Rating: 
Summary: A Necessary Revision for a Generally Excellent System
Review: As I've mentioned in several of my pther reviews, I had a difficult time accepting that 3e was in fact the wave of the future for the Dungeons & Dragons game. Truth be told, I bought the original 3e PHB the day it was released, and read it cover to cover several times in only a few days. To make a long story short, where once I did not liek the system at all, I am now one if its strongest advocates.Enter 3e.5 (or whatever you want to call it). Partial actions in combat have been removed (thank the creator) to simplify combat, character classes revised to balance them, some spells reworded to actually make them useful, and on and on. This is a book review, so, is 3.5 a good revision? In a word, yes. The book has included just the right amount of information and rehashed rules to make the new system streamlined without threating the core genius of the rules. While two players could sit at a table and play with the different rules (3.0 and 3.5) for a while without compatibility problems, there would eventually be clashes over class abilities, combat actions (especially those pesky and now non-existent partial actions). Overall, a great book. My only criticism really isn't about he book, but the 3.5 system in general - the lack of 3.5-updated material adds a workload to DMs trying to keep their library up to date. Wizards needs to light a fire under their editing department and get those revisions out there. They did release a revision summary (available for free download at www.wizards.com) that covered the other as-of-yet unrevised books, but the cross-referencing is driving me (and other DMs, I'm sure) a little batty. All in all, bravo.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to judge...
Review: This is a hard product to judge. I like it just a little bit more than the 3.0 product. There are still some errata in it (unfortunately, some of the same ones that carried over from the 3.0 product). But, on the whole, I think things were cleaned up and re-thought. If you're a rules-lawyering powergamer, this edition will bother you. Just to let you know.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Upgrade
Review: The 3.5 "upgrade" for the D&D game fixes a lot of problems that the 3rd Ed. had. As far as the Player's Handbook is concerned, it fixes certain mechanics (like spells, feats, and skills), and improves the classes (now playing a Ranger could be fun). A MUST for the serious Dungeons & Dragons player and DM.
Rating:
Summary: Most old problems fixed, New problems surface
Review: Most of the old problems are either fixed or official errata has been included. A few things that were fixed with eratta did not make it into this version, hopefully it will make it into the next printing. A couple of classes have almost total revisions and the combat system has been streamlined a bit more. It was time to replace my ragged 3.0 handbook, and it was well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Is indeed just 3.5, but brings many welcome revisions
Review: When Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR, most of the gaming community went into shock. Once the surprise wore off, the debate began on not only what WotC would do with Dungeons and Dragons, but if the acquisition would be a good thing. Well, it was. Wizards published 3rd edition, stripping the game down it's bare bones, and even breaking and bending those, before rebuilding it back up into a much more polished, accessable, and most importantly, consistant rule set. That was a few years ago. 3.5 is the revision to that 3rd edition rule set, intended to fix some of the problems and imbalances that popped up from the legions of gamers playing. Happily, 3.5 comes across as worth the price. A nearly new game, even one founded on a system as old as Dungeons and Dragons, is going to have some glitches. When you take something robust and complex as an RPG ruleset, things will slip through the cracks. 3.5 deals with a lot of the issues players brought up with 3rd edition: Class Imbalance (Bard, Ranger, and Paladin classes)
Revamping of many spells, such as Haste
Fixing game mechanics that were in need of clarifying or revision Wizards also added quite a bit of new content, upping the page count of each of the three core rule books, and adding new feats, skills, and spells. 3.5 does have it's bad points. First of all, if you own 3rd edition, you're still going to have to shell out about 80 dollars (if you find a good deal..say..through Amazon 8p) for all three books. Some dislike this idea for what is a very robust and thourough rules revision, but still just that. 3.5 has also introduced some new problems, such as a clunky weapon size system to compare weapons between smaller and larger creatures (for instance, a human dagger is going to be a huge sword to a fairy). The new system is horribly done, but fortunatly, this is a minor sticking point. Most people just revert to the original system, which still works fine. The 3.5 Players Handbook is a jewel of a book, for anyone just starting out in role playing games, or old timers like me. Good adventuring.
Rating:
Summary: Does what it is supposed to do
Review: Easy to find characters and easy to find everything. I like the artwork and as far as I can tell everything reads well, and is easily understandable. You won't be dissapointed, and if you play a full elf thief you will be happy. cooly.
