Which book(s) should I buy next?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm getting some free-and-clear spending money in the next few weeks, and thought it would be a good time to pick up some books from Amazon and/or the ENWorld RPG Shop (there is no FLGS near me, before someone asks).

I'm running a Ptolus campaign already, and any books I get would be best off to supplement that. I'm already intending on getting the Book of Righteous Might, Beyond Countless Doorways and a hard copy version of the Banewarrens for that purpose. (Each has Ptolus-related info.)

Monster books are also good. (I already have Fiend Folio, MM3 and Advanced Bestiary.)

I'm also interested in shadow magic from the Tome of Magic for some NPCs/monsters and adding affiliations to my campaign.

(If you don't see the poll of other books, just wait -- editing it in now.)

 

[Crothian]

I voted for the two Atlas books: Dynasties & Demagogues and Crime & Punishment. These are very good books for a city based campaign.

 

[DaveMage]

I picked three, but my favorite would be Fiendish Codex I.

 

[smootrk]

I also picked 3. For me, the Spell Compendium is a necessary book - effectively core book 4 for me.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Denizens of Dread & PHBII. More monsters are always a plus and with a little work these Ravenloft beasties can fill a roll in a world outside of the Demiplane of Dread^TM. The PHBII offers a multitude of possibilities and contains my two fav base classes of all time: the Duskblade and Knight. It also has guidelines on how to rebuild your character, which is immensely valuable. The feats are a good bunch as well.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I voted for PHB II simply because that is the only book on the list I know besides the MM and I don't care for MM books after the first one. Having said that, though, I think that I would put the PHB II only slightly behind the Draconomicon in my collection. I love psionics, and I would put the PHB II slightly ahead of the XPH.

Hopefully that gives you an impression as to the quality I consider the PHB II.

 

[Zoatebix]

I voted PHB II and Monsternomicon 3.5. I have the original Monsternomicon, and it is dense! It has way more information then you'd ever be able use in one campaign... in each monster entry There's a little too-much fiction, but other than that it should be all around good.

 

[lior_shapira]

I voted Lord of Madness and Monsternomicon. Lords of madness is the best 'monster specific' book in my opinion, I've used it quite a lot in my campaign, much more than the draconomicon (and others of the series). The Monsternomicon is just a darn good monster book, almost each monster is interesting and useful

lior

 

[Ranes]

I voted for Tome of Magic. Of the other books listed, I can only compare ToM to the ones I have, which are DMGII PHBII and LoM. I enjoyed them all, although I found the PHBII to be the weakest, but ToM is the one that has captured my imagination the most.

While some of the material in it revisited Dragon articles (no bad thing per se, not everyone reads Dragon), I thought the book was brimming with interesting ideas for fresh NPCs, adventures and mechanics. Editing errors are few and far between and the production values are sterling.

 

[Gold Roger]

Voted PHB2. It's an excelent total package. The new spells, feats and classes as well as some odds make for interesting opposition (one of the teamwork benefits, when used on NPC's makes low level archers leathal to higher level groups). I can certainly see how the affiliation rules could be of major use in Ptolus. Even the ruleplaying advice isn't half bad for even a bit more experienced players.

Spell Compendium and DMG you should sooner or later get as well. The spell compendium is a boatload of excellent options to make your NPC casters different. The DMG2 is excellent on the basis of it's excelent DMing advice. The rest is not so necessary though.

The Lords of Madness book is excellent book. However, it's more of a good read and not something that's directly usefull(have mine for almost a year and used nothing from it so far).