Must have 3.5 supplements. . .

[Angel Tarragon]

Cityscape? Really? I was really excited when that came out, but after flipping through it and then reading some reviews on it, I thought it looked pretty terrible.

Was I wrong? (If so, that'd be great to know, because I really want my next campaign to be heavily urban.)

I absolutely love the book. It delves into subjects I hadn't considered. About 50% of the modules I run are urban based, so Cityscape coupled w/Ptolus provides me with a wealth of information that helps to increase the experience of urban adventures.

My favorite parts of Citscape is Features & Hazards of the City (featuring conditions of Lighting, Roads & Streets, Sewers), the City Districts (Embassy, Magic, University, and Fisher's Wharf).

The new spells are pretty cool too, the various Peacebond spells see lots of use in my cities. Also the fourth and fifth chapters are pure gold in my opinion.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I think the only real "must have" is the Spell Compendium. After that, I'd recommend the Magic Item Compendium and PHII as the next two to get. Dungeonscape is a very good book but not essential.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Aus_Snow]

PHBII, though it does contain 4 new base classes, and some (quite nice) feats, mainly caters to D&D in general, and to the standard classes quite significantly.

Much of it can be used either way (i.e., whether you have no splatbooks, some, or all of them).

Everyone seems pretty pleased with owning the SC and MIC, so I'd assume they're handy.

As you appear to be DMing (hence the references to encounter tables, and stuff), I will - as always - recommend getting some more critter books. The box set of MMII, MMIII and FF is nice. Then there's all the third party offerings. . . but must haves? I'm struggling to even find one, PHBII included.

So, hm. Sorry. :\

 

[GAAAHHH]

Mongoose has a couple of cool books. One is called Classic Play: Book of Strongholds and Dynasties , which is very useful if you are planning on having characters who build strongholds or control territories. The Ultimate Equipment Guide Volume 1 is a great book if you like having a large variety of non-magical equipment. The herbs section actually makes it useful to take Profession: Herbalist to go with thier Knowledge: Nature.

I like Cityscape, but a lot of people on these boards don't like it. The NPC section is my favorite. It has stats for guards, thieves, shop-owners, nobles, cultists. It has specific NPC villains and a mob of humans. It even has a throng of children. The guilds section is also good for some ideas.

Stormwrack is good for ocean-going adventures, and it has some ship deckplans in it. Libris Mortis is good if you use a lot of undead. Manual of the Planes is good for adventures that go to the planes.

There are lots of other really good books, but I think I'll stop there for now.

 

[Stalker0]

Spell Compendium and the Magic Item Compendium I consider the best new supplements, they both increase options AND increase convenience.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There aren't any 'must haves' outside the core rules. The best non-core book is Magic Item Compendium imo. You could also download the errata (a misnomer, some of it is later modifications to the rules) from the WotC site.

 

[Jhaelen]

Not exactly a must have, but fixing many problematic balance issues for existing classes: PHBII. It also contains quite useful tables to quickly create pcs.

MIC is also quite nice.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

DMG II is a must-have for any DM.
Magic Item Compendium would be nice to have, as well.
Unearthed Arcana is good if you want help with optional rules but you don't want to buy all of the splatbooks.
Spell Compendium is good for anyone who loves to play spellcasters.
Back issues of Dungeon magazine from the 3.5 revision on.
Tome of Horrors 3.5e revision if you need more monsters (this is a .pdf only product I think)

 

[Greg K]

From WOTC
Unearthed Arcana
The cityscape enhancment #1: not a book, but a free download at the WOTC site
Dragonomicon: If you use dragons
Fiendish Codex: If you use demons
Fiendish Codex II: If you use devils
Lords of Madness: If you use abberations
Stormwrack: if you will be having sea based adventures


From third parties:
Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin)
Psychic's Handbook (Green Ronin): My preference to WOTC's Expanded Psionics Handbook
Shaman's Handbook (Green Ronin)
Witch's Handbook (Green Ronin)
Book of Iron Might (malhavoc): Lots of combat goodness. I prefer it to Book of Nine Swords
Elements of Magic-Revised (and the other books in the line): If you want to replace the magic system (Note: this recommendation is based on reviews. I only have Elements of Magic-Mythic Earth which I love, but I haven't tried to use it for DND only d20Modern)

 

[teitan]

The two Compendiums are definitely nice
I also suggest the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual 2+3 (haven't read 4 yet)
DungeonScape is full of interesting material and really, really helps in developing your own dungeon set ups.

That is about all I can think of really that can add to a game without being a headache.

Oh yeah, Libris Mortis if you are undead happy like me!!!