What are your favourite manuals?

[Cicciograna]

In your campaigns, what are the sources that you prefer?
For what concerns books regarding effective rules, I really like Tome of Battle, as it gives a completely new perspective on melee classes, and Magic of Faerun, for its broad selection of new spells and magic objects; for books that add "flavour" I like Arms and Equipment Guide, because I like its mundane objects, and Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, since I'm fond of my players building their castle.

What sourcebooks do you like best (and so suggest me to implement)?

[Gnorman]

I'm personally a big fan of a +5 Tome of Leadership and Influence.

Oh. You mean THOSE kind of manuals.

Races of Stone gets my vote, because Gnomes are awesome. PHBII gets my vote because Beguilers are awesome (especially Gnomish beguilers).

I also love Lords of Madness because Mind Flayers are basically my favorite creatures in the D&D Cryptozoonomicon.

Spellcasters do well with the Spell Compendium. I also find myself enjoying Heroes of Horror because I love Lovecraftian campaigns with cosmic horrors from beyond the stars, that will kill us while we stand here and store our brains in mason jars. Okay, that's probably why I like Mind Flayers.

[ghost_warlock]

Heroes of Horror, Lords of Madness, and the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Personally, I'm more a fan of tsochari, grell, and anything else the players have never heard of.

Drain you of your sanity
Face The Thing That Should Not Be

[TheCountAlucard]

Another fan of Heroes of Horror here. Great book, great fluff, great crunch, and introduces one of the most flavorful classes out there - the Dread Necromancer.

[The Mentalist]

I like the Practical Enchanter personally, you can get it free at RPGnow.com. It's really good for spell research and new takes on item creation.

[T.G. Oskar]

A swift list, coming up!

--Book of Exalted Deeds. It's D&D's Good Book. Not the Bible, of course (that's the core rulebooks in D&D's case), but still a good treatise on how to play good creatures, despite how many people think of it as half and half. As in, half-bad because it places impossible hard ideals for adventurers to follow, and half-broken because of some classes and feats and magic items out there.

--Tome of Battle. About time techniques were established. It's definitely not anime, well balanced, and definitely worth the hype.

--Unearthed Arcana. For when D&D campaigns start becoming boring. There's some rules I ache to establish (Vitality and Wound points). It's my point of reference to Action Points, which is wonderful because I love Action Points a lot.

--Eberron Campaign Setting. Perhaps it's because it's the campaign setting I'm most familiar with, but if it's not Greyhawk or homebrewed, default the setting to Eberron. I love the fluff. I absolutely love the fluff.

--Deities and Demigods. I mean, who doesn't wish their character was a deity? It's like a munchkin's dream, only fleetingly unavailable because the DM won't ever allow it. It makes you as a DM consider just how weak anything short of Batman Wizards are. And if necessary? Retool Boccob as THE God Wizard.

[JellyPooga]

I really like Libris Mortis myself...I like undead, what can I say?

To complement that, Heroes of Horror for Dread Necro is a must.

I also like Races of the Wild...best "Races" book IMO.

[Lord_Drayakir]

Complete Arcane and Complete Mage. Also, since my DM allows it, BoVD. Then again, I can't play a non-spellcaster, because I get bored hitting things with my sword/mace/spear, so yeah.

[Cicciograna]

Then again, I can't play a non-spellcaster, because I get bored hitting things with my sword/mace/spear, so yeah.

That's why they made ToB

[Kurald Galain]

2E Tome of Magic.

3E PHB2.

Tribebook: Silver Fangs (hey, you didn't specify which system )

Vulture Warriors From Dimension X

[Cicciograna]

(hey, you didn't specify which system )

Intentionally.
Personally, I play 3.5, but material from other edition can be adapted.

[J.Gellert]

3rd edition
Heroes of Horror
Complete Scoundrel (skill tricks are a very good idea)
Spell Compendium
Player's Guide to Faerun (for the crunch, primarily)

2nd edition
Forgotten Realms: Villain's Lorebook
Handbooks: Paladin, Necromancer, Elves, Ninjas
Player's Option: Spells and Powers

[potatocubed]

For D&D?

Magic of Incarnum and Tome of Magic for 3.5. Yay for magic that feels different to the usual spellcasting. Tome of Battle is good, too.

Martial Power for 4e.

Planescape (all of it) for 2e.

For other systems?

Crooks for MnM 1e.

Games of Divinity for Exalted 1e - the best supplement for a game I have ever read.

[Kaiyanwang]

In 3.0?

Oriental Adventures remains in my heart. Magic of Faerun too is full of inspiring things, as well as A&EG - Mercurial Greatsword forever. Crit Happens!

in 3.5, Heroes of Horror first, then the completes.

[Zeta Kai]

My favorite 3E books are:

1. Stormwrack (pirate battles FTW)
2. Heroes of Battle (wargame roleplay FTW)
3. Cityscape (urban dungeon FTW)
4. Book of Vile Darkness (pure evil FTW)
5. The Races Books (cultural fluff FTW)

[bosssmiley]

Haynes

3E: Weeaboo Fightan Magic (ToB), It's Cold Outside (Frostburn), Races of Short (self-explanatory)
2E: Planescape, Birthright
1E: MM2, FF, D&DG

Other: BECMI/LL (it is delicious role-playing truth)

[Killer Angel]

2nd Ed.: Planescape (Sigil and the outer planes).

