Post/Author/DateTime	Post
b5201 12-30-05, 10:56 PM	I only have 60 dollars left from christmas and need books to buy. I already have dmg II and the phb for me and my players. Any ideas are appreciated.
potlessrainbows 12-30-05, 10:57 PM	the monster manual if you dont already have it books of exalted deeds and book of vile darkness are also good buys
AlphaSquirell 12-30-05, 11:03 PM	We have the core rulebooks (Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide) Outside of those, I'd suggest to get the complete series, starting with the one your group would use most. (Complete Arcane, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior, and Complete Adventurer, each being an excellent expansion for those branches) Ghostwalk is a neat read if your PCs are likely to die, like ghosts, and want a constant setting. (same city over and over as opposed to random villages) Other than that is up for grabs. Along the lines of Book of Exalted Deeds and Book of Vile Darkness, I don't have either, but I gather that these are campaign-killers if the PCs get ahold of it. (in other words, for the DM's eyes ONLY)
jagggar 12-30-05, 11:05 PM	I've got a similar problem. My mom's promised to buy me any one book (as she wouldn't be the best at picking one out). I've narrowed it down to DMG 3.5, the XPH, or the Spell Compendium, but don't know which yet.
ramzafft1 12-30-05, 11:08 PM	I've got a similar problem. My mom's promised to buy me any one book (as she wouldn't be the best at picking one out). I've narrowed it down to DMG 3.5, the XPH, or the Spell Compendium, but don't know which yet. If you're a DM, the DMG. It's sort of essential. If not, get the Spell Compendium. It's got loads of spells to make life a blast!
potlessrainbows 12-30-05, 11:08 PM	Along the lines of Book of Exalted Deeds and Book of Vile Darkness, I don't have either, but I gather that these are campaign-killers if the PCs get ahold of it. (in other words, for the DM's eyes ONLY) This really depends on the player they use both books... the book of exalted deeds in my good epic game and the book of vile darkness in my evil slightly newer game its been going very well... BTW they found the actual artifact in the epic game so it made it really cool when we got the book
revnk 12-30-05, 11:14 PM	Monster volumes are always good for a DM to have. While it's true that the Monster Manual has more monsters than you'll ever use, throwing in creatures from MM2, MM3 and the Fiend Folio can keep players on their toes--especially veterans who think they have the MM memorized. Plus, variety is the spice of life. And, unlike almost every other volume I can think of, the monster volumes have universal applicability: Stormwrack may be great for a naval campaign, but MM2 will be useful whether your players are stuck in a desert, at the top of a mountain, or inside a small cardboard box over there in the corner. If you're going to use undead a bit, I strongly recommend Libris Mortis. If you're going to use aberrations, Lords Of Madness. They're two of the best purchases I've made. Both provide a lot of bang for the buck, but then again I tend to veer towards the horror-themed: if you're not planning on running adventures with aberrations or undead, you probably won't find either book as useful. (Speaking of horror: I don't dislike Heroes Of Horror, but also wouldn't recommend it unless you (a)want to run a horror campaign and (b)have no clue where to start--if you've run things like Call Of Cthulhu or Chill before, you're not likely to see much in HoH you didn't already know.) Dragon fans seem to like the Dragonomicon--I don't have it because I don't do much with dragons, but can tell you I've heard good word-of-mouth. I would probably stay away from Book Of Exalted Deeds and Book Of Vile Darkness unless you know you're going to use them for something: in the short time I've been haunting these boards, I've seen more fights over these two books than any others. I think it's reasonable to say that these books are divisive and of dubious value, but many DMs feel they can be mined for nuggets here and there. (Full disclosure: I use a few BoVD rules like vile damage for the occasional horror effects, and do not own BoED.) You didn't mention the original DMG: I'm assuming you have a copy. If not, get one. The SRD really only gets you so far. The environment books are decent if you're going to use those environments. I'm not a fan of any of the Complete books, but I'm sure you'll get several responses explaining why they rock/suck. There's also a lot of division over psionics: if you're going to use them, though, you'll need the Expanded Psionics Handbook. I like Heroes Of Battle, but it's usefulness (again!) depends on the kind of campaign you run. Good luck, and happy spending!
