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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010684" data-attributes="member: 18387">Review of Sword and Fist    Sword and Fist is Wizards class book about Fighters and Monks.  An odd combination, but the combat capability of both classes is the focus here.  If you get this book you need to consult the errata on Wizards homepage.  There were a few critical mistakes, but the erratum easily solves all the problems.  Overall the book does have a bad reputation because of the errors.  I want to let everyone know that the reputation was deserved.  However, the mistakes have been fixed and this book is good addition to anyone’s library.    Chapter one is Feats and Skills.  The feats are a good range of monk and fighter feats.  Some like Dirty Fighting which gives +1d4 damage if you attack as a full round action are useless.  Others like Improved Sunder, which doubles your damage on sunder attacks, are pretty powerful.  Expert Tactician has been updated in Song and Silence.  My favorite feat is Feign Weakness. It allows you to pretend to be unarmed to get a sneak attack at your opponent.  It’s not the most useful feat, but it really helps to define a character, as only a certain character would use such a tactic.  Next the section talks about skills and new uses for some of them.  My favorite of these using gather information to determine who is really in charge to determine who to talk to or face off against.    Chapter two is prestige classes.  There are some really good ones and some really bad ones.  The Devoted Defender is a really good bodyguard class.  I like the ability to switch places with your charge.  Drunken Master is the worst class in the book.  It’s not even based off of an actually style which it would have you believe.  I just found it ridiculous and it’s the only prestige class in the book that will never be seen at my gaming table.  The Ghostwalker may be the single best concept class anywhere.  It’s Clint Eastwood in his Man with No Name roles.  It would be great for a memorable NPC or in a solo game.  I’m not sure how well it works in a party as the mysteriousness of the class loses something if the other PCs see it week in and week out.  The Lasher is a good class that specializes in the whip.  It makes the whip a very good weapon in combat and gives it some useful abilities.  The Warmaster is a good class for a leader of an army.  It isn’t for every campaign, but in the right one I think people will greatly enjoy it.The Weapon master was not a good idea.  It’s a prestige class to become the master of one type of weapon.  The problem with that is it gives a single set of abilities, and the abilities should really depend on what weapon you have chosen.  I don’t think a Halberd master and a Dagger master should have the same abilities.   It should be noted that both the Halfling Outrider and the Ninja of the Crescent moon have heavily errata.  You will need to make sure you have this errata to make proper use of these classes.Chapter three is called Worldly Matters.  This is a good chapter then everyone should read at least once.  It deals with role-playing both fighters and monks.  It discusses the different races and their attitudes towards these classes.  Next, the chapter goes into organizations.  I wasn’t that thrilled with any of them.  There is nothing wrong with them, it’s just they did not interest me.  However, even though I didn’t like them, doesn’t mean they can’t easily be dropped into any game.  Chapter four is the Game within the Game.  It gives some typical arch types and tells one what feats and skills should be selected to fit.  That part is more for novices then experienced role players, but I always suggest that everyone read over such sections because sometimes the information there is a little different then originally thought.  Next, it talks about combat strategies.  Again, mostly people new to gaming will find this useful but some of the advice may help any gamer.  It then discusses when to use flurries of blows and average damages from different types of magical weapons.  I was amazed on how flurry of blows is usually the better choice.  Next it talks about characters of different sizes being a monk.  And then goes on to combat examples and some variant rules.  Chapter five Tools of the Trade.  It’s filled with weapons and new magical items.  Some of the weapons have had errata on them.  The best thing is the weapon equivalency table.  Instead of statting out many weapons, they say what weapon stats to use for it.    If companies actually used this style we’d save having to look up so many of these new weapons found in supplements.  Then it goes into vehicles and has some chariot feats that are basically mounted feats under a different name.   Lastly are some building are mapped out and described.  Overall it’s a fine book, and well worth the trouble of tracking down the errata.  This is the single most used book in my games outside of the core three.  The new classes and feats can give even the most routine NPC fighter a little extra flare and the value to PCs is even greater.</blockquote>

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