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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nittanytbone" data-source="post: 3715563" data-attributes="member: 35709">Like you, I used just the core books for a long time.  I have recently added a few books that I HIGHLY suggest, however.Spell Compendium:  This book is great for casters and non-casters alike.  Rangers and Paladins benefit a ton, with many useful spells that either perfectly fit the themes and abilities of these classes.  For example, these melee classes pick up quite a few Swift Action spells, which are obviously great for them.  They provide a sorely needed boost to the usefulness and viability of mid to high level rangers/paladins, who often get overshadowed by their spellcaster companions around level 5-7ish.Furthermore, spellcasters will find some very handy stuff as well.  I particularly like that many classic, potent, high level spells have been scaled down to the low-mid levels.  For example, Blade Barrier is out of reach of many clerics in many low-mid level campaigns.  However, Spell Compendium introduces a level III cleric spell, "Ring of Blades," with similar -- but lower powered -- effects.One house rule I use with this book is that any caster must pay an additional 50 GP * SL to aquire a SC spell.  This prevents Divine Casters from suffering "spell overload" in that they immediately double their spell lists of known spells, and it makes Arcane Casters still focus much of their effort on the core PHB spells.  It is not a big issue at all for paladins/rangers/bards, who tend to use lower level spells.Magic Item Compendium:  Absolutely fantastic.  Many items aimed at the low to mid levels.  I play most of my games under level 10-12ish, so adding in items in the <1000 GP price range is a great idea.  There is also a system presented in here for rapidly equipping PCs/NPCs with magic gear, which works rather well.PHBII: An instant hit at my gaming table.  First, the new base classes are great.  The beguiler is a Thief/Mage, duskblade is a Fighter/Mage, Knight is a great area-control fighter, and Dragon Shaman is a support role.  While its possible to build a great Fighter/Mage, many of my players don't want to go through the trouble of poring through many books and feats to do it.  These classes work "out of the can", straight 20 levels, and have great flavor as well as being very soundly designed.Furthermore, there's a great section of feats that does a lot to beef up melee types in particular.  A set of class variants nicely rounds off the collection of rules material.  There's a "fix" for variant druids that I LOVE.  MUCH simpler, retains flavor, and brings druids back into line with a more reasonable power level.Useful sections on roleplaying, character background, and how to work together as a party are great advice for new players and welcome reminders to a more experienced group.  There's also some good tips on how to compensate for the lack of an "iconic" role ("What if there's no cleric/wizard/skillmonkey/tank?").  My players have also really gotten into Affiliations, which I think are rather elegantly presented.Finally, the retraining rules make sense and give you a concrete way to "fix" a campaign gone awry by unwise character decisions (Maybe taking Toughness at level 1 wasn't such as good idea now that you're level 9 and realize that Improved Toughness would have been much better, or the ranger's Archery thing just isn't working out and he wants to try melee for a time so he's not competing with the elf).These three books contain a good chunk of the material from many other publications and give you great bang for your buck.</blockquote>

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