I'm thinkinng of getting another book...

[Collin152]

I have the four original complete books -adventurer warrior arcana divine- and was considering getting one of the books from the "sequel" to those books. Tell me, are any of those worth getting, or are there any other good books? Keeping mind that I mostly act as DM.

[Damionte]

Unearthed Arcana is a good GM book.

What else do you have?

[Inyssius Tor]

...tomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattl etomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattlet omeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattle...

Complete Mage, I've found, is quite unnecessary. I don't have Complete Champion, but Scoundrel isn't bad.
I would recommend that you get one of the environmental series (Stormwrack, Sandstorm, Frostburn) if your campaign has, does, or ever will involve the environment in question.

[Collin152]

...tomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattl etomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattlet omeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattletomeofbattle...

Complete Mage, I've found, is quite unnecessary. I don't have Complete Champion, but Scoundrel isn't bad.
I would recommend that you get one of the environmental series (Stormwrack, Sandstorm, Frostburn) if your campaign has, does, or ever will involve the environment in question.

Hm... tel me more of this "Tome of Battle".

[Townopolis]

Complete Mage is useful for 1 bard feat and 1 bard PrC... and it has some PrCs for multiclass mages (warlock/mage, sorceror/wizard, divine/mage, fighter/mage). Other than that, it's unnecessary.

Complete Scoundrel is much niftier, it has useful PrCs for almost anyone, introduces Skill Trick (which are awesome) and is nice for inspiring skill-and-panache adventures.

the Magic Item Compendium is quite nice.

[VerdugoExplode]

The tome of battle is one of the more recent works of WotC. Divinely inspired by Odin himself it was originally written in the blood of slain communists on pages made from scientifically reinforced paper as normal paper would be unable to handle the shear amount of awesome contained therein. Unfortunately looking at the original proved to be problematic as it inevitably made the reader insane, the last reader was last seen heading to China where he will probably be found battling swarms of enemies all at once and defying seemingly insurmountable odds. They have therefor diluted a copy so that it may be displayed to the general public without fear of spontaneous fights breaking out and acts of strength which defy conventional wisdom from being performed.

In it it describes a wide variety of classes and options which have finally brought your humble fighter up to a level comperable to that of your average. No longer will they flounder at higher levels, staring in vain as the wizard lays waste to your opponents and the nearby landscape, and perhaps the occasional random bystander.

It gives those in melee the chance to shine by allowing them to perform manuevers to showcase their prowess, stances to maintain bonuses to themselves and their allies, boosts to enhance their own abilities but only briefly and counters which are pretty self explanatory assuming you aren't thinking of the kitchen furnishing. I'd recommend tome of battle as well for the aforementioned reasons, and you can make some amazing characters that will scale better with the casters instead of the poor fighter. I'll miss you fighter! Never forget!

[Inyssius Tor]

Hm... tel me more of this "Tome of Battle".

It is, quite simply, an excellent book. You probably already know this, since there have been a number of arguments about it, but it's designed to make fighter-types more fun to play.

You know how fighting, as a fighter, can get kind of repetitive? No matter how you describe it, things have a tendency to boil down to "I attack it," "I charge-attack it," or "I try to trip it"? Well, the Tome of Battle is designed to fix that (among other things). It gives melee characters more versatility, in the form of Combat Maneuvers (which work somewhat similarly to how spellcasters work).

Their only major problem is that, when dropped into play, they have a tendency to overshadow fighters at the table (because the new Swordsages and Warblades will be having fun throwing people across the room / swinging twin brands of fire at people / leaping entirely over people's heads, while the fighters will be Power Attacking for full again).

EDIT: They really aren't as powerful as they look at first glance, either; an optimized Core barbarian is actually consistently more powerful than an equivalent Warblade.

[Jack Mann]

Unearthed Arcana is a good GM book.

I disagree with this one. Not because Unearthed Arcana is a bad book (it's one of the best Wizards has ever put out), but because it's unnecessary to buy it. Most of the content is in the online SRD. You might get it eventually, but only after you've purchased other books you need more.

I'd also recommend the environmentals. Stormwrack is absolutely vital for any nautical campaign.

