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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Killer Shrike" data-source="post: 2008586" data-attributes="member: 1829">In summary: Technique, but no panache. Seems rule-sound but lacks ooh-ah factor. Flavor-wise Rogues and Bards are definitely the most 'with it' classes, street smart and savvy. Rules-wise, they do okay single-classed; Rogues get some decent scratch at higher levels with thier special abilities and ever-increasing Sneak Attacks while Bards flesh out into reasonable spellcasting capability, plenty of Bardic Music to go the distance, and near omniscience from Bardic Knowledge. Bards are also very friendly to Multi-classing since thier Bardic Music is skill based rather than level based. Thus, perhaps it isnt that big of a deal that there are only 10 prestige classes presented herein.Of the 10, none seem like loosers outright, but none of them are particularly gripping either. Dread Pirate is interesting but seems much more useful as an NPC pClass outside of very specific pirate-oriented campaign settings (in which most everyone would want to take it). The Dungeon Delver gets some pretty cheesy supernatural abilities with no apparant source (IMO spell-like and supernatural abilities should have some source of origin and not just be handed out to dial in the cool factor); further it doesnt compare well to some of the 3rd party material out there in supplements like Traps & Treachery. The Fang of Lolth is (Im sorry) asinine from the top down. Outlaw of the Crimson Path is quasi-interesting and helps a player that wants to be a Robin Hood highwayman sort of character but seems ill-suited to an adventuring PC; again another NPC-centric pClass. The Royal Explorer is somewhat interesting and one of the few classes semi-friendly to the Bard, but mostly focuses on lots of bonus languages and a very weakly justified skill boost with a list of applicable skills expanding every 2 class levels; the class does give a free Exotic Weapon proficiency at 1st level and the supremely useful Track feat at 2nd which helps fill the class out. The Spymaster is a super-sweet class with very useful abilities that essentially serve to allow a character concept that the rules would otherwise hamper or make impractical; unfortunately it also seems most well suited to an NPC (but PCs in a city campaign with heavy political overtones could get some benefit from it as well). The Temple Raider of Olidammara is a decent class, but thier connection with Olidammara doesnt sit well with my mental image thru the years of Olidammara as a Dionysius-like deity that is also a patron of the arts; a Thespian of Olidammara friendly to Bards in thier role as actors would have been more fitting (particularly if slanted to the aspect of spy-actors that use acting troupes as thier cover); however the actual pClass is solid and would better fit the demi-god Rudd or one of the other more straight-rogue gods IMO. The Thief-Acrobat returns once again and are sure to be a popular choice for pure-rogues as they get a plethora of good abilities; a Rogue 10/T-A 10 would be formidable; however the class as a rather pointless requirement of membership in a thieve's Guild. The Vigilante is next up and basically serves to waste a really good pClass name on a rather lackluster pClass; the class is okay (except for a dependence on 'home turf' ie a single city for one of thier better abilities) aside from a cop-out reliance on spell casting as a sorceror for a collection of spells to help them track down and catch baddies; sorely lacking in the classes criminal hunting repetoire is the Track ability or the GATHER INFO skill as a class skill, even though one of the classes preRequisites is 8 Ranks of Gather Info {stupid but true}. Finally the Virtuoso basically is just a better bard; gaining 9 new Bardic Music abilities; however the class isnt filtered very well and a Sorceror with 1 or 2 levels of Rogue to meet the skill preReqs actually benefits by taking this pClass far more than an actual Bard. A long chunk on designing Traps follows and seems okay at first blush, but is fairly dry in its presentation. Further, at a glance it seems to be most useful to spellcaster types that want to craft magic traps and DMs who want to present Rogues with tougher traps; this might have been better as a Web supplement freeing up page space for 5 or so more pClasses.The Feats are short and sweet, with a couple of Winners like the much needed Dash (which adds +5 Movement, although as an aside no blurb exists stating that the Feat can be taken more than once though IMO you should be able to take it multiple times up to 60 feet of movement), and Fleet of Foot (which allows a single up-to-90 degree turn when running or charging but requires the otherwise lackluster Run feat), several +2 this and that skill feats, an erratad Expert Tactician, a few 'trade Sneak Attack for X' feats that are very cool (read 'very open to abuse') and sure to cause many arguments in days to come. My favorite is Snatch Weapon (Martial Takeaway anyone?) which is a better form of Disarm. The Bards get a few goodies as well that enhance thier Bardic Music abilities in several useful (Subharmonics) and non-useful (Green Music) ways.The rest of the book is pretty much lackluster IMO, with a lot of description of musical instruments, some lame magic items, a few ho-hum Thief Guilds, some schtick-laden Bardic Colleges, a rather laborious explanation of unusual flanking situations, 4 new Assassin spells, and a mixed bag of Bard Spells.Most lacking is any real attention to the fact that Rogue does not necessarily equal Thief. The 3e Rogue is far more diversive than the 2e Thief, but you wouldnt know it from this splatbook. Bards get very little attention aside from a laborious list of Instruments that would be largely unnecessary if the Perform skill conformed to the mold of Craft, Profession, and Knowledge skills instead of having a behavior unique to itself, and a few new magic instruments. Also lacking are the quantity of good Roguish magic items; this is a rich area that is not given enough attention to IMO.Despite some flaws, I thought Tome & Blood was superior to this splatbook in every area. If you are a hard-core Rogue or Bard player you might want to buy this, but you would be smarter (and more in-character) to sucker your DM or another player to get it and then mooch off of them on the rare occasion when you gain Feat.Still, I noticed fewer errors and editing mistakes at first glance than any of the previous splat books and this book, while not gripping, was at least not as boring as Defenders of the Faith, as rulz-whacked as Sword and Fist, or as way-out-there and esoteric as Tome and Blood. On the otherhand it also wasnt as thorough as DotF, as inspirational as SnF, or as interesting as TnB so I guess the best way to summarize Song and Silence would be to say that it is merely MEDIOCRE. Not a bad buy for $12 but a rip off at $20.</blockquote>

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