[Eberron] What should I pick up?

[Rand Brittain]

One of my big past regrets is not picking up a bunch of the old Planescape stuff while it was still in stores and fairly cheap, before it went out of print. Now, with the coming of 4e, it looks as though Eberron is going to be in the same position for a while, until more support for it happens. Recognizing this, I picked up a few things, like the Forgotten Realms corebook for 3e, before it ended up leaving.

This applies mostly to Eberron, but also to any other good stuff for 3e that might be worth keeping to provide ideas for the future: specifically, the good fluff. Which pieces of 3e are worth grabbing now for the collection of the future?

[thompsja]

This applies mostly to Eberron, but also to any other good stuff for 3e that might be worth keeping to provide ideas for the future: specifically, the good fluff. Which pieces of 3e are worth grabbing now for the collection of the future?

Beyond the Campaign Setting, I recommend Player's Guide to Eberron - lots of extra detail there. Sharn, City of Towers, is great if you want to stage your campaign there, and you easily can. DragonMarked is ok, as is Faiths of Eberron. I have Magic of Eberron, and there are good bits here and there, but should be purchased at a sizeable discount.

For 3e in general, I really like Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium. Some powerful entries, but mostly low-level ones that your DM will actually let you have.

John

[demiurge1138]

One that you might overlook is Monster Manual 3. It's basically the Eberron Monster Manual, with warforged scouts and chargers, runehounds, cadaver collectors, and lots of other very-heavily-Eberron creatures in it.

[Kurotowa]

I recommend (cause I did it myself a month ago): Eberron Campaign Setting, Player's Guide, Sharn City of Towers. Those three have the best writing, the best story hooks, and the least crunch that'll be less useful when 4e hits. You might add Forge of War, which has a great amount of detail about the Last War, but since it's the most recent book you might not find it marked down as much.

Second tier I'd place Dragonmarked, Faiths of Eberron, Five Nations, and Secrets of Sarlona. The setting material in those is a bit dryer, more general world building and less instantly useful, but they're solid enough.

[OldKentuckyShark]

Eberron Campaign Setting, Player's Guide to Eberron, Sharn: City of Towers, Five Nations, and, if you have money left over, Races of Eberron. All excellent books, and broadly applicable. The Sharn book, in particular, is a shining example of how region-books ought to be written: I challenge people to read it and NOT want to set an adventure in Sharn.

Secrets of Sarlona is excellent, but of limited scope if you aren't interested in a Sarlona campaign. Dragonmarked is a pretty good source of information for Dragonmarked heirs, but a bit dry, and the prestige classes failed to move me. Faiths of Eberron has excellent fluff, but very little crunch. Forge of War is very neat, but except for the description of Thronehold, it's difficult to apply it to non-wartime campaigns. Dragons of EBerron is well written, and a good source of high level antagonists, but not an absolutely necessary purchase. The Explorer's Handbook is a fun read, but of limited mechanical value, and some of its information -- especially about airships -- is of dubious accuracy. Secrets of Xendrik and Magic of Eberron are both pretty mediocre.

[Heart in Narnia]

I have most of the eberron supplements, but the ones that I used the most are actually Five Nations, Dragonmarked, Races of Eberron and Sharn: City of Towers. I also got quiet extensive use out of Explorer's handbook, and I love the prestige class windwright captain. I find all of these books well written and with a good combination of crunch and setting.

[Jeff LaSala]

I highly recommend Faiths of Eberron and if you've got the money, Dragonmarked. Both are filled with more flavor (fluff) than rules (crunch), so they become less obsolete with 4th Edition than other books. Assuming you like fluff (http://www.joblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/fluff.jpg)... :)

[Peter LaCara]

I consider Sharn: City of Towers to be the best d20 supplement I own. Every page has something like 4-5 hooks to hang an adventure on. I kind of don't think I fully grokked Eberron as a setting until I read the Sharn book.

Races of Eberron is quite good, mostly for the Warforged chapters.

I enjoyed Dragonmarked, though sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who did. The Dragonmarked Houses are a huge part of the setting, and this provides a ton of detail for them that's immensely helpful for using them in adventures.

[Monkey King]

I don't have any of the others beyond the campaign setting book, but I'll echo Sharn: City of Towers. There's so much packed into there that it's an entire setting in and of itself (which of course was the purpose, I'm sure). That's especially good since the tone of Eberron lends itself pretty well to urban games. And it won't go obsolete with 4e, since there's barely any crunch involved; on purpose, the only stats you get for NPCs are their class, level, and alignment.

[Omegatron]

My favorites were the Players Guide and Magic of Eberron and Five Nations, although I don't have any of the newer stuff.

[C.W.Richeson]

I have 11 Eberron reviews (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/search-review.phtml?reviewerName=Christopher%20W.%20Richeson&productLine=Dungeons%20and%20Dragons%20-%20Eberron), if you're interested.

Player's Guide is, hands down, the best Eberron supplement I own. It got a lot of use in my games.

[mhacdebhandia]

I'll (n+1) the recommendations for Player's Guide to Eberron, Sharn: City of Towers (if City of Stormreach is half as good, I'll be elated), and Five Nations.

I really liked Faiths of Eberron, but I feel it suffered a little from using the same format for each chapter even when it wasn't strictly appropriate, and yet still not actually covering each faith to the same extent and with the same mechanical detail.

Also, the chapter covering the Blood of Vol is not exactly in line with everything else in the gameline, but then none of the books exactly agree with each other about how the Blood of Vol works. That's one issue I'm really hoping that the Fourth Edition setting sourcebook resolves.

The other books are either mostly useful for character-concept-specific background and mechanical material - Magic of Eberron, Dragonmarked, Races of Eberron - or are specific to a certain location or style of play - Secrets of Xen'drik, Secrets of Sarlona, Explorer's Handbook. I will, however, recommend the Sarlona book if you're at all interested in Riedra or the other nations on that continent - there's a lot more going on there than Fascist Dream Demons versus Psychic Tibet.