orangefruitbat
Adventurer
I bought it - here's why
Basically, this book is all the 3.0 splatbook stuff that's about fighting. Since I never thought the 3.0 books had enough good stuff for the money, I never bought any of them. That being said, I did like some of the feats and prestige classes.
This book has all of the splatbook stuff, but proofread, in colour, hardcover, and with some better balance.
You get some new basic classes - hexor, samurai, and swashbuckler. Interestingly enough, this samurai is different than the OA one - basically is a more constrained and stereotyped samurai. Probably fine for a European-style fantasy with a samurai in it. If I want to run a game in Kara Tura, I'd use the one in OA. There are also non-spellcasting variants of the ranger and paladin. The paladin gets a rage-like bonus once a day (increased STR and AC) when fighting evil, and can give weapons the good and ultimately the holy properties. These would defintely appeal to people who want to play rangers or paladins but don't want to bother with picking spells.
You get lots of prestige classes. Many are from the splats. There's yet another version of the bladesinger - this one adds spell-caster levels at every other class level rather than a separate spell list. Hooray. A new spellsword, a new Eye of Grumush, new Knight types and Hunter of the Dead. The Thayan Knight and the Purple Dragon are here in 3.5 form oddly enough. The exotic weapons master actually seems woth taking now. And there's one for shapechangers (including druids) who can partially shapechnage to gain benefits with natural weapons.
Lots of new feats. Most are from the splats, but with some minor tweaks. You get classics like Large and in Charge and Close-combat fighting. All those martial arts feats from SF and the extra rage feats. You also get reworked versions of all the divine feats (as someone who doesn't have DoF, this is a good thing). You get tactical feats, which are interesting as they provide specific bonuses under specific circumnstances. For example, there is one that allows you to improve your AC when fightinging someone using power attack. There are also weapon style feats which give you bonuses with certain weapon combos, including some that you wouldn't expect, like sword and axe. There's one for staff fighting that allows you to spin it around and improve your AC.
There's a section on monsters and fighting familiars. Great, the last thing I want as DM is more creatures for the party's menagerie of familiars, cohorts, bonded mounts and animal companions. Sigh.
There are some new weapons and armor. Nothing too crazy. The man catcher is back (good for us kuo-toan fans) and the elven thinblade. Some silliness like a dual-headed hammer.
And then there is a section on medieval and fantasy warfare. Haven't really looked at it to see if it's any good.
To sum up, if you don't have the 3.0 splats, it's a good buy. If you have some or all of them, look it over for yourself and see if it's worth it.
Basically, this book is all the 3.0 splatbook stuff that's about fighting. Since I never thought the 3.0 books had enough good stuff for the money, I never bought any of them. That being said, I did like some of the feats and prestige classes.
This book has all of the splatbook stuff, but proofread, in colour, hardcover, and with some better balance.
You get some new basic classes - hexor, samurai, and swashbuckler. Interestingly enough, this samurai is different than the OA one - basically is a more constrained and stereotyped samurai. Probably fine for a European-style fantasy with a samurai in it. If I want to run a game in Kara Tura, I'd use the one in OA. There are also non-spellcasting variants of the ranger and paladin. The paladin gets a rage-like bonus once a day (increased STR and AC) when fighting evil, and can give weapons the good and ultimately the holy properties. These would defintely appeal to people who want to play rangers or paladins but don't want to bother with picking spells.
You get lots of prestige classes. Many are from the splats. There's yet another version of the bladesinger - this one adds spell-caster levels at every other class level rather than a separate spell list. Hooray. A new spellsword, a new Eye of Grumush, new Knight types and Hunter of the Dead. The Thayan Knight and the Purple Dragon are here in 3.5 form oddly enough. The exotic weapons master actually seems woth taking now. And there's one for shapechangers (including druids) who can partially shapechnage to gain benefits with natural weapons.
Lots of new feats. Most are from the splats, but with some minor tweaks. You get classics like Large and in Charge and Close-combat fighting. All those martial arts feats from SF and the extra rage feats. You also get reworked versions of all the divine feats (as someone who doesn't have DoF, this is a good thing). You get tactical feats, which are interesting as they provide specific bonuses under specific circumnstances. For example, there is one that allows you to improve your AC when fightinging someone using power attack. There are also weapon style feats which give you bonuses with certain weapon combos, including some that you wouldn't expect, like sword and axe. There's one for staff fighting that allows you to spin it around and improve your AC.
There's a section on monsters and fighting familiars. Great, the last thing I want as DM is more creatures for the party's menagerie of familiars, cohorts, bonded mounts and animal companions. Sigh.
There are some new weapons and armor. Nothing too crazy. The man catcher is back (good for us kuo-toan fans) and the elven thinblade. Some silliness like a dual-headed hammer.
And then there is a section on medieval and fantasy warfare. Haven't really looked at it to see if it's any good.
To sum up, if you don't have the 3.0 splats, it's a good buy. If you have some or all of them, look it over for yourself and see if it's worth it.
And I doubt there is a tactics feat that allows shooting a fireball at your opponent. 
