3.5: The top five-ten books?

[Hawk7915]

I searched and didn't find a recent thread asking this question though I'm sure it's quite common...

So, my roommates and I have recently gotten into 3.5 and love it to death. So much so that rather than update to shiny, new 4th edition, we want to get some supplemental books. The question is...which ones are the "best"? By best, I mean the most fun, the most interesting, and the most "bang for your buck" so to speak. I don't necessarily want the ones to make the most broken characters or to build the strongest Batman, so getting Frostburn or grabbing whatever book Icantrix or Inititate of the Seven-fold Veil is from isn't a top priority.

I was thinking Players Handbook 2, most of the "Complete" books (for sure C.Warrior, C.Arcane, and C.Scoundrel, possibly C.Adventurer), Draconomicon, and maybe Heroes of Horror (I love Archivists), Eberron (Artificer + Warforged characters) or the Dungeon one that Mr. Rich Burlew helped write :smallbiggrin:...but what's the best overall choice? If you could only have five non-core books, what would they be? How about if we extend the list to top ten?

Looking forward to some guidance, thanks in advance!

[SadisticFishing]

Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords
Magic Item Compendium
Spell Compendium
Player's Handbook 2

After that, Expanded Psionics Handbook or Tome of Magic are both very cool, though XPH is far better, the ToM has some damn cool stuff in it.

[Glyde]

Spell Compendium is up there in value. Tome of Battle makes martial classes more interesting. I'm also fond of the Complete _____ series.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Tome of Battle
Dungeonscape
MIC
SC
PHBII
Expanded Psionics Handbook(only without access to the SRD)
Unearthed Arcana(Only without access to the SRD)
For the DM, MMIII and MMV
Complete Scoundrel and Arcane are the best of the Completes, IMHO, but some of the others are very good.
Theres a bunch of others, but those are the main ones.

[Rei_Jin]

Okay, let's start with what most people consider to be core, then move from there.

CORE (Undisputed)
Players Handbook I
Monster Manual I
Dungeon Masters Guide I

CORE (Disputed)
Players Handbook II
Monster Manuals II, III, IV, V
Dungeon Masters Guide II
Expanded Psionics Handbook

Other books to be recommended for players
The Complete... series
The Races Of.... series
Spell Compendium
Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords

Other books recommended for the DM
Frostburn
Sandstorm
Stormwrack
Dungeonscape
Cityscape
Heroes of Horror
Heroes of Battle
Rules Compendium
Magic Item Compendium (DO NOT GIVE YOUR PLAYERS OPEN ACCESS TO THIS BOOK)

For the love of all that is good, do not give your players access to these books unless they know what they are doing
Tome of Magic
Magic of Incarnum
Miniatures Handbook
Savage Species
Book of Exalted Deeds
Book of Vile Darkness
Fiendish Codex I and II

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Okay, let's start with what most people consider to be core, then move from there.

CORE (Undisputed)
Players Handbook I
Monster Manual I
Dungeon Masters Guide I

CORE (Disputed)
Players Handbook II
Monster Manuals II, III, IV, V
Dungeon Masters Guide II
Expanded Psionics Handbook

Other books to be recommended for players
The Complete... series
The Races Of.... series
Spell Compendium
Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords

Other books recommended for the DM
Frostburn
Sandstorm
Stormwrack
Dungeonscape
Cityscape
Heroes of Horror
Heroes of Battle
Rules Compendium
Magic Item Compendium (DO NOT GIVE YOUR PLAYERS OPEN ACCESS TO THIS BOOK)

For the love of all that is good, do not give your players access to these books unless they know what they are doing
Tome of Magic(burn all copies)
Magic of Incarnum
Miniatures Handbook
Savage Species(burn all copies)
Book of Exalted Deeds
Book of Vile Darkness
Fiendish Codex I and III made a couple of corrections. After all, DMGII may be nearly core, but it is somehow even worse than the core books.

[Rei_Jin]

I made a couple of corrections. After all, DMGII may be nearly core, but it is somehow even worse than the core books.

Heh, true, but I was trying to be reasonably objective about it. Personally, I detest Book of Nine Swords, but at the same time it is a good book that helps boost the power of fighter type characters very nicely. I accept that, I just don't like it myself.

