Best of 3.5 (particularly hardcovers and settings)

[Mercurius]

Continuing my collecting kick, I'm looking at the vast wealth of 3.5 books. I don't plan on playing 3.5, but am looking for fun stuff to read, particularly fluffy stuff (settings, etc). I played and bought books up until 3.5 came out in 2003, then stopped until 4ed in 2008, so there is a four or five years worth of stuff that I'm basically unfamiliar with. What do you recommend?

In particular:
*Settings, or setting templates
*Anything to do with lost lore, artifacts, mysteries, powerful creatures, etc.
*Anything related to setting or campaign creation, interesting DM tips, etc.

I'm less interested in crunch-heavy books like the Complete X-class series. Fluff, please! A focus on Wizards of the Coast stuff, but if there is something from a 3PP that you really recommend that fits my criteria, feel free to post it.

 

[vagabundo]

I really enjoyed the Forgotten Realms: Underdark. Lots of nice underdarkie stuff and the lowdown on what lives there.

I'd recommend it.

 

[Mercurius]

Ah yes, me too. I actually have that one, about ten 3E FR hardcovers total, most of the setting-heavy stuff. I also have the 3 core books, but that's just about it.

A question for anyone: Was there a Book of Artifacts for 3.5?

 

[Mark Hope]

You won't be disappointed by any of these.

Tome of Artifacts from Necromancer Games. Fluff-heavy awesome. Several campaigns of inspiration in one book.

Ptolus from Malhavoc. City-based uber-setting by Monte Cook. Fantastic.

Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set from Necromancer. Fluff-heavy old-school campaign setting. May be hard to find.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting by Paizo. The wold of Golarion. The best fantasy gameworld on the market right now, bar none. What little crunch it holds is 3.5, and there is shedload of extra material from Paizo to flesh it out.

Book of the Righteous from Green Ronin. Best. Fantasy. Pantheon. Evar.

From WotC, the "monster series" of books (Draconomicon, Lords of Madness, both Fiendish Codices and the Drow of the Underdark) are fantastic, particularly Draconomicon, Lords of Madness and Hordes of the Abyss.

 

[Shemeska]

Once development on 4e began, WotC did a lot of fluff-heavy books that were largely written by freelancers rather than the core WotC design team, and a number of those were absolute gems. The emphasis on their type of fluff isn't likely something you'll see replicated in 4e anytime soon, just based on design direction that WotC has gone in.

Fiendish Codex I - the best book of the 3.5 era, hands down. Faithful to the vast amounts of 2e fiend lore, but builds its own unique and evocative material on top of that base. Very, very well written.

Lords of Madness - beholders, illithids, aboleths, etc. Tons of flavor.

Serpent Kingdoms - probably my favorite FR supplement, because it touches on areas of the setting and topics that hadn't been covered in previous material. Nether Scrolls, yuan-ti, nagas, and sarrukh. Awesomeness.

 

[DaveMage]

You won't be disappointed by any of these.

Ptolus from Malhavoc. City-based uber-setting by Monte Cook. Fantastic.

Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set from Necromancer. Fluff-heavy old-school campaign setting. May be hard to find.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting by Paizo. The wold of Golarion. The best fantasy gameworld on the market right now, bar none. What little crunch it holds is 3.5, and there is shedload of extra material from Paizo to flesh it out.

Yep...pretty much.

 

[freyar]

Another recommendation for the 3.5 monster-fluff books from WotC, particularly Draconomicon, Lords of Madness, and FC1.

Other publishers:

GR's Book of the Righteous is indeed awesome and would let you build up a setting easily, I think (but is technically 3.0). The Book of Fiends fits with the Book of the Righteous cosmology and is excellent (though more like a monster manual in style).

Paizo's Dragon Ecologies (if, like me, you don't have the magazine issues) and Classic Monsters Revisited are real gems and are nearly all fluff. The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting (and, really, all their setting fluff that I've seen) is excellent!

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Poisoncraft, by Blue Devil Games

Draconomicon, from WotC, for the dragons and the amazing art. Also, Libris Mortis, for some excellent ways to trick out undead.

Nyambe, Atlas Games, since it's a cool and different setting.

Necromancer Games City of Brass boxed set. Amazing.

Beyond Countless Doorways, from Malhavoc Press. Planar goodness with a whole new way of getting around the worlds.

Empire of the Ghouls, by Wolfgang Baur. (Patron project though, and very hard to get.) Better choice might be The Kobold's Guide to Game Design, also by Wolfgang.

Loads more, but others will suggest them.

 

[Crothian]

Bluffside: City on the Edge This is on older 3.0 setting book that is totally awesome. It was published by Mystic Eye Games and very creative for a city with lots of adventure and potential for doing more with the city. It was well recieved here at the time but I imagine since it is rarely talked about these days it can be found pretty cheap.

Thieves Quarter and Temple Quarter This is two sections of one city and I think Arcane Quarter came out as a PDF but not in print. Lots of great places and ideas here. There is a PDF adventure set in the city that I don't recall thew name of but writtern by Rodney Thompson I believe (who is now the Star Wars Saga dude). It was a lot of fun and made for a good city based adventure which are rare.

 

[kitsune9]

I like anything Iron Kingdoms. That has cool fluff, the Monsternomicons are awesome, and Five Fingers was a great add-on supplement.