AlphaSquirell 12-30-05, 11:17 PM	This really depends on the player they use both books... the book of exalted deeds in my good epic game and the book of vile darkness in my evil slightly newer game its been going very well... BTW they found the actual artifact in the epic game so it made it really cool when we got the book Well then, seems you have a good group. Congrats! Anways, if you don't have the DM guide or have access to one, get it! It's awesome!
b5201 12-30-05, 11:23 PM	From the books you said I think Dragonomicon, Libris Mortis and Heroes Of Battle. Dragonomicon Because my 1 player is obsessed with dragons and wants to be a dragon diciple. Libris Mortis and Heroes Of Battle be cause my players are a druid and a paladin, they both hate undead so they might face an undead army. Thank you for your suggestions.
potlessrainbows 12-30-05, 11:26 PM	so do you have the DMG?? you really will need one. i use mine so much i have put little tabs on the pages so i can find certain things faster :twitch:
b5201 12-31-05, 01:18 AM	Are there any good premade adventures?
Korhal_IV 12-31-05, 01:29 AM	Are there any good premade adventures? 3.0 has the Sunless Citadel adventure path - you can alter that slightly to fit 3.5 (though you may want to rework enemy spellcaster tactics based on the fact that Haste has changed drastically). For 3.5, the only adventure path is the Eberron-specific one. Buy the Eberron Campaign Setting; the first adventure is already in the back. The second is Shadows of the Last War (iirc), then Whispers of the Vampire's Blade and Grasp of the Emerald Claw. I highly recommend Eberron - without it, I'd've left D&D. Pick up the ECS and read through. I guarantee it'll grab you (and you can get *excellent* support on these forums, especially with the creator browsing the forums!). Other than that, you may want to buy Dungeon magazine and flip through for suitable adventures, or purchase third-party modules you can find in your local game store. edit: In February, I think, the Red Hand of Doom adventure path is going to be released. It should cover a moderate number of levels.
Board_Rider 12-31-05, 01:35 AM	DMG if you don't have it and maybe a campaign sourcebook like Eberron or Forgotten Realms for ideas. A good pre-made is Sons of Gruumsh. However there are free ones on this site under "Downloads". Remember to use Amazon if possible so you can get two books for around 40-45 bucks.
Edymnion 12-31-05, 01:51 AM	Okay, rule #1, you must have the core rulebooks. Thats the PHB, MM, and DMG. Not the DMG2, or the MM II/III/Whatever. The originals. Must have, don't play without them. Next stop, IMO, is what should have been Core Rulebook IV, the XPH. Its the most balanced, well thought out, and playable version of Psionics ever created, and for the first time in the game's history, I can honestly say "it works". Not in part, but across the board, Psionics have finally matured into a full fledged system that should be put into the core rules. Outside of that, it depends on what kind of gameplay you like. If you as the DM don't have the time or energy to create your own world, you should get a campaign setting, like Eberron or Faerun. Eberron is more gritty and dark, Faerun is more traditional high fantasy. I personally prefer Eberron, but thats just me. If you are a do-it-yourself'er, then probably one of the Complete books. IMO, Complete Adventurer is the best of the bunch, with some of the others (like Complete Divine) being rather sub-par. Avoid the Races of XXXX books like the plague. Especially Races of Destiny. Honestly, I'd leave the monster type books (like Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness) and the environmental books (Sandstorm, Frostburn, Stormwrack) alone until you've got other, more basic books. Get all the generic info you need before you get the specifics. Spell Compendium would be a great choice if you've got spellcasters in your group, although I hear it has some mistakes in it (dunno, I'm waiting on my FLGS to get more in, they sold out immediatly). Its got spells from all the books, Dragon, and its supposed to be a good all around utility book. AFTER you've got some of those, then you can start looking into the more specific books. The Draconomicon is, simply put, one of the best books WotC has ever written, and it makes the other monster type books pale in comparison. The guys that wrote this one really outdid themselves, it's superb. Heroes of Horror is good, if you want to play a darker, scarier type game. Most of it is teaching you how to run a horror game, but its got some great crunch in it too (the Archivist and Dread Necromancer classes are things the game has needed for ages). Stay away from the Book of Exalted/Vile Deeds. BoED paints more of a Lawful Stupid picture than it does good, and has got one of the worst feats WotC ever published in it (Vow of Poverty). BoVD isn't really vile, it really isn't evil, its just sort of gross. You could think up better evil stuff for the game after watching a few horror movies than you would get out of this book. Mostly, try to get the basic, generic, widest "cover your bases" books as you can find first, and get a good solid base to stand on before you start reaching out for the specific stuff.
