Post by Reno on Jul 14, 2008 20:13:36 GMT -5
I was talking to Kain on the phone a bit ago, and I said I'd post a list of 3.5 books that I find useful and worth having a copy of, and ones that I think are garbage and shouldn't be bothered with. If anyone else wants to add to the list, or agree or disagree with me, feel free.
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Books to own
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Complete Warrior
This is one of the earliest 3.5 books, sort of a Sword & Fist of 3.5. It has three new base classes: Hexblade, Samurai, and Swashbuckler. Also a boatload of feats and prestige classes, a few spells, weapons, and magic items. There are some rules for jousts, archery contests, gladiatorial matches, and other types of combat, as well as some fighting-based organizations. Most of the fluff is minimally useful at best, but it's still a very good book all around.
Complete Arcane
If Complete Warrior was Sword & Fist updated to 3.5, then this is Tome & Blood's update. New base classes include Warlock, Warmage, and Wu Jen. Lots of new prestige classes, feats, and spells all for the arcane caster. There are also magic items and a few new monsters as well.
Complete Divine
You guessed it... the update of Defenders of the Faith. There still aren't really good prestige classes for clerics or paladins (at least in my opinion), but there are a bunch of new prestige classes in here just the same. Also three new base classes: Favored Soul, Shugenja, and Spirit Shaman. New divine spells and domains, magic items (including a new type called relics), and a section on gods and organized religion in D&D. Not quite as good as Complete Warrior or Arcane in my opinion, but worth owning nonetheless.
Complete Adventurer
Sort of Masters of the Wild for 3.5. New base classes are scout, ninja, and spellthief. Updates for a few Song & Silence prestige classes and a bunch of new ones. New feats, new options for skills, new tools and equipment, a few new spells, and some more organizations. Probably my second favorite of the Complete series after Complete Warrior.
Complete Mage
They might as well have called this one Complete Arcane 2. No new base classes, but there are some prestige classes I've never looked at. Also, they have some alternative class features for classes printed in previous books, that they can gain at a certain level in place of another ability. Lots of new spells, a fair amount of new feats, new magic items, and a lot of useless fluff and nonsense about arcane archetypes they made up to make the book bigger. Nowhere near as good as the books I've mentioned so far, but it can still be useful to give more options to your casters.
Player's Handbook 2
This book is pretty interesting, though I don't actually have even a computer copy of it. There are some new base classes: Knight, Beguiler, Duskblade, and Dragon Shaman, if memory serves. I don't think there are prestige classes, but there are feats. Lots of alternative class features for many of the classes in the 3.5 Player's Handbook. Also, there are rules for retraining your character to replace feats or skill ranks that you don't want anymore, so that you aren't stuck with a bad choice you might have made at lower levels. Not sure what else is in the book, but for that alone it's worth a look.
Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords
This book seems to have been an attempt to make melee characters more fun to play, instead of just rolling attack rolls while casters have all the fun. There are three base classes in here called Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade. They have access to abilities called Maneuvers and Stances. A Maneuver is kind of like a spell, except that each class gets their prepared maneuvers back a certain way, and they don't have to prepare them for an hour like most spellcasters do. Stances, on the other hand, grant one constant ability, which you can change to another on your turn. My character in the Candyland game has a couple of levels in Crusader, and you've seen how that plays out.
Stormwrack
This is part of a series dedicated specifically to certain environments. Stormwrack focuses on the sea, and so becomes an invaluable tool for sea-based campaigns. New class options for the PHB base classes, and some new prestige classes as well, including two favorites of mine called Scarlet Corsair and Stormcaster. There are some new feats as well, monsters specific to the seas, new spells and magic items, new races that live in or around the seas, and equipment and ships as well.
Magic Item Compendium
As the title implies, it's a book dedicated almost exclusively to magic items. There are more than 200 pages of new items of all types, followed by a section explaining magic item rules, crafting rules, and some other item-related stuff. I haven't browsed the book extensively, but it seems to be a collection of various items that appeared in other books, and to have stuff that ranges from very low-powered to pretty good.
Spell Compendium
A big book full of spells, collected from all sorts of other books into one place. 240 pages of spell descriptions, followed by spell lists for various caster classes, and an appendix for domain lists. I haven't used this one too much yet, but it's nice to have spells from all sorts of places, including all the books listed above, collected into one place.
