dominated D&D products a few years back, but it might make for a much less orthodox (and thus more interesting) campaign locale. FR DM screen: Does it have anything worthwhile, other than the concealment (20% miss chance :P ) granted to my notes? Complete Arcane/Complete Adventurer: basically only for the ability to have access to a few spells, PrC's, and feats, and some revised older ones but in a hardcover book. Normally I despise splatbooks. Races of Stone I really dont like the Race books either, primarily for dropping new obscure races into the D&D world out of nowhere, apparently for no reason other than to simply having something new to print. But I like having Gnome PC's so I thought I might give it a try. I would post novel nominees as well, but I dont want to violate the rules.
BrianCritchley 02-21-05, 02:55 AM	honestly? give races of stone a try, the entire races book series isn't to bad, I agree the news races are kinda meh (although it seems WOTC will be semi-supporting them so at least they won't just totally dissapper) but the gnome and dwarf support is top teir. also there's some suff in said book thats not rracial specific eaither, heavy armor optimization, as well as the extoic heavy armor while practially custom crafted for a dwarf are handy for other races as well. on the other hand if your picking up a second bok cause you have to.. the players guide is one of those books which is kinda helpful also if you ever intend on playing a planer game with the 3E cosmology it's a book you wanna have
Draco Strang 02-21-05, 07:09 AM	I love Shining South, but I also love the Complete series. I love Silver Marches, and I love Lords of Darkness Never bought a Races book. Underdark is excellent. If you want to do an Underdark campaign, PGtF is excellent as well. Give the DM screen a clean miss. I have it, and the artwork didn't really impress me. 15 bucks wasted. So, whatever you wanna do, theyre all good buys.
Chosen of Bane 02-21-05, 08:35 AM	I guess it really depends on what you're looking for. If you want "fluff" and great descriptive text I would go for Silver Marches or Shining South. I enjoyed both of them very much (Silver Marches is a little better in my opinion). Players Guide to Faerun is good for new rules including feats, prestige classes, cleric domains, etc... It however does not have much descriptive text, it refers you back to the FR Campaign Setting. The book is more of an update book for 3.5. I use it a lot but I DM a game and play in two others, all in the Realms. For the Complete series, I think Adventurer would be the one to grab out of the two you listed. I honestly thought the two complete caster books were sub-par. Complete adventurer has lots of good stuff (feats & prestige classes) where I felt that complete arcane was more reprinting of Tome and Blood. Complete Arcane also has a bunch of new "Blasting Spells" that look like evocation, sound like evocation, have evocation effects, but for some reason are conjuration spells, it kind of irks me. Lords of Darkness is a great book but as you mentioned there is a lot of information in novels about the same organizations. I would hold off on this one because "Champions of Ruin" is coming out in about 6 months and it might have the same info just more up to date. Races of Stone okay, I guess I'm just such a Forgotten Realms purist that I don't like seeing subraces that aren't FR and deities that aren't FR. I also think Goliaths are cheesy (along with Illumians and Raptorans for that matter). So, now that I've reviewed all of your choices (because I have a mental problem and feel the need to buy EVERY book) I guess I can say, I would recommend Silver Marches for great FR descriptive text. Players Guide for the Updated 3.5 rules. Or Complete Adventurer if you want something non-FR. Hope that helps. As for novels, if you want recommendations private message me or email me because I have read most of them.
Sguss 02-21-05, 09:53 AM	Of your list of nominees, I would suggest Complete Adventurer. One that isn't on your list that you might want to include if you run with Elves, would be Races of the Wild. Friend of mine just introduced me to this book this last weekend and I plan on buying it myself this week. Great source material, ideas, feats and such that are extremely helpful in fleshing out an Eleven character and their culture. My understanding is that other fey folk are included but never did get into that (yet), was just impressed on the information on Elven weapons, feats and armor specialities that helped me round out an Elven Fighter/Scout that I will be playing soon. Sam
Faraer 02-21-05, 12:31 PM	Silver Marches is the essential Realms book out of those; like everything Ed writes it tells you about far more than just the nominal subject. Lords of Darkness is a decent overview of the groups it covers. Shining South is well done, better than FR16 and Unapproachable East. Underdark has some content over DDGttU, but not overmuch.
