Rather than buying him the tools that you (or we) think he needs, give
him a pre-paid credit card and let him get his own tools as he needs
them for the projects as they come along. Make it a stipulation that he
use the card for tools, not for dinner or ball games.

Right! You haven't said what needs to be done, so how can we say what tool is needed. Let the job(s) dictate what tool is to be purchased.

Also, if he has little carpentry experience, let him start by building some saw horses, rather than buying. If he rarely does carpentry jobs and will unlikely do more, later, then most tools he buys will only be used once, for this one (albeit overall large) project. If he can't build a set of saw horses, he shouldn't be doing home repairs. Saw horses are cheap to build with scrap lumber, i.e., they are essentially free. I've known folks who wanted to do their own home repairs, but can't build a set of saw horses, hence their home repairs were a disaster.

Your question simply can't be answered appropriately, IMO, with an off-the-cuff listing of tools.