Books you didn't expect much out of -bought anyway- and got a lot of use from.

[Kelek72]

Relics by AEG.
Cool items and lots of ideas!

 

[Pseudonym]

Bastion Press's Alchemy and Herbalists. It's turned out to be more usefull than I had hoped, especially in conjunction with the infusion mechanics from Masters of the Wild.

 

[Gospog]

The Monsternomicon.

I bought it to "flip through" because I like monster and figured I'd find a couple of good ones.

I read it cover-to-cover and we are on Game Four of our Iron Kingdoms campaign and LOVING it!

 

[Kichwas]

...

One wonders how many threads -if this place had a search function - would not be so often repeated only minutes or hours after each other.

 

[Desdichado]

Draconomicon -- I just expected it to be a pretty "coffee table" D&D book, but it's really, really well done.

Other than that, though -- I primarily buy stuff I know I want, so this doesn't happen to me all that often.

 

[pawsplay]

AEG's Magic. I bought it mainly too read. I'm an aspiring freelancer, and I love read imaginative game books anyway. But the Chronomancer turned out to be perfect for a seeress I wanted to use, and the fighter-mage types filled a niche long before we had Eldritch Knights and Hexblades (and at which they still excel even in the presence of flashier new core and PrCs). The Totemist is the way, I think, to handle so many savage spellcasters, much more interesting than the Adept. Some of it's just weird, like Forge magic, but you don't have to use anything you don't want to.

 

[Kvantum]

Quintessential Sorcerer. It was an impulse buy at GenCon this summer. Thought it was going to be a typical Mongoose book, which generally IMO are overpowered, poorly written, very poorly edited (come on Matt, your company can't run a frelling spellcheck through the text?), and a general waste of money.

But I'll be damned if it isn't a good book with some very cool ideas. They need tweaking, of course (what DM doesn't tweak rules?) but still, they help add some of the flavor that sorcerers seemingly lack.

 

[Arnwyn]

What did you buy for whatever reason -expecting it to be a waste of money or not that useful, and then got a lot more than you expected out of it.

None. I never buy a book that I expect to be "a waste of money". Why would anyone do that?

Just like I said in the other eerily familiar thread, I suppose I get more use out of the Psionics Handbook than I thought I would.

 

[Psion]

Will, this thread is phrased more interestingly, at least.

Jot me down for
Book of Vile Darkness
1001 Faces Vol I
Quintessential Sorcerer
Arsenal & Factory

Sort of kind of City of the Spider Queen and Lords of Darkness. I never run FR, so I know I will never use them as intended. That said, knowing I am not going to use them as intended has been strangely liberating, and unlike a variety of adventures that sit on my shelf on the supposition that I dare not plunder them because I will use them one day, I find I am yanking stuff out of these for plundering purposes.

 

[Krug]

Arsenal & Factory

Hear that Perpeated Press?? Come back, wherever you are!