Dire Hamster 12-31-05, 05:10 AM	I only have 60 dollars left from christmas and need books to buy. I already have dmg II and the phb for me and my players. Any ideas are appreciated. I'm assuming you already have the bare minimum you'll need to play D&D: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, & Monster Manual. Assuming you have the basics and are asking what to buy next...two words: UNEARTHED ARCANA! It's a sweet book with more variations and extra goodies than you can shake a stick at. Like the book says in it's intro: "Get ready to drink from the fire hose!" Also, if you don't want to spend a lot of time world-building and instead want to dive right in, get the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting...it's way better than Eberron which is, in my opinion, weak. I've heard Dragonlance is ok, but I haven't spent much time looking at it.
misi 12-31-05, 06:57 AM	If you don't have the core rulebooks, I would highly recomment you to get those. I have been playing for some years now, and then also use monster manual one and two. My players and I use the Complete books very often, so I would recommend those after the core books. When it comes to premade adventures, I would recomment those on the wizards' site. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b I have used some of them, and am quite happy with them...
revnk 12-31-05, 12:48 PM	I'm assuming you already have the bare minimum you'll need to play D&D: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, & Monster Manual. Assuming you have the basics and are asking what to buy next...two words: UNEARTHED ARCANA! It's a sweet book with more variations and extra goodies than you can shake a stick at. Like the book says in it's intro: "Get ready to drink from the fire hose!" Also, if you don't want to spend a lot of time world-building and instead want to dive right in, get the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting...it's way better than Eberron which is, in my opinion, weak. I've heard Dragonlance is ok, but I haven't spent much time looking at it. Unearthed Arcana is great, but I wouldn't recommend it for a fairly new DM: it is the firehose, and unless you're already pretty comfortable with water you're liable to blast your face off with it (which is why I didn't mention it at all in my earlier post). Master swimming, boating, skiing, doing the naked shimmy in the spray of the open hydrant on the corner, and then get the UA. If you're new at DMing, you have enought to get a grip on before you can seriously weigh replacing armor AC with class-based AC, introducing Taint, or the pros and cons opening the gestalt-character floodgate. Something that I should have been explicit on in my earlier post: the core books should come first. My response was based on the assumption a DM has them already; if he or she doesn't, get those before you get anything to expand your gaming with. Finally, something I implied but probably should have specified: know what kind of game you're going to run and shop based on that. If you're planning on running a frozen, ice age world, you would be dumb not to make Frostburn your first non-core purchase. Conversely, if you're planning on running a temperate-climed, forest-themed campaign (or nothing but traditional underground dungeons, for that matter), you might never need to even look at the cover of Frostburn. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Libris Mortis and Lords Of Madness because I'm an old Call Of Cthulhu ref who has to fight the urge to turn even the most vanilla "escort the caravan" or "investigate the cave" adventure into some kind of survival-horror-oh-look-there-are-zombies-led-by-an-aboleth-dominated-mad-priest-etc. goopfest. If you're running a more traditional swords'n'sorcery game, you probably can buy those books later or not at all. b5201, it sounds like you have good reasons to get the Draconomicon and Libris Mortis if you already have the core books. Although I recommended Heroes Of Battle, it may be one to hold off on. I was going to write "you should thumb through it before you buy it," but that's true of any book you are considering buying. Look at the book before you buy it, and see if it has what you need. Again, good luck.
b5201 12-31-05, 01:29 PM	:thinks: :doh: I feal really stupid I misread the cover, at the bottom it says core rulebook 2 so I thought I had dmg2.
StevenO 12-31-05, 03:50 PM	Are there any good premade adventures? The Shackled City is available in hardback from Piazo.com. It is an updated collection of related adventures that were originally published as the first Adventure Path in Dungeon Magazine. The PCs start at 1st level in a city on an extinct volcano and end up a 20th level fighting a would be god. I don't have this product (I have all the magazines that make up the adventure) but have read good things about it. A straight subscription to Dungeon is also a good source for adventures. Each month brings three new adventures to choose from that will fit what you want to play.
