What books should I buy?

[Mistwell]

I recently received about $75 in Amazon gift certificates, and need to decide which 3.5 D&D books I will buy with it.

I am primarily a player, playing a cleric in RTEE, a wizard in Spider Queen, a fighter in Kalamar, and an Akashic in a Monte Cook Arcana Evolved setting in a fourth. I also sometimes a DM (though not much lately) and do consider books that would help me as a DM. The game I DM is a bit like Harry Potter, with players being students faced with a lot of traps, riddles, mysteries, and a variety of unusual locations through a series of gates, if that helps any. Player books that might help me develop my characters, add interesting options, inspire me in a new direction, and things like that are generally more useful right now than DM-oriented books, but I will consider the later.

I have: Core books, Complete books, Races of books (Destiny, Wild, Stone, Dragon), PHB II, DMG II, many FR books (campaign setting, magic of, player's guide to, lords of darkness, faiths and pantheons), Unearthed Arcana, Libris Mortis, Spell compendium, and some others.

I am trying to chose what to buy from this list:

Eberron campaign setting (or any other Eberron book people like),
Locations books (Frostburn, Sandstorm, Stormwrack),
Psionics books (Psionic Handbook, Expanded Psonic Handbook, Complete Psionic),
Planar books (Planar Handbook, Manual of the Planes),
Miniatures Handbook,
Some of the creature-type books (Draconomicon, Lords of Madness),
Magic of Incarnum,
Tomes (Tome of Battle, Tome of Magic),
Weapons of Legacy,
Heros of Battle,
Heros of Horror,
Monster Books (MM II, MM III, MM IV, Fied Folio),
Savage Species,
Forgotten Realms: Underdark (and some of the other newer FR books might be interesting).

I'd like some opinions from people on which book(s) they think are the "best" from this bunch (given what I told you about my interests). Additional books people like, that are not on this list, are also welcome. Thanks in advance, and I hope that isn't too open a question...

 

[Guennarr]

The question is:
1) Do you want to start something new, or (considering the number of different settings you already play in)
2) rather concentrate on one subject?

Do you want to
flesh out a setting (i.e. alternative 2 from above), or
add new rules to the game? (i.e. alternative 1 from above).

If you want to flesh out your campaign world, there are a lot of good FR supplements available you didn't mention yet. You could try another setting like Eberron, too, but that means one more alternative on top of the ones you already play. ;-)

Adding new rules is no problem in D&D: be it psionics, magic of Incarnum, alle the "Tome of ..." books (all of them re write core rules to some extent), or the environmental books: you add more surprises, but also more complexity to your game...

Ok. These are rather more questions than an answer, but I guess you will enjoy your purchases more if you know that their aim fits to your play.

Greetings from Germany,
Günther

P.S.
At least some kind of recommendation:
You can never make something wrong with good monster books: Draconomicon or Libris Mortis are some kind of de luxe monster books (containing a lot of back ground information, new rules, and new critters), Fiend Folio is also very recommendable, although it is "just" your usual MM. Regarding MM II and III opinions seem to differ very much, though.

 

[Wik]

Those locations books are probably some of my favourite wotc books EVER, especially Frostburn (although Stormwrack is neat, too). It's great if you want an interesting read, and there's a LOT in it that will inspire you. Sandstorm didn't do it for me as much, but I think that's because I'm a DARK SUNner, and the book is more egyptian over athasian. *sigh*

If you're going to grab a monster book, I'd recommend Fiend Folio. MM2 and MM3 are just too... over the place... for me. There's a neat Elemental Weird in MM2 that would be excellent for a puzzle-based wizard campaign, though.

 

[Treebore]

The creature type books are the ones I would get if I was you. Especially the undead one, Draconomicon is much more useful for the DM, but there is some cool player info in it as well. Lords of Madness is actually my least favorite, but that is mostly because it didn't focus on the creatures I wished for it to.

 

[Ghostwind]

I am trying to chose what to buy from this list:
Locations books (Frostburn, Sandstorm, Stormwrack),
Planar books (Planar Handbook, Manual of the Planes),
Some of the creature-type books (Draconomicon, Lords of Madness),
Heroes of Horror,

These are what I would focus on. They give you the most options for your money.

 

[diaglo]

OD&D(1974) boxed set

 

[Darkwolf445]

OD&D(1974) boxed set

for 75 bucks?
That would be getting off cheap.

 

[Drowbane]

Expanded Psionics Handbook (don't remember this on your "Already own" list)
Races of Eberron
Tome of Magic
Magic of Incarnum

 

[diaglo]

for 75 bucks?
That would be getting off cheap.

i got mine for $10

 

[Crothian]

i got mine for $10

Will you sell it for ten?