Which resource and power systems did you use often?

[Wormwood]

We spent a ridiculous amount of time and effort tinkering with alternate (i.e. 'enjoyable') versions of the 3e magic system.

UA, AU/E, Elements of Magic, even bits of M&M and repurposed psionics. Not to mention pages and pages of homebrew ideas.

That pretty much cured me of the desire to dabble in RPG design. Now I just enjoy playing.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Only the core rules + psionics were used in the D&D which I ran and the D&D which were run by everyone else in my group.

Basically, if it was in the SRD we used it, if it wasn't we didn't. In my case by choice, in the other DM's choice it came down to what was supported by DMGenie, their D&D management tool of choice (i.e. the SRD stuff).

Prior to 3e I played mostly wizards. In 3e the sorcerer got my love much more than the wizard. It was really tough getting to 4th level (in fact 2nd level sorcerer was the worst 2nd level of any class. extra cantrip? Whooo.) Once sorcerers got to 8th level and above their really started to shine, and for practical purposes allowed me to play the kind of wizards which I'd always wanted to play.

I never saw any of the Tome of Magic stuff, was put off by the magical nature of the tome of blades stuff, and was put off by the fluff of the incarnum stuff. I wonder sometimes whether I missed out on anything particularly good, but it doesn't look like anyone will be running 3e+non SRD stuff any time in the future (and I run 4e now) so I'll probably never know

Cheers