What motivated you to purchase splatbooks for 3e?

[Scurvy_Platypus]

I bought my very first 3.5 book about 2 and a half years ago. I missed the whole initial roll out of 3rd ed and 3.5 too. I pretty much showed up for 3E on the downturn. I haven't ever felt much pressure in the past 20 years to upgrade to a different edition of anything.

From WotC, the only book I bought was the Player's handbook and that's because the GM insisted that everyone have their own copy of the book at the table.

I've bought a number of different d20 books (BESMd20, Lone Wolf OGL) as well as some 3rd party splats. My main motivation in picking up the splats was looking to get some additional rule coverage or fixes that I felt confident in.

For example, the Green Ronin's Psychic's Handbook. It took the approach to psychic stuff that I wanted. Misfit Studios' Unusual Core Classes: Spellweaver was a skill based approach to magic that I was interested. Stuff like that.

 

[Stoat]

I'm almost always the DM when I play. I bought 3.X splats for several reasons:

1) Class focused splats like Complete Arcane or Complete Divine provided new classes, spells, feats and PrC's to use when I statted up NPC's. I liked having as many options as possible when I put my game together.

2) Monster focused splats like Lords of Madness and the Fiendish Codices provided new monsters and inspiration for using familiar monsters.

3) From time to time one of my players would want to use a class, spell, feat or whatever from a splat. I sometimes picked up the splatbooks so that I could keep up with my players.

4) I enjoy reading game manuals for fun. Even if I never use the stuff in them in my game.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I kept up with them mostly because each supplement could add something different to my game in the very next session, if I was so inclined.

Easy multiclassing rules and "NPCs as PCs" rules meant that each new class was also a new NPC or character option.

Every new monster was something they could fight.

Every new rule was something I could implement the next week.

And they were mostly fairly interesting and evocative. I felt like I was discovering something.

My 4e purchases are a bit curbed because it seems like I already have too much crunch. I bought the Draconomicon, and I'll probably buy the MotP, for the fluff, but I dodged Martial Power, and I borrowed a friends' FR books for my genasi swordmage (which I only really wanted because nothing appealed to me out of the PH, and the genasi would be exotic and new). I might continue to buy fluff-heavy setting books, but I've got DDI for the crunch -- lists of powers and feats and paths don't hold much value for me in and of themselves, without a context to be in.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I bought one splat for every broad type of chracter class. Once fighter, rogue, wizard, and cleric were covered, I bought other things, like monsters, settings, climate, etc. I didn't go for the second round of splats they released.

 

[Greg K]

My motivations included the following:

a) fixing issues that I had with the core rules and customizing the game to be what I wanted. Examples include the Artificer's Handbook as an alternative to magic item creation as I disliked XP costs, the Book of Iron Might to spice up combat without requiring feats, and Unearthed Arcana for numerous things;

b) filling areas that I thought were missing and/ or, imo, done better than similar WOTC offerings . An example would be purchasing the Master Class books from Green Ronin to add the Psychic, the Shaman and Witch classes to my campaign. In the instance of GR's Psychic class, I was not a fan of WOTC's psionic rules and GR's Psychic's Handbook was exactly what I was looking for in terms of mechanics and feel;

c) making prep easier. Advanced Bestiary and the Deluxe Book of Templates are examples of products purchased for this.

In general, however, I disallow most character releated material from WOTC splats and turn to 3pp. With regards to WOTC material, I didn't like the race books, new base classes or new mechanics compared to third party offerings and most of the new spells and prcs don't fit the style of games that I run. At best, I allow a handful of feats, spells, prcs and equipment.

 

[Dragonwriter]

Options. And cool, evil fun.

I particularly enjoyed the focused splats. Draconomicon was beautiful. And the Fiendish Codices were a lot of fun.

But, I would only buy things that I thought would benefit the game I was running. For example, the only reason I got Stormwrack was because my latest campaign was going to be in an island chain and the simplest way to get around is on ships. And there just weren't enough ships in the PHB to suit me. I also wanted some reasonable way of doing ship-to-ship combat when I have pirates attack.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Bought them for the new base classes and new feats.

AR

 

[timbannock]

I was a player in 3.X for a grand total of 2 decently long-lived campaigns and several that burnt out REAL fast. Being a player made me want the NEXT COOL THING (TM) that came out in whatever book. I'm not a power-gamer, but I do enjoy having a character that is at least vaguely optimized for the system or their particular role, even if it's not necessarily the main role of that class (i.e., I played athletic fighters that weren't nasty damage-dealers...not the design of that class, but I optimized the hell out of what he could do within that role).

Anyway, I've come to DM like 95% of the time, for better or worse. So, with 4e, I picked up the Core rulebooks, AV and FRPG. My purchases for player material stop there, however (maybe PHB2, but even that's something I'm on the fence about). My reason being: I'm the DM. I only need DM material in this edition, so that's all I'll buy. AV fits the bill coz it's treasure that I get to place, but I don't need oodles of classes, epic destinies, paragon paths, and powers powers powers! I just need monsters, maps, and money to reward the PCs with.

So yeah, I was a victim of the CO boards during 3.X, but I learned my lesson! Players who want to play [insert the last heir of an ancient power here] can buy the book for that themselves. I only need some monsters and places to spark my imagination.

 

[The Little Raven]

More money than sense was my reason. Same with the 2e collection I built up.

 

[Voadam]

I bought 3.x books for the same reason that I bought 1e and 2e books.

Inspiration and options.

Ditto.

I played in a lot of core only 3e games but I still got a lot of splatbooks. Most of the games I DM'd I used modules but I was heavily influenced and modified by stuff outside of the modules and core D&D.