Best WotC Books of 3.0/3.5?

[Khuxan]

Tome of Battle: The first time I played a warrior class was with a swordsage, and I've been playing for six years now. It was exciting, tactical and customisable to suit my fairly obscure character archetype.

Tome of Magic: A beautiful book, very well laid-out and full of great ideas.

Manual of the Planes: Expanded my horizons and was easily the book I read the most back in the day. Before I bought it I sat in the game store and read a huge chunk of it.

 

[Rechan]

3.0

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Man, I loved that book. It was just so stylish. I never got to play in the Realms, but it's a pretty book.

3.5

Eberron Campaign Setting. Always have this book by my side. Love it. It's invaluable, among other things, because I'm running two Eberron campaigns.

Sandstorm. I picked this book up every time I went into a bookstore, just to flip through it, and finally bought it. Finally running a campaign in a desert, and have all ready used two critters from it. Mmm.

Heroes of Horror. I adore the Archivist. It is one of my favorite classes. Dread Necromancer is nice also.

PHBII: Love the Dragon Shaman, and the Duskblade isn't bad either.

Fluff-wise:

Tome of Magic. The Binder and Truenamer are pure smex, but the mechanics for the latter? Eh. Also, I just Love the name Parliment of Shadows. I must use that in a game, if only because the name is so damn pretty. The book is also beautiful.

Crunch-Wise:

Expanded Psionic Handbook. The system is beautiful. I want to play at least six psions, but alas, it is never meant to be.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

This is a tough one, for me. I have the 3.0 core books, Book of Vile Darkness, and MMII. Most of my d20 purchases were third party stuff. However, since 4E was announced, a whole slew of brand new 3E books have appeared at Half-Price Books, and I was looking through them the other day. The psionics book looked interesting (although I'm not really a fan of psionics), and Unearthed Arcana looked very good, too. I may pick those up to mine for ideas, even though I'm not running 3E, these days.

Anyway, my picks would be:

Unearthed Arcana (based solely on my bookstore browsing)
Book of Vile Darkness (because I bought it and got some use out of it)
Monster Manual II (because I bought it and got some use out of it)

No one has really mentioned adventures, but I thought Red Hand of Doom was decent.

 

[blargney the second]

MIC is practically part of my DMG now.

Ditto. Totally indispensable. I think it's because of those beautiful tables in the back that melge them together so nicely.

 

[marv]

Excellent topic. Here are my top three:

1.) Libris Mortis (finnally an ORGINAL 3.0/3.5 volume - yes, previous versions, particulary 2nd, had some good texts on undead, but this book is orginal in concept and implimentation. Chapter 7, Undead in The Campaign is chuck full of ideas for DMing undead. When you combine that with info in Chapter 1 on undead outlook, religion, and psychology, you have all the tools needed to bring undead 'to life' in your campaign, so to speak. And let's not forget about all the cool new undead creaters this tomb gives us. The only true week spot is Chapter 3 - but then again, the obligatory "Prestige Classes" chapter in all the 3.x texts is always the weakest one.)
2.) Forgotten Realms Campain Setting (simply the best champain setting single volume ever put out by TSR/WoTC - too bad the other 3.x FR books aren't of the same calibure. In many ways the Player's guide to Faerun is the 3.5 updating of this text - so in my mind they are one and the same books).
3.) Spell Compendium (for obvious reasons).

 

[Hussar]

• Tome of Magic - Playing a binder right now as a matter of fact and this has turned out to be one of the most challenging characters I've ever played.
  
• PHB 2
  
• Sandstorm - I know, but, I played an "Arabian Adventures" style campaign a while back and this book did the job and did it well. Can't ask for more than that.
  

 

[Brakkart]

Nice idea for a thread! My picks would have to be:

1. Draconomicon - Quite simply the best book on dragons that has ever been produced in any edition of the game. I didn't even like dragons that much until I bought this book. Love them now!

2. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting - This is a book that should be held up as an example of how to make a campaign setting book. One of the few rpg books I've read cover to cover more than once.

3. Monster Manual III - So many good monsters in this book, especially for a scaly folk lover like me, Poison Dusk & Black Scale Lizardfolk, Ssvaklors, Dracotaurs and more. This book got a lot of use in the longest and best campaign I've ever run.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Finally sorted #3. So that would now be:

Heroes of Horror
Tome of Magic
Players Handbook II

 

[TerraDave]

Not much to add...
1) Spell Compendium
2) Magic Item Compendium
3) Unearthed Arcana.

Comparing this to the non-wizards thread, WotC is the winner on utility, looser on originallity.

 

[TerraDave]

But, the 3.5 wotc product(s) I have gotten the most use out of the outside the core books:

Plastic, prepainted minatures.