Inheritance! and Books!

[Yami no Hon]

I've been getting a lot of use out of Cityscape lately. The chapter with Stat Blocks for mooks of various levels (and a nice selection of Big Bads ready to drop into a campaign) alone is worth the price of addmission. Also, it has a nice selection of maps, although I think most of them are available at the WotC website. Basically, take all the good city making advice from the DMG II, but provide more of it, and give it stairoids, and you get Cityscape.

Unlike Ptolis and WLC, (I've heard very good things about the former, not so much the latter) it isn't designed to be a single city to drop into your campaign, but as a toolset for assembling your own.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

in order of import ...

Ptolus - best $ ever spent (plus vinyl map)
Tome of Horrors I-III (I like ToH I so much that I bought the 3.5 PDF and had it printed and professionally bound ... also worth it ... and I'm by no means rich)
GameMastery Combat Pad initiative tracker - makes life so much easier
Spell Compendium
Eldritch Sorcery - great old school spells updated to 3.5
Complete Book of Eldritch Might - love the sorc and bard variants, standard IMC
Magic Item Compendium
Fiery Dragon Battlebox - very useful
AEG Toolbox
Traps and Treachery I
Minis - use Auggie's or CheapMinis on ebay to round out your monster/NPC archetypes by purchasing groups of 10 for pennies (orcs, ratmen, goblins, bugbears, gnolls, armored guards, archers, undead, etc) Warning: I personally have trouble resisting urge to blow my entire paycheck on rarer minis when browsing these ebay stores, so I sort by price and give myself a hard limit
Rappan Athuk Reloaded - modular dungeon levels that can be plugged into anything
Wilderlands of High Fantasy box - not necesarily for the (admittedly fantastic) campaign, but for the 1000's of well thought-out plot hooks, locations, and gaming ideas consolidated in a single place.
A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe - these guys are intelligent
Dungeon Master's Guide II
Advanced Gamemaster's Guide
Penumbra/Atlas Dynasties & Demagogues - also an intelligent work
Dungeonscape
Gary Gygax's Insidae
From Stone to Steel - if you can find a copy in print, BUY IT
(ISBN 0-9728197-1-1)
A Magical Society: Beast Builder - even more useful than the following two tomes ...
Advanced Bestiary
Book of Templates

I'm inclined to agree about the inpropriety of FranktheDM's comment, though i'm sure the it came from a desire to be helpful. This is a gaming forum, not a mothering forum.

 

[DreadArchon]

What do you have already?

Anyway, assuming you have nothing, I suggest, in no particular order:

PHBII (top priority)
Complete Adventurer
Complete Arcane
Complete Mage
Draconomicon
Libris Mortis

And I suggest avoiding:

Complete Warrior
Complete Divine



And to the rest of the thread:
What's so good about the Spell Compendium? I found a pristine copy in a used book store for ten dollars and didn't think it was worth buying. It only contains spells from 2/3 of the books before it, and most didn't impress me much... and I was playing a Spellcaster, with access to all Cleric, Druid, and Wizard spells. What's in it that makes people keep suggesting it?

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

From Wizards' own ad copy ...
"Spell Compendium is the one place to find spells that are referenced time and again: the best, most iconic, most popular, and most frequently used."

It's just more convenient for DM's to look spells up, and for players when packing a backpack.
I actually don't mind the Complete Warrior. The Complete Divine, OTOH, is pretty useless (except for the Turning as Damage variant).

It is admittedly riddled with editing errors. I have yet to go through with the errata and a micropen. That will be tedious.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

