Your most surprising purchase?

[Napftor]

What book or pdf did you pick up for 3rd edition that you thought might let you down and then it turns out to be one of the best things you could have spent money on? Oh, and why?

For me, I'd have to say Ultimate NPCs from Mongoose. When I flipped through it, I noticed the race name charts and so forth and thought, "Eh, don't really need those." But in my last adventure I needed stats for goblinoids with levels and the book came through with flying colors for me.

 

[Turanil]

Castles & Crusades PHB

I bought this book only out of curiosity and nostalgia, since it was supposed to bring back d20 D&D to AD&D 1e feel. However, I had no intent to run any campaign with it. But then, upon reading it and running one session with it, I just got the incentive of rewriting my last abandoned D&D 3e campaign for C&C. Since then, I lost any desire to buy more d20 books!

 

[Storyteller01]

Half Orcs, by Bad Axe Games. Figured I'd get SOMETHING on half orcs, since there isn't too much out there. Besides, it was cheap. Turned out to have some surprisingly good info animal handling, animal breeding, and weapons/armor manucture in 'primative' settings (closer to the American Indians).

The PrC's are well done. Surprising, given that they're all based on barbarian multiclass concepts. They actually created convincing variants on the barbarian/monk and barbarian/paladin.


Another in The Complete Guide to the Fey (Goodman Games). Figured it would be another 'happy days with wings' situation. Turns out that it provides a new view on how to handle fairies (there IS a reason they're all so nutty!!). It also provides rules on playing fairies, starting with one of the 'base' forms and evolving into something else.

If you don't mind your fairy characters being somewhat overpowered (they're balance against other fairies) I'd use this book in place of the fey races in the Arcana Unearthed book. Same premise with many more options.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Warcraft RPG. I didn't think I'd get that much use out of it, but now I use many of the races, a couple of the classes (I like Warcraft's Healer and Scout more than the WotC versions), and a LOT of the setting detail in my home setting that mixes Warcraft with Eberron, IK, and FR. When I picked it up it was more of being a Warcraft fan and being curious as to how well it would work with D&D, and now I've got the entire line.

Kane

 

[Mystery Man]

City State of the Invincible Overlord.

Too many cool things in the book to count.

 

[Psion]

Hmmmm... let's see if I can hit the target here.

Kanegrundar brings up Warcraft RPG. I'll more specifically site Magic & Mayhem. It's a fun little supplement sprinkled with some great ideas and eminently pilferable material.

Book of Dragons and Book of the Planes - Gareth distinguished himself as a flavorful author in Sorcery & Steam. But Book of the Seas wasn't my favorite. But book of the planes was filled with great location ideas of adventures, and book of the dragons also delivers the right stuff.

Advanced Gamemaster's Guide - Stephens disappointed me with Bastards & Bloodlines, making me wonder if I was giving him too much credit for his early work, and APM made me consider whether the Advanced series was going places, and further, most GM advice books lately seem to be restating what I had read 10 years ago. But AGMG is a great GM resource in general, and it's a benefit to my collection (speaking of which, I should order the dead tree version today.)

 

[mcrow]

DMGII & Advanced DM's Guide. When I bought them I thought there might not be much new to me in either of them that would be helpful. I was wrong, the DMGII has the fully fleshed out town and the ADMG has some cool rules options that I plan to put to use.

 

[Hand of Evil]

AEG's GM Toolbox - it is not just for D&D

Bluffside is one of my longest used items, still going strong.

 

[megamania]

Traps & Treachery

Don't stone me please!

I normally stay away from fancy traps but after buying this I found many favorites that are far from the standard traps.

Mythic Races is also looking to get a lot of use soon

 

[Li Shenron]

What book or pdf did you pick up for 3rd edition that you thought might let you down and then it turns out to be one of the best things you could have spent money on?

I simply don't buy a book which I think it might let me down, so this hasn't really happened to me.