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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Selvarin" data-source="post: 2010963" data-attributes="member: 6102">Once upon a time, there were splatbooks published by WotC with names like Sword & Fist, Song & Silence...and they sucked. Okay, okay, that's a little unfair. Feats and prestige classes were still a new concept then and these books (along with Tome & Blood, Defenders of the Faith, Masters of the Wild) were as much experiments in progress as they were about filling a need in the marketplace. Each accessory was therefore a bit of hit-and-miss. Now, after a fair amount of time (and complaints about this or that PrC/feat being 'broken), WotC has decided to come back with the Complete Warrior, a D&D accessory which not only draws from some of the previous splatbooks but also claims to have '75% new material', somethingwhich some feel is false. Is it? Let's find out.The Complete Warrior is a 160-page hardcover which retails for $26.95, not a bad price when you consider that most books out there seem to be squeezed into the $14.95-$20 range or the $32-$40 premium range. Therefore it falls into that middle spot, not too cheap and not too $$. The pages within are typical for WotC products, glossy with a fair amount of art. Frankly I'm surprised they didn't resort to B&W like they did with the Arms & Equipment guide, but perhaps the A&EG was just a fluke in that respect. When it comes to styles, there's a healthy range of artists found therein. My favorite would be Wayne A. Reynolds (WAR) yet again, who did the cover and a few of the illustratons within. I also appreciate Ginger Kubic's represntations of the bladesinger prC and the Swashbuckler core class. The rest is fairly good, although I'm well aware that some artists whose work has graced (for example) the pages of the Dragonlance HC, the Epic Level handbook, or Races of Faerun may not be to everyone's tastes.The first chapter, Classes, is fairly short (only 8 pages), but I'm not so sure that people are clamoring for a bunch of new core classes. Here we have the Hexblade, truly a new class, although it could just as easily been made into a PrC. If it feels like a PrC, walks like a PrC...but it's okay as-is. The Samurai class is derived from that found in Oriental Adventures but is more detailed and can wield the katana and wakizashi together in combat (the Two Swords as One feature). I'm not an expert on samurai, nor samurai films but I was under the impression that samurai preferred fighting with the katana (with the wakizashi more or less as a back-up weapon). This does give me ranger deja vu since this 'Two Swords as One' feature improves as one progresses in level. Not the best idea. Also, providing Improved Initiative as a free feat at 8th level isn't either. Any warrior worth his/her salt will pick up Improved Initiative (as well as quick Draw) at their earliest opportunity, not 8th level. (My suggestion would be to give a Samurai character a fighter feat of their choice if they take Improved Initiative early on.) The Swashbuckler feels the most like a core class and is distinct from the fighter class. Instead of bonus feats every other level, the Swashbuckler has class features such as Grace and Acrobatic Charge. It does provide Weapon Finesse for free at 1st level, mind you, but that makes sense. All things considered, the Swashbuckler ought to use a d8 instead of a d10. Maybe I have a prejudiced view but the swashbuckler shouldn't be as tough a front-liner as the fighter when it comes to hit dice. It's still balanced in it's current form, however, and compares favorably with the Unfettered (Arcana unearthed) without having a sneak attack feature or magical parrying capablity. Insightful strike, Weakening Critical, and Wounding Critical make up for that nicely. Yes, there's more than one way to skin the proverbial rabbit (or is it a cat?). As mentioned by other reviewers, there's a few paragraphs on variant paladins and rangers. If you feel that magic is too pervasive among the classes, this is for you. It's not for me, however. (The ranger may be harder for some to justify as having spells, but it could easily be passed off by other other means.)Chapter 2, Prestige Classes...Ah, here's where the trouble starts for some because they see 36 PrCs listed and only 10 or 11 are 100% new: "They said 75% new material and all I see are retreads!"...Hold your horsies, folks. They said 75% new 'material', not 75% new PrCs or 75% new feats, etc...much of which in this chapter can be counted up in the form of sample character stats for each PrC, and perhaps even certain revisions. Again, let's look at what's in here. There are a few classes from Oriental Adventures, such as the Bear Warrior, Kensai (aka Weapons Master in OA) and Tattooed Monk. From what I can tell, the Bear Warrior and Kensai have been tweaked somewhat. The Tatooed Monk, hmm...it looks the same but my eyes may be decieved. Doesn't mean it's a bad thing, of course. There are also a fair number of PrC's that debuted in Dragon magazine previously, such as the Darkwood Stalker and Stonelord. They both look good, although I doubt I'll get much mileage from the Darkwood Stalker since my campaign doesn't feature orcs as foes often enough. The Justiciar also looks like the one printed in Dragon magazine.There's the Knight Protector (a more generalized version from Sword & Fist), Knight of the Chalice (my fave from Defenders of the Faith), the Rage Mage (Miniatures Handbook?)