Must Have Books for Savage Tides

[SJE]

Reading through the adventures so far, it looks like the Must Have books (to understand what is going on, offer useful feats to PC's, answer background details etc) beyond the 3 Core books are-

Fiendish Codex I- all the stuff on Wells of Darkness, Gaping Maw, Demogorgon, Melcanthet etc
Stormwrack- all the piratey and sailing stuff. PC options with some of the races, feats and classes could be very useful in their overall success
Fiend Folio- Dinosaurs?

Any more that I've missed?

SJE

[Nanmaniac]

What about the magazines?
Dragons 348-352 contain The Savage Tiding articles.
Dungeon 114 contains very useful information of the isle of dread (with a huge map)

A question... Does The last adventure use the rules from Heroes of Battle??

Nanmaniac

[Cpt_kirstov]

SJE wrote:

beyond the 3 Core books are-

Fiendish Codex I- all the stuff on Wells of Darkness, Gaping Maw, Demogorgon, Melcanthet etc
Stormwrack- all the piratey and sailing stuff. PC options with some of the races, feats and classes could be very useful in their overall success
Fiend Folio- Dinosaurs?

I know to get inot the feel of the adventure my group used a scout and a swashbuckler... those are from either complete warrior or adventurer (i forgot which) I picked up the fiend folio just for more stats on the undead cleric thing in parrot island (srrry - at work without books)

[Azzy]

Okay, compiling everything the others said (plus adding a few myself), outside the Core Three and the STAP-relevant Dungeon issues, the following may be helpful:

• Complete Adventurer (scout, dread pirate, tempest)
  
• Complete Divine (favoured soul)
  
• Complete Warrior (swashbuckler)
  
• Dragon 315 & 319 (Greyhawk regional feats)
  
• Dragon 318 & 339 (more monsters)
  
• Dragon 358+ (Savage Tidings articles)
  
• Dragon Compendium (battle dancer, ravenous template)
  
• Dungeon 114 (more info on the IoD)
  
• Fiend Folio (more monsters)
  
• Fiendish Codex I (info on demons and stuff)
  
• Heroes of Battle (Victory Points rules)
  
• Monster Manual II (more monsters)
  
• Monsters of Faerûn (bullywugs)
  
• Savage Tide Player's Guide (Sasserine and regional feats)
  
• Spell Compendium (dinosaur related spells)
  
• Stormwrack (ship combat and other rules)
  
• Tome of Magic (info on the teeth of Dahlver-Nar)

Out-of-Print/Older Edition stuff:

• Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (info, gods, map--unfortunately OOP)
  
• Scarlet Brotherhood (info on the Amedio region)
  
• C1; The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (module)
  
• X1; The Isle of Dread (module)

If anyone can think of anything else, please add to the list. :)

[JwT]

I was thinking that a Marshall (Mini Handbook) would be AWESOME for the assault on Farshore.

[Peruhain of Brithondy]

If you're running the AP in Greyhawk, you might want to download the following 1st and 2nd edition materials from this website for additional background:

The Scarlet Brotherhood (detailed info about the peoples of Amedio Jungle and Hepmonaland, historical background on the Olman Empire).

C-1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (since a different part of this site is visited in SWW, this provides useful background and the maps can be used to expand the adventure, if PCs want to do further exploring.)

X-1 The Isle of Dread (the original Isle of Dread adventure).

Swashbuckler is from Complete Warrior, Scout is from Complete Adventurer.

Also, "Porphyry House Horror" in Dungeon #95 provides a ton of background on Scuttlecove, the base of the Crimson Fleet. It is the sealed "adult" adventure in that issue, and without being especially graphic, it involves lots of "adult" themes (along the lines of Book of Vile Darkness)--prostitution, drug addiction, and torture, just to forewarn those who may be turned off by such matters.

None of these items is a necessity, but all might help the DM enrich the campaign and give a stronger feel of the history behind it.

Edit--whoops, looks like Azzy beat me to the punch

[selios]

Personnally I think the background books are the best to flesh out the world and to make it living.

The only non core rulebook I want to use is Stormwrack since it has some interesting rules for profession (sailor) and some other marine stuff.

[MaxSlasher26]

The Gazateer is out of print? Hmm...I have one of those.

I wonder how much STAP DMs would pay to get a print copy..muahahaha.

Yeah, probably $2, but still, it's something. ;)

[Azzy]

Right, to the above list, add Book of Exalted Deeds.

[SJE]

Azzy wrote:

Right, to the above list, add Book of Exalted Deeds.

Why is this book essential? How does it tie in to the campaign?

SJE

[James Jacobs]

The Eladrin Court plays a strong role in the campaign near the end, particularly the eladrin paragon Gwynharwyf. One of the initial affiliations is associated with her (the Church of the Whirling Fury), as is the chapel at Farshore.

[Orcmonk220]

The Complete series is extremely useful, especially for the Swashbuckler (Complete Warrior) class, for the feel for the campaign. Also, I'd agree on Scout, though I just think that the Complete Series is generally great :)

Chris

[Bellona]

I'm surprised that no one has linked to this thread.

[Peruhain of Brithondy]

Oerth Journal 4 has an article by Roger Moore on the Amedio Jungle which has some useful info to supplement the info in Scarlet Brotherhood.

[Tamec]

Nanmaniac wrote:

A question... Does The last adventure use the rules from Heroes of Battle??

I find heroes of battle a good book to have, particularly in the adventure my DM is currently running, I don't know the name but it's the one where we have the pirate battle after finally reaching farshore, then we get word of a big pirate battle coming and have a "countdown clock".

[Luna eladrin]

I seem to remember some of the later adventures in the path have reference to pact magic. So it is useful to have these rules, too.

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

We also play the Savage Tide in the Realms, so a lot of that source material is handy as well. Other than that, I think the lists others have compiled is pretty good. Obviously it's always good to have more monster manuals to have neat new baddies to throw at a party too. :)

[Zombie Boots]

Wow. Nice list Azzy.

Your list is pretty much all anyone needs but just to add a few if someone already owns them:

Races of Destiny (more up to date Mongrel folk.)
Lord of Maddness (Random Ecnounters in Aboleth City, little importence)
Fiendish Codex I Web Enchantment:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060609x
(More background Info on four of the Big Demon Lords in the end game.)

Manual of the Planes (Great general Info on late game events, espaically when planes hopping.)
Book of Vile Darkness (General Info on late game events)
Planar Handbook (General Info on late game events)

Lord of Maddness also has some background on the two aboleth gods mentions in Lightless Depths... Just nice background to have espcailly when my party started asking. Also a great Red Hering. >>

Tid-bit:
I noticed in the The Tome of Battle: Book of nine swords- one of the quote saying spread through out the book was from a "Rudy knight Vidicator of Sassarine." That inspired me to make sure all Mage Wards guards had a level in Ruby Knight... not part of the campaign, just adds very nice flavour.