And the Dungeon Masters Guide II does have some helpful info in there for a novice DM who can understand what it's trying to tell them, and can wade through walls of text. In short, I found it interesting, but I was already doing everything it told me. Some of the treasure ideas at the end of it are useful though.

[MeklorIlavator]

Note about the Tome Of Magic: just take the first section of it(on binders) and discard the rest. Its possible to use Shadow casters, but they are considered in need of a fix. And truenaming is just broken. As in it doesn't work at all.

[afroakuma]

Best books I've found:

Spell Compendium

There's no arguing this one if you have one or more casters (of any type) in your party. It even includes extra spell lists for assassins and blackguards. The fact that it covers every official 3.5 spell printed up to that point is just a big bonus.

Player's Handbook II

Some people like the new classes. Most people love the new feat selection. Did I mention the feats? And the expanded class section is nice too. Most of the rest is fluff, but some of it is okay fluff.

Complete Arcane

Despite the cool factor of the Reserve Feats from Complete Mage, this is by far the better of the two arcane Completes. It contains the somewhat confusing but still awesome Warlock, two insane arcane presitge classes (or at least slightly above power scale), a few feats, new magic items and some reasonably flavorful fluff. The monsters are ehh, the spells are in a better compilation, but other than that it's a solid pick.

Monster Manual III

I don't understand where the hate is coming from for the Monster Manual II, other than that it's 3.0 where the other four are updated. As far as III, IV and V go, III is by far and away your best choice if you're playing an Eberron campaign. If not, it still has a pretty good balance of creature types, but don't look for new demons, devils or dragons. It does supply some yougoloths, but the ultroloth is ridiculously underpowered. However, some inventive new monsters, some bizarre but fun old ones (susurrus?) and only a few blahs make this the best choice among supplementary monster books that have been converted.

Expanded Psionics Handbook

This is really only going to be useful for a campaign that includes psionics (obviously) but it is extremely well put together, contains tons of useful material and tears out chunks of fluff to replace with pure crunch.

[RTGoodman]

I don't have an ordered list, but here's some good books off the top of my head.


Player's Handbook II - it's just good.
The first Complete series (Adventurer, Arcane, Divine, and Warrior), and MAYBE Complete Scoundrel and Mage
Races of Stone (and Races of the Wild, to some extent, but NOT Races of Destiny)
Monster Manual III - as a DM, you will NEVER regret this book.
Tome of Battle - I started out hating it, but I've grown to love it. Give it a try, at least.
If you want more options without more classes, Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium, but everything from those should be okayed by the DM first.

[Thurbane]

Outside of the core:

PHBII
Unearthed Arcana
Tome of Magic
Spell Compendium
Magic Item Compendium

[Fiendish_Dire_Moose]

Book of Vile Darkness is a must have. I don't care what anyone says, if you do not get your hands on this then shame will be heaped upon your name. SHAME I SAY!

[BobVosh]

Hmm

I would go with

PHB 2
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Complete Mage
Spell Compendium


Those are the top 3 completes in my mind.
Most of them are good, but champion is silly.

[Tam_OConnor]

Based on the ones I use the most:

1) The first round of Completes (Warrior, Arcane, Adventurer). I never actually bothered to pick up Complete Divine, and the second round didn't impress me enough to bother (though Luck feats...)

2) Book of Nine Swords. Admittedly, I ditch the Crusader class and Devoted Spirit discipline entirely, and rewrote classes to have one or two disciplines (Knight: Iron Heart, White Raven; Swashbuckler: Diamond Mind, Iron Heart; Ninja: Shadow Hand; Monk: one Swordsage discipline), but I'm using the book, for all of the changes I've made.

3) PHB 2, for the glee of the new classes (though again, home-brewing aplenty). The alternate class features are hoopy, too.

4) Book of Vile Darkness/ Book of Exalted Deeds. Less for the crunch (though Kythons are nine times of awesome gilded with win) and more for... I'm not entirely sure, but I maintain a positive opinion of them. Not for everyone, since my articulation is failing me.

5) Fiendish Codices I and II (is that the right plural of Codex?). The flavor. The sweet, beautiful flavor, particularly the creation myth in Legions of Hell. Magnificent Bastard, indeed. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard)

6) Expanded Psionics Handbook, if only because it's a very solid system. I steal shamelessly from it to supplement my Serenity RPG game.

