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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3715629" data-attributes="member: 13966">Because Wizards of the Coast used a stupid naming convention for those lines of books when they really are not "complete" in any way, shape, or form.  It's just a stupid marketing ploy, to give the impression that each has everything you'd need to know for a character of that archetype.  Pffft.You don't "need" any supplements.Spell Compendium copies many spells from various WotC sources, especially from the Complete X series.  Do not bother with the Spell Compendium if you're going to spend money on a few so-called "Complete" books.  Of those, Complete Warrior and Complete Adventurer are probably the most useful ones, I suppose.  But avoid the Frenzied Berserker prestige class at all costs.You may or may not want the Spell Compendium (CW and CAdv have little if anything in the way of spells, but the other Completes aren't so good) anyway.  Complete Mage may or may not be worth it, but certainly not as useful as the SC for spellcasters in general.  Still, even the SC has several broken spells, but so does most any WotC supplement.Take a look at the Hypertext d20 SRD's <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#feats" target="_blank">section on divine feats</a> instead of bothering with Complete Divine, or look for a copy of the old 3.0 book "Defenders of the Faith" from Wizards of the Coast.  That has many of the divine feats in it (unlike the SRD), excluding the more broken ones that were added in Complete Divine, and the divine feats from DotF are compatible with 3.5.  DotF will likely be cheaper than CD though since it's older, softcover, and thinner.Heck no!!Avoid Races of Destiny and the Book of Exalted Deeds.  RoD has minimal useful material.  Book of Exalted Deeds is just horribly broken and unbalanced, along with having some wierd contradictory stuff (like its "ravages" being "good" while poisons are evil....).  The Vow of Poverty and its ilk will only cause problems and imbalance.I'd suggest the Player's Handbook II.  Likely to be really handy, though a few things are of course unbalancing or in need of some DM rulings on their interpretation/function (just like every other book  :\ ).Secondly, get the Monster Manual III perhaps, for the DM to have more critters and such at his/her disposal.  Lords of Madness (if the DM likes aberrations, like illithids, aboleths, or Far Realms horrors) or Draconomicon (if the DM likes to use dragons a lot) would be a fine substitute, and more specialized.Magic Item Compendium may be useful as well, if you guys get tired of the same set of magic items in the DMG.Other than what I've already mentioned, I don't think there are any 3.5 rulebooks you really need for expanding your game, when strapped for cash.  PHB2, MM3/Lom/Draconomicon, MIC, and SC would probably give you the most for your money.  Complete Warrior and Complete Adventurer would be the next-most-useful after those, I think (if the DM doesn't need/want more monsters to use, then CW would probably be more useful than MM3).At some point, if you like different combat and magic systems, rules variants, or other variant/optional stuff, you might want to take a look at Unearthed Arcana, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords, Magic of Incarnum, or Tome of Magic.</blockquote>

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