Monsoon28 02-21-05, 12:58 PM	Of the books mentioned I'd have to say go with Shining South, but I don't have LoD or Silver Marches, so can't comment on them much, still waiting for my copy of Complete Adventurer and while I have Races of Stone, I haven't bothered to read it yet, as i'm reading other books atm. Complete Arcane was over-all useful, and I liked the addition of the Warlock base class. Underdark is alright but isn't really that useful, unless you plan alot of time in the underdark. PGtF was very helpful in updating to 3.5 but as said before all the fluff is limited to referrences to in FRCS, that or the short timeline update on recent realms events but if you read the novels you already know all the recent updates. I liked this book but not as much as Shining South...now if they'd only come out with a Vilhon Reach and Moonsea setting books!
Rapida 02-21-05, 03:02 PM	I like underdark but I'm running CotSQ. I wasn't really impressed with shining south but my campaign isnt down there at the moment. I like complete adventurer too, it really helps multiclassing characters, I can finally make me a paladin bard :D
MakesMeSick 02-21-05, 06:23 PM	The Silver Marches: the most fluff-per-square-inch in a book you'll get, plus it's FR fluff, and as someone pointed out, some of Ed's fluff, so great fluff. There's also a good amount of "new" (3rd) fluff, so if you own most of the 2nd ed stuff you'll still find very interesting stuff in there. I have found in this book more adventure hooks/ideas than any other FR book. Lords of Darkness: another good ratio of fluff-per-square-inch here, but mostly specialized fluff. The power groups are well covered, and you'll also find new (3rd ed) info, but less than what Silver Marches can give you. Also, in my case, I didn't like the treatment some of the bad guys received in terms of stats (read Larloch here...) but found the typical bad guy generic stat block very useful to incorporate a red wizard/zentharim/whathaveyou on-the-fly. Definitely go with a FR book... :ayyyy!:
Moscone 02-21-05, 11:37 PM	The DM's Screen is worth the purchase, it gives a full booklet of encounter tables, and no. appearing tables, grouped by CRs, etc. It's a nice addition to the shelf. Underdark is also a really good book, especially if you've been following War of the Spider Queen, this book is LOADED with info, stats, you name it. The info on the Lowerdark is amazing. If you don't have it, pick up Serpent Kingdoms as well. I initially bought it because it's a game product with Ed Greenwood as contributing author. It's his world, and no one knows it better than him. Upon reading through it, I found it to be another excellent book. Too bad there's no map though.
Green Giant 02-22-05, 12:00 AM	I'd go with the Silver Marches. It contains a lot of fluff but also has some crunchy stuff. I kinda wish the other regional books had followed the same format but they have a lot more nations to cover while the Silver Marches has only city-states. Lords of Darkness is excellent in covering the BBEGs of FR but only the major organizations get the best stuff while the minor ones get the short end of the stick. Shining South could be a reprint of the old one just updated to 3.5e and with some new info. It follows the same format as Unapproachable East does. Player's Guide to Faerun is probably the third book I would get from the list, after Silver Marches and Lords of Darkness. It contains a lot of crunchiness as well as an updated timeline and cosmology. Unless you plan to play a heavy campaign underground, you shouldn't get Underdark. FR DM Screen is one of the few FR products I don't have so I can't comment on it. Complete Arcane/Complete Adventurer are both great books if you want some generic PrC, feats, and spells. Of the two, Adventurer is better unless you enjoy playing arcane classes then the other one would be a good choice. Races of Stone goes into generic detail on the life of dwarves and gnomes and the new race, goliaths. Races of Faerun covered the dwarves and gnomes better than Races of Stone although the new prestige classes (finally a way to explain how King Bruenor can craft magic items) and feats can mesh well with those given in Races of Faerun. To recap: 1. Silver Marches 2. Lords of Darkness 3. Player's Guide to Faerun 4. Shining South 5. Underdark 6. Complete Adventurer 7. Complete Arcane 8. Races of Stone 9. FR DM Screen
JWSIII 02-22-05, 01:23 AM	Okay, I don't particularly like the drow (I hate chaotic races, and rarely like evil ones, either...), but I though that Underdark was one of the best available books ever produced for Forgotten Realms, it introduced one new race founded well in history, had a massive and higly tantalizing section of realmslore giving a huge amount of information on a wide area in a very enjoyable context, and it had very nice prestige classes/feats/spells well grounded in the area, highly useful, and not disbalancing. Personally, I think that while all realms material is a cut above, the Underdark sourcebook is uber-sweet. I have read and re-read this to glean every availible piece of information, and have noted at least twice that I would love an "underdark sourcebook" or "underdark 2: the other areas" or some such put out by the same team. My 2 cents and suggestion
Green Elven Vampire 02-22-05, 06:14 PM	Complete adventurer has plenty of new spells as well that can be used by all the classes. I'm actually stuck between buying Complete adventurer and complete warrior. any advice on which of these two books I should get first??