7) Ummm, yeah. Draconomicon? Libris Mortis? Heroes of Horror? I cherry-pick from them all. The print issues of Dragon? Mongoose Publishing's Quintessential series? The Slayer's Guide to Beholders, Rakshasa, etc? BoEF? So yeah, I'm tapped.

[sonofzeal]

My top ten eleven list, in no particular order....


- PHBII
- Magic Item Compendium
- Spell Compendium
- Tome of Battle
- Dungeonscape
- Monster Manual III
- Book of Erotic Fantasy (strangely enough, totally excellent and valuable in PG contexts)
- Complete Warrior
- Complete Arcane
- Complete Adventurer
- Complete Divine

[Uin]

I don't own a vast collection of D&D books but what I do have I like quite a lot:

Fiendish Codex I (This book as a single fault, the whole avatar thing, but theres still a caveat its just not strong enough.)
Tome of Battle
Eberron Campaign Setting
Various other Eberron supplements (Consistant quality and art style, <3 Eberron.)
SRD :smalltongue:

[Reinboom]

Fiendish Codex I (This book as a single fault, the whole avatar thing, but theres still a caveat its just not strong enough.)

I also consider:
Lilitu
Shun the Dark Chaos/Embrace the Dark Chaos (aka, chaos shuffling/shufflers)
Pazuzu (to some extent, depends on DM)

to be faults




My top ranking books:
Player's Handbook 2 (Big thing to remove from it: Celerity/Greater Celerity).
Magic Item Compendium (Big thing to remove from it: Belt of Battle)
Tome of Battle (Big things to tweak/remove from it: Iron Heart Surge, White Raven Tactics)
Spell Compendium (A couple random things to remove, programmed amnesia notable)
Player's Handbook (Big things to remove: Too many to name)

then, the mix up at the 'not quite there' mark:
Complete Mage
Complete Scoundrel
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Complete Arcane

[Eldariel]

*Tome of Battle
*Expanded Psionics Handbook
*Dungeonscape - these 3 books contain all the base classes outside PHB I use constantly (and I use them way more than the PHB classes since they're mostly much better made - in fact, banning PHB classes and reflavouring Psionics into Magic is no problem and makes for a very fair and a deep, interesting game)

*Heroes of Horror - the rules are awesome, and it comes complete with a great class (Archivist) too
*Spell Compendium
*Magic Item Compendium - Yes, options are awesome

*Player's Handbook II - some of the best new balanced feats, some solid spells, expansion upon old classes, a bunch of new ones, etc.
*Tome of Magic - Binders are awesome and Shadowcasters with the suggested fixes too
*Untapped Potential: New Horizons in Psionics - One of the best 3rd party books I've found thus far. Among others, contains some new rules for psionics and fixes to the two failed classes from Expanded Psionics Handbook: Soulknife and Wilder
*Magic of Incarnum - yet another awesome alternate system
*Unearthed Arcana - There's bound to be a game-enhancing houserule here you haven't thought of yet. Not all of them are spelled out well enough, but the idea is all you need; the rest you can homebrew yourself

Complete Warrior, Arcane, Scoundrel, Divine, Adventurer, Champion and Mage feel like near-automatic additions (although some stuff from Complete Champion needs to be read through nerfglass to use), but at the same time aren't as impressive as many of the larger additions, so I wouldn't list them here. Heroes of Battle has some really handy rules and the monster-books are awesome for...obviously the appropriate monsters (Draconomicon, Lords of Madness, Libris Mortis, Drow of the Underdark [has some great player material too though], Book of Vile Darkness, Exemplars of Evil, Fiend Folio, both Fiendish Codexes, etc.), as well as players looking to play the appropriate monsters.

Stormwrack, Sandstorm and Frostburn have really handy rules additions for campaigns based on the appropriate environments too, and Races of X-books just belong as they expand upon the races themselves. Then there are "good idea"-books like Weapons of Legacy, which have great ideas, but require a ton of homebrew to be worth it. Oriental Adventures kicks ass too. Unapproachable East is probably my favourite Campaign Setting Specific-book along with Champions of Ruin. I make heavy use of both. Oh yeah, and Dragon Magic. And I'm probably forgetting something now (most campaign settings for example), but this is the general gist of it.

