Sorta some DM Book Help

[WanderinCourier]

I've done a couple of campaigns with a group and I want to be the one painting the picture this time. The DM who has been running our campaigns won't actually be with us anymore though he has offered to skype with me to give me tips and advice. Though with him leaving so does his books. So as an Avid fan of actually having pages and ink rather than digital versions of such I'm considering picking up my own copies. So what books should i be picking up to start things? Player Handbook 1 and Dungeon Master's Guide is obvious but what other books should i pick up? Amazon has a lot of them for sale and I’m sure i can scrounge others up through other means if needed.

[Brookshw]

The magic item compendium and spell compendium after core I'd suggest. For dm purposes I'd probably grab some of the fluff books, manual of the planes perhaps. Depends on what kind of campaigns you want to do. Using settings? Then those books. Lots of demons/devils? The fiendish codexs. Undead? Libris Mortis. After that the completes and maybe a few if the later monster manuals. PHB2 is pretty good as well.

[Curmudgeon]

What has your group been using heavily before? Try to duplicate some of that content for continuity.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The magic item compendium and spell compendium after core I'd suggest.
I second that. Next up, I'd take either some of the later Completes (Mage, Scoundrel, Champion) for good feat/PrC options, or subsystem books (ToB, XPH, MoI) for variety's sake. The early Completes (Warrior, Adventurer, Arcane, Divine) are full of crap, and all their spells are reprinted in the SpC, although you may want them just for the base classes. Although they've only got, like, one good class each, so that kind of stinks.

In general, to start with the books from later in the game's lifecycle-- they tend to be better balanced and more interesting.

[Vhaidara]

I honestly recommend Tome of Battle early. The later it shows up, the more your players will be inclined to think that it is overpowered, when the truth is that the classes that make them look overpowered are TERRIBLE.

As DM reference, I recommend the "It's X Outside" line for Frostburn (awesome), Sandstorm (less awesome, still awesome), Stormwrack (cool, but limited use), Dungeonscape (has awesome stuff for players) and Cityscape (meh, but the web enhancement stuff is great for players)