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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2008648" data-attributes="member: 18387">The best among the class books so far the Song and Silence is still not what it could have been.I was rather disenchanted with the WotC class-book series so far. So much so that after inital reviews which were largely negative I was seriously considering not buying the SoS. I got it in the end for completness sake and must say that I am not sorry I did. That said, there is still many things I would like tyo have seen done differently. First to say that the production values are excellent which by now we have come to expect from WotC. Cover is, in my oppinion, best of all class books and interior art is clear and well done. I am not a great nit-picker in that respect but it seems to be decently edited.Prestige classes are decent.-Dread Pirate is another take on the pirate I guess it is as good as Mongoose's Bucaneer or whatever is to come in "Seafarer's Guide". Actualy, this is probably the one I am most likel;y to use (so far at least). -Dungeon Delver is fairly cool concept and altrought verges on unbalanced it is, I believe, still OK. -Fang of Lolth is very campaign specific and as such unlikely to be used much but is good as it shows us how far the concept can be stretched. -Outlaw of the Crimison Road, which is a fancy name for the Highwayman is probably my favourite in the book. Interesting and filling a very important niche.-Royal Explorer is a fairly niffty NPC class. Also have that campaign specific flavour which I like, because it makes clases actualy feel prestiege...-Spymaster also tries for an important nieche but is not as succesfull as the OotCR. In attempt to cever all the bases of spying they made the class very unbalanced. In that sense this is probably the worst offender in the book. Nothing like the Hospitaler to be sure but nothing I will be allowing IMC either. -Temple Robber is another campaign specific and adorable class. Indiana Jones-esque to the extreme it is something I realy would like to play. -Thief Acrobat is an old favourite and is done justice here. Different enough from the rogue to justify the separate class and still balanced. -As Vigilante goes I prefer the R&R version but at least it is reasonably balanced.-Virtuoso is another unbalanced p-class. Alternatvely it can be tought of as an attempt to rebalance Bard with the other classes by those who think that bards are too weak. It can be dangerous if taken by Sorcerers as it gives them a lot of Bardic abilities. Probably another not-IMC. Poison section is good if a bit to short. Describing different poisons their aplications, effects and means of production strikes me as a much better use of the space in the Rogue manual then some later bits of this book. Hopefully this will be done by the Alchemical book by Bastion but it would not be amss here. Traps bit is obviously miles behind one in T&T and surprisingly long given the short treatment of Poisons but for those that do not own T&T it does cover an important ground. Maybe it would be better used in the upcoming book of challenges as iut is largely DM material. I am not sure. New info on Hiding is usefull especialy for novice DM'sand new tumble rules are indeed more realistic.Feats seem balanced and fro the reaction of my players rather playable - this book is the first one of all class books that had my players actualy take a feat(s) out of. Arterial Armour and Flick of the Wrist are powerfull combat feats for rogues that do add the flavour to the game. Most of the rest of the book (that is to say a bit less then a half) is sadly almost useless. Pages uppon pages are spend on description of musical instruments of all shapes and sizes. I understand that a bone need to be thrown to the bard but almost anything else would have been more usefull use of space. Magical items are of the bland variety like those in the other class books and organizations are incredibly boring (I still do not understand why is the organizations chapter so important top be included in each class-book). Some rules clarification is included in a back - a usefull concept which I wish they had thought of before. Flanking, sneak attacks and garroting are all given Sage-like review. Finaly there is obligatory compliment of the new spells that compete in blandness with the magic items.All in all, feats and prestige classes in this book have been done well - much better then in previous classbooks. Editing seems to have imporved and standardly dreary WotC prose is a tiny bit better. On the other hand too much of the book is given to the run-of-the-mill filler text and lack of focus make sure that this book is miles behind "Traps and Treachery" as a rogue's suplement for d20.</blockquote>

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