Rating: 
Summary: Not what I thought it should be
Review: I bought this book because I skimmed through the first section, where it updates regional feats and requirements, and the chapter on Faerunian updates. I thought that this was a solid book, though a tad overpriced (something we've all become unfortunately used to). When I read the whole thing, I wish that I hadn't taken the time to buy it. Which is why I'm writing this, to try to warn you, the reader, to not waste your time and money. As other reviews have stated, the filler information in this book is weak and unnecessary, without any real meat that I can actually use in my campaign. I have subsequently ignored all the information in this book and continue to use the FRCS as is, making the 3.5 updates as I go, without a thought towards this text.
Rating: 
Summary: a good resource, but buyer beware.
Review: - it's an index in many ways of FR feats, spells, domain lists, etc. maybe not so useful for play, but it's nice to see one list when you're creating a character. - no new races, but lot's of new regions for feats that comprehensively cover all the races and regions in every 3.0/3.5 sourcebook that's out. in fact, if you buy this, you're gonna be annoyed if you don't own races of faerun, the underdark, and so on because you'll see lot's of mention of races and feats you might have no access to. more coverage of the various types of humans, for those that didn't buy races of faerun. - lot's of new prestige classes, feats, spells, yet meanwhile, there's also lot's of reprints with subtle changes. it's annoying to spend $20-30+ on a book full of material we've subtly seen before. luckily there still is lot's of new stuff to help balance things out, but it's still full of things i wasn't so excited to see reprinted with minor changes. - nice to have coverage of psionics, exalted/vile, and epic stuff. there's even ties into unearthed arcana with the alternate progression for +1,+2 character races. - the cosmology stuff was cool. it would've been nice to see that in faith and pantheons though. - good to see an update on the major happenings and news of the realms. in many ways... this is sort of a forgotten realms journal. it provides broad indices. it provides realmsian insight from various generic rule books. (epic, psionic, exalted/vile, unearthed arcana.) it gives the latest news on events. it provides uncovered realmsian topics, like the cosmology. taken from that perspective, it's a pretty good book. the flip-side is, the book isn't presented that way. it's roughly $30 depending on where you buy it. it's hardcover. many players are going to notice all the reprinted information and be annoyed. many don't like indices. and overall, the book feels very hodgepodge because it covers such a wide variety of info. so buyer beware, your attitude towards the product will greatly influence your reaction to it. i know i'll find use of it, but others might be annoyed. i know my pocketbook is. there should be a quarterly forgotten realms magazine or something for this kind of information, not a hard bound sourcebook.
Rating:
Summary: a good resource, but buyer beware.
Review: - it's an index in many ways of FR feats, spells, domain lists, etc. maybe not so useful for play, but it's nice to see one list when you're creating a character. - no new races, but lot's of new regions for feats that comprehensively cover all the races and regions in every 3.0/3.5 sourcebook that's out. in fact, if you buy this, you're gonna be annoyed if you don't own races of faerun, the underdark, and so on because you'll see lot's of mention of races and feats you might have no access to. more coverage of the various types of humans, for those that didn't buy races of faerun. - lot's of new prestige classes, feats, spells, yet meanwhile, there's also lot's of reprints with subtle changes. it's annoying to spend $20-30+ on a book full of material we've subtly seen before. luckily there still is lot's of new stuff to help balance things out, but it's still full of things i wasn't so excited to see reprinted with minor changes. - nice to have coverage of psionics, exalted/vile, and epic stuff. there's even ties into unearthed arcana with the alternate progression for +1,+2 character races. - the cosmology stuff was cool. it would've been nice to see that in faith and pantheons though. - good to see an update on the major happenings and news of the realms. in many ways... this is sort of a forgotten realms journal. it provides broad indices. it provides realmsian insight from various generic rule books. (epic, psionic, exalted/vile, unearthed arcana.) it gives the latest news on events. it provides uncovered realmsian topics, like the cosmology. taken from that perspective, it's a pretty good book. the flip-side is, the book isn't presented that way. it's roughly $30 depending on where you buy it. it's hardcover. many players are going to notice all the reprinted information and be annoyed. many don't like indices. and overall, the book feels very hodgepodge because it covers such a wide variety of info. so buyer beware, your attitude towards the product will greatly influence your reaction to it. i know i'll find use of it, but others might be annoyed. i know my pocketbook is. there should be a quarterly forgotten realms magazine or something for this kind of information, not a hard bound sourcebook.
Rating: 
Summary: a sore disappointment, with little useful content.
Review: And I was so excited about this too. The Forgotten Realms books are generally pretty good, the FR campaign setting, monsters of faerun, magic of faerun, races of faerun, all solid books. And i had low expectations for this, all I wanted was a 3.5 update, with all the player race information as well as regional and racial feats and spells rolled up into one handy dandy place.
I got none of this. They refused to reprint the write-ups for the PC races (WHY?!) so you still need the campaign setting book. They refused to reprint any spells from magic of faerun or the campaign setting. The prestige classes they did re-do they either changed virtually nothing, completely botched, or attached an arbitrary region-specific name to (shadow thief of amn? what the hell? what's wrong with guild thief?
the regional feats are now only available at 1st level, and exactly who is eligible for what has been obscured beyond all recognition.
to top it off, the ONLY reason i was super-psyched about this was the purported inclusion of the fire-knives assassin which was removed for space. SPACE? this book has little to nothing of worth in it. there are two things that are sort of interesting in this book: a section noting various psionic organizations. for a psy-freak like me its enough information to stoke my curiosity, but its still very little. and the other is the Yathrinshee prestige class. which by the way is very cool, and ridiculously overpowered.
please people, dont waste your money. if you REALLY want one i'll sell you mine cheap.