Tome of Battle is great as well. It was one of the first books I bought as a DM. But it's more of a player's book than a DM's book. See if you can get one of your players to buy it instead, since they'll get the most out of it. When they do, allow everyone at the table with a martial character to trade out their old class levels for new, sparkly ToB levels, so they don't feel overshadowed.

The various Races books can be good, but again, are written more for players than DMs.

The monstrous series of books (Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness) are also pretty good. Especially Lords of Madness. If you want to give your campaign a specific theme based on one of these creature types, these can be worth buying.

I particularly enjoyed Heroes of Horror. It's especially written with DMs in mind. About half of it is just fluff ideas on how to make D&D more horrific. If you'd like to make your games creepier, this is the book for you.

EDIT: They really aren't as powerful as they look at first glance, either; an optimized Core barbarian is actually consistently more powerful than an equivalent Warblade.

Only in terms of raw damage output, which matters less and less as time goes by. A warblade is more powerful than a barbarian, but this is because of the sheer number of options he has, and ways to protect his weak points.

[Raltar]

Stormwrack is the best book WotC ever put out.

[Norsesmithy]

Tomb of battle, followed by the Magic Item Compendium.

Because, you see, the people at WOTC took a step back, and looked at the magic item rules, and realized that they don't work.

So they made the MIC to fix the problem.

And it works wonderfully.

I don't need to sing the praises of the Tomb of Battle, others are doing a fine job.

[Jack Mann]

Tome. Not tomb, tome.

The Tomb of Battle would be a crypt filled with the animated corpses of the greatest warriors of all time, eternally fighting, never resting, always hewing at each other in a conflict that can have no victor.

[Jarlax]

strictly speaking Savage Species is not a 3.5 book, its 3.0 but i suggest it anyway. it basically gives rules for playing monsters as PC's which isn't very good at all. the rules are terribly obscure and rely almost entirely on the DM's judgment which just leads to monster PCs who are too powerfull for their level.

HOWEVER, its feat list will definitely spice up any encounter with relative ease. and its template list provides a lot of really powerful variant monsters none of which your PCs should be allowed but a responsible DM can use the make encounters interesting. its not hard to make the minor adjustments from 3.0 to 3.5 and i really like using it to give monsters my players know something unexpected by swapping that improved initiative feat for something like more reach, stronger poisons or faster breath weapons.

more Monster Manuals is always a good way to go. there a plenty out there to choose from and expanding your list of monsters is always a good thing for a DM.

Magic Item Compendium would be hands down the easiest way to get more loot for your players. its a standard sized book with nothing but magic items pretty much cover to cover.

[Norsesmithy]

Tome. Not tomb, tome.

The Tomb of Battle would be a crypt filled with the animated corpses of the greatest warriors of all time, eternally fighting, never resting, always hewing at each other in a conflict that can have no victor.

Bah, I meant what you know, or something like that.

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Tome of Battle (once you go ToB, you never go back!), Magic Item Compendium, Player's Handbook 2, or Expanded Psionics Handbook.

The environment ones, as said, are nice; although I don't particularly like Frostburn.

I also second Heroes of Horror, which is full of great ideas for a DM. If your campaign style is more happy-go-lucky and you don't plan on any horror campaigns, it's not the book you're looking for. Otherwise, it has some real gems.

[CASTLEMIKE]

Since you posted you are a DM I would suggest UA as one of the most useful source books to a DM who wants to do a little tweaking to their campaign world. It is a great book although a lot of it has been released into the D20 SRD document. There is still plenty of information and it is always nice to have a hard copy you can hold it in your hands to refer to. You should be able to get one for a good price online via Amazon or Ebay which might allow you to get a second source book instead of paying full price for a single book.

The MIC and the SC are also nice for a DM.

The Book of Nine Swords is nice for buffing up the fighter types at all levels from first to twenty.

I like the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

[Iku Rex]

I'd get the Spell Compendium or the Magic Item Compendium.

[Morty]

Spell Compendium is excellent book for primary and secondary casters. Player's Hanbook II is full of great new feats and spells, and introduces quite fine new classes.
ToB is overrated, but isn't bad either.

