What motivated you to purchase splatbooks for 3e?

[Olaf the Stout]

I think there were a few reasons for me.

Firstly I liked some of the new feats. Complete Warrior and PHB2, for example, gave the Fighter a lot more options to play with.

Secondly, I like the new concepts they came up with. Reserve Feats were most of the reason why I bought Complete Mage and I loved the Spell Trick additions in Complete Adventurer.

Thirdly, the new base classes. I like options and the new base classes gave me more. Strangely though, Prestige Classes don't hold much interest for me.

Fourthly, I got a lot of my splatbooks cheaply. Most of the Complete series I got for $10-$15 each from someone online who didn't want them anymore. They were secondhand but you wouldn't have known it. The must have just sat on the shelf and never been used. The themed monster books (Draconomicon, LM & LoM) I got on a big sale a year or so after they were released. And I bought a whole heap of other splatbooks like the Heroes of XX books when 4E was announced and 3.5E books were put on a fire sale. There were a few others that I paid close to full price for but most of them were well below thier normal cost.

Overall I am pretty happy with my purchases. I'm currently running the SCAP. Whilst 4 of my 5 players aren't really powergamers, all of them are using something from at least 1 splatbook. One player is playing a Hexblade, another is using a feat from PHB2, my resident powergamer is of course using the spells from SpC and a Prestige class from Complete Mage. Even my most conservative player, who normally likes to stick with core stuff has decided to take some levels in Warblade (from the Book of 9 Swords).

I know that the splatbooks make them more powerful but personally I'm just happy to see all those books I have get some use. It would be a pity if I bought them and they just sat on the shelf, untouched.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Mokona]

I got all the splat books (Sword & Fist, Tome & Blood, Song & Silence, Defenders of the Faith, and Masters of the Wild) because I liked new prestige classes. The various new feats and prestige classes gave me inspiration for new characters.

Sword & Fist generated the splat book comment because of the naming convention "* & *". * is sometimes (often?) called a splat in computer lingo. So Sword & Fist was the first * & * aka Splat & Splat book which just go shortened to "splat books". You could also make the argument that they're called splat books because most covered two character class so "Class * & Class *" book. Song & Silence covered Rogues & Bards. Tome & Blood covered Wizards & Sorcerers.

Races of Stone would not be a splat book because it is not part of the character class series. Draconomicon is also not a splat book because it is even more distant from the concept of Class A & Class B books.

The series of complete books for v.3.5 has a name (they're called the Complete Series). Technically Complete Warrior is really very similar to a Sword & Fist v.3.5 so it does make some sense to call the class Complete books splat books as well. The analogy breaks down a little because Wizards of the Coast tried to make Complete Warrior with stuff for wizards and all the other base classes.

Wizards also released new base classes under v.3.5 but most of them were less exciting and original to me than the majority of prestige classes.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Wanting more options for building character, NPCs and idea to yoink and modify for the Tale.

 

[Dice4Hire]

They expanded the game, and broadened it. One ting that always infuriated me when joining games was the concept of core-only. I understand if you have no money, or whatever, but som many people seemed to make it a point of pride that they were ore-only. Never understood that.

I bought all the completes, all the races and several other books, probably 30 or so in total. And I do not really regret any of those purchases even though a few are very very weak. I bought no FR or Ebberon stuff because I did not play in those worlds, or need their stuff. What I bought was enough.

For 4E I bought the First three plus AV, and will by PHB2 and MM2 as soon as they come out. I want to see what there is there, and they seem to have tons of bang for my buck. The rest just do not as I am not going fully into 4E. I will play it but probably not run it again.

 

[megamania]

I bought splat books for-

1) Prestige Classes

2) New equipment

3) New Spells / Powers

4) New creatures

5) New Templates for creatures

6) Illustrations to look at

7) A good Read

8) to complete the collection

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I bought 3.x splats for the same reason I (will and do) buy the 4e splats.

New toys.

Indeed. I bought some 3/3.5 splats because of one feat or one PrC. Those that didn't seem to have anything useful (even fluff) got left out. I still wish I hadn't bought the FR Champions of Valor piece of dog poop, though.

I have noticed, though, that there are far less things I really need or want in most of the 4e splats. Like Draconomicon or MotP; I looked at those, and wasn't really seeing why I, a player, would want to buy those. That vaguely concerns me.

Brad

 

[Ahnehnois]

Mechanically speaking, I wanted feats and spells so my characters could have more choices. I also liked prestige classes and skill uses and magic (and nonmagic) items, but these were less on my mind. Of course, the 3.5 versions I got for the base classes (esp warlock) and stopped when those disappeared. I read the fluff sometimes but didn't think much of most of it.

Philosophically speaking, as a DM I felt I needed to have everything the players had if not more just so I could review their stuff on my own time.

 

[Serendipity]

The only thing that ever motivates me to buy sourcebooks is whether or not they look interesting. If so, then I'll buy. If not, then I could care less what's in them.
This has led to me ignoring certain sourcebooks in games I run (commonly). Only rarely is this a problem.

ETA: I did leave something out - in addition to the above, if a sourcebook looks *useful* to me as a GM then I'll give it a look see. However, genuinely *useful* sourcebooks are rarer, IMHO, than interesting ones.

 

[Shroomy]

I have noticed, though, that there are far less things I really need or want in most of the 4e splats. Like Draconomicon or MotP; I looked at those, and wasn't really seeing why I, a player, would want to buy those. That vaguely concerns me.

Brad

If you are not a player, you probably wouldn't buy those books (well, maybe the MotP, since it does have a bunch of player options, such as the bladeling player race, planar Paragon Paths, and rituals). WoTC has changed their philosophy, so there is a sharper demarcation between books for players and books for DMs; in fact, the MotP is the only 4e book released so far that is a real hybrid.

 

[Mercule]

To get options to craft my characters/NPCs to my vision of how they should work. Sometimes, I got inspired by something in a book (usually the DM books, like Dracanomicon), but the player-oriented books were almost always gotten so there was more flexibility in how characters worked.

If everything could have been strictly balanced, I'd be fine with that -- I don't value balance, per se, but I wasn't cruising for power-ups. Since I was generally the GM, that'd be pointless.

I was always going for mechanical ways to permit characters that were envisioned to be a particular way. Since D&D is a game of exceptions, you need to have your vision represented on the menu. The bigger the menu, the better the odds of being able to build what you wanted. Unfortunately, by the time you have a sufficiently large menu, it becomes unnavigable and you're better off just going for a point-based system.

Now that I think about it, the lack of flexibility is one of the reasons I left D&D in the 1990s. When I returned for 3e, it was fully aware that you really are never going to have great flexibility in a class/level system (archetypes are the whole point). How I wish I'd remembered that.