So, what did I miss?

[senodam]

Hallo again all. It's been a good long while since I last visited these here parts, mostly because I've not been playing D&D for a long time.

I've kept up with some stuff- mainly Dragon and Dungeon, which is why I'm actually running D&D again. The Age of Worms AP reminded me of why I loved D&D so much, and now I'm running that for one group (in Greyhawk), and planning a Forgotten Realms campaign for another.

Now, my first priority is to find out what I've missed out on over the past year or so. Basically, outside of the Paizo magazines I've not so much as looked at a single D&D product for the entirety of 2006. My main interest is the WoTC stuff I might find worth looking at, but I'm curious about any cool new books at all.
So, hit me with it folks...what should I be looking to snag first?

 

[Pants]

Tome of Battle: Book of the Nine Swords: If you like inserting wuxia-styled combat into your D&D game. It's style is not for everyone.

Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and Truename: Adds three new magic systems to the game: pact binding, shadow magic, and truenaming. Balance is all over the place, with most abilities being underpowered, but the flavor (for the pact and shadow sections) is pretty great.

Player's Handbook II: Has some really cool feats, spells, rules for retraining your character, affiliation rules, alternate class abilities, and some nifty new standard classes. It's really nice.

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss: If you really like demons, buy this book. Also, buy this book if you love having books that kick all sorts of arse.

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells: Not as good as FCI, but it has some great ideas for using devils in campaigns. Much better than the similar section in FCI, even if the other book is, overall, better IMO.

Complete Mage: Pretty nifty book, surprisingly. Not just a rehash of Complete Arcane, though it does build upon lots of material in there. It's not terribly needed, but it might be worth a look.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: Revisits the old classic module and expands upon it adding extra stuff for PC's to do in Barovia. My opinion on this one changes every day, some days I think it's really nifty, other days... I don't. It might be worth a look.

Red Hand of Doom - Adventure: Gets lots of praise here, though I don't own it. Basically sets PC's up in a 'race against time/invading army' plot. It looks really cool IMO.

Avoid:
Complete Psionic: At best, it's meh, at worst, it's a waste of money. Which is too bad, since I like psionics.

Cityscape: An exceptionally average book. It touches on lots of stuff, but doesn't really do much with it. Also, the mechanics are pretty blah too.

3rd Party:
World of Warcraft: Monster Guide: If you love WoW like I do, then this book is for you. It's a very pretty book with a good range of monsters. Unfortunately, it also covers a lot of the same ground that the MM3.5 covers (with stats for dire animals, dinosaurs, skeletons, and zombies), and while most of the mechanics are solid looking, some are wonky. Overall, I liked it a lot.

 

[senodam]

Thanks for that Pants.

I don't know anything about Warcraft beyond the regular chat about it between some of my players, but I don't have much involvement with computer games at all really.

Now to go and check out some reviews and see what takes my fancy.

 

[Aus_Snow]

There's also Complete Scoundrel.

 

[Deekin]

Complete Psionic <- Aviod

D&D Dungeon Tiles
D&D Dungeon Tiles II: Arcane Corridors

These are really nice

Dragon Magic <-- All about the magic dragons use, and dragon magic as used by common races


Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

Can't Comment on these.

Monster Manual IV <-- Avoid

Player's Handbook II This is a cool book.


Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow, and Truename Magic: Cool book, some wonky balance with the shadow caster though.



Expedition to Castle Ravenloft Adventure : Reprint of the classic.