[Kioran]

Once upon a time, there stood men under the sun, musclebound, proud and defiant even inthe face of bitter odds. Men who wouldn´t balk at terror, injury or challening the gods. They carried huge axes, spears, hammers and sword and laid into their enemies with fury. Their live was short, exciting and filled with glory, a life, always in defiance of the cruel gods that, uncaring to their fate, let them perish in the end, struck down by craven and meek people with pointy hats.
Their life was simply, yet alluring, and to this day, they exist as the epitome of manlyness. Those fine specimen, bith body and mind honed to a fine edge, awe inspiring hunks of meat. But the cruel gods, in their unending quest to destroy manlyness, devised yet another insidious ploy: They promised salvation. A long life, more prowess, and the opportunity to smite those with the pointy hats with the power of senseless animism and crudely named tripe.

Many balked, sensing foul play behind the generous offer. Some though, those weak off spirit and body, always looking up to their peers, decided to take on the offer, and the gods delighted.
In a short instant, the power took hold, transforming them, giving them new, unheard of power, and they exclaimed in exstasy. But the gods were cruel, for in that instant, their testicles shrunk to a third of their former size, while their legs automatically shaved themselves. Powerful Gladiators, warriors and Pitfighters became........Warblades.

Tragedy unfolded. And while the martial Paragons of old fell, these new ones took over, effeminate shadows of their former self, only one step removed from wearing pointy hats.....
__________________________________________________

ToB is a horrible work, made by total hacks, tranforming the martial classes into semi-spellcasters. If we can´t fix the combat mechanics and casters are overpowered - make everyone a caster!!! *blech*

I´d recommend items like "Dungeonscape" or the climate/environment related books. Or the PHB II. Really, the PHB II does an excellent job on many balance iddues and gives martial classes useful Feats.

[Artemician]

ToB is a horrible work, made by total hacks, tranforming the martial classes into semi-spellcasters. If we can´t fix the combat mechanics and casters are overpowered - make everyone a caster!!! *blech*

I´d recommend items like "Dungeonscape" or the climate/environment related books. Or the PHB II. Really, the PHB II does an excellent job on many balance iddues and gives martial classes useful Feats.

Don't listen to him!!! What spews from his mouth is Heresy! Quick, grab the Menofix!

Seriously though, don't. The Tome of Battle is one of the most awesome books ever printed, second only to the XPH. While it may be true that it replicates spell mechanics to some extent, I don't see that as making it any less good. Mechanics are nothing but mere skeletons, how great something is depends on how you act it out. And the default ways that ToB recommends you act out mechanics are fairly, quite awesome already.

However, if you want a more gritty feel, it's only one small step to removing the whole "mystic martial arts" thing. Though, I've never really found the need to do so in my campaigns, but that's just because of my group's playstyle, so you may think differently.

Previously, to get Mr Ultra Badass Fighter, you had to play a Cleric. And frankly, it gets annoying, especially if you want to play a non-divine beat-uppy class.

Sure, you can fluff up the fighter, but the thing is, the skeleton that the Fighter provides, is essentially none. I Power Attack for 6. I Charge. I trip. Endof. It gets really boring after a while. Even Warlocks have Blast Shape Invocations to spice things up.

Verdict: Get it.

[Morty]

I think I'll side with Kioran here for a while. ToB is quite book, but all "superawesome" talk is large overrating, it's not really some kind of meleers' promise land. The questions are: do you find melee types boring? Do you really badly need them to be stronger? If the answer to at least one of the above is "yes", get Tome of Battle. If not, pass it and buy something else.

[brian c]

I think I'll side with Kioran here for a while. ToB is quite book, but all "superawesome" talk is large overrating, it's not really some kind of meleers' promise land. The questions are: do you find melee types boring? Do you really badly need them to be stronger? If the answer to at least one of the above is "yes", get Tome of Battle. If not, pass it and buy something else.

If you're playing D&D at higher than level 10 or so, then the answer to your questions is yes. Unless you're playing with one or more clerics, druids, or mages who are ridiculously unoptimized.

[Morty]

If you're playing D&D at higher than level 10 or so, then the answer to your questions is yes.

*sigh* I'm well aware of that. Luckily, I'm yet to play D&D above 10 level, so I'll see if it's so bad I have to buy book with system I don't like to fix that.
And anyway, let's just see how OP answers that.

