Best books for Lore

[Pippin]

Hello,

What non-core books are excellent for getting to know better the D&D world? I read that the Manual of the Planes is an excellent reading. What else is? The Complete series is often brought up, but that's a lot of books to consider, and I don't think any of them is too important?

Thanks for your insight!

Edit: I don't mind hearing about books that belong to previous or subsequent editions! As long as you believe them to be very enriching and informative.

[Tzardok]

If you like the planes, most of the Planescape books from 2e are very good and expound on a lot that Manual of the Planes only describes superficially. Planescape books are also written in-character by people in the setting, making them entertaining to read, going deep into the lore and opening up the chance for contradictions and the narrators being wrong. I can especially recommend Planes of Chaos, Planes of Law, Planes of Conflict, The Inner Planes, On Hallowed Ground, Guide to the Astral and Guide to the Ethereal. A Player's Primer to the Outlands is also supposed to be very good, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Amongst 3.5 books, I can also wholeheartedly recommend Fiendish Codex 1, which is the closest you'll get to a 3.5 Planescape book. Besides that, if you want lore, go for Lords of Madness, the Draconomicon, and maybe Libris Mortis and the Fiendish Codex 2, which are a bit more mediocre.

Unrecommendated is Warriors of Heaven, the worst book that was even produced for 2e AD&D. I am also not sure if the Complete books are the right thing for lore; especially the first four are alot heavier on the crunch side versus the fluff side. Especially Complete Psionics I would unrecommend, as it is a subpar book with subpar fluff and subpar mechanics.

[liquidformat]

The Races of books are also another good one to get a better understanding of the different races. It goes over festivals and other stuff though nothing super deep.

[Pippin]

If you like the planes, most of the Planescape books from 2e are very good and expound on a lot that Manual of the Planes only describes superficially. Planescape books are also written in-character by people in the setting, making them entertaining to read, going deep into the lore and opening up the chance for contradictions and the narrators being wrong. I can especially recommend Planes of Chaos, Planes of Law, Planes of Conflict, The Inner Planes, On Hallowed Ground, Guide to the Astral and Guide to the Ethereal. A Player's Primer to the Outlands is also supposed to be very good, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Amongst 3.5 books, I can also wholeheartedly recommend Fiendish Codex 1, which is the closest you'll get to a 3.5 Planescape book. Besides that, if you want lore, go for Lords of Madness, the Draconomicon, and maybe Libris Mortis and the Fiendish Codex 2, which are a bit more mediocre.

Unrecommendated is Warriors of Heaven, the worst book that was even produced for 2e AD&D. I am also not sure if the Complete books are the right thing for lore; especially the first four are alot heavier on the crunch side versus the fluff side. Especially Complete Psionics I would unrecommend, as it is a subpar book with subpar fluff and subpar mechanics.

Thanks a lot for your reply! It turns out 2e books are quite expensive nowadays, but I'm sure I'll find some other way to read them o:)

The Races of books are also another good one to get a better understanding of the different races. It goes over festivals and other stuff though nothing super deep.

Noted! Like the Races of Stone, where the Shadowcraft Mage lies? Do you have one book in mind in particular?

[Tzardok]

I don't want to seem like a naysayer, but I need to mention that Races of Stone (and to a lesser extent Races of the Wild) have this weird tendency to replace the established deities of the races they cover with suspiciously similiar substitutes, even though these new gods are never brought up again in any other publication. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'd recommend again a 2e book for elfen, dwarven and gnomish deites: Monster Mythology. It also covers a lot of other non-human deities and pantheons, like goblins, lizardfolk, fey, lycanthropes, orcs or giants, most of which are either completely ignored or only get an entry in tables in 3.x.

[atemu1234]

I'm a huge fan of the Illithiad, personally, though portions of it has been retconned in 3rd or later editions.

Book of Vile Darkness/Book of Exalted Deeds are both useful.

Elder Evils has always been a ton of fun, though in my opinion, it doesn't really play nicely with the established lore of the game.

[thorr-kan]

The Eberron books are fairly entertaining.

Anything 2E; I'm partial to the Al-Qadim stuff myself. But from a general standpoint, the Monstrous Manual, Monster Mythology, and College of Wizardry are all entertaining.