[sonofzeal]

(although some stuff from Complete Champion needs to be read through nerfglass to use)
Frankly, that's the only book I'd even consider banning on sight. From what I've seen, it's the most irredeemably broken and just plain poorly written book that WotC has ever put into print. Every time I open that book, I find something new that offends my sensibilities in brand new ways. About the only thing I'd use from it is flavour text, and only when necessary.

[Uin]

I also consider:
Lilitu
Shun the Dark Chaos/Embrace the Dark Chaos (aka, chaos shuffling/shufflers)
Pazuzu (to some extent, depends on DM)

to be faultsI would have never discover them on my own though.

[Kaihaku]

In regards to being well written and containing good information, I'd say that Sandstorm was easily the best of the regional books and one of the best 3.5 books period. Though, unless you're running a desert campaign, it's not worth obtaining.

[Eldritch_Ent]

Tome of Battle- Get this if you feel fighters, paladins, and/or monks are too weak. It nicely fixed the problem of the party meatshields from feeling useless when the Wizards and CoDzillas upstage them. Replace Monks with Unarmed Swordsages, Fighters with Warblades, and Paladins with Crusaders.

Item Compendium - Get this if you want more magical items to pick from. This book helps everyone regardless of class, and having it available will make everyone at your table a little happier overall.

Expanded Psionics Handbook- Get this if you feel arcane casters are too powerful. It has a system that's more balanced than magic and has a cool new-age feel to it. A great alternative to Sorcerors, and easier on people who came in from Console RPGs that weren't Baldur's Gate.

Spell Compendium- This will make your casters at your table squeal with girlish delight. Yes, even if it would be disturbing.

Unearthed Arcana- Lots of ways to shake up the old games. Variations on everything. I love their LA buyoff rules, too.

I'd say the five books above here are your best bet. However, the Complete Series, Dungeonscape and the "Races of" series are all great.

[AslanCross]

Tome of Battle- Get this if you feel fighters, paladins, and/or monks are too weak. It nicely fixed the problem of the party meatshields from feeling useless when the Wizards and CoDzillas upstage them. Replace Monks with Unarmed Swordsages, Fighters with Warblades, and Paladins with Crusaders.

Item Compendium - Get this if you want more magical items to pick from. This book helps everyone regardless of class, and having it available will make everyone at your table a little happier overall.

Expanded Psionics Handbook- Get this if you feel arcane casters are too powerful. It has a system that's more balanced than magic and has a cool new-age feel to it. A great alternative to Sorcerors, and easier on people who came in from Console RPGs that weren't Baldur's Gate.

Spell Compendium- This will make your casters at your table squeal with girlish delight. Yes, even if it would be disturbing.

Unearthed Arcana- Lots of ways to shake up the old games. Variations on everything. I love their LA buyoff rules, too.

I'd say the five books above here are your best bet. However, the Complete Series, Dungeonscape and the "Races of" series are all great.

I second everything here. However, a lot of stuff from Unearthed Arcana is available on http://www.d20srd.org/ anyway. In its place I'd recommend Player's Handbook II. Lots of good alternate class features for the core classes and then some. You might also want to pick up Complete Arcane just for the Warlock. (a lot of the spells in CArc are reprinted in Spell Compendium)

[Kurald Galain]

Wait, didn't we just do this, like, two or three weeks ago?

Anyway.
- PHB2
- Complete Arcane
- Complete Divine
- Complete Scoundrel

I don't like books with just lots of items or lots of spells in it, and I'm not too fond of the half-a-dozen new-ish systems of treating arcane-ish magic (e.g. incarnum, tome of magic, psionics, etc).

[KevLar]

In no particular order:

Complete Scoundrel
Complete Adventurer
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Tome of Battle
Magic Item Compendium
Arms And Equipment Guide
PHB II
Libris Mortis
Dungeonscape

(I didn't include Complete Arcane, Mage, Spell Compendium and Monster Manuals because arcane casters really need no bonus :smalltongue:, but basically because spells and monsters are stuff I'd rather homebrew for the setting. But that's just me.)