Rating: 
Summary: No longer the only book you need to start
Review: Well, I like the additions WotC made to the D&D 3.5. Some of the rules clarifications and balance adjustments were definately needed. What I don't like is the fact that they removed the mini-monster manual from the back of the book. The best thing about version 3.0 was that if you didn't have a lot of money you could buy just the one book and actually play 1 or maybe 2 levels of characters before NEEDING the Dungeon Masters Guide or Monster Manual. Now you MUST HAVE all 3 core books. For people on a tight budget who'd like to start upgrading this just STINKS!!! I know people who would love to purchase the 3.5 version to start playing D&D again (they hadn't played since version 2) but now they can't consider it for a LONG time. Why Wizards removed what was a great "get you started" piece from the book is beyond me. It just goes to show how truely interested they are in Money over their customer.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak and Rushed
Review: First, I'd like to say thanks Wizards of the Cost. Thanks for nothing! The much hyped 3.5 is little more than 3.0 with a ton of house rules applied to them. What's worse is, that there are enough major mechanical changes scattered throughout the 3 books, that converting your 3.0 game to a 3.5 game will be a major task. And there will be no compatibility to your 3.0 campaign. I thought the point of a new revision was to make improvements to the system and to clarify rules that were unclear. As it turns out the improvements are so minor, and the clarifications are only covering about 30-40% of the issues my group argues about. That and stat-boosting spells have been rendered almost completely useless. Unless you are certain that you are going to have an encounter in the next couple of minutes, Bull's Strength is now a trash-can spell. It makes no sense to me. Granted an hour per level is a little long for a duration, but a minute per level is way too short. Our DM house-ruled a long time ago that stat boosters durations were 10 minutes per level, thus usable in most situations, but not lasting all day long. Rangers took the biggest hit of all the class revisions. They're supposed to be improvemed? I'm having difficulty differentiating between the new ranger and a druid. The only difference I can see is that one is more spell focused vs. combat focused. They even have the same hit die now. They should just be call them Combat Specialist Druids and the Spell Slinging Druids. What's good about this book? I'm still struggling to find something noteworthy and posative to say about this version. It's a challenge.
Rating:
Summary: Good rule revisions and better organization
Review: I'm going to leave aside the controversy over whether these books should have been published or not; they have been published, and they contain new material, and that's what I'll review, nothing more, nothing less. The third edition Player's Handbook was a step in a new direction for Dungeon and Dragons, a more flexible system that allowed for more diverse character development than anything but the most meticulously detailed homebrew rules while still encouraging everything from dungeon-running to diplomacy-based adventures. The only problem was, the information that enabled this shift wasn't very well organized and showed signs of not having been completely playtested. Spell descriptions in particular seemed a little less clear than they ought to have been, leading to long discussion over the simple application of magic. Feats and skills, too, showed some need for improvement. (an entire skill just to figure out which way is North?) Some classes, most notably the ranger and the bard, had much of their "coolness factor" removed, appearing to be little more than an under-powered fighter with a pet badger, in the case of rangers, and rogues with fewer skills and a handful of spells, in the case of bard. Edition 3.5 has found solutions to almost all of these issues. The information in this edition flows a lot better, and it's now quite a bit easier to find the information you're looking for. Spell descriptions have been tightened up and many skills have been eliminatd, redifined or expanded to suit the needs of players better, and to improve gameplay. For the most part, feats have merely changed names, although some descriptions and benefits have changed, for the better, mostly, and Ambidexterity was eliminated. This new revision misses five stars for a few minor exclusions (a glossary of charts would've been only a few pages long, and would've increased information accessibility greatly) and for making some changes that just didn't seem necessary, like the complication of the weapons chart. I look forward to the first errata.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Not Worth It
Review: I selected 1 star because there was no option for 0 stars. I've been gaming for a lot of years, 26 to be exact. It's a travesty what Wizards/Hasbro has done to the game that I've played for more than 2/3 of my life. In all the history of AD&D (1st and 2nd edition) and in 3rd edition, the Ranger has always had a d10 for his HD (just like the Mage always had a d4, and the thief had a d6, and the cleric had a d8). Now, oops, it's a d8 like the cleric and the druid. In fact, they re-tooled the ranger so much, that now he's essentially just a combat-based druid instead of a spell-based druid. One of the authors, Andy Collins, said on his website before 3.5 was released that they've improved the ranger. So I was patiently waiting to see what it is they did to him. I was sorely disappointed. If I wanted to play a druid, I'd have selected a druid as my class. It's just a shame. There is so much more wrong with this revision than I have the space to list out here. But I will say this: This version is a far cry from an improvement. You need to re-learn to play the game if you convert to 3.5 (Yeah, I said convert. Some characters will have to be converted back from first level). So much has changed (either subtly or blatently) that you can't be sure of anything. My gaming group has tried converting and playing the new revision, and it was a nightmare. We have such a diverse group of characters that no one is really sure of all their spell, skill or feat changes. What's worse is that all of the d20 publishers are going to go to 3.5 for their future products. So us gamers (consumers) are left with little choice but to put up with no new material by sticking with our current version, or pony up the cash and convert (again) to Wizard's latest whims. Another downfall is that most of the art in the "revised" books is the same as in the old books. Certainly not worth the cost of an upgrade. If you feel like you absolutely must convert to 3.5, then go to WotC's website and download the SRD. All the OGL material is in there. There's no need pay your hard earned money just to reward WotC for stupid behavior.
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