[Troacctid]

There are some great lore books for Eberron. In particular, I recommend:

Eberron Campaign Setting
Player's Guide to Eberron
Dragonmarked
Secrets of Sarlona
Secrets of Xen'drik
Dragons of Eberron
Sharn: City of Towers
City of Stormreach
Eberron: Rising from the Last War

[Bohandas]

*The various campaign setting books ("Eberron Campaign Setting", "Dragonlance Campaign Setting" etc)
*"Greyspace", "Realmspace", and "Krynnspace" (2e)
*"Illithiad", "I, Tyrant" and "The Sea Devils" (2e)
*"Planes of Law", "Planes of Chaos", and "Planes of Conflict" (2e)
*"Fiendish Codex 1" and "Fiendish Codex 2" (3.5e)
*Domains of Dread (2e)
*Ravenloft Gazetter Vol1-5 (3e)
*Book of Vile Darkness (3e)
*"Concordance of Arcane Space" and "Lorebook of the Void" (2e)
*Dragon Magazine #337, 338, 342, 348, 354, and any other one with a bio of a god or archfiend
*Deities and Demigods
*Darklords (2e)
*Petty Gods Revised and Expanded Edition (third-party publication with unofficial but very fun lore)

[Dalmosh]

Drow of the Underdark is particularly good quality for 3.5 ed. Tome of Magic is better for lore than crunch.

From 2nd ed. I rate Faces of Evil: the Fiends and Hellbound: the Blood War

For 3rd party stuff Green Ronin's Armies of the Abyss and Legions of Hell are pretty solid. Mongoose Publishing's Slayer's Guide to Orcs is decent too.

[Beni-Kujaku]

My favorite are the monstrous books : Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, Draconomicon, Fiendish Codexes and Races of the Dragon. A lot of info on the current environment of the D&D world.
Obviously Planescape (and Manual of the Planes) for the Wheel, and Lost Empires of Faerun for Netheril and everything that surrounds the "good old days".

[Elkad]

Try novels instead of sourcebooks too.

Everything starting with Quag Keep from Andre Norton, through Dragonlance, Drizzt, Darksun, Gygax's own Gord books, etc.


And a lot of the 1e modules have great stuff in them as backstory. Temple of Elemental Evil, etc.

[RedMage125]

There are some great lore books for Eberron. In particular, I recommend:

Eberron Campaign Setting
Player's Guide to Eberron
Dragonmarked
Secrets of Sarlona
Secrets of Xen'drik
Dragons of Eberron
Sharn: City of Towers
City of Stormreach
Eberron: Rising from the Last War

If we're including 5e books, I MUST recommend the two made by Keith Baker:
Exploring Eberron and Chronicles of Eberron. For both lore and mechanics content. They're just aces.

My list for the 3e Eberron book recommendations is a little different in priority.
Eberron Campaign Setting
Sharn: City of Towers
Player's Guide to Eberron
Dragonmarked
Five Nations
These 5 are the best of the lore you can get. And good mechanics, too.

Faiths of Eberron
Magic of Eberron

These are decent, but some of the options are a little odd.

Secrets of Xen'drik
City of Stormreach
Secrets of Sarlona
Dragons of Eberron

These I only recommend if you're running a Campaign to Xen'drik, Sarlona, or Argonnesson, respectively. The Sarlona one, in particular, shakes up a lot of what lore is known about that continent.

Forge of War

This book has a LOT on information about the Last War, including timelines. HOWEVER, some things don't match up with previously published material, and Keith Baker was not involved with this book at all. So while there is a lot of lore, take it with a grain of salt if it seems to conflict.

Finally:
Explorer's Handbook

This book is almost exclusively about traveling in Eberron. It's actually a very useful resource for the logistics of travel. But it's very boring.

[Pippin]

Thank you everyone for your advice, I'm making a list out of your posts! I too think Eberron is a great setting!

But before I get to Eberron, I've started to read the Guide to the Ethereal Plane (2e). I *cough* found it in a store and bought it *cough*. And I've been wondering: does the Ethereal Plane in 2e work the same as in 3e? I'm reading things about the Border and the Deep, and I never thought it was that complicated in 3e.

[Tzardok]

The Deep Ethereal gets explained in the Manual of the Planes, yes. Other works sometimes reference it, though I'm not sure they actually use the term.

But in general, 3.x doesn't spend as much thought on the Deep Ethereal and pretends that there is only the Border. That is because in 2e, the Ethereal is the plane that connects the Material and the Inner Planes, a function that the Astral took over in 3.x (in 2e, the Astral only connected the Material and the Outer Planes).
In short, the 3.x Ethereal is vestigial. It doesn't go anywhere, so it's paid less attention to.