[Proven_Paradox]

There are a few things in CChampion that are actually pretty cool and NOT totally broken. Don't knock it just because someone at Wizards thought giving wizards spontaneous divinations wouldn't be a Bad Idea. :(

Anyway, my top five:

Tome of Battle - They're still not even with casters, but much closer and very fun to play.
Magic of Incarnum - Some fun stuff to be found here, definitely. Goes AWESOME with gestalt.
PHBII - Something for everyone here.
Races of Stone - I really like dwarves, and this does them justice. It also adds goliaths; my favorite LA race ever by far, and very well written.
Complete Scoundrel - Skill tricks are just fun. Breakable at times, but fun.

[AstralFire]

Non-SRD only or Unearthed Arcana'd be up here:

1. Tome of Battle
2. Expanded Psionics Handbook
3. Player's Handbook II
4. Complete Adventurer
5. Complete Warrior
6. Complete Arcane
7. Complete Scoundrel
8. Eberron Campaign Setting
9. Tome of Magic (sans Truenaming)
10. Manual of the Planes

Fin.

[Saph]

The top three I recommend to everyone are:

1. Player's Handbook II
2. Spell Compendium
3. Magic Item Compendium

These are the best and most universal books; good for players and for DMs. Even the Spell Compendium is useful for a majority of classes, given that 7 out of the 11 PHB classes have spellcasting.

Other ones:

Tome of Battle is kind of a polariser. Some hate it, others love it. Have a look and decide for yourself. It significantly changes both the feel and the power level of melee classes, so keep that in mind.
Draconomicon is pretty much the book for dragons. Mostly for DMs, but lots of useful stuff for shapechanger PCs and anyone who wants a dragon familiar/mount/companion/character.
The Complete Series is good, but patchy. Generally you'll only use 5% or less from each one. All are still worth getting if you have the money, though, except Complete Champion - give that one a miss.
The Races Of . . . series is best for players who really really like a certain race and want to mine it for options/background info for their character.

- Saph

[namo]

Many like-minded people around here...
1) Tome of Battle - *must have* for meleers. If you only get one, get this one.
2) Tome of Magic - the Binder and the fixed Shadowcaster are a blast.
3) Expanded Psionics Handbook - I really like psionics, but I always end up playing psions. Plus, the SRD has most of what's needed.
4) PHB2 - for the Beguiler, the Duskblade, the alternate class features (Shapeshift for druids !) and the feats
5) Spell Compendium - it does raise the power level in many campaigns
5) Magic Item Compendium - *let* your players have access to it. :smalltongue:
6+ ?) All the Completes have cool stuff and bad stuff
8) Dungeonscape - I love the Factotum but there's not much else for me
9) Races of Stone

The Eberron Campaign Setting and Races of Eberron are also really nice and have a lot of content you can steal even if you don't play in the setting.

[CthulhuM]

Plenty of good lists above, but I'd give some more consideration to Heroes of Horror. It contains two very cool classes, some interesting prestige classes, and a lot of excellent fluff. Always a good resource if you want to throw a bit of horror into your campaign, and I'd say worth it for the classes and spells even if you don't.

Admittedly, though, both the archivist and the dread necromancer are somewhat newbie-unfriendly, at least if you want to play them well.

[Deepblue706]

Complete Warrior
PHB2
Unearthed Arcana
Complete Scoundrel
Complete Adventurer

And that was a hard list to make; I personally dislike most of the published material.

[Zeta Kai]

This thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87555) has the most recent opinions on the best/worst books of 3rd Edition.

[Diamondeye]

My picks

1. Tome of Battle. I just really like this book; probably more than any splatbook of any edition.

2. PHB II. This has a lot of nice new options in it, IMO

3. Frostburn

4. Sandstorm

5. Stormwrack. All 3 of these provide lots of options for the environments they describe, and are an immense help in planning adventures in common harsh environments. I also especially like the alternate races given since they offer good flavor variation, and more race varity without introducing much in the way of potentially problematic new racial powers.

6. Draconomicon. Lots of great information on the game's theme monster, and a good mix of new crunch options in the form of PrCs, magic items, etc.

7. Fiendish Codex I

8. Fiendish Codex II. Great information on how to make more exciting, engaging, and original use of fiends as monsters

9. Book of Vile Darkness. Along the same lines, all kinds of wonderful stuff for making better bad guys

10. Hard choice after this, but probably Book of Exalted Deeds, just because it provides a nice resource ofr good guys after I named 3 or 4 for bad guys.

