Dungeons and Dragons

[Vexarian]

Simply put, a group of friends of mine will probably be starting our first Dungeons and Dragons campaign ever in the near future. Collectively we have just a little more then no experience whatsoever with the game and I figured getting some advice may be prudent.

In preparation for this I have downloaded every 3.5e DnD book I possibly could. Which totals to just under 140 in total.

I've isolated what seems to be the core, most necessary books. The Dungeon Master's Guide, the Player's Handbook, Monster Manuals, various compendiums (Rules, Magical Items, Spells), and Arms and Equipment. But I'm wondering what else would be worth looking into. Where might I find more exotic races for example? Or classes?

I could also use more generic advice if you have any to offer.

 

[Aegis]

Simply put, a group of friends of mine will probably be starting our first Dungeons and Dragons campaign ever in the near future. Collectively we have just a little more then no experience whatsoever with the game and I figured getting some advice may be prudent.

In preparation for this I have downloaded every 3.5e DnD book I possibly could. Which totals to just under 140 in total.

I've isolated what seems to be the core, most necessary books. The Dungeon Master's Guide, the Player's Handbook, Monster Manuals, various compendiums (Rules, Magical Items, Spells), and Arms and Equipment. But I'm wondering what else would be worth looking into. Where might I find more exotic races for example? Or classes?

I could also use more generic advice if you have any to offer.

I advise you look into the Eberron and Faerun books(look for Faiths of Faerun if you wanna find one of the best prestige classes for druids) and if you ever do look through it you'll wanna check out the Manual of the Planes, look through any book with the word "Complete" as part of it's title, read savage species, arms and equipment guide, look up a nice little diceroller on the net or a point calculator, find yourselves someone who's experienced with DnD to DM, otherwise you are screwed, take a look at unearthed arcana. If you're looking for a more Oriental feel there's books for that too, Legend of the Five Rings- Oriental Adventures, that one has it's own manual of monsters though

Use this if you wanna find anything specific or wanna take a look at every feat, spell, etc possible

<a href='http://dndtools.eu/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://dndtools.eu/</a>

this next one is a compendium of all the feats and books to find them in, it's smaller than dndtools, but gives you an idea for the most stuff you can use

<a href='http://www.habololy.com/feats/General%20Feats.htm' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://www.habololy.com/feats/General%20Feats.htm</a>

Use websites like these to ease up the profile making

<a href='http://www.coyotecode.net' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://www.coyotecode.net</a>

Here's a diceroller

<a href='http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm</a>

In case of point buy stats

<a href='http://emrilgame.netau.net/Dmstuff/pointbuy.html' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://emrilgame.netau.net/Dmstuff/pointbuy.html</a>

And well depending on what you're playing I can always give you some advice

 

[Lord of Bones]

<a href='http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1002.0' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/in...hp?topic=1002.0</a> for a discussion on how classes compare to each other.

Don't be afraid to encourage roleplaying and your players' skills. The wizard's player may not know the history behind the magical belt of the great archmage Xen'drik, but that doesn't mean his character wouldn't know. I'd also encourage adding a bit of lore behind your magical items; not all of them, certainly, but if your fighter finds a +2 flaming sword; there might be a bit of history behind the blade instead of it being generic magic butterknife.

Also, a bit more help may be found here: <a href='http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?board=56.0' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?board=56.0</a>

EDIT: My mistake, these are the new boards: <a href='http://www.minmaxboards.com/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://www.minmaxboards.com/</a>

You could also try the WotC Character Development and Optimization boards, if you or your players need more help.