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That's it for my list of must-haves, unless I think of some more later.
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Books to own
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Complete Warrior
This is one of the earliest 3.5 books, sort of a Sword & Fist of 3.5. It has three new base classes: Hexblade, Samurai, and Swashbuckler. Also a boatload of feats and prestige classes, a few spells, weapons, and magic items. There are some rules for jousts, archery contests, gladiatorial matches, and other types of combat, as well as some fighting-based organizations. Most of the fluff is minimally useful at best, but it's still a very good book all around.
Complete Arcane
If Complete Warrior was Sword & Fist updated to 3.5, then this is Tome & Blood's update. New base classes include Warlock, Warmage, and Wu Jen. Lots of new prestige classes, feats, and spells all for the arcane caster. There are also magic items and a few new monsters as well.
Complete Divine
You guessed it... the update of Defenders of the Faith. There still aren't really good prestige classes for clerics or paladins (at least in my opinion), but there are a bunch of new prestige classes in here just the same. Also three new base classes: Favored Soul, Shugenja, and Spirit Shaman. New divine spells and domains, magic items (including a new type called relics), and a section on gods and organized religion in D&D. Not quite as good as Complete Warrior or Arcane in my opinion, but worth owning nonetheless.
Complete Adventurer
Sort of Masters of the Wild for 3.5. New base classes are scout, ninja, and spellthief. Updates for a few Song & Silence prestige classes and a bunch of new ones. New feats, new options for skills, new tools and equipment, a few new spells, and some more organizations. Probably my second favorite of the Complete series after Complete Warrior.
Complete Mage
They might as well have called this one Complete Arcane 2. No new base classes, but there are some prestige classes I've never looked at. Also, they have some alternative class features for classes printed in previous books, that they can gain at a certain level in place of another ability. Lots of new spells, a fair amount of new feats, new magic items, and a lot of useless fluff and nonsense about arcane archetypes they made up to make the book bigger. Nowhere near as good as the books I've mentioned so far, but it can still be useful to give more options to your casters.
Player's Handbook 2
This book is pretty interesting, though I don't actually have even a computer copy of it. There are some new base classes: Knight, Beguiler, Duskblade, and Dragon Shaman, if memory serves. I don't think there are prestige classes, but there are feats. Lots of alternative class features for many of the classes in the 3.5 Player's Handbook. Also, there are rules for retraining your character to replace feats or skill ranks that you don't want anymore, so that you aren't stuck with a bad choice you might have made at lower levels. Not sure what else is in the book, but for that alone it's worth a look.
Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords
This book seems to have been an attempt to make melee characters more fun to play, instead of just rolling attack rolls while casters have all the fun. There are three base classes in here called Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade. They have access to abilities called Maneuvers and Stances. A Maneuver is kind of like a spell, except that each class gets their prepared maneuvers back a certain way, and they don't have to prepare them for an hour like most spellcasters do. Stances, on the other hand, grant one constant ability, which you can change to another on your turn. My character in the Candyland game has a couple of levels in Crusader, and you've seen how that plays out.
Stormwrack
This is part of a series dedicated specifically to certain environments. Stormwrack focuses on the sea, and so becomes an invaluable tool for sea-based campaigns. New class options for the PHB base classes, and some new prestige classes as well, including two favorites of mine called Scarlet Corsair and Stormcaster. There are some new feats as well, monsters specific to the seas, new spells and magic items, new races that live in or around the seas, and equipment and ships as well.
Magic Item Compendium
As the title implies, it's a book dedicated almost exclusively to magic items. There are more than 200 pages of new items of all types, followed by a section explaining magic item rules, crafting rules, and some other item-related stuff. I haven't browsed the book extensively, but it seems to be a collection of various items that appeared in other books, and to have stuff that ranges from very low-powered to pretty good.
Spell Compendium
A big book full of spells, collected from all sorts of other books into one place. 240 pages of spell descriptions, followed by spell lists for various caster classes, and an appendix for domain lists. I haven't used this one too much yet, but it's nice to have spells from all sorts of places, including all the books listed above, collected into one place.
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That's it for my list of must-haves, unless I think of some more later.
