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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 2011036" data-attributes="member: 17106">The bad thing about this book, one would presume, is that it is essentially a rewritten Sword & Fist. Why would you buy a book that was mediocre at best in 3e just to have revised 3.5e, version?Fortunately, this fear of mine was unfounded. Although there is some stuff in this book from S&F, as well as from other books, most of this is substantially revised. A large amount of it, however, is completely new.The first chapter of the book is new. Three new core classes, the hexblade, samurai, and swashbuckler, are presented, as well as non-spellcasting ranger and paladin variants. The hexblade is a great fighter/mage type class that I think has loads of potential. The spellcasting is low, roughly like ranger spellcasting but spontaneous. It also has some nice curse and luck-related abilities. Unique, and about the right power level. The samurai was nothing special, placing too much emphasis on two-weapon fighting and not enough on flavor. I'd stick with the Oriental Adventures version, personally. The swashbuckler is supposed to be a fighter-rogue type class. There's already prestige classes for this and I don't see the need for a core version. It seems reasonably balanced, though. The ranger and paladin changes seemed a little underpowered, trading all spellcasting for some new supernatural and spell-like powers.The majority of the book is devoted to prestige classes. While usually prestige classes are either overpowered or useless, many of these are pretty good. They have several good fighter/mage options, something I'd been looking for. There are some reprints, but most are revised considerably. Many of the classes are not 10-level classes, which I kind of like. Just something to add a little spice to your character. The warshaper is not, fortunately, anything like the controversial shaper; it just gives combat bonuses related to shapeshifting. The Frenzied Berserker is as overpowered as ever, and I would have like to have seen better archery classes, but overall I liked these things.The third chapter presents mostly feats and spells. The feats are varied and quite good. The long awaited Improved Toughness (1 hp/level-type feat) is there, as well as a progression of two-weapon defense feats and a non-stupid, non-overpowered version of Power Critical. Two new types of feats are presented. Tactical feats each allow three small-niche combat maneuvers. One of them is absurdly overpowered (allowing a character to negate opponent's power attack and cause flanking enemies to hit each other), so DMs take note of that one. Style feats give a bonus for fighting with a normally crappy weapon choice. Most of them allow something like a free trip or disarm attack for hitting with two wildly different weapons. There's also a quarterstaff defense feat and a halberd feat. The feats are useful and more balanced than some of the ones in previous WOTC classbooks. There are a few spells, but nothing remarkable, and new combat-oriented construct familiars.The fourth chapter talks about combat-oriented campaigns, using PCs in large-scale battles, fighter-related deities, organizations and presents epic fighter feats and new weapons. The "fluff" is much better than what was in the previous classbooks because it isn't as long, and the writing is better. If this is the start of a new trend of epic rules being built through various books instead of one, I welcome it. The selection of epic feats is handy and includes a new one: Wield Oversized Weapon, with a hilarious picture of a halfling fighting a giant. The weapons are few but useful, including a bigger, exotic, finessable sword and some better bludgeoning weapons.This book was a pleasant surprise. It wasn't perfectly balanced or perfectly edited, but it is much cleaner than many of WOTC's books in recent years. The combat people in my campaign have already started to feast on its goodness. It offers a fair amount of options for all classes, but particularly helps out the poor, bland fighters. It offers new concepts that haven't been seen in any book before (now everyone will have their own little tactical and style feats). It's well worth it if even you got the old classbooks, and slightly more worth it if you don't have them.</blockquote>

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