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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010969" data-attributes="member: 1129">The first few character source books from Wizards of the Coast, such as Sword and Fist, to put it mildly, had issues. When I heard about the Complete Warrior, I was anxious. Would those mistakes be repeated? It seemed that in some ways, they would. I mean, look at the size of the thing. When some great full color books like Underdark and Exalted Deeds out, to have one of these smaller hardcovers come out for a few dollars less reeked of the same intelligence that put the black and white Arms & Equipment Guide on the shelf at the same time as Races of Faerun. It's not quite the same though. Races of Faerun was 192 full color pages at $29.99 while Arms and Equipment Guide was 160 black and white pages at $26.95. The Complete Warrior is a full color book, the first difference, at $26.95, and the new books are $32.95. The price differences are greater but the consistency, full color, is the same. I can deal with that. Good deal on price so far then. On another issue, completely outside the book itself, what is Wizards trying to pull? Just update some simple mechanics to 3.5 and charge the customer for them? Not quite. There is a lot of material here, new and old, some from previous books, some from Dragon Magazine. It's all updated to 3.5 though and in many cases, these just aren't simple updates of skill lists. Now some might not be happy with that and want to know why Wizards isn't providing free updates to their products. Same reason others aren't. I paid for my Creature Collection Revised, no free update on the web from Sword and Sorcery Studios. I have friends who've paid for their updated Ravenloft information and will continue to do so. I don't know what plans Monte's has, but he's got an updated book (Eldrich Might for 3.5) coming up too. So Wizards is updating material, making it useful for a new edition and is moving on. Me? I'm not 100% satisfied with this but it does make things a lot easier.The book itself is almost perfect for those who just started with 3.5 and want more options for their characters at and after character creation. In terms of new characters, there are three new core classes and some new options for old favorites. We have the Swashbuckler, Hex Blade and Samurai. The Swashbuckler is a lightly armored fighter who favors speed and agility. The Hex Blade, with a limited spell list and more in common with a fighter-sorcerer hybrid, has some interesting potential as a neutral or evil character. One of the first core characters meant to PC use in such a fashion. Usually we have good based characters like Paladins and Rangers. The Hex Blade follows a different path. They get some curse ability, bonus feats, and even a familiar. The Samurai here isn't the one found in Oriental Adventuers 3rd edition, but rather, a master of two weapon fighting utilizing the katana and the wakizashi. It's a nice change of pace from the Legend of the Five Rings variant and makes for an alternative for those who want something different.The Ranger and Paladin have some options for those who don't want to use spells. Unfortunately, the replacement abilities are still heavily basic on magical or supernatural effects. In terms of variants, I think that with the acknowledgment that there would be some reprinted material, that the recent class variations from Dragon Magazine should've also been included making this less than a “Complete Warrior” book and more of a “Warrior Toolkit.” Another example of this is the War Mage core class in the Miniature's Handbook. A class that should definitely fall under any “Player's Guide to Combat.”For Prestige Classes, there's been a lot of rework on a lot of classes. If it deals with combat, chances are it's here. This doesn't just mean fighter based PrCs. We have PrCs to fit almost every class. One useful tool that Wizards provided was a table that breaks down the PrCs into broad categories that allow a reader to see which PrC may fit a concept of idea they have.Want a Weapon Specialist? How about a exotic weapon master, kensai or master thrower? Want a Melee specialists? Look at the cavalier, frenzied berserker or knight protector.One thing that bothered me about the PrCs is that they yanked the Greyhawk flavor out. That knight protector I mentioned used to have some affiliation with Greyhawk. On the other hand, there is a brief section about making PrCs specific to a campaign or making them generic in nature with the example of the bear warrior and tattooed monk formerly belonging to the Oriental Adventurers milieu and the Thayan Knight in the Forgotten Realms.One thing that interested me was some of the PrCs had more choices than they could take in their level advancement. One of the things I enjoyed about Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook was that not all Totem Warrior, Champions or Witches for example, had to even remotely resemble one another. Making features potentially unique is a great way to showcase different options for the same PrC. In this case, the exotic weapon master and master thrower both have special abilities they can select from and have more special abilities then they get choices.For the PrCs, all I can really say is that there are a lot of them. Want a Druid that masters shape changing in order to maximize their terror potential? Try a warshaper. Want to see the newest version of the bladesinger that doesn't have a seperate spell list? Want to see the rage mage updated to 3.5? Want to see how the purple dragon knights have been made generic? It's all in here.One thing different than past books is that each PrC includes an example. This is another case where I'm a little undecided. On one hand, it's like a waste of space as there are often free NPC's from Wizard's own site. On the other, pregenerated characters help by providing examples. What would've been really helpful would be either a fully fleshed out characters or what I call 'quick paths' where they list the easiest method to get into the PrC with class information listed at a glance so I can quickly make NPC's with