All the Guides: Heroic | Paragon | Epic
Last part of the guide we covered gifts for the new gamer. Today we cover the gamer who has been playing for a while and is looking for something different. Not a lot of WotC stuff on the list — I’m focusing on stuff you likely missed when it came out — but I think everything on this list makes a great gift for the D&D player in your life.
Look at that map. That is a battle map. Have you ever used a battle map that awesome at your table? Jonathan Roberts has a whole bundle of these awesome maps in PDF form on RPGNow and you should get them for someone. It can be a bit heavy on printer ink, but it’s worth it.
What’s better than a crit? A crit that flashes and glows! This ThinkGeek creation will help you celebrate your critical in style. Get one for your favorite player, DM, or table.
Seasoned D&D players know that minis can add something extra to a game, but collecting miniatures can be a pain in the butt. How many random packs do you have to get to collect all those drow you need? Or kobolds? Troll and Toad has all manners of these collections that you can but gift to someone to bolster his or her collection.
4. The Desire
The first outing from Nevermet Press details the villainous courtesan known as the Desire and the world that she inhabits. A refreshing take on 4e supplements, this is not just another class book or collection of encounters. This book mixes strong setting and a variety of mechanics that will make it a source of inspiration and table-ready material. A unique and worthwhile addition to a gamer’s library.
Speaking of unique addition to your collection, how about travelling to the land of the Moonlit King and the Queen of Night and Magic? Open Design brings us a unique adventure and setting where paragon characters find themselve wrapped up in fey illusion and intrigue. Rules on status and dueling highlight core concepts of the adventure, which provides over 30 encounters and several levels worth of entertainment for your game. Something else a little special and a great gift!
6. The City Dungeon Master Tile Set
If you haven’t seen the Dungeon Tiles Master Sets yet, here’s the deal: you get a massive set of tiles in a particular theme. The Dungeon and the City have been released thus far; the former is mostly repeats but the latter is mostly new tiles. It combines particularly well with Streets of Shadow, letting you build a wide range of urban scenes.
This is for new DMs isn’t it? Well…kinda. I suggest this as a gift because experienced GMs will enjoy this kit though they will be unlikely to buy it for themselves. The DM’s kit comes with a copy of the rules and DM advice, but also the great Reavers of Harkenwold adventure, extra tokens and poster maps.
Kobold Quarterly gets better and better! With tons of great content from great writers (the last issue has a feature from yours truly!), it’s a well-produced source of inspiration and ready to use material for players and GMs. Four issues in a years equals a few hundred pages a year of this gift.
9. WOTC Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Beholder Collector’s Set
I was skeptical of these guys, but once I picked them up and looked at them….they are just cool. Definitely a present for those who like to collect or for DMs who like beating on players in interesting ways. Comes with stat cards for each version of this iconic D&D monster.
Last but not least…The One Bad Egg Bundle! If you did not know, One Bad Egg created great 4e 3rd party products. My favorites are Hardboiled Armies and Hardboiled Culture, but they also brought us the Witch doctor class, the Shroud, and more. This is yet another great inspirational and useable bundle for GMs and players. You might have missed it when they were still around, but you should definitely not miss the products now. For the price of a new regular book you get great value.
That’s it for the Paragon Tier! Later this week we wrap up with a wild list for even the most jaded D&D “pro”.
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
By day he is a technologist.
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Thanks for including the One Eggcellent Bundle as part of your list. Those products rock so much; it’s the reason why I continue to carry the great job OBE did.
Trivia: my one Patron contribution to Open Design? I was the one who gave the Shadow Fey the name scáthsidhe.
Best thing for me on here? That wicked d20! I want 40 of those. My DM is going to hate me…
@Daniel that is a nice piece of trivia! Also, I am a huge fan of OBE and I regret that people didn’t know about them as much as they maybe should have when they were around; The OBE crew did good work.
@Rain Your DM would hate you if he weren’t so busy being bombarded with light! One good set of crits and he (and the rest of your table) is done for.
Thanks for including Kobold Quarterly and Courts of the Shadow Fey: Very glad to see we made Paragon tier!
Queen of Night and Magic? They do know that the Queen of Air and Darkness is a very old epithet and not one that Wizards has any copywright over. It is also beautifully poetic. Night and Magic just doesn’t do it for me.
I do love Fey though so may pick it up anyway.