Must buys in this list?

[Glyfair]

Complete Arcane and/or Mage

Many good comments here. However, don't get the Complete Mage without first having the Complete Arcane. Large portions of the CM build off of things that are in the CA (the warlock class in particular) and are mostly useless if you don't have it.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Out of the books you list, I've had most use out of the Complete Book of Eldritch Might. Like others, I'd recommend Draconomicon and Lords of Madness as great fun to read.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Greg K]

My recommendations:
WOTC
Unearthed Arcana
Dragonomicon
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
Lords of Madness
Stormwrack


Non-WOTC
Psychic's Handbook (Green Ronin)
Shaman's Handbook (Green Ronin)
Witch's Handbook (Green Ronin)

 

[Pants]

My only campaign is a 1-on-1 I DM for my wife (we both have 2 PCs) in FR. Since we're trying to keep things relatively simple and are only 4th level, I doubt I'll be using any of the mechanics soon, so I'm looking for fun things to read and to keep in mind down the road. In terms of settings, I'm most interested in FR and Greyhawk. My list is

Player's Guide to Faerun

Mostly mechanics driven, I'd skip it.

Cityscape

Some interesting stuff on cities. Fairly light on mechanics, mostly has informative text and DM helpful stuff. It's an okay book, certainly not the one I'd pick from the list, but if cities play a big part then it could be very useful.

Complete Arcane and/or Mage

Both fairly mechanics driven. Mage is an all-around better book than Arcane, however, Mage builds upon some stuff from Arcane (primarily the warlock and wu-jen classes) and I'd hesistate to recommend it to anyone who doesn't already own Arcane.

Mage also has some 'help PC's and DM's out' style of writing, but it's mostly mechanics.

Lords of Madness: Book of Aberrations
Draconomicon

Really great books! Both are good just for reading (Lords of Madness especially). Though both have some mechanics, the primary parts of the books are devoted to flavor text. I think I might recommend Lords of Madness over Draconomicon, but there's no denying that Draco is a really good book.

Other books I'd Recommend:
Lost Empires of Faerun
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
Manual of the Planes
Dungeon Master's Guide II

Libris Mortis is a decent book, with good material on existing creatures (principally mind flayers), but it sqanders space on the tsochar, a new creature which I am unlikely to use for any great period.

You mean Lords of Madness right?

I liked the tsochar, they're pretty cool actually. It'd be neat to have a campaign dedicated around them as the badguys. They're not build around SLA's like Mind Flayers and Aboleths are and they're inhumanly creepy enough to stir the pseudo-Lovecraft vibes.

 

[DragonLancer]

Cityscape
Lords of Madness: Book of Aberrations
Draconomicon

I recommend these. In fact, I recommend all of the environment series and Libris Mortis, if you can get them.

 

[Kafkonia]

Of the ones you listed, I'd say Lords of Madness gets the nod -- it's highly recommended if you're at all interested in aberrations. Of course, if you weren't, you wouldn't have included it on that list.

The complete series is good, but it's better for crunch than fluff. The environment (Frostburn and Sandstorm are the two not mentioned yet) and theme books (critter-themed, like Libris Mortis and Draconomicon, or otherwise, like Manual of the Planes or Heroes of Horror) are better for fluff.

If planes catch your eye, also look out for the Classic Play Book of the Planes, which I think is quite good.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

The Complete Book of Eldritch Might is a good book. I would also suggest Spell Compendium if you are looking to expand your range of spells.

Olaf the Stout

 

[darkbard]

I'll also throw my weight behind Lords of Madness for sheer reading pleasure (and also potential utility). However, I am quite frankly surprised by all the love for this book. Surprised in a good way since I think it's one of the best books of 3.5 but surprised nevertheless because I hardly see it mentioned with such ardent support.

 

[GeorgeFields]

Older edition pdfs are $4 each at www.paizo.com.

I'd recommend the three 2e FR god books as pdfs, they are fantastic FR descriptive resources and I have used them in my 3e games.

Although I'm not into FR any more, IMO these are three of the best books TST / WotC ever published.

The Complete Book of Eldritch Might is a good book. I would also suggest Spell Compendium if you are looking to expand your range of spells.

Olaf the Stout

Another good pair.

Temple of Elemental Evil / Scourge of the Slave Lords / Queen of Spiders is a GREAT and classic series. As an old-school gamer, I recommend these to anyone the has never ran or played them. Of course, you'll need to do some conversions, but that's small potatoes. I believe most of these have been done on ENWorld's conversion library.

Hail & Peace

 

[Greg K]

I'll also throw my weight behind Lords of Madness for sheer reading pleasure (and also potential utility). However, I am quite frankly surprised by all the love for this book. Surprised in a good way since I think it's one of the best books of 3.5 but surprised nevertheless because I hardly see it mentioned with such ardent support.

Honestly, I didn't expect to like this book, but was pleasantly surprised. Its not my favorite WOTC supplement, but it is in my top 10 WOTC supplements.