Tell me what to buy!

[Twin Rose]

If Amazon can get one in stock, I would suggest A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. As I post this, Amazon is out of stock. But I think the average customer review (5 out of 5 stars) speaks for itself. The PDF is excellent, but you need to spend your gift cert so that doesn't help you much. But, if you can get a copy at amazon... You will be glad you did.

 

[Merkuri]

The "Complete" books are great from a player point of view. You could probably also use them to add some interesting classes and PrCs to your NPCs.

Additional monster books, like Monster Manual II and III (I liked III a lot, haven't looked at IV in enough detail to judge) are good for variety. The Creature Collection by Sword and Sorcery is good, too (I liked the first one more than the next two).

Definitely the DMG II and the PHB II add a lot of new options to your game.

If you want to point your campaign in a more epic good versus evil direction you can try the Book of Exalted Deeds and Book of Vile Darkness (though these do contain a lot of mature themes and won't be good for a young or not-so-serious game).

My DM loves Sandstorm, though I've just flipped through it in the store. If your campaign has a lot of a certain environment (Sandstorm for deserts, Frostburn for cold, Stormwrack for ocean) then you might want to look at the appropriate book, though like I said, I've only flipped through these.

 

[Torx]

How many books do you already own? Just the core?

No, I actually own plenty of books, but I haven't purchased many since 3.5 came out. I recently purchased the Spell Compendium and it's great.

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions. If you have any more, keep 'em comin'.

 

[sckeener]

from the above already mentioned, I'd recommend

Fiendish Codex I
The Shackled City Adventure Path
The Book of the Righteous
Lords of Madness
Libris Mortis
Tome of Magic

I'd add Heroes of Horror

You might look at older versions of D&D since you can probably get more bang for your Amazon buck...

Too bad it is Amazon and $75...otherwise I'd recommend Ptolus.

 

[Voadam]

Steve Jackson Games cardboard dungeons is a great map product for tabletop. Ditto for their cardboard caverns.

Adventures: Rappan Athuk Reloaded, Red Hand of Doom, World's Largest Dungeon. I've heard good things about each.

I've also heard great things about the social interaction rules in Dynasties and Demagogues.

Monster books: Monsternomicon 3.5 if you can find it. Warcraft Manual of Monsters if you like WoW and want a bunch of cool undead templates. Kenzer puts out good stuff so Dangerous Denizens of Tellene should be pretty good as well. Denizens of Dread is the ravenloft 3.5 horror themed monster book with lots of vampire variants and assorted undead with neat backstories.

Fiery Dragon counter stuff is consistently good if you use counters. Same for SJGames cardboard heroes.

 

[Piratecat]

I've noticed that no one is recommending the "Complete" books. I never got around to buying them myself; should I?

 

[diaglo]

I've noticed that no one is recommending the "Complete" books. I never got around to buying them myself; should I?

not really.

 

[sckeener]

I've noticed that no one is recommending the "Complete" books. I never got around to buying them myself; should I?

I have noticed that some of my players love them. They love the ones that affect them.

The only one I really use is the Complete Divine.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I've noticed that no one is recommending the "Complete" books. I never got around to buying them myself; should I?

Complete Adventurer is the best of the crop and one of best books WotC ever put out imo. The other three are OK I got them at a deep discount from some folks here on ENWorld.

If the OP is limited to just 2 or 3 books (and a DM to boot) I would recommend Draconomicron, PHB 2 and DMG 2. Assuming he likes dragons!

 

[Merkuri]

The "Complete" books are great from a player point of view. You could probably also use them to add some interesting classes and PrCs to your NPCs.

I've noticed that no one is recommending the "Complete" books.

*changes her name to "no one"*

I'm having great fun with the favored soul class from Complete Divine (though I guess technically it was in the Miniature's Handbook first) and there's a lot of nifty divine-related feats in there. I'm not sure how much good it would do a DM, though, other than wanting to offer new material to players and throw some of that same material back at them in the form of NPCs.