3rd Ed: Fiendish codex (II over I)

[Everyman]

Just in 3.5e...

1) Unearthed Arcana (I'm a rules junkie)
2) Heroes of Horror (again, rules junkie AND I like the flavor)
3) PHBII (mostly the feats and classes, though I question some spells...*cough*celerity*cough*)
4) Complete Adv. (I like skillmonkeys)
5) Monster Manual III (the first MM I ever bought, filled with a diverse set of fun creatures)

[Eldan]

For 3rd Edition: The Draconomicon, because I love dragons, and the Tome of Battle.

For 2nd (which I have actually never played): The Planescape Monstrous Appendices, and my favourite roleplaying book of all times, Uncaged: Faces of Sigil.

[OverdrivePrime]

2nd ed: Manual of the Planes

3.5:
PHBII
Races of the Wild (except for the section on Raptorans... lame!)
Tome of Makin' Melee Fun Again
Spell Compendium, mostly for ranger spells
Draconomicon, mostly for the art

[BooNL]

My favourite manuals are:

Races of Stone: just plain awesome, three of my favourite races
Expanded Psionics Handbook: I think I'm one of the few people who thinks psionics are cooler (and better balanced) than regular magic
PHBII: for its variant rules and awesome classes

[Optimystik]

I like so many of them, but Spell Compendium is definitely the top of the list for me. Also anything with divine caster/religious cosmology goodness, like Complete Divine, Complete Champion, BoED, BoVD, FC1 and FC2 is good stuff.

For D&D?

Magic of Incarnum and Tome of Magic for 3.5. Yay for magic that feels different to the usual spellcasting. Tome of Battle is good, too.

If it weren't for Binders, Tome of Magic would be a colossal failure. Truenamer had so much wasted potential that it's not even funny, and shadowcasters were mediocre at best.

[TomKatt]

I prefer Races of dragons and the draconomicon because kobolds and dragons kick ass

[Cicciograna]

I think I will add Unearthed Arcana, because many of the variant systems are quite fun!

[Froogleyboy]

Book of erotic fantasy

[Xallace]

List function, activate!

DMing List!

• Monster Manual III - None of my players have it, mwahahaha!
• The Environmental Books sans Cityscape - So very, very useful.
• Dragonmech - I like making my PCs fight mechs, or be fighting in the same place that mechs are fighting. Mind Flayer Nautilus vs Neogi Spidership FOR THE FREAKIN' WIN.
• My other steampunk books - Sorcery and Steam, Iron Kingdoms... s'all good.

Player's List!

• The Races of... Books - Goliaths. GO-LI-ATHS.
• Heroes of Horror - They're called the Dread Necromancer and the Dread Witch.
  
• Libris Mortis - Well, when you gotta be a necromancer...

[Dixieboy]

The Giovanni clanbook

A book that makes Necrophiliac necromancers who became vampires "For the lulz" look like the most intelligent and sensible of all the clans deserves some credit.

oh wait?

D&D?

Players handbook II

[Malacode]

MiC and SpC are usually the first books I open when selecting items and spells known, but they aren't my -favourites-

ToB and UA get that honour, closely followed by Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Magic and the Complete series. Then there's Nymphology... You know, for the lulz. Best splatbook for a promiscuous Bard.

I have to agree with the above poster... Vancian magic isn't as fun as the other systems provided.

[Zeta Kai]

The Environmental Books sans Cityscape

You know, I don't know why everyone rags on Cityscape. It was a very solid book, full of great crunch & cool ideas for urban adventuring. It had great material for both players & DMs. And the fluff wasn't bad, either.

Yes, it was short, shorter in fact than any other environment book (157 pages, I believe). But there were at least 3 online supplements, all available for free (back when that was possible). This last part strongly implies that the designers had more stuff ready for the book, but were forced to stick to a strict page count by the publisher.

I know urban adventuring is not everyone's cup of tea. But I don't think I've even played a campaign that didn't go into the Big City at least once. And when the game goes to town, DMs used to be high-&-dry as per the rules, forced to improvise. That might be the problem with the book, in fact; maybe DMs are too used to making up their own urban rules & style.

Well, regardless, I must say I love Cityscape. I only wish I'd had that book earlier in my DMing career; it would've saved me a lot of work.

The Giovanni Clanbook

I also liked that book. For my favorite OWoD splat, I'd have to say the Tzimisce Clanbook. Trans-Evil Squick never looked so cool.

[Cicciograna]

Book of erotic fantasy

Hmm, I found it awful, but I could use the fluff.

The Giovanni clanbook

A book that makes Necrophiliac necromancers who became vampires "For the lulz" look like the most intelligent and sensible of all the clans deserves some credit.

Honestly I never found Giovanni too interesting (preferring Setites, as for Independent clans), apart from their connection to health-care: anyway, I assure you that, in Italy, hospitals and Medicine in general is indeed in the hands of Vampires...