--is it my imagination or is there not a single one from Song & Silence? It's just as well. My favorites from the revised PrCs happen to be the Bladesinger and Spellsword. In the case of the Bladesinger, it now has +1 caster leve/2 levels as well as a more graduated Song of Celerity ability--now starting at 4th level you can use Song of Celerity to cast spells of up to 2nd level as a free action 1/day, increasing to 4th level spells at 8th level. Hmm. In some ways this is an improvement, at the same time it's a nerf. (I'd just as soon limit the kinds of spells to those which enhance the bladesinger and/or weapon with regard to movement or enhancement bonuses and allow it to be done a number of times/day equal to the Bladesinger's Int bonus.)The Spellsword bumps up its BAB to that of the Bladesinger and its Channel Spell class feature has been improved upon. (I thought its Channel Spell ability was going to be like that of the Raumathari Battlemage found in The Unapproachable East book but I was happily mistaken.) It looks like they merged Channel Spell with Spell Cache somewhat, eliminating the way it was handled in T&B. Now the Spellsword can channel a spell through his melee weapon (as a move action) and unleash it right there upon a successful strike or let it reside within the weapon for up to 8 hours' time before dissipating. Nice and simple, none of that other junk to muck it up. And, at 10th level, they can channel two spells into their weapon (requiring a move action per spell channeled). What about the new prestige classes? There's the Dervish, who can do a dervish 'dance' and cut opponents up using the Dance of Death, etc...It's different and effective while at the same time catering to a different role--in other words, RPers should appreciate it as much as those looking for a new PrC to kick arse with. The Frenzied Berserker is good--that is, if you like to really wig out during a fight (even moreso than just a straight barbarian). I would've preferred the Berserker found in Deities & Demigods because it also allowed for shapechanging (and because it felt more traditional)but that would've created an overlap with the Bear Warrior from OA so it's just as well that it was omitted. There's the Hulking Hurler (for Large+ sized characters) but it isn't as interesting as the Invisible Blade, which could've been better if made into a 10-level class that included the ability to capture thrown items...but hey, there's the Master Thrower, another 5-level Prc, so you could take 5 levels in each and accomplish the same thing. The Master of the Unseen hand is a new take on telekinetic force used as a weapon. Would I use it? Sure, once I get used to the concept. I definitely like the Mindspy, although the illustration of a doppleganger mindspy is unsettling...Then there's the Nature's Warrior, Reaping Mauler, and Ronin (the latter of which I'm not too fond of). I'm sure I missed a few but I wasn't certain whether the war chanter and War Shaper aren't from the Miniatures Handbook.Chapter 3 deals with feats, which I'll breeze through a little faster than the previous one. Most of this is old hat with some tweaks involved. I'm glad it's in one place so I don't have to look through older sources. The problem with reviewing this section, however, is that I've seen so many flippin' feats from elsewhere that I'm not 100% certain that what I see as being new isn't an old one that's been reworked. I do recognize some from Sword & Fist and Masters of the Wild, and some from Defenders of the Faith, but...Aha, I do see some that I'm 100% sure are new. These are 'tactical feats' which enable the use of three tactical maneuvers, such as Cavalry Charge.  Feats are precious, and some feats are hardly taken because their utility is too narrow. This is one way to address that and allows one to do more in combat than swing-hit-miss. Then there are weapon style feats, which I like even more. With the Crescent Moon feat, I now have a reason to use sword & dagger in concert against an opponent. However, it would've been nice to have seen a feat that removed penalties for using two weapons of the same size (of Medium or larger), but that's another story. Chapter 3 continues with a few domains and spells--the spells are for the Hexblade class, while the domains relate to new combat/war deities found later in the book. The chapter finishes up with some new guardian familiars and additional information for new skill uses. Chapter 4 deals with fantasy warfare, and before you ask the answer is no, they don't deal with warfare in detail. That's what the Miniatures Handbook, Cry Havoc, or other battle-rules heavy accessories are for. It does handle a wide variety  of wars, from historical on, and then edges into competitions before getting into magic items. The section on magic items is itself small but most of what's there seems to be new. I do recognize the Disarming weapon property (from Magic of Faerun), which is pretty nice to have in a weapon. Ah, the Armor of the Unending Hunt---that has to be new (mithral +2 chain that provides its wearers with immunity to fatigue and exhaustion). From what I see, there's better quality in the magic items and properties than found in most of the corresponding sections of the splatbooks. In addition there are new special materials such as Pandemonic Silver and Susalian Chainweave--the former material screams (causing a fear effect) while the latter  provides protection in the form of 3/piercing damage reduction. This sort of stff makes adventures interesting indeed. The rest of chapter 4 deals with warrior organizations, a few new deities, epic-level fighting and feats, and rounds out  with bits on exotic, primitive (short), and improvised weapons, respectively.Now, having read through the Complete Warrior several times over, and cross-checking with other books, does it look like '75% new material' to me? Yes and no. On a chapter-by-chapter basis, not quite. Taken as a whole, at least 2/3 of it is new if you count the sample PrC characters that are included, and perhaps 75% if one counts the revised prestige classes. People shouldn't get too hung up on that number, however. Other factors should count more. For me, I like the Complete Warrior because it collects a number of previously-published PrCs/feats and revises them. I didn't like its softcover predecessors as much and they usually cost $20 retail a piece (although now they can be found on the cheap at eBay and elsewhere). I like the mix of new and old (especially the improvements made upon PrCs such as the Spellsword), and I appreciate the fact it's bound within an under-$30 hardcover. If you already have the old stuff and don't think $27 is justified, look around and get it at a discount somewhere. Save your Dragon mags and ratty splatbooks some wear and tear, this is a better deal than it may seem at first glance.</blockquote>

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