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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KDLadage" data-source="post: 2010307" data-attributes="member: 88">entered on 06-MAY-03I seem to recall reviewing this book before. I cannot recall seeing a notice that it would be removed, but I have to admit that some of my early reviews were lacking in details and so I can only assume that the masters of the review section of ENWorld took it down for good reason. Consider this update a new review. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />As I said in my Masters of the Wild review: ...all of the Class Books ... for the most part ... I figure much of the book is written to the newbie who might not think of some of the things that the book presents (while a good many of us old timers will have already thought of it, it might not be something we thought to tell the newbie)... so on that mode of thinking, even such things as the Hero Builder's Guidebook are of value -- real, measurable value... This was my view then, this is my view now.The volume opens up with a page of Introduction, What this book is, and is not, and How to use this book -- basically a brief synopsis of the goal in writing the book. Not bad, material.Chapter I is called Feats and Skills and examines the role of Virtual Feats, then dives into a string of new feats for Fighter types. Oddly, many of these feats represent new fighting styles/maneuvers ('Circle Kick' for example, and 'Eagle Claw'). I am not sure how much I like this as a trend for the Feat concept, but they seem harmless enough and do tend to add a bit of flavor. Following this, the chapter dives into skills. New Knowledges are listed, as well as some creative uses of some old skills.The only real problem with this chapter is the fact that is is only 7-pages long. It seems that some time could have been spent looking at the feats of the core book and explaining which ones work best in fighting classes. Or more time going over how to best utilize those precious few skill points Fighters get. Nothing of the sort -- and we move on to...Chapter II -- the Prestige Classes. Here we see the Cavalier, the Devoted Defender, the Drunken Master, the Dualist, the Fist of Hextor, the Ghostwalker, the Gladiator, the Halfling Outrider, the Knight Protector of the Great Kingdom, the Lasher, the Master of Chains, the Master Samurai, the Ninja of the Crescent Moon, the Order of the Bow Initiate, the Ravager, the Red Avenger, the Tribal Protector, the Warmaster, and the Weapon Master. Most of these are decent, not too overbearing and easilly adapted into your game. However, they do serve (in my opinion) to illustrate why having Oriental-style classes (monk and thier prestige classes) next to Western European style classes is a bit jarring.Chapter III is on Worldly Matters. Here we get some advice on how fighters and monks fit into the typical fantasy (D&D) world. Some thoughts on how class and occupation are related are provided and some organizational thoughts (how fighters and monks might organize into orders and such). None of the information is world shatteringly brilliant, and much of it is obvious to the veteran gamer. Still, it makes good, and fun, reading material for a new player.Chapter IV is called The Game Within the Game. This chapter is interesting in that is covers many of the roles (and these are not necessarily the same as classes) and how to get the most out of them. It looks at feats and skill choices (much of what I thought might have been in chapter I) and covers how they fit into a typical adventuring party. I simply found this information to be located in an odd place. Most of it would have been good to have in chapter I (the core class stuff) and chapter II (added to teh descriptions of the Prestige CLasses). The chapter then covers some of the more complex areas of the game's combat rules and how to use them better. Some interesting tid-bits include the look at how Monks fare against (and AS) larger and smaller creatures (the Bugbear Monk was kinda cool, really).Chapter V has some new weapons. The Mercurial Greatsword is sure to be an abused weapon at many a game table... The chapter also covers such topics as mounted combat, chariots (and feats for use within them), as well as going on to castles and the like. This last section, I feel, was a lot of the inspiration for the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook.THE CONCLUSIONThe book is useful for beginners and teaching beginners the flexibility of the system. I rate it as about average.</blockquote>

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