What are everyone's favorites?
The only stuff I have thus far is :
the Campaign setting
Players Guide to Faerun
Magic of Faerun
Serpent Kingdoms
Faiths & Pantheons
The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
A Grand History of the Realms
Lost Empires of Faerûn
Races of Faerûn
Underdark
-I don't have ten favorites. That list encapsulates my favorite 3e Forgotten Realms books. The rest, either I don't like them too much, or am mildly neutral about.
I'm going to try and cull a list and then narrow it down to one maybe two books becuase of financial limitations
A Grand History of the Realms: A must-have.
Lost Empires of Faerûn/Underdark: Both are very good. I'd recommend either/or, depending on your own personal tastes.
Silver Marches
Lords of Darkness
Races of Faerun
Magic of Faerun
Grand Histroy
Faiths & Panthenons
Dragons of Faerun
Powers of Faerun
Underdark
The Campaign Book
If it didn't have the logo, it wasn't FR... and shouldn't be purchased. ;)
That rule STILL stands...
Anything with the FR logo on it.
If it didn't have the logo, it wasn't FR... and shouldn't be purchased. ;)
That rule STILL stands...
-You of all people know that plenty of Forgotten Realms relevant (and even important!) stuff can be found in products without the Forgotten Realms logo.
Besides, I'm trying to make a point here - if it doesn't have a logo, its not FR. ;)
I'm just sitting back and waiting to see if the 4e Eberron books have a logo on them.
-Unapproachable East; ecclectic, comprehensive, relevant
-Underdark; way overdue. 1/2 the exploration/mechanical fare should've been in the DMG/PHB (Spotting Distant Light?)
-Silver Marches; per regional books on a budget, best money's worth
I would say The Old Grey Box, Dreams of the Red Wizards,....
-Underdark; way overdue. 1/2 the exploration/mechanical fare should've been in the DMG/PHB (Spotting Distant Light?)
-Underdark was very mechanically oriented, I agree, but, for all of that, there is just so much lore, to counter the scale! I mean, Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark was a pretty good book, one of (I think) the best 2e sourcebooks, but Underdark (in half the book) still gives it a good run for it's money as being the best Underdark source- it might even be better!
Powers of Faerun
Races of Faerun
Faiths and Pantheons
Silver Marches
Underdark
Other regional books exist, and if you have the $$ to get them great, but I think there are alot of other Core books out there that are really good and should get them as well, heres what I suggest:
Complete Mage
Complete Champion
Player's Handbook 2
Tome of Battle: Book of 9 Swords
Spell Compendium
I don't know if you have any of these, but they are worth their weight for character advancement and options.
1. Silver Marches: This helped me run my Nesme game and had
nice info on the region.
2. Underdark This was just a nice book that can help anyone
with their Underdark adventures no matter what setting you play in.
3. Faiths and Pantheons This has lots of info on many gods. It
can be useful to people playing any edition and even other settings
if you feel like importing some of the FR gods into another setting.
These were 3 of the best books I think 3E produced. I did enjoy Serpant kingdoms as well.
3. Faiths and Pantheons This has lots of info on many gods. It
can be useful to people playing any edition and even other settings
if you feel like importing some of the FR gods into another setting.
.
The 2e trilogy of god books were better though.
-Underdark was very mechanically oriented, I agree, but, for all of that, there is just so much lore, to counter the scale! I mean, Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark was a pretty good book, one of (I think) the best 2e sourcebooks, but Underdark (in half the book) still gives it a good run for it's money as being the best Underdark source- it might even be better!
Hmm, food for thought.
1. Unapproachable East - I loved this book because I love Thay, Aglarond and pretty much everything in that corner of the world. The Races were very cool and unique (something that's hard to get in 3E in general) and the PrCs looked like a lot of fun .
2. Silver Marches - I enjoyed this book because, honestly, I love adventuring up there, as do my players. It has a more traditional fantasy feel than the east, which is always good as a contrast. Though I know many of the FR people dislike Drizzt, I enjoy reading the books, so I feel connected with this part of the world
3. Mysteries of the Moonsea - I've pilfered so many adventure ideas from this book, it deserves a mention
Lost Empires of Faerun (probably one of the best books out for 3e imho)
Power of Faerun (again, one of the best, but more suited to a DM than a player)
Champions of Valor (while a bit underwhelming at first blush, I've found tons of little bits of lore hidden away here and there to mine)
Faiths and Pantheons (not nearly as good as its 2e counterparts though, I'd go with the .pdf's of those personally over this one)
I'd mention BRJ's work, but its a given, so...
The 2e trilogy of god books were better though.
The thread topic is 3E books.
