What I would recommend depends on how you're world is devised. You have the only two you really need, the other books provide more ideas. The Monster Manual is certainly hand if you need a source for creatures, but if your campaign is light, an you want to be truly original, (or strapped for cash), it can be skipped. (The PH contains a fair number of creatures already anyway.) As for the rest, here is what I already have, and what I think about them: Hero Builder's Guide Book: Has more comic appeal than any real value. It contains various ways of viewing character classes and how certain races can fit each class--some are good, some are funny, but most are commonsense to experience roleplayers (especially dramatists). The following are books rlated to certain character classes. These all devote most of their pages to feats, prestige classes, and of course a few spells. The all contain short articles on how to play an effective [insert class here], but they don't contain that much more than can be garnered from the PH. They also have nice building templates, but I'm not sure if that's something you'd find useful. Defenders of the Faith (Clerics and Paladins): If you're not using the 3rd Ed. pantheon, this book loses some of its value; it is still a good source for Paladins. If religion is playing a substantial roll in your campaign then it might be worth it. Sword and Fist (Fighters and Monks): Many of the prestige classes are tied to Ki, giving an oriental flavor to it. Many of the feats are tied to martial arts as well. Unless you're putting some oriental flavor into your campaign I'm afraid the rest of the book is too combat oriented for you to be worth it. Tome and Magic: Only really useful to those players who only play arcane spellcasters and new ideas so they aren't copies of some archetype or if your a DM looking to make an NPC magus of some sort--like one that scribes scrolls into his/her skin as if they were tatoos. I'm still looking for an opportunity to try that one on my PCs... (They'll never view person covered in tatoos the same way again.) On the whole, you've probably invested enough. The rest you can flip though in the bookstore and get what you need. I'm just a sucker for a full bookshelf. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