[sblock=I guess I should list all the WotC book I own] PHB
PHB II
DMG
MM
MM II
Arms & Equipment Guide
Bastion of Broken Souls
Book of Exalted Deeds
Book of Vile Darkness
Cityscape
Complete Adventurer
Complete Arcane
Complete Divine
Complete Mage
Complete Psionic
Complete Warrior
Deep Horizon
Defenders of the Faith
Deities & Demigods
Draconomicon
Dragon Magic
Epic Level Handbook
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft
Fiend Folio
Forge of Fury
Frostburn
Gazetteer
Ghostwalk
Heart of the Nightfang Spire
Hero Builder's Guidebook
Heroes of Horror
Libris Mortis
Lord of the Iron Fortress
Manual of the Planes
Masters of the Wild
Miniatures Handbook
Oriental Adventures
Races of the Dragon
Races of Stone
Sandstorm
Savage Species
Speaker in Dreams
Standing Stone
Stormwrack
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
Sunless Citadel
Sword & Fist
Tome & Blood
Tome of Magic
Unearthed Arcana
Weapons of Legacy[/sblock]
[sblock=Notable D20/OGL books I own]Stargate SG1
Northern Crown
Nyambe
Oathbound
Legends & Lairs: Sorcery and Steam
Sidewinder: Recoiled
Kingdoms of Kalamar & Player's Guide)
Shackled City Hardcover
Traveller D20/T20
A Game of Thrones DLE
Relics & Rituals I - III
Arcana Evolved
Ptolus[/sblock]

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm - if you have war as a central theme for your game then I would suggest Strongholds & Dynasties and Book of the Sea by Mongoose.

If you like pirates then I would add The Le's Unorthodox Pirates - a fun supplement, at least in my estimate. Skull & Bones is even better, but best for a self contained campaign.

Spycraft 2.0 - simply because it is wicked. Some good things in the works for it too. You may or may not want to add Delta Green to the mix, for me this is a match made in... well, maybe not heaven, but they really do belong together.

If you have any interest in steampunkery then get Steam & Steel by E.N. World, well mixed with Sorcery & Steam by Fantasy Flight - better as a pair than they are apart.

The Auld Grump

 

[caudor]

I think your list looks good. I really enjoy Magic of Incarnum.

By the way, congrats on getting some gaming funds.

Overall, I'd say just buy what you like. Reading the reviews might help you narrow down your choices. There are a lot of good reviews right here on ENWorld.

 

[freyar]

If you like the monster series books (I see you have Draconomicon and Libris Mortis), I'd also recommend Lords of Madness. Also, I just got Magic Item Compendium, and it seems like it's going to be really great! The treasure generation tables alone are incredible.

 

[der_kluge]

Personally, I'm a minimalist when it comes to my campaign. The less stuff I have to deal with, the happier I am.

Of the WoTC books that you don't have, the ones I also want (and have heard great things about) are the magic item compendium and the spell compendium.

Of Non-WoTC books, I highly recommend Tome of Horrors (if you can find it; I hear it fetches a pretty penny on eBay these days), Wilderlands of High Fantasy Campaign Setting. Simply a brilliant campaign setting. It's worth it for the maps alone. And since I use FR gods, and not the core set, the FR Faiths and Pantheons book.

That's it.

I'd probably spend the rest paying down debts, or for buying a new PC or a new car or something.

 

[Tetsubo]

I'm coming into a nice large sum of cash (for me that is) which includes part of an inheritance.

I've decided to put a list together of products I'd like to get that I've passed on so far.

Advanced Bestiary
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Player's Manual

I liked these books myself.

Book of Templates
Complete Champion
Complete Scoundrel

Scoundrel is cool and I'm looking forward to Champion.

Dragonstar: Galactic Races

All of the Dragonstar books are cool. I think you can pick them up as a bundle as well. Also check out the books Factory and Arsenal.

Drow of the Underdark

I'm still on the fence on this one. I may wait until I can flip through a copy.

Dungeon Master's Guide II

A vast waste of trees...

Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game [for my nephew when he finally learns how to read]
Dungeonscape

Cool book.

Heroes of Battle

I'm reading this one now and so far I like it.

Magic Item Compendium

Great book. I particularly liked the runestaves.

Magic of Incarnum

Good book, interesting ideas but the classes might be a bit underpowered.

Player's Kit [for my nephew when he is able to grasp the rules]
Spell Compendium

Also a good book.

EDIT (added):
Monster Manual III
Manual IV

I love monster books, so I l;iked these.

Barrow of the Forgotten King (AP 1 of 3)

Please suggest alternates that may have more promise.

...