What motivated you to purchase splatbooks for 3e?

[Calico_Jack73]

I bought them so that as a DM I'd know what my players were talking about when they would tell me that they wanted to take a particular prestige class. Having the books allowed me to analyze the class so I could determine if it belonged in my game. I also could understand the background of the PrC so that I could steer the game in a direction to allow the player to take a PrC without it appearing as "Poof! You are now a <INSERT>"

I also bought them so I wouldn't be blindsided by my players using some newly published feat.

 

[Drkfathr1]

Completist mentality. I felt like I had to have everything, primarily out of a fear of "not knowing" the latest rule/monster/class/etc. As time went on I realized I would never use most of the splat books, and some of them didn't work for me anyways since I use my own homebrew setting, and alot of the official "fluff" wouldn't apply to me.

I became much more selective in which books I purchase, focusing now on the things I know I'll get use out of. Not sure yet how that's going to pan out with 4E, but I'm thinking I'll be buying even fewer books this time around.

 

[Shroomy]

I actually bought the majority of my 3.5e books for the monsters and for options to use with monsters or NPCs (I didn't get much chance to actually play, so I didn't create a lot of PCs) However, once I got to a certain critical mass, my completist urge kicked in.

 

[amethal]

I spend more time reading D&D books than I do playing the game (and I game twice a week ) so I bought books that looked to me like they'd be an interesting read.

However, I have a limited budget, so I tried to steer clear of books that got comparatively bad reviews.

Despite this, I am something of a completist, so if there is a series that seems to me to be less than impressive overall (such as the "Races of" series) the I don't buy even the better received books since I know that if I buy one then I'm likely to end up buying the rest as well.

Then WotC cancelled my magazines and I stopped buying 3e books completely in protest.

 

[Tharkun]

I only buy books that contain subject matter that I really enjoy in and/or books that I know will get used.

 

[Fifth Element]

Ideas.

Ideas are awesome!

 

[Graybeard]

I bought splatbooks either because of a campaign need or because after I looked at the book in the store, I liked enough of what I saw to actually want to spend money on it. There are several books I never purchased simply because I didn' t like them. I know people that bought everything that came out. Some of the stuff I bought was 3rd party books/PDFs that fit the campaign I was running or playing in and added ideas or options.

 

[Wik]

Well, I bought the complete series for the extra classes... and then when the second round came out, I bought them if they even referenced the spellthief. Seriously. I bought Complete Scoundrel solely because it had two spellthief-specific feats, and some PrCs that could sort of be spellthief friendly.

I'm a little crazy about that class.

Other books I bought only if they really caught my interest. Heroes of Horror was a must, and I bought the environmental books because they usually fit PERFECTLY into what I was running (though I didn't grab the last two, because dungeons are rarely seen in my games, and I know enough about running a city). If the 3.5 book craze started again, me being who I am now as opposed to who I was, my purchases would be somewhat different. More monster and magic item books, and fewer splats. Except for spelltheif material.

I told you. I'm nuts.

 

[FireLance]

I bought 3.x books for the same reason that I bought 1e and 2e books.

Inspiration and options.

It's why I buy 4e books.

Short answer: This.

Longer answer: I like tinkering with new sub-systems and new ways to use old rules, and buying supplements allows me to keep up to date with innovations in rules and design.

 

[Aus_Snow]

See Greg K's post. The very few times I ventured beyond those motives. . . well, I suppose it can do the trick as overpriced fuel for fireplaces.