Rating:
Summary: What a load of junk....
Review: As a big fan of all things Faerun, I am disappointed to have to admit this book isn't a MUST-own. The fundamental difference between this and the free, 3.5-updated Dark Sun info recently published in Dragon and Dungeon is minimal. The fluff factor is higher than I expected and since I haven't gotten into Epic play or Psionics, those additions weren't of much value to me. That said, it's a very 'pretty' book with high-quality artwork supporting some interesting prestige classes, spells and feats. I didn't feel cheated so much as somewhat let down. :-\
Rating:
Summary: For the Player who wants everything
Review: As a big fan of all things Faerun, I am disappointed to have to admit this book isn't a MUST-own. The fundamental difference between this and the free, 3.5-updated Dark Sun info recently published in Dragon and Dungeon is minimal. The fluff factor is higher than I expected and since I haven't gotten into Epic play or Psionics, those additions weren't of much value to me. That said, it's a very 'pretty' book with high-quality artwork supporting some interesting prestige classes, spells and feats. I didn't feel cheated so much as somewhat let down. :-\
Rating:
Summary: What a load of junk....
Review: Friends, heed my warning. STAY AWAY FROM THIS LOAD OF WORTHLESS JUNK! This book was in no way shape or form worth the money. There are plenty of things wrong with it, but I'm going to stick to the ones that come immediately to mind... 1.Who edited this thing?!!! The first sight that met my eyes upon opening the book was the glaring caption typo for the dwarves. Gold dwarf and gray dwarf are obviously switched. Way to go Wizards *gives sarcastic thumbs-up*. 2.Is it just me, or is all of the truly "new" content in this book completely worthless. Yeah sure, some of the epic spells sound cool, but honestly, when are you actually going to use them. And speaking of epic matters, could someone please design epic levels for a prestige class that don't simply read "bonus feat bonus feat bonus feat..." Christ people. It's a bloody prestige class, at least put SOME effort into making it unique. And why is there no illustration for the spellfire hierophant?!! You'd think that the one prestige class with any appeal to it would have a rendering, but oh wait, that would require some imagination and we must remember that Wizards seems to have misplaced theirs. 3.Along the lines of artwork, it looks like a two-year-old drew some of these pictures. This is no where close to the art from the FRCS book, and the redone prestige classes look like cartoonish parodies of themselves, in the art as well as in their content (The new Incantatrix is LAAAAAAME by the way). 4.Wizards flat-out lied about what would be in this book. In the art gallery they had pictures of the updated monsters from monsters of faerun. So I'm thinking "Great, I'll get all of the monsters that really matter from mof, and not have to buy the old book." Right? WRONG AGAIN! Not a single page in this steaming pile of monkey dung has any of those monsters in it. I could keep going for a few hours on this, but I've already wasted enough time on this review. This is only for all of your benefit anyway. Run away from this one, people, far away.
Rating:
Summary: It's nice having all this stuff in one small book but...
Review: I was really looking forward to this book for a long time. When I first got it in the mail, it was a bit of a disappointment. I guess this was because I was comparing this to other FR releases like The Silver Marches, The Unapproachable East, Underdark, Lords of Darkness, etc., books whose quality were top notch (for WotC books) and had a good amount of fluff (for my taste). I started liking the PGtF when I started planning for a new campaign because it lessened the time for character creation significantly because I didn't have to look through multiple books for feats and stuff. The 3.5 revisions weren't too bad overall. My only real gripe now is the fact that the book had tons of typos. I had not seen any in the earlier FR campaign supplements.
Rating:
Summary: It's nice having all this stuff in one small book but...
Review: I was really looking forward to this book for a long time. When I first got it in the mail, it was a bit of a disappointment. I guess this was because I was comparing this to other FR releases like The Silver Marches, The Unapproachable East, Underdark, Lords of Darkness, etc., books whose quality were top notch (for WotC books) and had a good amount of fluff (for my taste). I started liking the PGtF when I started planning for a new campaign because it lessened the time for character creation significantly because I didn't have to look through multiple books for feats and stuff. The 3.5 revisions weren't too bad overall. My only real gripe now is the fact that the book had tons of typos. I had not seen any in the earlier FR campaign supplements.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth your time.
Review: Much of the book is dedicated to updating older material to 3.5, but still requires frequent cross-referencing with your older FR Campaign Setting, races of faerun, and other FR products. The amount of reprinted material can be annoying if you already have it, but the book does a fair job updating domains and prestige classes. Some other highlights include:
-New and enhanced regional feats which distinctly outshine their prior counterparts.
-New deity specific feats and spells.
-Nice deity info
-time line updates
-Some comprehensive feat lists and region bonus updates
-Artwork better than Wizards seemed to have been trending towards. It's a questionable buy because of its sparse content and high price. Unlike the packed FRCS (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting) which was a great example of an awesome amount of material in a solid package, this product feels rushed and hardly the comprehensive resource that it is billed as. Try and skim it before you decide to buy.
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