ClobberinTime 02-22-05, 08:57 PM	Personally I'm getting Complete Adventurer and LEoF, Complete adventurer appeals to me because I like to play multi-dimensional, multiclassed stand alone character types not the four bodies one mind, where everyone gets to use the thieves spot check, etc.... So the new rules for some of the skills will be perfect for me. I would not get Lords of Darkness with a new similar book coming out in august, plus there wasn't a whole lot of new non-2e stuff in it. The silver marches I thought was good the economics of the area and the army numbers were great, and the politics were pretty clear. its also covers alot of land, my only problem with it is that alot of the info is in the 'north' download. PGtF I was really dissappointed in, just a total hodgepodge patch, I wish I'd have bought an old copy of MoF instead.
Green Giant 02-23-05, 04:07 PM	Complete adventurer has plenty of new spells as well that can be used by all the classes. I'm actually stuck between buying Complete adventurer and complete warrior. any advice on which of these two books I should get first?? I'd choose Complete Adventurer over Complete Warrior. It seems to be the best of the Complete series so far. Complete Warrior has a number of feats that are very useful to fighters as well as a number of prestige classes that are good for combat but not that much can be used with other classes like Complete Adventurer has.
Rimm 02-24-05, 04:52 AM	I'm going to jump in and go with the common consensus on this one- Either Silver Marches or Complete Adventurer. If you run a lot of FR games (And you should) then Silver Marches is the perfect book for a different-to-the-norm campaign setting. It's got uber-fluff, and some pretty neat adventures too for those days when you just can't be arsed to campaign. Complete Adventurer is a must-have accompaniment to the PH, especially if you intend on allowing prestige classes. The sheer diversity of the prestige classes, the background on organisations, and the new improved tools, spells, weapons, and Feats are well worth the money.
HomebrewedMonster 02-24-05, 05:19 AM	Silver Marches: A good book, but its still 3e and a soft cover. The information contained is decent and is useful for anyone wanting to run a campaign up in the Silver Marches. A little lacking on developing actual game play mechanics (PrC's, new spells, ect.), but the fluff contained within is a good read. Lords of Darkness: Has a lot of useful stuff if you love using the evil organizations that are in the world of Toril. Its a great book if you have a love to string together stories between the great evils that lurk in the shadows (or open). Its also a good read if your a player, let's you know a little more about what you might be up against. Sure it might leave to metagaming, but a harper is going to know more about the ins and outs of the Zents then you probably do. Shining South: Great book, the fluff makes you want to run a campaign in the huge mountain valley. Some great new spells, magic items, and a surface drow empire. The cover art by Sam Wood, which is beautiful, is just as good as what is inside. Players Guide to Faerun: It has useful conversions and regions and starting equipment broken down for each race (even gensai). Also has a revamp of the Toril Cosmology which is useful. Underdark: An ok book, it is not a drow book. It goes into the major cities and races that roam the upper, middle, and lower dark. From drow, to ithillids, to the horrors that roam the deep of the lower dark. FR DM screen: Umm...meh. A DM screen is a DM screen. Complete Arcane/Complete Adventurer: Adventurer in my opinion is a need all book for anyone. It has some great new PrC's, feats, and spells. Although if you love arcane, complete arcane is amazing for the new spells. Races of Stone Its a good book, I was a little disappointed with all the races books, but this was rather good. Gives a decent general background of dwarves and gnomes. If the book would not have had Goliaths, it would be an A book, instead of a B-.