Its been over a decade since I've played a PnP RPG but I'm getting a new PnP D&D 3.x group together. I am looking to spend about $50 on used books. Which Wotc D&D 3.x supplements would you suggest I buy to get the most bang for my buck? Also, if you could mention what is good about each that would be great. -Thanx
Assuming that you have the core rules, it really depends on what you think is missing from them, what your campaign setting is like, how much work and home-brewing you like to do. The supplements fall into several categories, but most will give you extra feats, spells, prestige classes, magic and mundane items, monsters and maybe player races and core classes centred around one theme.
Major exceptions to this are:
-PHB2 (mostly). It does include four new core classes which seem quite popular (Beguiler - a kind of sneaky mage, Duskblade - a fighter/mage, Dragon Shaman - bit like the Dragon Disciple prestige class and Knight, a melee type with slightly bard-like abilities). A big selection of feats, a lot of woolly stuff about how to define your character that experienced players know already.
-DMG2. Again, mostly advice that experienced GMs know already. Most of the crunchy stuff is nonessential
- Unearthed Arcana. This is a selection box of variant rules and different options, and if you like tinkering, this is a good one. Fortunately, as rgard mentions, its mostly Open Content and available online.
Other series:
Book of Vile Darkness/Book of Exalted Deeds cover exceptionally evil and good options respectively. BOVD is 3.0 content but is quite inspiring for particularly nasty villains. BOED is 3.5, but is good for really good PCs. Both have sparked controversy (apparantly body piercings are evil).
Complete series. Warrior, Arcane, Divine and Adventurer all include three new base classes each, some upgraded from Oriental adventurers. Heaps of feats. Psion does the same for psionic characters. These are all, obviously, focussed on a particular style of play (not completely character class-based, but obviously fighters get more from Complete Warrior than sorcerers). Champion, Mage and Scoundrel don't have any new classes and are fairly light on crunch, although Scoundrel is probably the most interesting.
Frostburn, Sandstorm, Stormwrack, Cityscape and Dungeonscape all give the usual mix of crunch listed above, the first three include new PC races, the last a new class (the multi-faceted Factotum). Of those, I've found Stormwrack and Cityscape the most useful, but I would say none are essential unless your campaign is heavily based in one environment (and if its dungeons, Dungeonscape is quite light on useful material).
Monster Manuals 2-5 plus Fiend Folio: if you're imaginative you can probably avoid these. Necromancer Games' Tome of Horrors does a good job of picking up the 1st/2nd Ed. monsters that were missed, but a lot of them you realise
why they got left out.
The Races of books (Stone, The Wild, Destiny and The Dragon) each serve to introduce new PC races, but are mostly background fluff for the PC races, which may vary from campaign to campaign. If your game is going to focus on, say, dwarves, it
might be worthwhile to pick up Races of Stone but I would class these as non-essential.
Supplements that introduce new subsystems - Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Magic of Incarnum. Forget Incarnum, it's a nice idea presented in a lacklustre fashion. If you want psionics, the XPH is vital, but most of this is Open Content at d20srd.org (but not the races). Tome of Magic gives three different magic subsystems, of which the Binders and Vestiges are the most interesting. Shadow Magic and Truenamers don't really come across as radically different enough. Tome of Battle is a sort of fun
wuxia-esque alternative with classes who can perform magical combat maneuvres. One of my games has a swordsage character who is quite a tough fighter but also does lots of fun moves. As mentioned before, it can overshadow the poor old vanilla fighter, though.
Magic Item Compendium, Spell Compendium and Arms and Equipment guide bring together a lot of the new elements from the other supplements, plus a few novel ones. They're all good, pure crunchiness and it depends on your game. Spell Compendium obviously is useful only for spellcasting characters, the others have something for everyone.
Lords of Madness, Draconomicon, Fiendish Codex (1 and 2), Libris Mortis. These all expand on one kind of foe, with options both for the creatures and those that fight them. Slightly more fluff than crunch. Useful only if your campaign is focussed on a particualr type of enemy.
Other miscellaneous ones - Epic Level Handbook, useful if you are planning on going over 20th level, but much available online. Deities and Demigods disappointingly only focusses on three pantheons. Dragon Magic sort of belongs in the Complete series - bits for sorcerers, dragon disciples, dragon shamans and other draconic options. Partly a cycnical exercise by WOTC who found that titles with "dragon" and "magic" in them sold the most!
Heroes of Battle and Heroes of Horror give extra rules for campaigns that are centred on war or gothic horror, respectively (Heroes of Horror is a sort of Ravenloft-lite). Minatures Handbook has more on mass combat rules. All okay, but I wouldn't class any as vital unless, again, you think it would be good for your campaign.
Campaign settings - the big official two are Forgotten Realms and Eberron (Greyhawk is sort of covered in every other supplement). Each also have location-specific sourcebooks, Faiths of.. and Races of .. books. Both are pretty good settings, worth a look if you like playing in someone else's creation. Oriental Adventures is also kind of a setting book. It's 3.0, but has some nice stuff. Ghostwalk is an interesting one that got overlooked (due to being the last 3.0 book before 3.5) - a city where death isn't the end.
Manual of the Planes and Planar Handbook, worthwhile if adventuring in the outer planes of the standard setting, but doesn't quite capture Planescape.
I'm sure I've missed some. If you want to include 3rd party stuff as well, then two worth looking for are Arcana Evolved and Ptolus, both by Monte Cook and published by his Malhavoc company. AE is an "alternative players handbook" with a load of new races and classes that kind of cover the same ground as the core classes but also cover roles from fantasy fiction that the core rules miss, and does lots of things in a slightly different way that tend to be better - it's a good way of seeing how small tweaks to the d20 rules can change the flavour of the game. But it still works with existing 3.x stuff with little trouble. Ptolus may be beyond your budget - it's a huge deluxe campaign setting based on Monte's home game that dates back to 2nd Ed, set in a massive city sat upon countless catacombs, with a setting that assumes that the world works in the way that the D&D rules dictate that they ought to. Alternatively, Beyond Countless Doorways is a good multiverse setting written by many of the old Planescape crew.
My recommendations?
To be honest, most of the WOTC stuff underwhelms me. Unearthed Arcana is good for tinkerers. BOVD and BOED contain a lot of food for thought. The various Compendiums stir things up, but you wouldn't need them to start right away in 3.x, as there are plenty of options for a while before the same old spells etc. become stale. Ditto the Complete and Races series. If you like using other people's settings, one of the Campaign Setting books would probably be a good investment.
