Best WotC Books of 3.0/3.5?

[Greg K]

My list:
1. Unearthed Arcana. I get more use out of this book than any other non-core WOTC book

2. Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss: FCI would have been my first choce except that UA has much more impact on my overall games.

3. any one of the following: Book of Vile Darkness, Dragonomicon, Heroes of Horror, Stormwrack

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

Dungeon Master's Guide II
Unearthed Arcana
Living Greyhawk Gazetteer

Honorable mention goes to the Forgotten Realm Campaign Setting book. I've never played in the Realms, but I really liked that book.

 

[Reynard]

DMG II, hands down. *That* is how you write a book for the DM -- tons and tons of examples of really interesting, non-standard stuff that DMs can use to try and temper their wild creativity with something resembling game balance. It is too bad that so little (outside the new stat-block) from DMG II got play in books that followed it. It was almost like they wanted to hand the DM the reigns back, but they never followed it up.

EDIT: oops, I have to pick 2 more.

Eberron Campaign Setting, for being bold. I fell quickly in and out of love with the setting, but the fact of its existence makes it noteworthy.

And Draconomicon. it is just good.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Sorry, can't do a top three ... at least not legitimately. What I can do is a top four:

1. Expanded Psionics Handbook

2. Unearthed Arcana

3. Draconomicon

4. Player's Handbook II



Take away any of the other books, and my game is essentially the same, just down a bit of flavor. Take away one of the books listed above and my game loses something significant.

 

[Nlogue]

I love Frostburn, Fiend Folio, and the Fiendish Codex I. Sharn City of Towers gets my best of Eberron vote, but only cause Dragons of Eberron and Stormreach aren't out yet.

 

[Asmor]

PHB2: There's something there for everyone! Not much that gets used consistently, but I've used almost everything in the book at least once, which is absolutely incredible when most books are lucky to be used for a class or a couple feats. However, the thing that really gets me with PHB 2 is appendix in the back for rolling up new PCs/NPCs. Lists of feats, spells and equipment? Can you say hell-fricking-yeah? Those few pages alone are worth their weight in gold.

Magic Item Compendium: Almost the same story as the PHB 2. Great book all around, but what really makes this amazing for me is the appendices.

Player's Guide to Eberron: I just got this book for a penny off Amazon, and it's knocked my socks off. I mean, it's a good book in itself, but the thing I really love is the format; it's basically an encyclopedia on Eberron. Consists of alphabetized 2- and 4-page articles on most topics you might want to look up. Absolutely fantastic! Would love to see more books with a similar format.

 

[Glyfair]

Leaving out campaign settings (since that's so subjective), this is what I get.

3.0

1. Magic of Faerun
2. Monsters of Faerun

That's it, I can't come up with a 3rd (might pick Ghostwalk if I was doing settings). I count these because while both were tied to FR (which I don't play), each were incredibly useful outside Faerun.

3.5

1. PHB II
2. Spell Compendium
3. MM III (Tome of Battle would take this if I had more experience with it, I think)

Miniature's Handbook had the best content to page ration, if you discount the miniature specific pages. Unfortunately, that's a large percentage of the book.

 

[Khairn]

1- Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting -Re-ignited my interest in FR

2- Book of Vile Darkness - What can I say ... I love bad guys!

3- Tome of Magic - Great examples of unique magic paradigms

 

[crazy_cat]

1. Lords of Madness
2. Drow of the Underdark
3. FC1: Hordes of the Abyss

 

[Gold Roger]

1.Tome of Battle. Simply an amazing book.

2.Libris Mortis. Whenever I use nekromancers or Undead, I find something in this book to add. I don't think there's any non-core book I've got more use out of.

3.PHB2. The all purpose splatbook.

Honorable mentions go to the Eberronm Campaign Setting (not in because really, it's the Setting, not the book that's so great), MM5, Spell Compendium and Magic of Incarnum, which has a fantastic new subsystem, but plain and simply the worst flavor.