[Starbuck_II]

Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords
Magic Item Compendium
Spell Compendium
Player's Handbook 2

After that, Expanded Psionics Handbook or Tome of Magic are both very cool, though XPH is far better, the ToM has some damn cool stuff in it.

Yeah TOB is top, my order:

ToB
Magic Item Compenduim
XPH (Expanded Psionics Handbook)
Player's Handbook 2
Spell Compenduim
Complete Adventurer

[Exarch]

I personally LOVE the Tome of Battle. Most of my friends don't like it because I never subjected them to CoDzilla or Batman Wizard and feel like introducing "sword magic" is lame. To be honest, I loved being able to have the skill points and skill selection to do more things, having more things to do in combat just say "I swing at it." Oddly, we all like 4E. Regardless, here's my selection, more or less in order:

1) Tome of Battle
2) PHB 2
3) Magic Item Compendium
4) Races of Stone
5) Spell Compendium
6) Draconomicon
7) Complete Warrior
8) Complete Mage or Complete Arcane...
9) Unearthed Arcana
10) I forget which I liked.Complete Scoundrel

I never got a hold of the Dungeon book, though I hear a lot of good things about it. I didn't really touch Psionics either, though I came around to the idea at the end. The Races of Stone...I like Dwarfs. And the Draconomicon is because I love dragons.

[potatocubed]

My picks, in no particular order:

Tome of Battle
Tome of Magic
Eberron Campaign Setting
Complete Adventurer, Warrior, Arcane*
Expanded Psionics Handbook

Aside from the core, that should give you a nice array of 'things to do if you're new to 3.5'. Even if you don't play in Eberron, it's a cool example of how D&D can be bent away from traditional fantasy and it's full of nifty feats and things that can be easily transitioned into other campaign worlds.

*Frankly, Complete Divine manages to be both broken in many places and boring as hell. Quite an achievement.

[Crow]

Player's Handbook 2

Unearthed Arcana

Complete Warrior

Complete Adventurer

I'm glad to see Unearthed Arcana has gotten some decent love in this thread. I think it's a great supplement if you're looking for ways to tweak the game.

[AstralFire]

Player's Handbook 2

Unearthed Arcana

Complete Warrior

Complete Adventurer

I'm glad to see Unearthed Arcana has gotten some decent love in this thread. I think it's a great supplement if you're looking for ways to tweak the game.

My biggest problem with it is that the alternate rules chapter... I wouldn't call it deceptive since I doubt they were trying, but it's pretty hard to implement most of the cool rules variants suggested without having to rebalance practically everything. =\ Still, the class variants and spelltouched feats and stuff were cool.

[Crow]

My biggest problem with it is that the alternate rules chapter... I wouldn't call it deceptive since I doubt they were trying, but it's pretty hard to implement most of the cool rules variants suggested without having to rebalance practically everything. =\ Still, the class variants and spelltouched feats and stuff were cool.


I wasn't a huge fan of the spelltouched feats, but the class variants are really fun, particularly the specialist wizard variants. Clearly, no game can use everything in the book, but for a DM who likes to give his players extra options, and has an eye towards balance (not relying foolishly on the 3.x ruleset to provide it), it can really enhance a game.

Right now, we're using the spell-point variant magic system, along with the rule where you get fatigued at half your points and exhuasted at 1/4, but can regain some of your points with an hour's rest.

We're also using a mish-mash of the defense bonus and armor as damage reduction rules. Basically, allowing defense bonus to count as full when unarmored, and up to the armor's MAXDEX when wearing armor.

[RebelRogue]

Tome of Battle seems to be popular here. I wouldn't say I didn't like it, it just felt too "tagged-on" to me, I guess. And I don't like the Magic Item Compendium much at all, I must say... Well, here's my list:

Spell Compendium (mostly for the added ranger/paladin spells to be honest)
Complete Adventurer
Complete Divine
Complete Scoundrel
PHBII (well, I dislike some of the spells)
DMGII (appearantly I'm the only one to like this, hehe)
MMIII
Book of Vile Darkness
The Fiendish Codexes

Also, having just gotten the Eberron Capmpaign Setting, I must say I'm loving it so far (why on Earth haven't I tried this setting before now???)

[Criz Reborn]

Magic item Compendium
Spell Compendium
Tome of Battle (Book of 9 swords)
PHB II
Most any complete series book (scoundrel probably being the most fun)