[VerdugoExplode]

All those who are badmouthing the ToB are trying to corrupt you and consume your fun in an unholy ritual of misery! Do not listen to them lest they poison your soul with their lies! The ToB is the promised land for those who melee, especially those who are taking their characters into the higher levels. Observer

Standard low level fighter: I hit it with my sword
Standard high level fighter: I hit it twice with my magic sword, assuming I'm not standing around twiddling my thumbs watching the wizard annihlate everything he can see or otherwise busy failing will saves and attacking the aforementioned wizard.

ToB fighter: I use my many years of martial training to execute a manuever to inflict greater harm upon my enemies! I am a god of the battlefield! The enemies quake upon hearing my name and my sword had become a symbol of death and ruin!

Although the magic item compendium is nice too, I must still recommend ToB. If anything else it will give you some fantastic evil people to throw at your party.

[Fax Celestis]

Three words: Magic. Of. Incarnum.

[Collin152]

Three words: Magic. Of. Incarnum.

I've heard of that, but have no idea what it's all about.
Oh, and in a recent turn of events, the next campaign is incredibly magic heavy. As in, every member of the party has a chosen a class with at least bard-level spellcasting. And only one of them is a bard.

[Artemician]

Three words: Magic. Of. Incarnum.

The concept behind Magic of Incarnum is good, yes, but I don't like all the jazz about Alignment being your Incarnum.. it's annoying for me. And if you try to peel it off, there goes 15 soulmelds.

The Totemist, however.. is just made of awesome.

[horseboy]

Candide
Turning Life into Fiction (Robin Hemley)
Le Morte D'authur
The Savage Crown of Conan
and/or Drawing of the Dark (if you can find it)

[SadisticFishing]

Player's Handbook II is incredible, as is the Tome of Battle. Magic Item Compendium is not my favorite book, as it's boring to read, but very useful for a DM.

Spell Compendium is good, but you already have the completes so a lot of it won't be that helpful to you.

[Gavin Sage]

If you have Complete 1.0 I'd go with the Players Handbook II next, its somewhat like the Complete Series only better then any of them. It is player oriented but even for a DM it has things like the Shapeshifter Druids variant to fix the game up some. Spell Compendium is a good buy for coming up with more obscure spells to use, or Magic Item Compendium for the something other then that +5 chain shirt next time around.

From a more DM perspective the various environmental books are good if you want to use any of those settings. Beyond that various settings sorts of books can give you lots of ideas for a new campaign, but also by that nature can be limited in the long term. Depends on what you think your getting your money's worth qualifies as.

And Tome of Battle, buy if you like turning your fighters into Asian-swordmages. You aren't a fighter, you are a mage who can fight and can restore his spells with a flick of a switch. If you or your group has been perfectly happy playing normal classes and you don't want to run an Asian theme campaign then no reason to buy it. If everyone wants to be Cloud from FFVII or Jet Li from Hero, then ToB is for you.

And on the original question as such I've yet to see much in Complete 2.0 to make me want to buy it. Scoundrel seems the best of the bunch, simply for the idea of Skill Tricks but I don't think quite realizes its potential.

[Neon Knight]

Not this again.

Look, sections of ToB are like magic and heavily Wuxia flavored. Certain Tiger Claw maneuvers. Desert Wind, Shadow Hand, maybe Diamond Mind. Swordsages in general.

Gavin Sage and Kioran completely ignore perfectly un-mage like Warblades who focus on Stonehammer and Iron Heart. These disciplines are focused on one thing and one thing alone: hitting things hard and killing people.

If you play high level games with well played batman wizards, CoDzillas, etc. get ToB. Don't like some of the Wuxia flavor? Gut it. Strip it out. Fluff is malleable. It is the easiest thing to change in the world, because all it is is description.

Using ToB will not turn your fighter into asian swordsmen. Tob classes, although Wuxia and anime based, can have all related wuxia and anime fluff torn out in a heartbeat and be used as knights, swashbucklers, generic fighters, etc. Except they will actually be viable at higher levels.

Just keep in mind that standard fighters will be overshadowed by ToB classes. Barbarians will still be viable if they are well built. Paladins and Rangers, well, they have access to some divine magic. Monks, well, monks were screwed before ToB.

Some people might be overrating ToB. If you have people who still want to play fighters, paladins, and rogues alongside ToB classes, or blaster casters, ToB is going to look overpowered.

If you use it at high levels, alongside batman, Codzilla, then ToB will fight right in and be balanced.