Which Books to get?

[StevenC21]

For general use. I have no specific ideas in mind, but if I just want to overall expand my amount of content, with no overarching theme, what books should I get?

I already have:

PHB
DMG
MM
Monster Manual II
Book of Vile Darkness
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Miniatures Handbook
Complete Arcane
Complete Warrior
Epic Levels Handbook

I am interested in both 3.0 and 3.5 books, with no real preference. I am willing to use either, as they are mostly compatible. So, what books do you think are the most essential?

[thelastorphan]

The rest of the completes, Arms and Equipment Guide, Magic Item Conpendium, Spell Compendium.

[Silva Stormrage]

Magic Item Compendium and Spell Compendium are probably the biggest bang for your buck so to speak.

Tome of Battle is also a quality pick up in my opinion as it's mostly self contained and gives mundanes some great options.

[Elrak]

I myself am partial to Tome of Battle, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Magic and Expanded Psionics Handbook. Just to add to the diversity of base classes and corresponding options.

[Uncle Pine]

My top 20 (in alphabetical order):
Champions of Ruin
Complete Adventurer
Complete Champion
Complete Divine
Complete Mage
Complete Scoundrel
Draconomicon
Dungeonscape
Frostburn
Libris Mortis
Magic Item Compendium
Magic of Incarnum
Monster Manual 3
Player's Handbook II
Races of Destiny
Races of Stone
Races of the Wild
Sandstorm
Spell Compendium
Tome of Battle

And I'll also pitch in a vote for Advanced Bestiary by Green Ronin. 3rd party, but as amazing as it gets.

[Eldariel]

My first 3 picks are:
Tome of Battle - Brings mundanes back to the game, and with little effort to boot. The game is much better for particularly new players if you just use Warblade, Swordsage and Crusader instead of Fighter, Monk and Paladin, though they can complement each other quite well (the core classes make for good dips, but the martial adept classes make melee combat more varied and interesting and the classes less dull to play, and also more powerful).
Spell Compendium - Makes especially the core demi-casters (Ranger, Paladin, Assassin, Blackguard; Bard to a lesser extent) way, way more able to synch their casting and combat abilities making their casting much more worthwhile and less "Terrible Druid/Cleric/whatever whose spells are never on par for the encounter levels". It also allows much more customization for spellcasters proper.
Champions of Ruin: Just about the only decent source book for archers in 3.5 (3.0 has Silver Marches, Sword & Fist & Masters of the Wild, so if you like 3.0 content, pick one of those - Sword & Fist is probably my favourite of the 3 with the largest amount of interesting stuff). Also contains Craven, which is one-third of the Bring Sneak Attack Back to Game, and a lot of cool spells again for the half-casters to make them distinct and give them their own thing.


After that, looking at your pile in particular, the books that have a lot of content at least I use:
Sword & Fist - Great PRCs for Warriors. About the only source for them (well, again, Silver Marches, Masters of the Wild & Book of Vile Darkness have few decent ones as well). Ignore 3.5 updates (3.5 versions of Weapon Master, Order of the Bow Initiate, etc. are travesties), use this.
Complete Scoundrel - Skill tricks are cool and add a fair bit to almost every character.
Complete Champion: Some of the material is quite high on power level but certainly.
Player's Handbook II: Nice expansions to various classes, a lot of high-powered options (Celerity & al.) but also a lot of rather cool stuff. Also the Beguiler, which is a great, fairly balanced sneaky caster.
Dungeonscape: Lots of alternative class features and useful items I find myself using often. It's nice for practically everybody. Contains Penetrating Strike, the second part of the Sneak Attack fix set.
Drow of the Underdark: A surprisingly cool book for particularly martials of various types with a few interesting feats, ACFs, and such. Also expands upon the Drow (obviously)
Fiend Folio: The best extra monster manual IMHO; lots of iconic, awesome monsters and a lot of weird, interesting stuff. As a bonus, it's written in for PC use too with expanded Summon options. And some really nice grafts.
Eberron Campaign Settings: A surprisingly broad set of class abilities, feats, etc. for particularly Bards that I find cool. And the Artificer, which is a fun if a tad high powered class (quite different from all the others in the game).

Races of X-books are all good particularly for fleshing out the various races and I do love the monster book (Lords of Madness, Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, etc.). Environmental books are also good (Stormwrack in particular covers something the game really skimps over in fair detail). Lords of Madness notably contains the final part of the Sneak Attack fix set, Darkstalker (a more general Stealth fix, really). Some other strong feats too, though they're icky fluff-wise.

[Maat Mons]

I came in here to suggest Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium. But it looks like I've been beaten to the punch on that. So my next choices are going to be... I don't know... Player's Handbook II, Complete Mage, and Complete Champion.