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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Killer Shrike" data-source="post: 2008844" data-attributes="member: 1829">The troubled series of 3e class books come to a close with Masters of the Wild. As most readers probably already know, each of the previous installments of the series has been marred by some significant flaw. Sword and Fist was inventive and creative, but laced with broken mechanix and editorial errors. Defenders of the Faith was a little more rules-solid but boring and uninteresting. Tome & Blood was rules-solid and had significant additions to the game, but stepped all over the minimal Mary Janes of the Psionicists (the many Meta-Psionic feats which are cloned for wizards in T&B), had some organization and editorial issues, and had some very poor pClasses. Song & Silence turned out to be the most polished product from an editorial and rules standpoint but was thought by many to be content-deprived, with limp prestige classes and not much else to make up for it.So, how does Masters of the Wild measure up? Well it might just be the best of a mediocre lot. Tome & Blood has heretofore been my pick for the best of the set, but MotW seems more solid typographically (from a cursory read thru), and I didnt notice any of the glaring editorial flaws that were so apparant in several of the past books, plus the organization of the book seems to be better than the others in the set as well. From a content perspective, MotW steps up with a slew of great feats, most of which are actually attainable by most characters (as opposed to some of the feats in Sword & Fist frex), a whopping 20 pClasses, some awesome Druidic spells, variant rules for Rangers (including the Urban Ranger and 3 variants for favored enemy) and Barbarians (Intimidate based on Strength and an Intimidation bonus when raging), some new weapons and magic items, and the obligatory 'advice' on the three classes covered by the book.In an improvement over the previous class books, MotW is thankfully short on describing Organizations, opening up quality page space for useful additions such as a new category of Animals: Legendary Animals. Also presented is a full page errata'd version of the Druidic Wild Shape (much needed), and an expansion on Animal Tricks rules. The feats are great. Ill say it again. The feats are great. Even if you discard all other portions of the book, the feats are a great expansion of the core rule set. Some of the feats are retread from other products, but unlike some people I actually prefer the subject-applicable reprint methodology; its so much easier to find things if they are grouped together logically. There are a lot of Rage oriented feats, some Wild Shape oriented feats, an expanded list of Toughness feats with scaling Base Fort requirements that grant correspondingly higher hitpoints. Of course, some of the feats are so-so or of questionable usefulness, but they are many, varied, and flavorful. My fave is Instantaneous Rage, which lets a Rager rage whenever they want, even if its not thier turn yet; thus a Barbarian about to be dropped below 0 hp can choose to Rage for the extra hp on his enemies turn, or if a Barbarian really needs to make a Fort save he can rage for the +2 bonus before he rolls the save; while not massively powerful, it certainly opens up some interesting scenarios for a Barbarian.The magic items & equipment is actually the weakest part of the book, but the items that are here are on-theme and the addition of a new kind of magic item, the druidic Infusion (similar to potions), along with a pretty cool interpretation of Standing Stones shores it up.The prestige classes run the gamut, and are mostly useful with only few odd-ball ones such as the Ooze-master to tarnish the tally. With 20 to choose from however, the couple of losers dont stand out as much. Some of the classes seem a tad underpowered unless in a specific terrain, but then they are nature-oriented classes. One strange pClass is the Exotic Weapon Master, which seems much more roguish or fighterish in nature; its only connection to any of the three classes covered in this book is an inexplicable (and unnecessary) prerequisite 'Ability to Rage' despite the class having nothing to do with raging; looks suspiciously like an add-on slipped in to get it printed with a single prereq added to make it look on-theme. The Forsaker is an eyebrow raiser that eschews magic in all form (in fact, thier damage reduction class ability only works if they destroy a magic item worth at least 100gp each day), and inexplicably gets much tougher (a +1 ability score bonus every level). Hmmm.... Anyway, there are some real winners here, including the Frenzied Berserker, the Shifter, Tempest (a Ranger-friendly dual-wielding ass-kicking class), Foe Hunter, Deepwood Sniper, and Bloodhound. Some of the other classes can be easily made good with a little tweaking, such as the above mentioned Exotic Weapon Master (uh....drop the Rage preReq; viola: great general purpose pClass useful to some Rogues and many Fighters). Finally, a short but solid list of new nature oriented spells wraps up the book. There are some really great spells in here for a Druid. There is a new chain of Regenerate Wounds spells which grant Fast Healing to a recipient for 10 rounds + 1 round/lvl but only vs damage inflicted during the spells duration; these spells scale identically to Cure spells (ie Regenerate Light, Mod, Serious, Crit). There are several viscious offensive spells such as Thunderswarm and {shudder} Epidemic. Several variant buff spells that grant a flat bonus to one ability at the cost of a flat penalty to another for the duration. A real key spell is Embrace the Wild, a 3rd level spell that allows the caster to take on aspects of a chosen animal without actually changing shape into that animal. There is even a sidebar expanding the Adept spell list.So; all in all, much better this time around. Im very happy with my purchase of this class book (whereas I regret having shelled out 40 bucks on Defenders of the Faith and Song & Silence), and have even toyed with the idea of playing a Druid since I got it, which is my least favorite class. I highly recommend its purchase or at least perusal to any D&Der interested in Barbarians, Rangers, or Druids.</blockquote>

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