 

[Sdebeli]

I would actually advise the opposite; run the first campaign on minimal books, to get a feel for it all. Get the Player's Handbook, DM's guide (if even that) and the Monster Manual. If you pick a specific Campaign Setting, take that book as well, but aside for that, you don't really need anything else for a start, or even for a great campaign.
Don't let the books define everything for you, use them as an additional resource, and never be afraid to change something if it just doesn't work for the campaign/storyline you had in mind,

 

[Aegis]

I would actually advise the opposite; run the first campaign on minimal books, to get a feel for it all. Get the Player's Handbook, DM's guide (if even that) and the Monster Manual. If you pick a specific Campaign Setting, take that book as well, but aside for that, you don't really need anything else for a start, or even for a great campaign.
Don't let the books define everything for you, use them as an additional resource, and never be afraid to change something if it just doesn't work for the campaign/storyline you had in mind,

And to stay out of the Planar stuff until they reach at least a few months of play or have amassed plenty of experience in a short time. Honestly the best advice I can personally give though is to play a campaign or two with an already experienced DM, because while the players can, more often than not, get away with one mistake or a thousand a DM needs to be there to actually lead the way and keep the others interested in the game.

 

[Alzrius]

I would actually advise the opposite; run the first campaign on minimal books, to get a feel for it all. Get the Player's Handbook, DM's guide (if even that) and the Monster Manual. If you pick a specific Campaign Setting, take that book as well, but aside for that, you don't really need anything else for a start, or even for a great campaign.

I endorse this recommendation; if you're just starting out, and don't have any experience, then less is more. Beyond the PHB, DMG, and MM, everything else should be viewed as an optional expansion (which, in fact, they are) to be brought in when you're all more comfortable with the system.

Personally, it may be too late for this, but I'd recommend that you utilize Pathfinder instead of D&D 3.5. Pathfinder is, essentially, the 3.5 rules with some tweaks and alterations added, and in my opinion it's better for it.

There's also fewer books for Pathfinder, simply because the game only came out in August of 2009. The main book is called the Core Rulebook, and there's also the GameMaster's Guide, and the Bestiary (along with Bestiary 2 and 3).

You can check out the rules of the "main" Pathfinder books on this free, legal <a href='http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/index.html' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>System Reference Document</a>. If you want more than that, you can also check out this <a href='http://www.d20pfsrd.com/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>fan-made SRD</a>, which has everything in the official one, plus a lot of supplementary material from Paizo (the company that publishes Pathfinder), from third-party publishers, converted 3.5 material, and fan-made material.

 

[Sdebeli]

Good point that. Rule-wise. Pathfinder is pretty much everything that 3.5 attempted to do, but failed. Classes get balanced out from the get-go and towards the higher levels, and pretty much everything is a bit more fun to play(and has a point to play. Remember how badly bards worked in 3.0? or high level fighters in comparison to high level wizards?).
Mind you, while I do like to crunch numbers and munchkin a bit, Pathfinder ensures that there's really no need to do that, and lets you play around with a great deal of customization that doesn't even require stuff like prestige classes.

 

[Vexarian]

Hm...

We may be looking for an experienced Dungeon Master for our first campaign then. It's not something that really occurred to me until you all brought it up but it makes a lot of sense.

We might already have one lined up, but if not I don't suppose anyone here would be willing to do so?

 

[Aegis]

Hm...

We may be looking for an experienced Dungeon Master for our first campaign then. It's not something that really occurred to me until you all brought it up but it makes a lot of sense.

We might already have one lined up, but if not I don't suppose anyone here would be willing to do so?

I have a DnD group, we're running two games at the moment as well, they're the ones who taught me how to play so if you have Skype I can try and see if I can talk them into introducing you to the game. The current campaign is apparently supposed to be 'newbie friendly'.

If Draggy doesn't want to though, Brian's always good for an RP and well, I can't recommend Tom's game since we're at lvl 14.........I also DM on occassion, I'm less experienced but there were a few campaign concepts I wanted to try out and I have the maps for the campaign ready too.

 

[zerohour]

If you decide to go with an unexperienced DM, I would recommend using a premade campaign book, and boost your character levels by two or three.

That gives you a good opportunity to get a feel for it without being in a sink or swim mode, and lets you determine what kind of DM you want to be.

 

[Aegis]

If you decide to go with an unexperienced DM, I would recommend using a premade campaign book, and boost your character levels by two or three.

That gives you a good opportunity to get a feel for it without being in a sink or swim mode, and lets you determine what kind of DM you want to be.