these requirements.For those who want feats, the book has you covered. There are a wide number of general feats here and some feats of different types as well. Once again, some of these look familiar on the name, but may not mean anything that they did before. Read everything carefully. Some of the feats are good for fighters who want to increase their damage potential like Power Critical where you get a bonus to confirm a critical hit. Others like Greater Two-Weapon Defense are perfect for those who want more options in their defensive stance even as they use Improved Combat Expertise to get a higher bonus to defense than +5.Now there are divine feats here as well. I thought this strange but I can understand WoTC wanting to keep the book open to all classes. Still, you'd think that these feats would be even more combat oriented than they are. For example, Divine Might allows you to spend a turn attempt and adds your charisma bonus to your damage. Good right? What about Divine Vigor where you get bonus hit points? Sure, it fits but not to the same degree.More interesting were the tactical feats. These reminded me of the material in Master of Arms where you have different combat options for your character. These feats are almost multi-feats in that you can do more than one thing with them. Combat Brute lets you user with advancing blows, sundering cleave or momentum swing, each one with different benefits and drawbacks. GM's should keep a careful eye on these and make sure that they're limitations are followed. For example, to use Combat Brute's Sundering Cleave, you have to make a successful sunder attempt. To use Momentum Swing, you have to make a charge attack in the first round, use power attack on the second round with a -5 penalty or worse. The benefit? The attacks on the second round get a bonus equal to the attack x 1.5 or x3 if your using a two handed weapon. Yes, two handed weapons became even more dangerous.Another new type of feat, weapon style, in my opinion could've been expanded greatly. While there are ten examples, I would've liked to have seen rules on making them and extra goodies on how to incorporate them. Most of these use two weapons to gain their benefits and actual leave out the single weapon user. One of the odd things about the book's organization is that the Hex Blade's spells are listed in the third chapter. They don't get a lot of fancy or flashy spells but more like the little augmentations. Cause Fear or Charm Person anyone? No fireballs for these young ones. This is another thing that annoys me though. While spells form this book are introduced in the spell list, what about spells from other official products? What about unofficial spells? Some guidelines on what would make an appropriate spell and what would be out of the question for these new classes, would go a long way in making them more friendly and give them more utility. Also in this section are new domains, Courage, Fate, Nobility, Planning and Tyranny. Other little bits like new spells and guardian familiars help round out the chapter for those non-fighters as well as some skill uses. I like the use of Perform as a Weapon Drill base skill but find that it makes the fighters, the best in the business, at the weak end of the stick, just as it does if you use a skill like Profession, Soldier, as fighters get neither perform nor profession as a class skill.Chapter Four, Fantasy Warfare is filled with advice. Some of it useful for those wishing to do some quick warfare in the historical mode and ideas for playing D&D with modern combat options. Those looking for information on a mercenary campaign will also get some advice. It's not heavy and detailed but it should do the job for those who don't have any books devoted to the subject. Instead of putting the magic items and other goodies in the previous chapter, those wind up here for some reason. Things like Lance of the Last Rider and Armor of the Unending Hunt are joined by new materials like panedmonic silver and susalian chainweave.Those who missed the old advice in the Complete Books have a flashback with the section Warriors in the Campaign that covers ideas on how to play a campaign where warriors have the majority of the focus. That means reduced spellcasting, reliance on magic items and other things a long term player or GM should have a pretty good grip on already. Other little bits help fill the book out. There are some new organizations with sample NPC's, but not maps. There are some new weapons, but not all of the weapons from say, Sword & Fist. Sure, it's nice to have the Warmace, but where's the Fullblade and Mercurial Weapons? These little bits, like information on a warrior pantheon or more rules for epic warriors, go a long way in providing tools that a GM can use to customize his campaign and for giving players more options for their characters.The book boasts many artists with various degrees of skill. For example, the section on the Warrior Pantheon with their symbols did nothing for me, but Wayne Reynolds, Mark Smylie,  and Ron Spencer provide some great illustrations that give the book some energy. The layout is standard two-column with a look very similar to the Player's Handbook. White space use is fairly good but there may actually be too much art. Don't get me wrong, the full page illustration of dwarves and orcs going at it on paged 125 is great, but do we really need a charging knight on page 109 with a full page when on page 107, we have a great full page illustration by Ron Spencer?If there had been more options for core classes like the variant core classes from Dragon, more weapons, like those originally found in Sword & Fist, and more options for combat itself, the book would be a five. My group has found itself using the book often. That's a good sign of things to me. We enjoy the new feats and that so many PrCs have been updated and centralized makes the book useful. It's focus on trying to put a little something in here for every class is also nice. This makes it a solid four for me and my group, of which we already have four out of six players who own it.</blockquote>

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