Rating: 
Summary: A "MUST HAVE" for all players
Review: This is excellent work by WOTC and of course the writers Sean K. Reynolds, James Jacobs, Matt Forbeck. Wonderful details of all the different Dwarf,Elf,Orc's,Goblin.Gnomes..etc...etc races on Faerun. Lots of new feats, many of them specially designed for the different races. Prestige classes, monsters and much more. Here you can really build a character you never wanna take any chances with ingame. Thrilled to see that Humans from different regions of Faerun is described so good. In my opinion this is so far the best "expansion" from WOTC.
Rating:
Summary: A top notch book, a must-buy for any Forgotten Realms game.
Review: This is the book I've been waiting for. As a great lover of all of the PC race books from 2nd edition, I have been waiting with baited breath for the 3rd edition version and now I have it. I'll say now I was impressed. It's very well written and put together, with in depth views of each subrace and their place in the grand scheme of the race in general, their social lives and the strictures of their societies as well as racial prestige classes, new feats based on race and lineage. It goes into detail about the different regions and nationalities of humans, the religions of each race and subrace, it's truly a credit to the writers. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book, Wizards is Outdoing Themselves
Review: Three years ago, Wizards of the Coast breathed life into the shriveled, wheezing husk that the Dungeons & Dragons game had become. With few exceptions, their experience with Magic: The Gathering and their other product lines has proven to be a key element in their design of this newest edition of the D&D game, and Races of Faerun is no exception.This book is an accessory for use with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (which was very thorough and in this reviewer's opinion a tough act to beat). As usual, the Wizards have outdone themselves with an organized layout, quality artwork, and, most importantly, useful, enjoyable content. This book discusses the history, motivations, societal structure, and character elements of the major races on Faerun (elves, dwarves, halfings, humans, half-elves, gnomes, and half-orces), as well as some of the rarer and more obscure races (planetouched beings such as fey'ir, for example). The histories are richly details and well-written, making them readable and understandable for all levels of player. Perhaps most interestingly, the histories also shed some much-needed light on the origins of many of the until-now-obscure special abilities of many of the races (for example,a nd most prominently, the preternatural resistance of elves to sleep and charm spells). For players interested in playing these races, the effective level adjustment system is an innovative way to balance powerful races. This system trades power for advancement speed, slowing a more powerful race's level progression in exchange for special abilities and advantages. If I have one criticism, it is the quantity of race-specific feats included in the appendix of the book. While scads of new feats are always a welcomed addition for the sake of diversity (and I know the book is called RACES of Faerun), some of these feats are extremely specialized, to the point where I believe they simply could have been included as special racial abilities, or made more general to allow other races to take advantage of them with the proper prerequisite training. Overall, an excellent book, an excellent buy, and one of the many reason for Wizard's success with the new D&D game.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book, Wizards is Outdoing Themselves
Review: Three years ago, Wizards of the Coast breathed life into the shriveled, wheezing husk that the Dungeons & Dragons game had become. With few exceptions, their experience with Magic: The Gathering and their other product lines has proven to be a key element in their design of this newest edition of the D&D game, and Races of Faerun is no exception. This book is an accessory for use with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (which was very thorough and in this reviewer's opinion a tough act to beat). As usual, the Wizards have outdone themselves with an organized layout, quality artwork, and, most importantly, useful, enjoyable content. This book discusses the history, motivations, societal structure, and character elements of the major races on Faerun (elves, dwarves, halfings, humans, half-elves, gnomes, and half-orces), as well as some of the rarer and more obscure races (planetouched beings such as fey'ir, for example). The histories are richly details and well-written, making them readable and understandable for all levels of player. Perhaps most interestingly, the histories also shed some much-needed light on the origins of many of the until-now-obscure special abilities of many of the races (for example,a nd most prominently, the preternatural resistance of elves to sleep and charm spells). For players interested in playing these races, the effective level adjustment system is an innovative way to balance powerful races. This system trades power for advancement speed, slowing a more powerful race's level progression in exchange for special abilities and advantages. If I have one criticism, it is the quantity of race-specific feats included in the appendix of the book. While scads of new feats are always a welcomed addition for the sake of diversity (and I know the book is called RACES of Faerun), some of these feats are extremely specialized, to the point where I believe they simply could have been included as special racial abilities, or made more general to allow other races to take advantage of them with the proper prerequisite training. Overall, an excellent book, an excellent buy, and one of the many reason for Wizard's success with the new D&D game.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book, Wizards is Outdoing Themselves
Review: Three years ago, Wizards of the Coast breathed life into the shriveled, wheezing husk that the Dungeons & Dragons game had become. With few exceptions, their experience with Magic: The Gathering and their other product lines has proven to be a key element in their design of this newest edition of the D&D game, and Races of Faerun is no exception. This book is an accessory for use with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (which was very thorough and in this reviewer's opinion a tough act to beat). As usual, the Wizards have outdone themselves with an organized layout, quality artwork, and, most importantly, useful, enjoyable content. This book discusses the history, motivations, societal structure, and character elements of the major races on Faerun (elves, dwarves, halfings, humans, half-elves, gnomes, and half-orces), as well as some of the rarer and more obscure races (planetouched beings such as fey'ir, for example). The histories are richly details and well-written, making them readable and understandable for all levels of player. Perhaps most interestingly, the histories also shed some much-needed light on the origins of many of the until-now-obscure special abilities of many of the races (for example,a nd most prominently, the preternatural resistance of elves to sleep and charm spells). For players interested in playing these races, the effective level adjustment system is an innovative way to balance powerful races. This system trades power for advancement speed, slowing a more powerful race's level progression in exchange for special abilities and advantages. If I have one criticism, it is the quantity of race-specific feats included in the appendix of the book. While scads of new feats are always a welcomed addition for the sake of diversity (and I know the book is called RACES of Faerun), some of these feats are extremely specialized, to the point where I believe they simply could have been included as special racial abilities, or made more general to allow other races to take advantage of them with the proper prerequisite training. Overall, an excellent book, an excellent buy, and one of the many reason for Wizard's success with the new D&D game.
Rating: 
Summary: A necessary book for the lover of Faerun
Review: Well, this book covers many races for Forgotten Realms. It also adds in a few interesting feats and a few items. It gives much greater depth to all the races already covered in FRCS. However, there is one problem here- if the race already had it's base stats covered in FRCS, only the extra "fluff" is here, none of the "crunch". This means you'll need both books, and note that Race of Faerun is 3.5 and FRCS is 3.0, so there's a little problem here. I'd have prefered a bit less fluff, and the basic race stats redone for all. However, there are also quite a few interesting new races here, some which were only covered lightly in another supplement. For instance, there are complete rules for playing a Shade or a Wemic. There is also a lot of background fluff on the various human "races'. This may thrill you or bore you- depending. Anyway, if you play in the FR, at least one of your group should get this book.
Rating:
Summary: Critical info for Faerun
Review: Well, this book covers many races for Forgotten Realms. It also adds in a few interesting feats and a few items. It gives much greater depth to all the races already covered in FRCS. However, there is one problem here- if the race already had it's base stats covered in FRCS, only the extra "fluff" is here, none of the "crunch". This means you'll need both books, and note that Race of Faerun is 3.5 and FRCS is 3.0, so there's a little problem here. I'd have prefered a bit less fluff, and the basic race stats redone for all. However, there are also quite a few interesting new races here, some which were only covered lightly in another supplement. For instance, there are complete rules for playing a Shade or a Wemic. There is also a lot of background fluff on the various human "races'. This may thrill you or bore you- depending. Anyway, if you play in the FR, at least one of your group should get this book.
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