Lvl 1 IS always horrible for newbies

 

[Sdebeli]

Ah yes, the myriad ways to kill lvl 1 characters. :evil2:
I still do recall that one game that me and my buddies went all out, players vs DM, to see who'd last longer. Was epic.

 

[Lord Raine]

If you're interested in things that are of general utility, I'd recommend the Stronghold Builders Guide. It's a must-have if any of you are interested in building a base, and extremely useful even if you aren't, as it provides several 'quick-and-dirty' ways to turn out dungeons, mazes, and other such environments. Mansions, houses, castles, flying towers that can travel through dimensions and outer space. There are instructions on absolutely everything you could possibly want, price sheets so DMs don't have to crunch massive numbers, and notes on how various things affect gameplay. Castle? Sure. Castle with a mixture of mortal employees and permanent Unseen Servants? Absolutely. You'd like it to be near a nearby gold mine? There are price sheets on the upkeep you have to put in and the profit that will come out of it. You want it to be able to fly/crawl/swim/float/dimension-hop/move through outer space? That's covered, too.

SBG is a hell of a thing. I like it just for the ideas it gives me for dungeons. If several of your PCs are serious about having a base, it's a godsend, because all of the math and number crunching is already done for you. The system is grid-based, so all the players have to do is run down the list of options (which cover literally everything you could find in a stronghold, from bedrooms to barracks to dungeons to magic labs and libraries), pick what they want, and then assemble them like a badass set of LEGO bricks. Add up the total sum cost to the bottom line, and suddenly that hard-won dragon horde is something useful.

 

[Aegis]

If you're interested in things that are of general utility, I'd recommend the Stronghold Builders Guide. It's a must-have if any of you are interested in building a base, and extremely useful even if you aren't, as it provides several 'quick-and-dirty' ways to turn out dungeons, mazes, and other such environments. Mansions, houses, castles, flying towers that can travel through dimensions and outer space. There are instructions on absolutely everything you could possibly want, price sheets so DMs don't have to crunch massive numbers, and notes on how various things affect gameplay. Castle? Sure. Castle with a mixture of mortal employees and permanent Unseen Servants? Absolutely. You'd like it to be near a nearby gold mine? There are price sheets on the upkeep you have to put in and the profit that will come out of it. You want it to be able to fly/crawl/swim/float/dimension-hop/move through outer space? That's covered, too.

SBG is a hell of a thing. I like it just for the ideas it gives me for dungeons. If several of your PCs are serious about having a base, it's a godsend, because all of the math and number crunching is already done for you. The system is grid-based, so all the players have to do is run down the list of options (which cover literally everything you could find in a stronghold, from bedrooms to barracks to dungeons to magic labs and libraries), pick what they want, and then assemble them like a badass set of LEGO bricks. Add up the total sum cost to the bottom line, and suddenly that hard-won dragon horde is something useful.

He'll probably want to download the toolsdl Stronghold Builder along with that, to calculate the actual costs, it really does measure everything out

 

[zerohour]

So, it's been about three months, hows the campaign going?

 

[Vexarian]

So, it's been about three months, hows the campaign going?

It was going pretty awesome up until I rolled a 1 and caused a time paradox that resulted in my entire group retroactively not giving enough of a shit to start playing to begin with.

 

[zerohour]

Sorry to hear that, but it is one of the difficulties associated with starting a game.

So what was the problem? Not enough interest? Schedule conflict?

A good way to attract attention is to supply pizza, beer, and other treats. That way even if they're not too interested, they'll likely show up for some free food. Start a pay rotation after the first session, or have everyone chip in.

 

[Vexarian]

Sorry to hear that, but it is one of the difficulties associated with starting a game.

So what was the problem? Not enough interest? Schedule conflict?

A good way to attract attention is to supply pizza, beer, and other treats. That way even if they're not too interested, they'll likely show up for some free food. Start a pay rotation after the first session, or have everyone chip in.

Two of the players live in California and one lives in Virginia.

I live in Massachusetts.

We were obviously doing this over the interbuttz.

Also just sort of never happened. Might have had something to do with one of our players never finalizing their character.