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Message: <blockquote data-quote="knight_isa" data-source="post: 2010855" data-attributes="member: 1434">Warriors: A Comprehensive D20 Sourcebook for Fantasy Role-Playing GamesSkirmisher PublishingISBN 0-9722511-1-1128 pages (5 pages title/copyright/TOC/OGL, 1 page ad)$19.95This is not a playtest review.Disclaimer: I was lucky enough to get to provide feedback for this book, and my name is listed under Acknowledgements on page 4.  I believe that I can still provide an unbiased review, so I'm going to review the book anyway.  Feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt.Warriors focuses on the warrior NPC class from the DMG.  The cover is a vast improvement over Experts.  The layout is good, although border art & page headings make for wide top and bottom margins.  The interior art ranges from poor to very good.  Something weird happened to the picture on page 45, because it's barely visible.Introduction. (4 pages) This section gives a brief introduction to the subtype feat detailed in Chapter 2 as well as a brief overview of medieval armies and some design notes.  It points out that there is some material reprinted from Experts, but that this book is 16 pages longer than that book for the same price  so that owners of [U}Experts[/U] wont "feel shortchanged."  That's a noble consideration.  It also points out that they attempted to convert this book to 3.5 rules, but since this was scheduled to be published before the release of the 3.5 rules, the conversion may not be perfect (it's not).  They are welcoming questions, however (contact information is on page 2). [4]Chapter 1: Prestige Classes. (34 pages)  As always, I don't pay much attention to prestige classes.  The only thing that I'd like to point out is that many of these classes are really easy to qualify for (a 1st level warrior could qualify for many of them).  To me, this makes them a little less, well, prestigious.  Perhaps with a different name (something like "Warrior Specialist Class," only cooler sounding), would be more appropriate (following FFG's example "Legendary Classes"). [no grade]Chapter 2: Warrior Subtypes. (15 pages)  The heart of the book, and a really cool concept.  Basically, a subtype is a feat that provides for warrior specialization through benefits and/or substitutions.  For example,  Light Cavalryman grants the same benefits as Mounted Combat and allows the Heavy Armor Proficiency to be traded for Skill Focus (Ride).  Each subtype also has a section describing the equipment typically used by the subtype, as well as what sort of tactics or other feats/skills that subtype would employ.  Subtypes can be applied to any class, so they are useful to more than just the warrior class.  This section is fantastic.  I wish I'd thought of it. (I wish they'd thought of it before writing Experts, too.) [5]Chapter 3: Skills. (12 pages) Some of these are reprinted from Experts (the free 16 pages more than compensate for this), but there are some new Craft/Knowledge/Profession skills, as well as Operate Device (for technological devices) and Signaling.  The various non-human races are given racial bonuses to many of these skill.  While I wont use that part, overall this is a pretty good chapter. [4]Chapter 4: Feats. (3 pages) Most of these are aerial combat feats primarily for the Aerial Cavalryman prestige class introduced in Chapter 1.  The others are mostly combat-oriented, but none of them are designated as being Fighter bonus feats.  Most seem well-balanced and useful, although I think that Great Faith is a bit too strong (essentially the FR Spellcasting Prodigy feat, except it is only for divine casters, it can be taken multiple times, and it stacks with itself). [4]Chapter 5: Equipment. (11 pages)  This section contains exotic weapons and armors, usually with some historical information.  Some technological equipment is here, too, namely archaic rocket launchers, mechanist armor, hot-air balloons, and blimps, as well as miscellaneous things like non-magical potions and elephant barding. [3]Chapter 6: Spells. (6 pages)  Unfortunately, this section has a lot of problems.  While cool in concept, many of the battle runes series of spells give unnamed bonuses (and for those using 3.5, these were obviously balanced against 3.0 spells).  Many of the spells were very overpowered for their level (like sacred garment (Clr 2), for example, which is essentially 3.0 stoneskin--it grants DR 10/+(1 + 1 per 5 levels)--only with no limits to the amount of damage it can block on no costly material component. The two real gems in this chapter are slow burn (Clr/Drd/Rgr/Sor/Wiz 1), which basically makes a campfire last 24 hours, and arms of the hekatoncheires (Clr/Sor/Wiz 4), which causes the caster to grow extra arms.   Other than those two, none of these spells will make it into my game unmodified, and many wont make it at all. [2] Appendix 1: Magic Items (18 pages)  Various and sundry magical items.  I liked the armor of protection from ingestion, which doesn't keep there wearer from being swallowed, but does keep him alive while giving the swallower a bad case of indigestion. I'll note that pricing seems to follow 3.0 conventions (most notably for skill enhancers). [3]Appendix 2: Monsters (4 pages)  This section contains the dire mole, the Theran war elephant, and a feline humanoid race.  Each has a 3.0 MM-style write-up and a good illustrations. [3]Appendix 3: Sample Characters (8 pages) Lots of sample characters, ranging from CR 1 to CR 20.  Various race and class combinations are used, and a brief description is given along with a stat block for each one. This isn't something I'm likely to use, but I'm sure some people will like to see the examples. [3]Appendix 4-5: Chariot and Elephant Warfare (2 pages each) Historical notes and brief rules about, well, chariot and elephant warfare.  The elephant section could be applied to nearly any huge mount. [3]Appendix 6: Heraldry (2 pages) Brief historical notes and suggestions on how heraldry might be used in a fantasy setting. [3]Appendix 7: OGL (1 page) They got section 15 right this time.  Oh, and I should mention that most of this book is OGC, too.  A good move.Conclusion. I really think that the subtype idea was a great one.  That's where this book really shines, and where most of the value of this book can be found.  Nearly everything else in the book just supports those subtypes, and for the most part that support is well-done, too.  That said, the spells could definitely use some reworking, and the 3.5 conversion was dodgy enough that they probably should have just released it as 3.0 (other publishers were releasing their last 3.0 books at the same time, so no big deal).  All in all, this book rates a bit more than a 4, but quite not high enough to round to 5.The bottom line: Warriors is a great resource for customizing the fighting classes.  It's even better than Experts.  I can't wait to see what Skirmisher puts out next.</blockquote>

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