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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Endur" data-source="post: 1242775" data-attributes="member: 3346">After owning the book for a week, I think this is the best balanced non-core book I have bought from WOTC.  Most of the other non-core books had serious issues with play balance.  There are still some minor issues with play balance in this book, but they are better than most other WOTC splat books I have seen.With regards to the Swashbuckler and Samurai classes, I think these are neat alternatives to the fighter class.  You keep fighter BAB, fighter saves, and fighter hit points.  But, from there we change.  The Swashbuckler only has light armor profiency, but gains 4 skill points per level.  The Samurai has heavy armor profiency, but no shield profiency, and 2 skill points per level.  Both the Samurai and Swashbuckler have a different skill list from the fighter class.  These two fighter alternatives have special ability lists instead of the bonus feats a fighter gets.I think these classes are well-balanced alternatives.  A power gamer won't like these alternative classes, but I think they do a credible job of describing a swashbuckler or samurai character class.  The book does not say, but I think the Swashbuckler and Samurai should have access to the Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, and Greater Weapon Specialization feats. Likewise, I think the non-spellcasting variants of Paladin and Ranger are also balanced.What is unbalanced in this book?  Well, the unbalanced areas in this book are really two; old existing things that were always unbalanced (Frenzied Berserker, etc.) or new items that didn't receive much playtesting in terms of how these feats stacked with other feats (Heedless Charge, etc.).</blockquote>

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