Which 3rd Edition books are the best?

[Chalice]

I never really bought up big, but I think the Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords is key, along with Unearthed Arcana. Monster Manual II, as well.

All I want is the game to run smoothly, and things to be balanced enough to get by. Another poster pointed the way to Trailblazer, which I am looking into. It is promising, so far, though not part of the D&D line, per se.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Monster Manual II, as well.

Oh yes, any book that provides additional monsters.

And environments.

And new challenges.

 

[AeroDm]

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting--I think the best overall RPG book I've read
Expanded Psionics Handbook-- My favorite all around sub-system. The foundation for my homebrew 3e magic system
DMG 2-- Just a book full of neat ideas that didn't break anything else

 

[Drowbane]

Alignment books - Book of Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness are both very hit and miss. Some of the ideas presented therein are questionable (Look, Good is not just the direct opposite of EEEVIL!). Vow of Poverty will always be one of my favorite feats... there is a no religious / Exalted hangups version on GitP that I really like.
Complete Series - are very hit and miss. Complete Psi is the only one I do not intend to eventually collect. I have most of them already.
Draconomicon - A best in class WotC product. This book is beautiful.
Dragon Compendium vol 1 - a very underrated book. Battledancer is my go-to "Monk" (ok, no... thats Swordsage)
Eberron line - [MENTION=15800]Hellcow[/MENTION] gave us a pretty spiffy campaign setting.
Environment books - Frostburn is the only one I have in hardcopy so far, but I want the other two. I wish they had done more of these books.
Expanded Psionics Handbook - Despite the nay-sayers, Psionics is more balanced than Magic. Bruce Cordell has always been one of my favorite designers.
Fiend Folio, Monster Manual II and III - good stuff.
Fiendish Codex I&II - it is a shame that they never did FCIII for Daemons (yugoloths). Whenever my PCs get too uppity I throw Legion Devils at them...
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting - no other book in my library has gotten as much consistant use since it came out as this one. The best CS WotC released. Best book of the FR Line.
Minis Handbook - half of the book is rubbish unless you play the Minis subgame, but this book gave us some cool Base Classes (Marshal, ok its good for a 1 level dip) and PrCs (War Hulk SMASH!)
Oriental Adventures - whats not to love?
Races of Eberron - the book that reversed my negative opinion of Eberron.
Spell Compendium - The resource for spellcasters.
ToB - Meleers can do cool things too?
Unearthed Arcana - a lot of good / interesting variants

Dishonorable mention: Book of Erotic Fantasy - because [MENTION=85158]Dandu[/MENTION] is a pervert.

3rd Party / Homebrew: The Tomes (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Tome_of_Necromancy_(3.5e_Sourcebook)), http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Tome_of_Fiends_(3.5e_Sourcebook)), http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Dungeonomicon_(3.5e_Sourcebook)), http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Races_of_War_(3.5e_Sourcebook))) changed the way I think about D&D. Conduit of the Lower Planes is one of my top 5 favorite classes.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

The BoEF does have a few good things here and there, but overall it's not worth getting. I got it for free from a friend and it's still rather meh.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Going outside WotC, one of my all-time favorite 3Ed books is Book of The Righteous. Yes, D&D's 3.5Ed revision made it somewhat obsolete, but :

1) the PDF may be updated

2) updating it yourself is pretty easy.

 

[Drowbane]

Going outside WotC, one of my all-time favorite 3Ed books is Book of The Righteous. Yes, D&D's 3.5Ed revision made it somewhat obsolete, but :

1) the PDF may be updated

2) updating it yourself is pretty easy.

Was that the book for D&D RP in the old testiment era?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

No, you're thinking of Testament. BotR was the one that did priests and Holy Warriors of all alignments, tailored to specific deities. Not so muxh as a bunch of pantheonic gods, but rather as a general "How to" book.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying/dp/0971438064/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338853003&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Book of the Righteous (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying) (9780971438064): Aaron Loeb, Brian Despain: Books[/ame]

 

[Tovec]

Of just 3.0:

I would say Manual of the Planes and Deities and Demigods. Both are rich in all things random and cool and can really help you expand higher level play without having to get the Epic Level Handbook - which is chocked full of broken. I do not have many 3.0 books but these two are CERTAINLY on my shelf.

As far as 3.5:

The completes. Complete Arcane, Divine, Warrior and Adventurer are the standard books to be used in conjunction with ALL of our 3.5 games. Hell we basically consider them core to the extent that anything from them is good to use. Anything else has to be approved on a case by case basis because of bloat and insanity.

 

[Nellisir]

I like options. The earlier Complete books didn't do much for me, but the later ones had more interesting choices. Potentially more broken as well, but that's what house rules are for. I kept the PH2 for awhile after I sold off everything else, as well.

I still have: PH, DMG, MM, Rules Compendium, Forgotten Realms, Oriental Adventures...I'm pretty sure I sold PH2 and DMG2, but somewhat reluctantly. Unearthed Arcana I might have, but it's also almost all available online thanks to the miracle of the OGL. Book of Nine Swords was -too- variant. Tome of Magic had nice ideas, but I never got a chance to use them.

The environment books were really nice. I think Frostscape was the best of the bunch, but that's IMO.

Hrm. I don't even remember what other books were available. Magic Item Compendium was nice, but I sold it. Kinda regret that, but I got more for it than I sold it for. Ditto the Spell Compendium.