ramzafft1 12-31-05, 04:31 PM	:thinks: :doh: I feal really stupid I misread the cover, at the bottom it says core rulebook 2 so I thought I had dmg2. I think I'll now assume you DON'T have the Monster Manual. GET IT!!! Also, aside from that, I recommend one of the "Colmplete Books" especially Complete Adventurer. It helps you plan out scenarios aside from combat, and has some great classes for your PCs to use. :D
Anathema 12-31-05, 06:37 PM	First Priority: The three "core" books. PHB, DMG, MM1 Second Priority: The "shoulda been core" books. DMG2, MM3, MM2, XPH(psionics 3.5) .. in that order IMO. Third Priority: The "expanded core" books. Complete warrior/arcane/divine/adventurer, Manual of the Planes, Planar Handbook, or the 'environment' books of stormwrack, sandstorm, etc. Fourth Priority: The "enemy detail books for DM's". Libris Mortis (great book!), Draconomicon, Lords of Madness. Fifth Priority: Anything else. One caveat is that if you are playing in a specific campaign, you should add the book of the region you are playing in to 2nd priority. Oriental Adventures, Unapproachable East, Waterdeep, Ravenloft source, FRCS, whatever. This all depends on if your characters are going to be in a place that is covered by a book. Definately 2nd priority. After DMG2 of course. That is REALLY what should be added to the core, above all else. If you want a straightforward answer; get the DMG2, MM3, and a DM detail book (such as for environments, places, or monsters). In that order.
TinManFan 12-31-05, 07:07 PM	As said, the DMG MM and PHB. Also, a spare PHB isn't a bad thing if you play with some newer people just getting into it. (Altho it's cheaper to buy an index card and put the addy for the SRD on it) After that Draconomicon, XPH, Planer Handbook, Libris Mortis and Lords of Madness. They're good reads, even if you never use the stuff in them. (OK, Lords of Madness has 3 good reading chapters, the rest is bleagh) Next Races of XXX and Complete XXX. I'd like to know why the best Psionic feat in the game is not in the XPH (The races of stone one where you can always take 10 on a focus check). Also, they're good and gove some nice fluff on the races. Also lotsa race speciffic PrCs. As for the complete series, lotsa options. Maybe a few too many, but nice to have. Then and only then should you blow the money on Campaign settings. OA, good read, kinda useless if there's not an "Oriental" part to your world. FRCS, despite everything in it being re-written 9 times over, nice beefy book. Ebberron, not my cup of tea, but it has the Artificer and that alone is worth the purchase. Dragonlance is another good read, but not enough stuff has been written (Altho the Age of Mortals Warmage PrC makes that forgivable). Also, take a look at the Scarred Lands stuff. Nice flavor, despite it being Non-Core and 3.0. That being said, good stuff to pick up would be the FRCS Underdark book. Good enough that it could work in any campaign. Also its Serpent Kingdoms book is good if you like Yuan-Ti.
Lord Ian Stark 12-31-05, 09:19 PM	First book outside of the core would be the Expanded Psionics handbook. Great book and adds a lot to the core game. Complete Warrior is great as it can basically be used no matter what class you want as there are great feats in it. The PrC's are nice too. As far as other books, Draconomican and Libris Mortis are really good. Also the MM2 and the MM3. The Races of Stone is IMO, the better of all the Races books. However there is a new one coming out called Races of Dragons which may be cool.
smoker 12-31-05, 10:32 PM	If you buy from amazon or nobleknight (you'll get more for your money), I suggest: Ghostwalk (awesome book) Buffy Revised RPG (my fav game at the moment) Iron Heroes (if you like tactial combat) or Arcana Evolved (if you like spellcasters) smoker
sdragon1984 12-31-05, 11:29 PM	all id suggest is the core books and a campaign setting (ive got eberron). if you want, get more campaign settings and mix-n-match the good bits from each of em, then grab various other books, depending on how you want your campaign to go. you dont wanna buy books filled with tons more spells if you want a light-magic campaign, and BOED isnt exactly the most-used book in more horror-based campaigns.........
yellowdingo 01-01-06, 07:29 AM	Now would be opportune time to seek out second hand book store and search for some history books for campaign development.
DmMagnus 01-01-06, 09:08 AM	Try to get the core books if you don`t have all of them.. Liberis mortis is really cool if you like undeads!
the burrfoot 01-01-06, 11:41 AM	My favourite books are the little cheap ones which specialize in things. Like masters of the wild, tome and blood, defenders of the faith, song and silence, sword and fist they are so good and at only £8 a piece are well worth it plus most of the stuff from the complete series are in these, the dragon diciple is in tome and blood for your friend. There are some tasty tidbits in defenders of the faith for fighting undead (your cleric) and in masters of the wild it has some amazing druid things including how to summon a thunderstorm :) Exalted deeds is good and covers some nice issues on goodness nice evil fightin spells they are amazing (sanctified excellent) the prestige classes are useful and the dm can make some wonderfully colourful NPC's and an extensive look on how heaven organizes itself and nice good monsters. :)