The thread topic is 3E books.
in that case FRCS, Champions of Ruin, Silver Marches, Lords of Darkness, Serpent Kingdoms, Underdark, Shinning South, The East book, Lost Empires of Faerun, Dragon of Faerun. That would be my list. Flame away people. ;)Dark and Empty, what about it? ;)
Dark and Empty....:P
I thought Champions of Valor blew chunks, but I still bought it. :D
-So did I, so...Though, like I said, I found it somewhat better than Champions of Valor, and overall, just a little below what I would have expected/wanted.
The thread topic is 3E books.
I know, I was just sayin' is all
- Unapproachable East - useful material on a rare but exotic locale, great bits of nearly everything.
- Magic of Faerun - great for information on the setting and spells/items. Most of the latter were reprinted in the spell/magic item compendium, btw.
- Silver Marches - I've had a campaign there and the book was great. The Peerless Archer PrC deserves special mention here.
- Shining South - it may be because I am interested in the region, but I would recommend it;
- Underdark - interesting region, useful mechanical rules, more information on villains you will probably meet later on, why not?
- Lost empires of Faerun - a treasure trove of information and possible campaign links. The history of the Realms is their main attraction imo, and this book allows you to add more of that. I would have preferred more, but it wasn't exactly a small book anyway.
- Dragons of Faerun: there's nothing more evocative of high fantasy than a dragon, and having unique dragons can make them that much more interesting for the players to deal with.
- Serpent kingdoms: I'm not such a great fan of this book, but information on the yuan-ti and the rest of the serpentkind is always useful. They have the potential of being great villains.
Races/power of would probably go into a hypothetical 10, I guess.
I liked the Champions of Valor cause it was the first book with Realmsified mechanics
then Power of Faerun
Silver Marches was decent, the quality of writing, wish it had more pages
Waterdeep
---------------
Serpent Kingdoms was a nice idea (and it should have continued with Sylvan Kingdoms etc.), again the lack of fluff on yuan-ti groups, Hlondeth should get better attention ...
Grand History was bland, mostly timelines that you already have, I like the internet version more, it needed extra 200 pages
Shining South was mostly old Shining South rewritten, probably that's why the blew Halruaa, not much was happening there
Magic of Faerun, wish it gone into different magical traditions
Lost empires of Faerun, too broad subject
Faiths and Pantheons, to me it's useless, except gods had history/relationship
part
Unapproachable East, the same, worse version of Spellbound
Champions of Ruin, the worst 3e book (not counting adventures, particularly Anauroch)
Shining South was mostly old Shining South rewritten, probably that's why the blew Halruaa, not much was happening there
Which meant it wasn't inundated with the details that a lot of people were complaining about...
Meh. The South was a different region, which is why I found it interesting.
"The South was a different region..."
:P
9. Champions of Ruin: Some good information, but too much time wasted on the statblocks of opponents most PC's were never likely to fight.
8. Shining South: This book lacked detailed information on things that needed the most detail. I thought that perhaps they could have done a better job with Durpar, Estagund, and Var the Golden.
7. Faiths and Pantheons: This book could have been better than it was. I don't like going back to 2E lore to find out what the major holidays of the faith are and what rituals PC's are supposed to perform on those days. This also possesses the most useless web enhancement of any FR supplement ever.
6. Underdark: This had a lot of good information, but also a lot of useless information. Has anyone ever played a gloaming? Will anyone EVER play a gloaming? My game has had 2. I'm a little in awe of that, really. There wasn't really a lot of good things for players to do, here, and the lack of really good fold out maps made this supplement suck more than it should.
5. Unapproachable East: There was a little too much focus on things that I really didn't need, and there wasn't enough lore, but the truth is, the culture of the Witches has never really been sufficiently explained, and now, likely, it never will be.
4. Waterdeep: It was a nice update, but I would have liked to see a better job done here. This supplement should have recycled ALL the old information, given us a new map with all the new details, etc. I think people would have paid fifty or sixty dollars for a hardcover that really did this city justice, and it wasn't done right. I still look at the old Volos guides and the 2e stuff, but this was just an update with some new NPCs. A better job could have been done. The only reason this even makes it into the #4 position is the love I have for the City of Splendors.
3. Champions of Valor: Of all the sourcebooks that have a lot of crunch, this one's my favorite. Military orders, a few prestige classes, a whole bunch of class substitutions, and additional historical information that fleshed out the world and didn't suck. Fantastic. When the crunch is blended with the fluff, like this book or my #1 choice, and it FEELS good and makes sense, that's when you'll get the most win out of it.
2. Grand History of the Realms: An excellent sourcebook of lore and plot hooks. With this book alone, you never need to switch to 4th edition.
1. Power of Faerun: This is my favorite. It contains so much useful cultural information about leadership in the Realms, how nations, societies, and organizations work. It's unique among all the books in that no matter what edition of the game you play, or what game system you use, it still has a certain amount of applicability.
Underdark
Silver Marches
City of the Spider Queen (in spite of errors)
Races of Faerun
PGtF
Lords of Darkness